The crowd-funder for my fan film INTERLUDE goes live next week, and this is my last chance to share the details of the budget, explaining the goal of…
$19,500
…(a slight increase over the estimate in my previous blog from three weeks ago because a few things have changed).
Before I begin, let me state for the record that this budget was compiled by me based on input from a number of sources, including my directors VICTORIA FOX and JOSH IRWIN along with several other people whom I trust. But the final numbers and estimates were mine because, as executive producer, I am the guy responsible for raising the money, explaining to you how we are going to utilize it, and ultimately writing the checks from the money we raise.
So is this budget 100% perfect? Probably not. Some things might end up costing less, some will cost more, and probably a bunch of things we haven’t even thought of will suddenly pop up out of nowhere. If we come up short, we’ll need to figure out ways to trim things. For that reason, I’ve “erred on the side of caution” and created my budget to assume costs on the high side. That way, if we don’t make our goal, we’ll hopefully still have enough to make a decent fan film by streamlining and trimming things from the budget.
And what if we go over our goal? Well, if there’s enough left over, perhaps we take the surplus and mail out some extra patches to our donors as a thank you gift. Maybe we can afford something even nicer than a patch. Maybe we can afford something even nicer than a patch. We’ll see. If there’s a lot left over, it goes into a bank account to be reserved for a future Axanar Universe fan film from me or another Axanar fan.
One place the funds do NOT go is to Axanar Productions to help ALEC PETERS in any way to make his Axanar sequels. That would, according to Alec himself, violate his settlement agreement with CBS and Paramount. This includes giving him any of our uniforms to use for his shoot. (Amusingly, he can loan some of his uniforms to us, but not vice-versa. Even though that sounds odd, it’s the legally prudent thing to do.)
And now, let’s take a deep-dive into our budget…
FOOD – $1,500
People usually arrive early (like 8am) and often work long past dinner (8pm or later). The production is expected to feed them. In addition to just being the nice thing to do, it also keeps people in the studio rather than driving off for a lunch or dinner that could leave them missing just when they’re needed for a scene.
Anyway, that’s three meals plus drinks and snacks for everyone, and the typical estimate is about $25/person per day for feeding and watering. We’ll have about 25-30 people per day. This will include actors, extras, production crew, and potentially some student volunteers from the local high schools for two days.
TRAVEL AND LODGING – $1,200
I’ll be flying from Los Angeles to Atlanta using miles, but my directors and their sound engineer will be driving 11 hours (each way) from Arkansas to Georgia. Even though the fan film guidelines say that I can’t pay people, it isn’t fair to make my team members pay for the privilege of volunteering. So naturally, I am going to pay for their gas. I’ll also be paying for their hotel rooms for three nights in Lawrenceville. One of them can stay in one of Alec Peters’ spare bedrooms (I get the other).
EQUIPMENT RENTAL – $2500
My directors are going to be bringing some of the equipment we’ll be using, but we’ll still need other stuff. Estimates for a weekend rental come to $2,500 at present. This might ultimately go up or down depending on what might be available at Ares Studios. We’ll know better as we get closer to the shooting date, but to be safe, we’re using the $2,500 estimate. But this might be one of the places where we can trim the budget a little.
STUDIO RENTAL – $600
Renting Ares Studios for two days is $500. Alec offered to let us use the Ares bridge set for free, but I want it to be crystal clear that Interlude is completely separate from an Axanar production and isn’t being treated differently than any other fan project. So I’m paying the $250/day fee. I’ll also be paying GLEN WOLFE $100 for the use of his sickbay set in Arkansas for a day to film one of our scenes.
PRODUCTION INSURANCE – $2,000
A few weeks ago, it was suggested that we get production insurance…which ain’t cheap! I’ve considered the question carefully and decided to include the item in our budget. However, if we miss our goal significantly, this might be an item for the chopping block. Also, Alec Peters is looking into extending the insurance on Ares Studios to include outside productions that film there. So this line item remains a big “maybe” for now.
