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Spoilers VOY DOC: To The Journey | Rating and Review

To The Journey


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The initial goal was $150k. They got $1.3 million. I'm sure the money is all gone and spent on the film but I can't even fathom how $150k gets anything done if this is what $1.3 million got us.
 
It would be interesting to know how much money they have left from the crowdfunding, if it's not already spent.
I strongly suspect it was spent years ago, which is why the doc took so long. They probably ended up with an editor for a couple of hours a week or something, whilst trying to raise more money via convention screenings etc.

The whole thing has been a mess and it's a real shame after the good experience of What We Left Behind.

As others have said, it wasn't even a particularly good film after all that. If I ever get my Blu-ray I guess I'll give it another watch, but I've written it off a long time ago.
 
The DS9 doc got theater distribution and the full Blu-ray treatment. I doubt they sold many tickets for the screenings, and the Blu-ray didn't sell enough to cover the costs. This time, they are likely more cautious. Just print a basic Blu-ray and honor your commitments then.
 
For those not on the Book of Faces, here's an update from Mr. Zappone. No crosspost on the Indiegogo project page or an email of course. :brickwall:

Hello everyone- We’re well aware of the continued questions about the status of the Voyager Documentary DVD/Blu-rays and wanted to share an update. Up to now, we’ve been responding to questions individually and privately, as we’ve been in active and delicate negotiations with potential distributors. We didn’t want anything public to jeopardize those conversations.
That said, given the volume of inquiries, we felt it was important to provide a broader update — even though negotiations are still underway. Now that we’ve clearly seen where the market currently stands, based on both our direct experience and observations, we can share the context.
1. Fulfillment costs and inflation have had a major impact.
Before even reaching the physical media stage, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent fulfilling the backer perks promised during the campaign — including manufacturing and shipping.
Since the campaign launched, production and fulfillment costs have risen significantly due to approximately 25% inflation, which affected nearly every line item involved in completing and delivering this project. These increases have had a substantial cumulative effect.
2. The physical media landscape has changed dramatically — and very fast.
For many years, we followed a model that worked reliably for our previous documentaries. But the physical media market has collapsed far more quickly than anyone anticipated.
There are now very few distributors who will produce physical media, particularly for niche or documentary projects, and this has created a major bottleneck. Even completed, high-quality films face steep challenges getting physical formats manufactured.
3. An unauthorized “Voyager documentary” has created marketplace confusion.
An unauthorized, all-archival Voyager video is circulating on YouTube — presented as “the Voyager Documentary you’ve been waiting for” — with more than 1.2 million views.
We have reported this to Paramount, but no action has been taken as of yet. Its visibility has added confusion at a very sensitive stage in distributor discussions.
4. Paramount passed on distributing the film.
Paramount ultimately chose not to take the documentary. They require a six-figure license fee before any wide release can move forward which has added complexity to the path toward producing DVDs/Blu-rays.
5. Negotiations are ongoing — and we are continuing to work toward a solution.
Despite these challenges, we remain committed to finding a path forward. We are actively exploring every viable option and believe we are getting closer to a workable solution, though nothing is finalized yet. Once we have a confirmed plan, we will share a detailed update.
We know this has been a long journey, and we truly appreciate your patience and passion. Your questions have not gone unheard — we’ve been responding one-on-one as they’ve come in, and we will continue to share updates whenever we have meaningful news to report. We want to avoid confusion with partial or premature information, but we will communicate promptly when there is confirmed progress.
Thank you for sticking with us and supporting the film and the Star Trek community that made it possible.
Please direct your questions to voyagerdocumentary@gmail.com.
455 Films
David Zappone
 
For those not on the Book of Faces, here's an update from Mr. Zappone. No crosspost on the Indiegogo project page or an email of course. :brickwall:
"They [Paramount] require a six-figure license fee before any wide release can move forward which has added complexity to the path toward producing DVDs/Blu-rays.": This is a killer.
 
I do not think this will produce six figures in sales for them even if it is released on disc. The timing of the YT documentary being released near the same time as the official one struck me as a bit suspect too but it is the 30th anniversary of the show. I can understand some distributor confusion.

It is also pretty clear that had us backers not raised holy hell for an early digital release we would probably still not have seen it!
 
So, if I'm reading this correctly it seems they didn't factor in production costs for the Blu-ray in the initial budget. And now there's no more money left so it all hangs on selling the distribution rights. What We Left Behind was distributed by Shout Factory, right? I guess it didn't sell well enough for them to try it a second time. What a mess this has been. All that money spent and they ended up with a lackluster documentary that as of now only the backers can watch.
It is also pretty clear that had us backers not raised holy hell for an early digital release we would probably still not have seen it!
That's exactly what would have happened.
It would be interesting to know how much money they have left from the crowdfunding, if it's not already spent.
I'm pretty sure that $1.3 million is long gone. According to Zappone they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on perk fulfillment alone. They also had to pay Paramount six figures for use of clips from the show. And then there's still production and post production costs. And don't forget sending Garrett Wang on that pointless zero-g jaunt. :lol:
 
I have backed more than a few board games on Kickstarter and Gamefound, not to mention Indythe Gogo. When Cappone says that the fulfillment of the physical rewards was far more costly and time consuming than anticipated, I take him at face value. Board game publishers faced all sorts of issues as materials and shipping costs ballooned. Those rewards didn't then generate as much capital that they needed, especially when Paramount became less generous with clips and digitization. At the time, I did feel that the campaign was too heavy on the trinkets, but that is probably less relevant than the changing costs.

What is unaddressed, IMO, is that they don't have the clout to pull the campaign past the finish line. I think I complained several times that the documentary should have had a producer shaping it (I'm looking at you, Brannon). However, it might also mean they don't have the full range of contacts on their own to do all aspects of the film, which may have added to costs at every stage. I was a little flabbergasted when Zappone, in an interview, said that he would be relying on Behr to get contacts for companies that would produce and distribute the film!

Right now, 456 is kicking the ball around. I'm not sure that they are going to get a lot of traction unless something changes. Maybe Shout will be interested in the Michael Westmore documentary and buy both? Or maybe Paramount will once again treat Trek as something to cultivate rather than milk?
 
A Facebook-only update. It's like a fucking parody at this point.

"Things have changed..."

Then maybe you should have used that one million dollars+ to get this done and dusted instead of taking four years to get to where we are now. Y'all weren't able to afford existing music or to use HD footage...so where did all that extra money go?
 
My god, why is Zappone so averse to directly communicating with the backers on this project? If he can type it up on Facebook, he damn well can send an official communication to the backers.
Wasn't the excuse last time that the person who sent out the emails had left and no one could access the mailbox? Maybe that was something else.

Amateur hour again. Fairly obvious he didn't want to send out a backer email because that would just lead to more people asking questions.

This all continues to be disappointing, but I'm no longer surprised.
 
Wasn't the excuse last time that the person who sent out the emails had left and no one could access the mailbox?
Yes. Producer Kai de Mello, who apparently also was in charge of social media and communications, quit and his replacement was hired by Creation Entertainment soon after. They never mentioned not being able to access the mailbox though.
 
Seems like the first person they should have hired was an Accountant. The way they have handled the cash portion of this whole thing has been messy. As for not getting distribution deals, it sounds like the whole planning thing for this didn't happen. You set up this stuff before you launch the campaign and then you would have a clear picture of where all the money is going. I get there were things going on that changed those plans (Covid) but the planning stages of this whole thing was really really bad.

As for posting on Facebook and not as an official email, I know we can't go back to the 90s, but I long for a time when Social Media didn't exist.
 
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