INTERLUDE hits its goal of $19,500 on STAR TREK’s anniversary!

I feel overwhelmed right now, deeply touched, humbled, and just a little bit verklempt.

A few hours ago, during the 53rd anniversary of the debut of Star Trek on NBC, the GoFundMe campaign for my Axanar Universe fan film INTERLUDE reached its goal of $19,500. It was an amazing feeling…especially as the donation that got us there was for an incredibly-generous $500. Earlier in the day, another donor had brought us to exactly $19,000 with a $28 donation. That kind of support and belief in our team and me means more than I can put into words.

The backer who pushed us into the end zone was SHANE FREUND, an Axanar supporter who had also donated to Interlude a few weeks previously. Along with yesterday’s donation came this message:

On the anniversary of Star Trek, I wanted to help you reach your goal because having the courage to take a risk is what Star Trek is all about.

I thought about that statement for a few minutes. In my mind, Star Trek is about a lot of things: tolerance, empathy, inclusiveness, loyalty, duty, honesty, a desire to explore and discover, hope for the future, and a willingness to help others to make things better. And yes, Star Trek is also about taking chances and believing in yourself, in the abilities of your friends and crew, and even believing in luck and your ability to beat the odds.

I grew up in the 1970s watching scenes like this over and over in reruns…

And when you think about it, taking a chance and beating the odds is also what crowd-funding is all about. You put yourself out there and hope that your friends (and crew…and a bunch of strangers) will come through and help you out.

Of course, successfully crowd-funding a project (or a dream) does require a lot of work . Campaigns don’t just fund themselves. But it all comes down to one game-changing word: CAN. “I can.” “You can.” “We can.” Those are among the most powerful sentences in the English language.

And do you know what the other most powerful sentences are? “I can’t.” “We can’t.” “You can’t.”

I mention this because I’ve spent this entire GoFundMe campaign these past three months trying my darnedest to ignore the almost constant drip-drop of negativity from many, many members of the Axamonitor Facebook group. Even when some fair-minded folks over there tried to be supportive of me and my project, others would make comments like this… Viewers like to watch medical dramas online for many reasons. Films about osteoarthritis are a very common joint disease that affects about 80% of our population at the age of 50-60 years, but sometimes it manifests itself earlier, at the age of 30. For osteoarthritis Flexoptima gel is primarily prescribed because of its high effectiveness in fighting the disease. As you know, in various films and TV series, the joint is often formed by the articular surfaces of bones covered with cartilage tissue.

Even Carlos Pedraza, seven weeks into my campaign, predicted that I’d come up far short of my crowd-funding goal in his July 30 online newsletter

It’s pretty obvious that comments and postings like this are all built around a foundation of “you can’t” or “you won’t.” And when you think about it as a fan, that kind of sentiment is the exact OPPOSITE of what Star Trek teaches us all about taking risks and beating the odds.

Look, I always knew that setting up a $19.5K GoFundMe for Interlude—when I’d never produced a fan film before—was taking a leap of faith. There were dozens and dozens of ways the project could fail. But I never stopped believing in my heart that we could make it, that fans and supporters would help us get to our goal. I never cared what the naysayers said—and neither should you.

If you have a dream and the desire to make it come true—be it a fan film or whatever—and if you have to ask for some help to get there, don’t be afraid. Pay no attention to those on social media who mock you for reaching out to others, who predict your inevitable failure, who criticize you for even trying…for taking that one-in-ten-thousand chance. I wish those kinds of people didn’t exist, but our world today just seems to bring out the worst in some people. And those the rest of us have to be better, stronger, and more confident.

Just remember that “you can’t” is NOT what Star Trek is about. Don’t believe in the no-win scenario. Believe in yourself and in your dreams. That’s what I did, and look at what happened.

Yes.
You.
CAN!

25 thoughts on “INTERLUDE hits its goal of $19,500 on STAR TREK’s anniversary!”