UNIFORM TUNICS – $5,000
In my previous deep-dive blog, I explained how our tunics are not the familiar (and licensed) TOS style but a unique look for the Four Years War (20 years before Kirk’s 5-year mission) designed originally by BILL KRAUSE…
So we can’t buy these from a licensee; they have to be hand sewn. That’s materials and labor, and it’s not something that can be volunteered. (It’s like buying a video camera or ordering a pizza…you don’t get those for free, and CBS can’t expect such things not to be paid for.)
Between the cost of fabric and labor, it’s going to be about $250 per tunic (a decently-tailored TOS tunic from a licensee like Anovos can cost anywhere from $225 to $345…so we’re in the right neighborhood with $250).
We need roughly 20 uniforms. There’s two different starship bridges with full bridge crews (about 8 officers on each) plus a scene in sickbay with three doctors and one in engineering with a chief engineer. If we come up short on the crowd-funder, we might be able to trim a few extras, but we’d really like to be able to shoot wide establishing shots of both bridges without them looking empty during a red alert situation.
But it’s not just tunics…
UNIFORM MOCK TURTLENECKS (NOT LAND’S END!) – $250
The uniform is a V-neck tunic over a high-neck black shirt. In my last blog, I made the mistake of listing Land’s End as a potential source of the kind of shirt we needed. Man, did THAT blow up a controversy! So I did a new search the found shirts we can use from a place called Shein for $10 each plus tax and shipping. Gotta buy 20 of ’em.
PANTS AND BOOTS – $2,000
This one I’m not certain about yet, so that number might change a little…or a lot. We’ve estimated $100/pant (or $2,000 for 20), plus boots are about $100 each (another $2,000). So why doesn’t it say $4,000 for this line-item?
We might be able to “cheat” this with some actors and extras sitting in the “well” of the bridge. If so, then they’ll likely be filmed just from the waist up and they can wear cargo shorts and sneakers if they want to and no one will ever know.
Obviously, this isn’t the case with the captains and the officers sitting or standing at the upper console stations…or the doctors/nurses in sickbay. best ohio fake id Now, we might be able to get by without boots for some of those people I just listed, but others will need boots. We also might be able to get cheaper black pants. We’re still pricing all of that, but we’re putting in $2,000 for now to cover pants and boots together for those who will need them.
PATCHES – $1,500
I explained in the previous blog that each tunic has three patches sewn onto it: one insignia on the chest, a ship’s emblem on the left shoulder, and a first fleet patch on the right shoulder (similar to the NX-era uniforms)
Custom embroidered patches in the sizes we’ll likely need are about $150 for a minimal run of 25 of each patch design (ordering less than 25 makes little difference because the embroidering set-up fee eats up the majority of that cost). So for every kind of patch we need—even if it’s just a few of them—it’ll be $150. Yeesh!
While we only need one run of the first fleet patches, we need two of the ship emblem shoulder patches since we’ll have two different starship crews. Likewise, there’s two different styles of chest insignia (one for each starship). But here’s the problem: each division has a different design in the center! Command gold has a star, sciences blue has a planet, and engineering/communications has a comet. Plus, one of my directors thinks there should be a red cross in the center of the medical folks in sickbay (like Nurse Chapel had). That comes out to seven different chest patch designs.
Let’s add it all up…
- 1 patch design for the First Fleet
- 2 patch designs for the shoulder
- 7 patch designs for the chest
So that’s 10 patch runs at $150 each. Now, I might be able to save $300 if Alec has leftover USS Ares and First Fleet patches. There’s also a possibility if we come up short that we just decide that everyone in this era wears an insignia with a command star. That could trim another $750. So potentially, patches can drop from $1,500 to $450. (Can you see now why I’ve budgeted on the high side? If we don’t make it, there’s room to maneuver and trim.)
RANK BRAID – $100
Everyone’s gotta have a rank on their sleeve cuff, right?
SEWING – $250
Somebody’s gotta sew 3 patches on each of 20 uniforms…or 60 patches. Victoria estimates that a decent seamstress at a shop can do about five or six patches per hour at $20/hour. Plus there’s rank braid on the sleeves. With luck, we only have to spend $250.
SERVICE FEE – $600
I’m going to be be using GoFundMe because it has one of the lowest service fees: 2.9% of each transaction plus 30 cents per donation. If I can reach my goal, that’ll be about $600. So the goal needs to add on the amount we pay for servicing.
