I agree 100%. Also, how have I not heard about the "Engage" podcast before? *goes to download*
It was a rather fair and good back and forth that I really liked. I'm hoping John Van Citters does more interviews to get the message out there.
CBS's John Van Citters interviewed about The Guidelines
- Thread starter Wowbagger
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It was a rather fair and good back and forth that I really liked. I'm hoping John Van Citters does more interviews to get the message out there.
He's a Trekkie and cares deeply about the property. It pisses me off when the Axanar hardcore supporters and the production heads harp that CBS and Paramount are doing nothing with STAR TREK.
Van Citters licensing team has outdone themselves with the licensed products over the past few years since the 2009 movie came out. The quality of merchandise that's available is amazing, from screen-accurate uniforms to high-quality, Hot Toys/Sideshow-like action figures.
JVC comes across very much as a fan, albeit one employed in a specific role (he does public speaking very well).
I'd definitely listen to more interviews with him.
Plus you don't come away feeling all slimy afterwards.
I'd definitely listen to more interviews with him.
Plus you don't come away feeling all slimy afterwards.
I just wish they could have scored a deal with LEGO.
Based on the transcript, the rule that you can't keep producing stories with a recurring cast, even within the running-time rules, is exactly what it sounds. No series.
That's where I think they're still going overboard. Even small-fry operations do series. I don't see the purpose, considering his talking points, to enforce that restriction. People go to all the bother to build sets and everything just to get a single use out of them? That is somehow helping out the little guy by leveling the playing field?
That's where I think they're still going overboard. Even small-fry operations do series. I don't see the purpose, considering his talking points, to enforce that restriction. People go to all the bother to build sets and everything just to get a single use out of them? That is somehow helping out the little guy by leveling the playing field?
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Yes. How can I get my fanfilm out if there's a fan production out there pumping out a dozen episodes and flooding the fan film community? Series quickly become revenue chains, which is something CBS/P is out to prevent.
There's (so far) no guidelines about making more than one fan film, just no series. Sets can be modified and reused as something else. Somebody built a bridge? Well, every ship has a bridge. Make a new fan film set on a different ship.
Don't want to build a single-use set? Use green screen or tell a different story. There's a solution to everything, these guidelines are there to make us think of them...
Yet, there is nothing to prevent a fan production from making a few "one-offs" that use the same characters.
They just need to package them carefully, and avoid any labeling or titles that indicate that the one-offs are a series.
Then simply limit the number of episodes per year. I'd like to see a rule like this (won't hold my breath, mind you):
a) Each episode must be a self-contained story.
b) No episode can be longer than 45 minutes.
c) No more than two episodes can be released per calendar year.
Then productions can do longer-form stories, but can't do movies, and can't "flood the fan film community" (whatever that means).
Thanks for posting your transcript, I don't have time to listen to the full hour so it was nice get the highlights like that. I think what JVC was saying was very understandable from the CBS perspective. It was nice to get clarification on some of the points of confusion.
I had to laugh at the not so subtle references to Axanar in the beginning.
I'm glad to hear that they are talking with NV and STC. It does sound like they will at least allow them to finish anything they are working on right now, which is nice.
I had to laugh at the not so subtle references to Axanar in the beginning.
I'm glad to hear that they are talking with NV and STC. It does sound like they will at least allow them to finish anything they are working on right now, which is nice.
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When I say flood the fan community, I mean there are some productions that can raise piles of cash and churn out a dizzying number of episodes in a short time. When they can do that, why would people stop and watch your underfunded 8 minute effort? I'd like to think fans would support one another like that, but as we've seen with a recent fan production that caused this whole debacle, fans take sides and quickly, and they rip others apart when they think their production is far superior.
CBS has to keep another Axanar from happening, because Axanar would have only been the beginning. Let other people get wind of a virtually unlimited pile of money if they cater to die hard traditionalist Trek fans? You'd see tons of "fan" efforts with $1,000,000 Kickstarters and little to show for it but churning up the water, drowning out the smaller fan films that are actual labors of love.
The intent of every one of those fan film guidelines is to prevent the Axanar debacle from ever happening again. The fact that AP and Co. is so pissed about them is proof that even they can't think of a way around them. 
Continues has one episode due September and NV has 3 (?) in post - Bread and Savagery (delayed to the director's sad death) Torment of Destiny (the latest) and The Protracted Man - a prequel episode about Cadet Kirk partially finished and scrapped BUT James is has revealed he is reviewing the footage and hoping to complete it after all!
I am afraid that I do not. But if anyone else wants to fill in the rest of what I missed, I'll certainly edit it into the OP with due credit!
I was actually a little surprised by how little Axanar was blamed for this. It seemed to me, listening, that JVC went out of his way to say that these guidelines were in the works pre-Axanar, and, when he spoke of "abuses," everything he said applied equally (it seemed to me) to Renegades (no offense to Tom or the ST:R team; mad respect for all ya'll) and sometimes even Continues (even though most of us hold up STC as a role-model for major productions).
So I'm not sure this fits as neatly into the "Everything was fine until Axanar ruined it for everyone" narrative as I expected. To me, JVC's interview fit more into the "It all started to go wrong when we stopped following the Patty Wright Guidelines" narrative.
ETA: Sorry for double-post.
The big one people stopped following was the "no fundraising" rule, even Axanar largely complied with the rest - the only other one they broke was using the Four Years War, since that was paid for by CBS in the past.
Thank you so much for transcribing...I haven't had a chance yet to listen to the entire podcast so it was nice to get a sense of what was discussed. My sense is that this could have been much worse...there is enough room here to make short fan films, and I'm glad to hear that fan films will get an "official" presence at the cons. It does bum me out no end that the studio isn't open to episode-length or feature-length fan productions, but this is better than a total shutdown. Trek fandom will adjust...we always do!
Axanar itself was going to be a one-off. A very LONG one-off, but a one-off. As they spun it, it sounds more like they are trying to stop Continues, Renegades, and PII/NV, something that most fans don't like.
I mean, I don't see a groundswell of rage/envy from fans that they can't have their 15 minutes of fame because STC has stolen the limelight.
I don't think CBS/P is being sincere here, or at the very least, they are applying too much of a blunt instrument.
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Axanar was only the latest in an ever growing need to fundraise seven digit budgets. Do you honestly think Alec Peters would have stopped at $1.5 million and one fan film? Hell no. They were building Axanar to become a media distributor. There's no way in hell it would have stopped with him. Let mainstream groups catch wind of an ability to raise that kind of cash by pawning off a Trek script and you'd see lots of "fan films." CBS/P had to put a stop to it, and yes, I do believe they're sincere.
If they really wanted, they could have clamped down on all of it, and said no. Every court in the country would have agreed with them.
The fact is that now with the big budget fan series coming to an end, smaller fan films are already rising up to the top. I didn't know that Project Potemkin had released multiple films this year. Now I know, and I'm checking them out. Why didn't I hear about them before? Because the major players were always at the forefront, and as much as I liked them, their presence drowned out the little guys who were just as devoted, just as big a group of fans. Now they get to shine, and fan films get to be fan films again.
I think that not only are they sincere, but that John Van Citters gets it, and is a genuine fan at heart.
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