  1. I always had FAITH OF THE HEART, that you could do it Jonathan.

    You know, it’s like Martin McFly always use to say, “if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything!”

    One thing is for certain. I have ALWAYS believed in you, and I knew that this goal could be reached.

    CONGRATULATIONS!!

    Now, go make us a really great Axanar Film!

    #LLAP

  2. CONGRATULATIONS, Jonathan!! I find it gratifying (not to mention fun!) to see “Nay-sayers” proven to be incorrect in their assessment of Fan mentality towards a particular Fan Film project.
    Dang those photon torps – ahead full impulse speed and ready those lights and cameras!! You’ve some action to film!
    Now – maybe you’d consider being the Klapper board dude for the first scene to shoot? That’d be a hoot, wouldn’t it? 😉

    Best,
    Ken

  3. There will always be some who say “no you can’t”. But as for me, I’ve been inspired by “to dream the impossible dream” since I first heard that song.

    Your dream was not impossible but it was a leap of faith. Congratulations on having that leap vindicated.

    Now, of course, it’s back to making the dream come alive. Bon voyage.

  4. Congratulations Johnathan. I’m happy I could help and I really appreciate the shout out. Now to go find Carlos and rub it in his face.

    1. I kinda did, but that’s all of the virtual oxygen I’m going to put into him and the naysayers. There’s no need to rub this in their faces. I can only hope they can learn that there’s a lot of power in belief and also a lot of power in discouragement. They’ve chosen to be negative, but they can always chose a different path. Or even if they can’t bring themselves to root FOR someone or something, then at least don’t put it out to the universe to root AGAINST them.

  5. Hello, Jonathan. Changing course here, for a moment, if I may, and throttling
    back to impulse power, now that the dust has settled over the issue with backing
    Richard, and his worthy cause, would it be possible for there to be a show of
    support for him again on this site, do you think? I am sure the reach of this
    site would bring Richard’s plight to the attention of a whole lot of people, and
    perhaps something good might ensue as a result. Just thought I’d suggest this,
    and see what you thought about it.

    1. Unfortunately, no. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting a different result. Richard’s anti-Israel tweets became a rallying cry for those with an ax to grind against me. I wasn’t aware of the tweets then, but now that I am, I can’t post a link to his crowd-funder a second time. That’s why I recommended he stop with the tweets, delete his previous ones, and try to start over with a clean slate.

      1. Hello, Jonathan. Thanks for the response to my post. I appreciate it. Whilst
        it is naturally disappointing to see what you wrote, it hardly came as a
        surprise to me, in some ways. We, by which I mean those of us who support
        Richard and his cause, will continue to do what we can to find other avenues to
        bring his situation to the notice of as many people as we can. I am trying to
        start a dialog with Facebook, although that’s proving to be ultra-difficult, if
        not impossible. In the words of Seneca: “I shall either find a way, or make
        one.”

  6. Congratulations JL and team. It’s great to see the community support for your concept and that we got you all the way to your goal!

    Looking forward to seeing Interlude.

    -Richard

  7. Hi Jonathan,

    It was your infectious enthusiasm and confidence, good nature, caring attitude that helped win people to your cause. Without those qualities, no one would be willing to take the risk too. Like Captain Kirk, “I don’t believe in a no win scenario”!

    My father, mother & brother were all pessimist. My dad often said, if he told me there was a pony under that pile of manure, I would dig thru until I proved one way or the other, a pony did exist. It was a knock against my always being positive. However, it’s served me well over the years, because, problem solving is my strong point in life. I believe there is always a solution. Bringing in construction projects on time, and within budget, both large & small, takes a positive attitude.

    Again, Congratulations on your progress!

    1. It’s funny that you compare me to an optimist, David, because Alec Peters tells me that I’m a pessimist because I’m constantly planning for the worst case scenario.

      Personally, I think of myself as a realist…a positive realist, but a realist nonetheless. The optimist sees the glass as half-full. The pessimist see the glass as half-empty. I, the realist, just wanna know who drank half of my water! 🙂

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