PERKS – $0
I thought long and hard about this. Perks cost money to make and to ship. And even though many fan productions are still offering patches and T-shirts and posters and other items, the guidelines still say that’s a no-no.
Now, if I raise a little over my goal, enough to cover postage and envelopes, I’ll drop some leftover patches into the mail and send them to donors as thank you gifts. But that’s very different than a perk. A perk is expected and is determined by the size of the donation. (More money, better perk.) The only thing being determined by the size of your donation to my campaign is the size of your name in the credits. The thank you gift will be the same for everyone.
That said, if I raise a few thousand dollars above my goal, there might be a really cool thank you gift in addition to the patches. But we’ll cross that bridge if and when we cross our goal.
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? – $2,000
Have we forgotten anything? Probably! What about make-up supplies? What happens if one of our actors’ cars breaks down and he/she needs to Uber? How about dyeing Alec Peters’ hair to look like a younger Garth?
My directors have both told me—and other folks I know out here in Hollywood have confirmed—that an unassigned “contingency” of 10% is typically added to any production budget.
And there it is. If I’ve done the math correctly, that should come to $19,500. Can we make it? I hope so! We’ll know soon enough…cross your fingers. And please consider making a donation. We can’t do this without YOU!
Probably a good thing that you aren’t getting licensee uniforms; especially from Anovos as this company is facing a law suit regarding undelivered, yet paid upfront, merchandise. In fact, the status at this point is that the initial individual suing and his lawyer are seeking others–supposedly there are many–that from January 2017 onward to now to change the suit to a class-action suit.
So, as I say, sounds like it is a wise step for people, for the present at least, to step away from obtaining licensee items through Anovos.
Yep, I’m writing a blog about that very lawsuit, as it happens.
I may be able to help cut costs on your uniform tunics. Sewing is a hobby of mine and I have sewed and tailored Star Trek uniforms before. I would be happy to volunteer the labor to sew the uniforms and patches. Materials would still have to be paid for, but I would imagine that would cut out quite a bit of the cost. I you’re interested, I would love to get in contact with you and perhaps we can save your production some money!
Unfortunately, Connor, that’s not my decision to make. Alec has chosen the uniform manufacturer and has determined the fabric (which I’m told has already been purchased, so I’ll be paying for the share that I use once funds start coming in). The costume manufacturer has the patterns and is already sewing up the first test samples. Alec is requiring a certain professional quality for the uniforms if I want to create an Axanar Universe fan film to shoot on his sets, and I’m okay following that requirement. Truth to tell, it’s one less thing for me to worry about (two actually: finding fabric and finding someone to sew it together). I had actually started down both of those paths myself back in February (maybe late January) and quickly felt totally out of my league. 🙂
Anyway, Connor, I do appreciate your offer, thank you. If anything does go wrong with whom we’re using now, you might end up being our last, best hope. 🙂
But I thought your fan film was completely independent of Alec Peters? You said so in the blog…
Can you quote where I say my fan film is completely independent of Alec Peters? After all, he is playing Garth! 🙂
(Man, correcting Matt Miller’s attempts to spread misinformation is exhausting!!)
“I want to assure the nice folks at the multi-billion dollar corporation that owns Star Trek that I am completely separate from Axanar Productions.”
Whew! For a second there, I thought I might have mistakenly said I was independent from Alec Peters! Alec will be appearing in my fan film as Garth and is helping me get my uniforms. Axanar Productions, on the other hand, has zero to do with my fan film. They aren’t funding me; I’m not funding them. They have their own team; I have my own team. They have two 15-minute productions which must abide by the terms of the legal settlement with CBS and Paramount (which includes no public crowd-funding using services like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GoFundMe), and I have to comply with the fan film guidelines in order to be acceptable by CBS (which allows me to crowd-fund up to $50,000…which is way more than I need).
Anyway, Matthew, thanks for clearing that up for yourself so I didn’t have to do it for you. I always find correcting you to be so tedious. 🙂
Axanar Productions is Alec Peters. He is the head, the chief, the bigwig, the… well, you get my point. Additionally you are setting yourself in the ‘Axanar Universe’ which is a creation of Alec Peters. You are also directly associated with Axanar. I’m curious to know how you justify the distinction?
