A public APOLOGY and sincere THANK YOU to C.W. THOMPSON from myself and JOSH IRWIN…

It’s never easy to admit that you screwed up. But that happened in December, and now is the time and place to acknowledge and try to correct it.

To understand what happened, we need to leapfrog back to last October and a crisis that happened with CRISIS ON INFINITE EXCALIBURS. After working on the project for over two years and putting several thousand dollars of his own money into it (along with several thousand dollars that were crowd-funded from fan donors), AVALON UNIVERSE showrunner JOSH IRWIN was in a serious bind. A final shoot had been scheduled for the upcoming weekend with an actress who needed to travel from Oklahoma to Arkansas, and expenses for gas, food, and lodging for the weekend were promised to be covered. But a last minute unrelated emergency put Josh in a bind of quite literally being too broke to afford reimbursement for this person, nor did she have the financial means to make the trip without it.

Usually when something like this happens, I can come through with a loan or donation. I’ve never advertised this fact, as I didn’t want to become known as an ATM for fan filmmakers. Unfortunately, the Lane family had our own emergency in late September requiring unexpected and significant construction/repair costs, and my days of donating left and right to crowd-funding campaigns are done for now. So I couldn’t help Josh personally.

Over the years, CLARENCE W. THOMPSON has been a very generous donor to many fan film crowd-funders, including my own fan film INTERLUDE. Without even telling Josh I was doing so, I reached out to C.W. and asked if he could come through with a donation to help Josh. Without hesitation, C.W. offered a very nice amount that would cover the weekend expenses for this actress and allow her to make the trip. The money was Paypal’d to Josh within minutes. Josh was immensely thankful (as was I!) and promised to include C.W. in the credits as a full producer. C.W. was happy to accept the offer.

Guess what Josh totally forgot to do.

Finishing Crisis on Infinite Excaliburs drained Josh not only financially but also mentally, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. By the time of the last few weeks before the December release, Josh was essentially running the last half-mile of a full marathon, sprinting the entire way. But that’s only a reason for forgetting to include C.W. as a producer in the credits, NOT an excuse.

And why am I apologizing, too? Because Josh asked me to copy-proof his credits. He said, “I always forget someone or something!” He wanted a second pair of eyes to double-check him. And while I did catch several mistakes, I didn’t even notice the omission of C.W.’s name. And so I share a portion of the blame.

Josh and I never even realized the mistake until earlier today when C.W. posted a comment on Facebook about fan film crowd-funders in general. But in the responses, one of them being from C.W. himself, we learned that someone had neglected to acknowledge him in their credits of their fan film. C.W. wasn’t angry about it so much as hurt. It didn’t take long for Josh to have one of those “oh, $#@!” moments and realize that C.W. was talking about him!

Unfortunately, it’s too late to change the video, as it already has more than 58K views on YouTube. But it’s never too late to apologize, which Josh has done both privately and publicly on Facebook in this post that I am republishing here…

I want to publicly address a serious error of omission that I made. I was supposed to list CW Thompson as a Producer in the credits of “Crisis On Infinite Excaliburs” I did not. And it was certainly a credit that he earned.

CW has been supporter of ours from the beginning and has bailed us out during some tough times, most recently when we came up short during the post production process of “Crisis”. In all honesty, we could never have done this without him.

No excuses, this was my mistake. And I own it. My deepest apologies to CW for the error. He will be listed in the credits for this year’s film “The Once and Future Captain”.

Joshua Irwin

And I, too, sincerely apologize to C.W. I was tasked with reviewing the credits, I wasn’t nearly as overloaded as Josh was (beyond rushing to get the 2023 Fan Film Year in Review done), and I’d been the one who reached out to C.W. in the first place and then forgot all about him!

I am so sorry, C.W. Mistakes like this suggest that Josh and I take our donors for granted, and nothing could be farther from the truth. The bond between fan filmmakers and those who support them monetarily is special, sacred, and frankly, priceless. When someone believes in you enough to send you some of their money to help you make your dream to reality, it is truly humbling and something that should NEVER be taken for granted.

And so I join Josh in not only apologizing to C.W. but in thanking him so much for supporting the dream projects of so many of us fan filmmakers over the years. His belief in us all has made so many fan films possible that might otherwise have never been completable.

From the entire fan film community, C.W., we thank you.