If an actor/producer like Jonathan Frakes set up a website asking for investors in a new independent, non-profit Trek series, would you donate a dollar? Ten dollars? More? If only three million fans around the world invested ten dollars each, that would pay for a thirty million dollar season. Which would pay for a professional crew and top actors.
Would you pay for a new series?
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Unfortunately, thirty million dollars would only get you a pilot plus four to six episodes with today's costs.
^That's beside the point. Paramount wouldn't allow something on this scale. The current group of fan-films are more or less done on the cheap, and don't present realistic competition with the current reruns or future movies and TV series. If Paramount wouldn't do business with Trek United (and that was just to continue doing Enterprise), why does anyone think they'd find this acceptable?
No...I like my free TV.
No.
If such a series were actually produced and offered for sale, I'd decide on an episode-by-episode basis whether I wanted to buy one or not.
If such a series were actually produced and offered for sale, I'd decide on an episode-by-episode basis whether I wanted to buy one or not.
I dunno, it depends on if it's good or not.
But I'd love to see a Trek KOTOR type rpg.
But I'd love to see a Trek KOTOR type rpg.
We DO pay for our shows... either by advertising (meaning we pay Proctor and Gamble for our entertainment!), or by pay-TV subscription fees.
The thing is, in that particular model, there's a degree of ACCOUNTABILITY involved.
Would I pay some "fly-by-night" outfit to make a show, IN ADVANCE? Hell no...
I might buy the DVD after-the-fact... but my money, then, goes to pay back the INVESTORS who put their money behind the production in the first place...
... which is pretty much how the model works now.
The thing is, in that particular model, there's a degree of ACCOUNTABILITY involved.
Would I pay some "fly-by-night" outfit to make a show, IN ADVANCE? Hell no...
I might buy the DVD after-the-fact... but my money, then, goes to pay back the INVESTORS who put their money behind the production in the first place...
... which is pretty much how the model works now.
If I were an "investor," I'd expect a return on my investment - it would not be a "donation."
If you are talking pay per view, then it's also not a donation, it's simply what it costs to view the product. As long as I can see it on my TV, I'd pay a dollar or two an episode if it were REALLY extraordinarily good. I'm talking better-than-BSG good.
...even better would be putting it out on DVD and making sure Nefflix has copies. That's how I'm getting the new B5 movie (and I don't even know if it's any dang good!) - at my current rate of returning DVDs, my Netflix subscription costs me about $1.50/DVD, so that's right within my price range.
If the B5 movie is good enough, it will induce me to rent more in the future. If it sucks, sorry JMS, you lost a customer.
I'm pretty sure Paramount already has its own Trek-on-TV plans. They just cast a TV actor popular with sci fi fans as Spock, rather than going for a big-name movie actor who would never do TV. That seems like a huge clue to me: they make three or so movies to get Trek's profile and crediiblity back up, then return it to TV where it belongs.
I never for one minute thought that Paramount would abandon a premium, well-known brand like Star Trek. Brands like that don't come along every day and corporations don't allow amateurs to screw with them in any way that would damage them. A fanfic here or a fanfilm there doesn't really matter, but if it ever got high-profile enough to threaten the perception of Trek's quality, the axe would come down mighty hard. They have a valuable commodity to defend and they know it. Their big task ahead of them is to repair Trek's reputation for quality, which has been severely tarnished. The last thing they need is amateurs making things worse.
If you are talking pay per view, then it's also not a donation, it's simply what it costs to view the product. As long as I can see it on my TV, I'd pay a dollar or two an episode if it were REALLY extraordinarily good. I'm talking better-than-BSG good.
...even better would be putting it out on DVD and making sure Nefflix has copies. That's how I'm getting the new B5 movie (and I don't even know if it's any dang good!) - at my current rate of returning DVDs, my Netflix subscription costs me about $1.50/DVD, so that's right within my price range.
If the B5 movie is good enough, it will induce me to rent more in the future. If it sucks, sorry JMS, you lost a customer.
I'm pretty sure Paramount already has its own Trek-on-TV plans. They just cast a TV actor popular with sci fi fans as Spock, rather than going for a big-name movie actor who would never do TV. That seems like a huge clue to me: they make three or so movies to get Trek's profile and crediiblity back up, then return it to TV where it belongs.
I never for one minute thought that Paramount would abandon a premium, well-known brand like Star Trek. Brands like that don't come along every day and corporations don't allow amateurs to screw with them in any way that would damage them. A fanfic here or a fanfilm there doesn't really matter, but if it ever got high-profile enough to threaten the perception of Trek's quality, the axe would come down mighty hard. They have a valuable commodity to defend and they know it. Their big task ahead of them is to repair Trek's reputation for quality, which has been severely tarnished. The last thing they need is amateurs making things worse.
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