Additionally Alec is directly influencing your decisions with these uniforms which will be… what? Thrown out when used by Interlude? Put on display? Given as perks? Donated to Axanar for the looking-unlikely-to-be-ready-by-mid-2020 shorts.
I’m curious too, where do the patches and other perks, that you are offering for donors, fit in to the guidelines? (Answer: they dont.)
Lastly, how successful do you feel your crowd funding drive will be? Considering folks with a proven track record of making fan fil.s could barely scrape $4,000 together? Will you be using a campaign where you will be able to keep whatever amount is raised? How do you meet your ambitions then? Why should folks pay for your fantasy?
I’m sorry, Matthew, did you misunderstand and think that I was giving you an interview? It sure sounds like you thought so. Weird, ’cause I don’t remember ever agreeing to answer a barrage of petulant questions…
Anyway, Alec Peters might run Axanar Productions, but they are not one and the same. It’s like saying Captain Kirk is Starfleet. Kirk might be a part of Starfleet, he might even be the captain of a starship, but he’s also allowed some shore leave every now and then. Starfleet doesn’t shtup a parade of sexy alien women; Kirk does. 😉
Alec is not precluded by his settlement from participating in other fan productions or working with other fan producers. Heck, Vance Major featured a voice-over from Alec (playing Garth) in one of his Minard films. So please don’t confuse Alec Peters with Axanar Productions. One is a production company, the other is a person (and a friend of mine).
As for the uniforms (crap, I am giving you an interview!–you’re welcome, Matt), yep, when we’re done, they go into my closet to be saved for the next Axanar Universe fan film…if one gets made. If not, maybe someday I’ll give them away to some other fan producer.
As for perks, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m taking a huge risk and giving away ZERO physical perks. People will only be getting their names in the credits (or on a coffee cup). I know a lot of fan films have given away physical perks even after the guidelines were announced. Heck, Ray Tesi even got permission to do it when he crowd-funded Starship Republic. Most recently, Samuel Cockings gave away beautiful posters for his multi-crossover fan film Convergence. But I will not be crossing that line. Anyone who donates can expect NO physical perks. Period. Now, if we come out with a surplus, then sure, I’ll send out some patches or something as a thank you gift. But there’s no guarantee that’ll happen…and it very likely won’t happen. So thank you gifts should NOT be considered perks. Perks are expected and usually increase in value with the size of the donation. If I end up sending out some thank you patches, it’s the same patch whether a donor gave $1 or $1,000 (assuming anyone donates that much).
And finally, your last question (which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is pretty dumb): “Lastly, how successful do you feel your crowd funding drive will be?”
Obviously, I feel it will be successful or otherwise, why bother? I mean…d’uh, Matt! How successful do you feel YOUR YouTube Channel and Patreon campaign will be? They’re both floundering, of course (I mean, 9 patrons after five months?–that’s pretty embarrassing, right?), but you press on, Matt! Why bother…when it looks so dismal and hopeless? Why continue to put so much time and effort into your blogs and videos when almost no one is watching them? Because YOU believe in yourself, Matthew, and in what you are doing! YOU believe you can somehow succeed despite all evidence of pathetic and demoralizing failure! It’s YOU, Matthew, who keep the faith…and good on you for doing so. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s just a “fantasy.” And even if it is a fantasy, Matt, it is YOUR fantasy, and no one can take that illusion away from you!
Keep on keeping on, mate. That 10th patron could sign up any day now, followed by an eleventh a few months later, and maybe a twelfth by the end of the year or next year. And THEN who will be laughing at whom? 🙂
Dont worry about me Jonathan, at least I’m not raising thousands of dollars a month for absolutely 0 actual output. Livestreams where he bitches about everyone and everything dont count.
And just so you’re aware, not all of my ratings data is made public but regardless, I’m quite satisfied with where Trekzone sits and the access it has. It is not a business, it is a hobby and I will continue doing what I like, when I like and how I like.
You do that, Matt. Nowhere to go but up, I say. I’m rootin’ for ya!
