AXACON schedule released – and I need YOUR questions for J.G. HERTZLER, GARY GRAHAM, and ALEC PETERS!

The first-ever AXACON is less than three weeks away, and ALEC PETERS has just released the schedule.  It’s a pretty busy weekend, filled with all kinds of activities and panels…most of them focused on AXANAR (both past, present, and future), but also a few opportunities to expand beyond just one fan film.

Here’s a look at some of the things that will be going on:

FRIDAY

  • A set tour of OWC Studios (including photo ops on the USS Ares bridge)
  • A reading from the full 90 minute version of the Axanar movie script (featuring J.G. Hertzler, Gary Graham, Alec Peters, and Steven Jepson)
  • Socialize at the bar with the actors and Axanar team (donor funds will NOT be used to pay the bar tab!)

SATURDAY

  • The Top 10 Star Trek fan films (at least in our opinion…and we don’t all agree!)
  • J.G. and Gary talk about their time on televised Star Trek
  • An Axanar UPDATE with Alec Peters and director/co-writer Paul Jenkins
  • Alec discusses how the Honor Harrington novels influenced Axanar
  • A special Axanar donor lunch with the actors and production team
  • Axanar fan fiction with three people who are writing/drawing/animating it
  • Alec and Paul discuss the evolution of Axanar from story to screenplay
  • The Axanar fleet – designing cool starships from 20 years before TOS
  • A preview of upcoming Star Trek fan films
  • Klingon kostuming…er, costuming
  • The Axanar project from a fan’s perspective
  • Everyone hits the bar again, including J.G. and Gary

SUNDAY

  • Starship combat in the Axaverse (when did we start calling it that?)
  • J.G., Gary, and Alec discuss working on Prelude to Aanar and plans for the remaining two Axanar films
  • When fan films become professional independent films…what does the future hold?
  • Alec discusses James T. Kirk’s hero: Garth of Izar, and Steven Jepson discuss the infamous “Admiral Scaredy”: Conrad Slater
  • Axanar trivia…with PRIZES!

As you can see, a lot of careful consideration went into filling this mini convention with diverse content while still keeping it centered around Axanar.  I think the organizers did an excellent job with that.

They also scheduled me to host five panels and appear on an additional three…for a total of EIGHT panels in THREE days!  Oy.  But in one of those panels, I have to interview J.G. Hertzler, Gary Graham, and Alec Peters about their work on Prelude and plans for the two upcoming Axanar films.  And that’s where I need YOUR help…

I love it on Talking Dead when Chris Hardwick reads questions from viewers or asks audience members to come up and ask questions of their own.  So I’d like to gather some questions from YOU folks out there.  What are you yearning to know about the production of Prelude to Axanar?  What questions are gnawing away at you about Axanar yet to come?

Post your question(s) in the comments section of this blog, and I just might ask what you suggest…and read your name out loud (unless you use an offensive pseudonym).  Oh, and speaking of offensive, please don’t be.  While detractors are welcome to participate (I can’t stop you from typing a comment), you guys know what kind of questions are just gonna get tossed out the airlock.  So why waste your time and mine?  Instead, consider this an opportunity.  What do you POLITELY want to know?  Your question could very well be answered by J.G., Gary, or Alec.

And for those of you who can make it to Axacon, yes, we’ll also be taking some questions from the audience during this panel.  So I hope to see some of you there!

And if you can make it to Atlanta, GA on November 2-4, here’s information on where Axacon will be and how to purchase tickets:

https://sphinx-con.org/axacon

And here’s the schedule (click on it to view at full size)…

11 thoughts on “AXACON schedule released – and I need YOUR questions for J.G. HERTZLER, GARY GRAHAM, and ALEC PETERS!”

  1. I was a backer in the last Indiegogo campaign, with a Blu-ray (DVD?) of the completed film as the promised premium. Will backers at that level still receive a copy of the film on physical media, and at what point after completion of the film will that happen?

    1. Yes to your first question and no idea on the second. Remember that Alec wants to put lots of extras onto the Blu-ray, including “The Making Of…” and director’s/writers’ commentary, the Axanar “heroes” shoprt film, interviews, footage from Axacon, etc. All of that has to be edited together, as well. So I am assuming that, if the next two parts are posted online on a Tuesday, the DVDs and Blu-rays will NOT be going out Wednesday or Thursday. 🙂

  2. If it were possible for you to make a fan film under the current guidelines (in Alec’s case another fan film). What would you like to do and in which era?

  3. Hi Jonathan,
    Here are my questions for the whole gang:
    – Will you keep doing -Star Trek or not- fanmade projects after this difficult one ?
    – Does your involvement with Axanar have effects on your other activities or relations with your professional partners (is this discussed at all) ?
    – Will the complete credits be present on the DVD or publicly available somewhere online ? Don’t you think the end credits shouldn’t count in the story duration of fanfilms ? After all, it doesn’t affect the right owners and peoples working hard on such projects desserve to be named. That would be a nice alteration to CBS guidelines, no ?

    Enjoy the con,
    Nicolas.

    1. It’s easy enough to include the credits on the YouTube description and then have the full credits on the DVD/Blu-Ray version. But I’ll leave that decision to Alec and company.

  4. OK, but the reason I ask this is because very few peoples will even bother to open a separate file to see names scrolling. Just see hom many peoples stop the player as soon as the film ends. Simpler, just see in cinemas how peoples rise up and leave the theatre while the end titles and music are just begining.

    My question is then not specific to Axanar and discounting end credits from movie duration would be rewarding for all the peoples involved in supporting the Star Trek heritage.
    I also think of the composers that create original scores that could no more be used as intended. Of course, Alec would probably offer it as bonus, but as for the credits, it is not the same as if it was integrated at first.

    So, is the idea of asking CBS to soften on this point absurd or interesting ? I do not recall it to be considered when the guidelines were issued and eventual negociations discussed.

    Best regards,
    Nicolas.

    1. Alec isn’t required to follow the guidelines so much as a specific set of parameters outlined in the legal settlement (including a 15-minute time limit for each fan film). Should Alec make a fan film that is, say, 19 minutes long instead of 15 minutes long (because of the addition of closing credits), CBS and Paramount could choose to take him and Axanar Productions into arbitration (not a separate lawsuit—that isn’t how it works). And if CBS and Paramount can prove that those extra 4 minutes of credits harm them in a significant way financially (which might be a little more challenging to prove considering that they weren’t harmed by the four STC episodes that went beyond the 15 minute limit), Alec could be forced to pay a financial penalty in the four or five figure range…or not.

  5. Oh, i know Axanar is a separate case due to the settlement, and probably under close scrutiny. I am speaking generally, for every fanfilm, as a possible request for CBS to allow this practice.
    Other projects did exceed limits and weren’t sued, so CBS probably knows it when it is reasonable.

    1. Many fan films have ignored the time limit post-guidelines: STC, Quark’s Space Station, and Starship Antyllus to name a few. Temporal Anomaly got special person to exceed the 15-minute (half hour) limit, but the others never got official anything from the studios. At this point, I think CBS is generally holding back unless a fan film is really blatantly doing something that’s a no-no (as when Temporal Anomaly used footage from ST: Insurrection and Nemesis.

  6. I have been wondering about this point for a long time. Now it seems from other comments that other readers have also been curious about whether the 15 minute time limit does or should include the opening title sequence and closing credits. Since these things can run up to 4 to 5 minutes, including them in the 15 minute time frame would give even less time for telling the story. Excluding the credits from the 15 minutes would at least give a little more story telling space in which to work. Just wondering. What do you think?

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