By the way, for anyone who is curious, here’s the public ratings data for Trekzone.org…
https://www.similarweb.com/website/trekzone.org
Global Rank (Worldwide)
5,124,214
Country Rank (United States)
2,737,380
And for comparison, here’s FanFilmFactor.com…
https://www.similarweb.com/website/fanfilmfactor.com
Global Rank (Worldwide)
1,146,639
Country Rank (United States)
342,635
I repeat, I am happy with where Trekzone is, the access it has and the stories it tells. I have never met anyone so desperate for validation as you Jonathan Lane.
You may continue to engage in this pissing contest between us, but the company you keep describe the sort of man you are, and in the cold hard light of the day that’s all that matters.
Okay, go play. (Pats Matt on the head.) 🙂
I’m pretty sure the Red Cross on the insignia only applies to the nurses, not all “the medical folk”, the doctors have the usual Starfleet insignia…talking of which…why aren’t you using the usual Starfleet insignia? The fan theory behind each ship having different insignia was disproved a long time ago.
Otherwise…I’m looking forward to seeing this, and will donate if I can afford it.
Initially, Gene Roddenberry assumed all starship crews had the delta (as was shown in “Court Martial” when officers from other ships interacted with Kirk on Starbase 11) while starbase personnel and those assigned to ground duty wore star cluster emblems and the merchant marine wore insignia like those of Captain Ramart and his first officer on the trading ship Antares in “Charlie X.”
Then “The Doomsday Machine” happened.
Despite the precedent set in “Court Martial,” Commodore Matt Decker was given a unique starship insignia different from that of the Enterprise crew. Then in “The Omega Glory,” the crew of the USS Exeter (or at least two of them) were shown with a rectangular emblem. In “The Ultimate Computer,” however, Commodore Bob Wesley of the USS Lexington had that ground-based HQ star cluster. But many assume that Wesley was spearheading the M-5 development program and wanted to be center of the “action” in the war games to see M-5 perform close-up. So he temporarily assumed command of Lexington, having previously been a starship captain (possibly of the Lexington) before getting the promotion to Commodore. At least, that’s one theory.
Although bodies in “The Tholian Web” were carefully posed so that viewers never saw the insignia of the crew of the USS Defiant (the Trek producers saved a little money, eh?), the Star Trek: Enterprise season four episode “In a Mirror, Darkly, Part 2” clearly showed the chest insignia of the Defiant uniforms as different from the Enterprise deltas.
So for the most part, fan accept that, at least during Kirk’s 5-year mission, each starship had its own insignia…a tradition dating back to the NX-era when each of Starfleet’s earliest starships had its own mission emblem patch on the shoulder. From the Motion Picture onward, though, everyone wore the delta regardless of assignment.
Discovery, of course, kinda screws with that theory, but then again, they don’t have patches either but rather metallic badges with section colors. My head canon hasn’t quite accepted that yet. Likewise, the USS Kelvin had a weird delta metallic outline thingie. So consistency, thy name is NOT Star Trek!
Anyway, according to Axanar “canon” (whatever that might mean to people), each ship has its own insignia, just as in TOS after season one. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it! 🙂
There is a memo from Roddenberry which addresses this issue. You can find it online and I think it is in the Justman/Solow book. In the memo Gene states that the delta IS the insignia of Starfleet. The other insignia was the result of overzealous costumers and missed the eye of producer’s until it was too late. Given that these other designs do exist makes this a grey area to be certain.
Agreed. But as a member of the STARFLEET International fan club since 1983, and having designed insignia for chapters including the USS Avenger, USS Angeles, USS Asteria, USS Leonidas, and USS Stephen Hawking, I like to think different starships each have their own insignia. 🙂
If nothing else, this blog post should be a model for every request for donations. The reasons behind every budget item made sense to me. And the level of detail shows that you continue to do your homework about what it takes to produce a fan film.
Thanks, Jerry. Truth to tell, many people felt that I shouldn’t include any explanation other than “this is how much it will all cost” (now give me your money!). 🙂
And it’s true that many, many fan films never bother detailing their budgets. At most, they’ll give some broad brush strokes like “15% for equipment, 15% for food, 25% for costumes, 10% makeup and supplies…” etc. But there’s seldom anything as detailed as what I just published.
There’s two reasons I did the deep dive. The first reasons is because I am asking for a significant amount of money, and I suspected (quite correctly) that some detractors would start hurling accusations that I was acting as a “backdoor” of funding for Alec Peters. Had I just asked for for $19,500 with no explanation, I expected they’d shout: “You’re filming a 10-minute fan film on an existing set and you’re not allowed to pay anyone! This should cost you a few hundred dollars at most! You’re just laundering money for Peters!” C’mon, you KNOW they’d say some crazy shat like that.
So rather than deal with the inevitable, I decided it was better to control the narrative myself. Sure, the detractors are still trying to blast holes in the budget (“Pants shouldn’t cost $100…go to Wal-Mart!” “Just use the Starfleet delta insignia as a single patch and save yourself $1,500!” “Why do you need 20 actors when 10 will do?”). But at least I can respond to them point by point and explain each line item openly. They still might not agree with me having 20 actors, but when I point out the fact that TOS had at least 6 main officers on the bridge (Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura) plus random ensigns…and I’ve got two different bridge crews plus a sickbay scene and a close-up on an engineer in engineering…I can at least justify those 20 actors and extras and their uniforms.
The other reason is CBS, and with a similar justification. While they don’t pay attention to most Trek fan films, I have to assume I’ll be getting a bit more scrutiny. So much more than the detractors, I want to assure the nice folks at the multi-billion dollar corporation that owns Star Trek that I am completely separate from Axanar Productions and have good reasons for every dollar I am asking for.
Hi Jonathan. Explanation of costs or no explanation? I think you are simply showing respect for your prospective donors by providing these details of how the funds will be disbursed. And this respect is so much in keeping with the sense of human values you consistently display.
I’m also pleased that the budget for perks is $0.00 ! In a reply to me you justified the general concept of perks on a “you give something, you get something in return” sort of thinking. To me, that is sad ─ whatever happened to selfless giving, at one time also a natural human value? (I could word that better but I think my general concept is apparent). Besides, you are getting something in return, the knowledge that you have contributed to a project that will give pleasure and satisfaction to quite a few people plus the pleasure of enjoying the final movie. Isn’t that enough?
It should be, but I understand the idea of wanting something in return. It isn’t greed or selfishness so much as just wanting to “belong” to the cause. Even if I never show my USS Ares patch to anyone, at least I know I have it and share that attribute with other Axanar donors. On the other hand, we all share something else in common besides the patch–we all donated to the same dream.
Can you please give some more details about the changes to the costs for “Food” and “Travel and Lodging”? I suspect the cost changes are partly due to changes in schedule and filming locations…
Sure. For the food, we no longer have to feed folks in Kingsland, GA at Neutral Zone studios…since we won’t be filming there after all. That would have been a smaller cast and crew and likely only breakfast and lunch, since there wouldn’t be much to shoot. So I trimmed $300 based on an estimate of $15/person for maybe 20 people.
As for travel and lodging, I no longer need to get a $500 rental car for the weekend, and we no longer need three hotel rooms in Kingsland. There’s a little more gas required, as Josh and Victoria will now have to drive two hours each way from their homes in Arkansas to WARP 66 studios. On the other hand, they’ll be saving 10 hours round trip driving from Lawrenceville to Kingsland before backtracking and returning to Arkansas. So I trimmed a little off of gas but then added in the cost of an Uber or Lyft for me between Atlanta and Lawrenceville. So that kinda balanced out but slightly to the high side.
In the end, it went from $1900 to $1200…with about $500 disappearing for car rental, $250 from hotels (about $80/night), and about $50 being added on to get me to and from the airport.
Thanks for replying. I’d only skimmed over the section about production insurance previously, so I didn’t notice that you were considering dropping it if you didn’t get the necessary funds. I’d strongly advise against that. $2,000 for contingencies will be useful, but if two people pass out because they got overheated on set, the medical costs could easily wipe out that money. Every time I’ve been to the emergency room, it cost $1,000 just to walk in the door . You need to see insurance as a way of covering MEDICAL contingencies far greater than the amount you’d pay for it. Cash on hand can’t do that.
Well, you also have to look at the odds. Despite some studios like Neutral Zone, Retro, Starbase, and even WARP 66 not having AC and getting unbearably hot during the summer, no one has ever needed to be hospitalized from heat exhaustion after countless fan films shot in those locations over the past decade and a half. In fact, I don’t recall any accident on any fan film project that resulted in a hospital visit or a show-runner getting sued.
People keep talking about “young minors” being on my set, as if I were inviting a bunch of nine-year-olds. I’m not. These would be high school seniors aged 17 and possibly even 18 years old. And they would be invited by their teachers because they were the top students in their video classes, serious, and capable of working responsibly on a set. As for the actors and extras, there’s the possibility of overheating, yes, but that can happen on almost any set. Other accidents are more likely when there’s stunts or pyrotechnics, but our biggest “stunts” will just be the ship getting jolted by a torpedo hit. 🙂
Anyway, as I said in the revised budget, I’m including insurance as a line item. But it’s possible I won’t need it at all because Alec is getting (already has?) insurance for Ares Studio that will cover injuries that happen during filming of any production using his facility. And Glen Wolfe already has insurance for his studio in Arkansas. So if I end up not needing insurance after all, I’ll lower the goal to $17.5K. But Alec is still looking into what his insurance covers/will cover, so until I know, the $2K line item is on there.
Retro does have A/C. Regardless an active set is one of the most dangerous work environments there is. High voltage lines, distro boxes, heavy equipment, HOT lights and so on. While I understand fan films are amateur by definition, you aren’t shooting in Grandma’s basement with a cell phone on sticks and a flashlight. Add to this most of your crew probably have never been on and active, HOT set. From your comments I don’t think you understand or appreciate just how dangerous it can be. Hopefully, someone on your production team does.
Yep, my directors have been on countless professional film sets. They’re the ones who said we didn’t need production insurance. 🙂
And by the way, of everyone who will be there for shooting Interlude, only a small handful will have never been on an active set before. Even I’ve been on an active set…Voyager’s episode “Swarm,” as a matter of fact! Granted, I was only observing. This’ll be my first time in the thick of the action!
Anyway, as I said, we might not need insurance if Alec gets it instead. So fingers crossed on that one.
Jonathan I saw, I think on one of the previous blogs, that you said you have to use the uniform vendor Alec tells you to because he won’t let you use the set otherwise. That doesn’t make sense if you are paying the fee to use the bridge. I understand you want a certain level of quality but if you can’t even loan the uniforms to him there is no real reason to jeopardize your chances of getting your budget by going with the much higher uniform vendor. By the materials and see if you can source some volunteers who know how to so. Especially since you want people to know you are independent of Mr. Peters letting him dictate your uniform choices/decisions doesn’t make any sense
Thanks for sharing your opinion and advice, RC.
I don’t think you realize that this is a fan film you are making. High end costumes from Italy and things like that are what led to the guidelines in the first place. Fan films aren’t supposed to be indistinguishable from the thing you are a fan of. In your case you say your film is fan film of Axanar, so why is exact reproduction necessary? It doesn’t feel like you are bringing real passion to this. It comes across like you think of this as a legit film production which it isn’t and cannot be. No one is saying it has to be cardboard sets and bad acting, but it seems like you have lost sight of what a FAN film is.
Again, RC, thanks for sharing your opinions and insights on my fan film.
Jonathan – why do you bother replying to the inane comments and responses from “mirrormat66” ? They are cluttering my inbox, but I don’t wish to miss material from people possessing an IQ which is a positive number. If is unable to separate the person Alec Peters from the entity which is Axanar, then next he will claim Donald Trump IS the USA (Trump would probably agree!)
And I’m embarrassed to know he is Australian. It would be more acceptable if he was in Queensland, (a northern state which many now regard, for many reasons, more as a separate country), but I think he is based in the west which while being delightful, with our small population, is at least remote from the major population centres.
I considered simply deleting Matt’s barrage of questions, but as Matthew has proven time and time again, he has a strained relationship with facts, truths, and getting information correct in the first place. Sometimes I’m not even certain he’s aware he’s doing it. That’s why I asked him to quote me where I said that my fan film would be completely separate from Alec Peters. What an absurd thing to say! Alec is playing Garth. He found me a costume manufacturer that I can trust and rely on. Of course, we’re not completely separate from Alec Peters–but we ARE completely separate from Axanar Productions. But the fact that Matt’s cave-mind isn’t evolved or developed enough to understand that distinction is not only his problem, it’s also mine…because Matt never keeps this “thoughts” (even if they’re ridiculously out of touch with any concept of reality) to himself.
So rather than letting Matt control the narrative, I decided to grab it myself and “school” him…as I did a few months ago when he used to say that the vast majority of people who worked on Prelude to Axanar refused to ever work with Alec Peters again…yet when we counted, he couldn’t get over a small fraction of the people in the credits who had walked away. The majority actually stayed. Schooled. Owned.
Do I like schooling Matthew? Hardly. The small joy I used to get from proving him wrong, to be a liar, or simply incompetent to report facts has long since faded. Now it’s just a task I have to do, like taking out the garbage or cutting my toenails. I don’t look forward to it, but it has to be done just to keep things from getting messy and unlivable.
And so I approved Matt’s message and responded to it, point by point. It allowed me to make certain my supporters didn’t start developing any doubts based on Matt Miller’s deluded and purposefully misleading ramblings. He’s actively trying to find some sort of “gotcha!” to sabotage my project…which is strange because he did a fan film of his own recently, and I never tried to sabotage him. In fact, I actually had some nice things to say about it on this very blog site! So much for the golden rule when it comes to Matthew Miller, huh?
In a perfect world, folks like Matt would support all fan films instead of doing everything they can to try to make certain some of them never happen. I mean, it’s hard enough to raise $19.5K without all of the headwinds and obstacles the detractors are throwing at me. (Land’s End? Really? One rushed Google search and suddenly I’m public enemy #1! Sheesh.)
I didn’t say the following to Matthew, but I strongly suspect that one of the main reasons that Fan Film Factor has so many more readers than Trekzone (I mean, his numbers are anemic) is because he just doesn’t understand the fan film community. They’re not interested in buying what he is trying so desperately to sell. The negativity; the passive-aggressive sniping at me, at Alec, at Axanar supporters; an inability to let things go and obsessive need to be right to the point of arguing a topic to death (oh, wait, I do that last one, too…but at least I’m aware that I do it and am humble enough to be self-depreciating about it)…anyway, most fans don’t want to visit a blog with such a cloud of misery and anger hovering around it.
That’s why Fan Film Factor is so positive all the time (except when I review Star Trek: Discovery’s weaker episodes or when I respond to Matt Miller’s snarky comments). I don’t try to sabotage or predict the worst on anyone. I don’t insult (except for Matt because he keeps instigating it and doesn’t deserve my respect anymore) and I compliment often. I praise all fan filmmakers. And if I can’t say something nice, I don’t say it. Just look at what happened with Ray Tesi’s recent decision not to let me film at Neutral Zone Studios. Was I hurt and angry? Yes. But I took the high road in my blog and didn’t bash him or his studio…and I encouraged fans to keep supporting his Patreon.
So while Matt Miller keeps going low (he does live “Down Under”…but then again, so do you Bryan, so it can’t simply be that), Fan Film Factor goes high. Maybe Matt could try it someday. Maybe he’d finally get that tenth patron! 🙂
You’re planning to shoot this in one weekend? I hope everyone on the crew and your actors have a lot of experience.
Yep, they do. I’m the only “novice.” But my job will be mainly getting food and bringing it back and then staying out of the way and marveling at the process. I’ll also probably be shooting behind-the-scenes photos and video for this blog. Even the few student volunteers we’ll have helping out will be seniors with experience, hand-picked by their teacher(s) as the top video students in the three-year program. Josh Irwin and Victoria Fox are both professionals in the industry with directing experience, and Victoria in particular is an accomplished actor who will be working with our cast before and during the shoot to bring out the best performances that she can.
One of the things that our script benefits from is the fact that, because it takes place primarily during a heated space battle, the cuts are quick and the dialog snippets short. Most of our shots will be fast cuts where a small number of lines are spoken by a single person, meaning more opportunity to get multiple takes and less chance of a flub during a long sequence of action.
Anyway, Josh and Victoria are pretty confident that we can shoot all of the Ares bridge footage during one day and all of the Artemis footage the other. Fingers crossed!