BREAKING NEWS – AXANAR SETTLES LAWSUIT!!!

The following press release was just sent out by Axanar Productions.  I am told there will be more details coming in an e-mail to be sent out to donors later on today.  As soon as I receive that e-mail, I will publish it here.

Feel free to submit comments, but please understand that there is still a LOT we all do not know yet–including me.  So any responses I post will, for the time being, be only conjecture.  Rest assured that I plan to be in contact with Alec Peters and Mike Bawden as soon as I hit “Publish”….in three, two, one, NOW:

AXANAR PRODUCTIONS STATEMENT REGARDING COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT

Valencia, CA – Friday, January 20 –  Axanar Productions is pleased to announce that we have reached a formal resolution to the lawsuit brought against Alec Peters, and the fan film production, AXANAR, by CBS Studios, Inc. and Paramount Pictures Corporation.

Since the beginning of the lawsuit, over a year ago, we have expressed our desire to address the concerns of the studios, and our willingness to make necessary changes, as long as we could reasonably meet our commitments to AXANAR’S over 14,000 donors, fans and supporters. We are now able to do exactly that.

Terms of the settlement agreement include an agreement to allow Axanar Productions to continue showing PRELUDE TO AXANAR commercial-free on YouTube and to allow Axanar Productions to produce the AXANAR feature film as two fifteen-minute segments that can be distributed on YouTube (also without ads).

Additional terms of the agreement will be made available to cast, crew and donors through private correspondence.

For the next sixty days, Axanar Productions will be working through some final legal requirements requiring immediate attention. In addition, there are several pre-production issues that need to be re-visited before we can begin principal photography on our project.

Axanar Productions was created by lifelong Star Trek fans to celebrate their love for Star Trek.  Alec Peters and the Axanar team look forward to continuing to share the Axanar story and are happy to work within the Guidelines for Fan Films for future projects.

Throughout this process, we will continue communicating with our fans and backers to ensure they are informed and involved until we reach completion of the production.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mike Bawden, PR for Axanar Productions – 563.359.8654  ([email protected])
Morey Altman, PR for Axanar Productions – +972.54.325.4350

STAR TREK: DARK ARMADA, Part 2 (2010 to 2016)

dark-armadaIn Part 1, we began our ten-year journey with the crew of STAR TREK: DARK ARMADA, a fan series out of the Netherlands created by Robin Hiert.  Inspired by the early green screen fan series Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, Dark Armada attempted to build on the Chroma-keying advances of its predecessor to take low-budget, virtual set Star Trek fan films one step farther to make scenes appear even more realistic in a constrained green screen filming environment.

Gathering together a group of semi-professional fan filmmakers from the Netherlands and Belgium in 2005, Fan Trek Productions (as they called themselves) began filming their first episode in 2006 and released it later that year.  The 8-minute episode “These Are the Voyages” was intended to be more of a learning activity than an actual pilot.  Their first “real” episode (the 13-minute “Worst Nightmare“) would premiere two and a half years later in early 2009, to be followed shortly thereafter by the 15-minute “Choices, part one” toward the end of 2009.  By that point, more than 40 different production people were working on a single episode, and the quality had increased considerably.

And that’s where we left off.  As we enter 2010, Dark Armada owes its fans a sequel to “Choices, part one” plus an explanation of why exactly the series is named “Dark Armada…”

Continue reading “STAR TREK: DARK ARMADA, Part 2 (2010 to 2016)”

TODAY IS JONATHAN’S 50th BIRTHDAY!

Yeah, totally self-indulgent, but it is my blog and my birthday, so please cut me a little slack.

Earlier this morning, I got one of my first birthday wishes e-mailed from a friend of mine in the U.K.  Apparently, in the European style, today’s date would be written as 17/01.  THAT EXPLAINS SO MUCH!!!  (And the embarrassing part: in five decades, I never noticed that before!)

So on my big FIVE-OH birthday (which CBS was nice enough to design a logo for!), I would like to thank my amazing family for putting up with me blogging all the time.  And I want to thank all of you for reading what I write.  Even if you don’t agree with me all the time, it’s still fun to know that I’m not just shouting out into an empty vacuum.

Continue reading “TODAY IS JONATHAN’S 50th BIRTHDAY!”

INTREPID releases their newest short film: “DUTY OF CARE”!

Based out of Scotland, the fan series formerly known as STAR TREK: INTREPID has been releasing fan films continuously since 2007.  With the new guidelines stating that Trek fan films cannot include the name “Star Trek,” this celebrated fan series has shortened its name simply to Intrepid.

But the creative team remains the same, led by fan filmmaker extraordinaire (and awesome bloke) NICK COOK.  Their latest offering, “Duty of Care,” is just under eight minutes long and features a small cast shooting outside on location.  I won’t spoil anything about the plot, but it is a quiet, introspective story focusing primarily on two characters who become very well developed in the short amount of time they appear on screen.

You can keep up with all the latest Intrepid news on their Facebook page.  And you can watch “Duty of Care” below…

LEGAL EXPERT says AXANAR has more ways to WIN than to LOSE the lawsuit! (Interview)

Moses Avalon works as a leading proponent of artists’ legal rights with 30 years experience and four books under his belt.  Two of his books, Million Dollar Mistakes and Confessions of a Record Producer continue to be required reading in over 50 music business courses around the world including the music business programs at such prestigious colleges and universities as UCLA, Loyola, and NYU. His latest book 100 Answers to 50 Questions on the Music Business is a tell-all guide to help recording artists at each stage of their music career.

In addition, Moses is also a court-recognized music business expert in New York, California, Florida and Puerto Rico, has acted in an advisory capacity to multiple State Attorney General Offices and the Senate Judiciary Committee in Sacramento regarding the music industry, and has appeared on numerous television news shows (Court TV, MSNBC, CNN Money Line, & Bill O’Reilly) seeking the inside info on the music business.  (I got the preceding two paragraphs from his website.)

Although Moses does not currently practice law himself, he knows the ins and outs of copyrights and has served as a consultant and as an expert witness on dozens of cases.  In fact, on cases where he’s testified as an expert, the party that called him as a witness has won 7-out-of-7 times.  Not bad!

He’s been following the AXANAR lawsuit closely and has been offering his guidance to Alec Peters.  Moses feels strongly that Alec has more ways to win this lawsuit than to lose it, and he spent about 45 minutes on the phone telling my how and why…

Continue reading “LEGAL EXPERT says AXANAR has more ways to WIN than to LOSE the lawsuit! (Interview)”

ALEC PETERS discusses AXANAR’S FINANCIALS and his REVIEW COMMITTEE! (Interview)

Readers of the FAN FILM FACTOR comments sections know that I’ve spent months begging ALEC PETERS, executive producer for AXANAR, to discuss his production’s financials with me on an interview. A few weeks ago, he finally agreed! This is NOT that interview.

That interview is still coming. Before I conduct it, I want to invite interested people to submit questions to me that I can then present to Alec. (Yes, that means detractors, too. Just be aware that questions that are rude and belligerent won’t make it past the airlock. You have a question you want Alec Peters to answer? Fine. Just be polite when you ask it. It IS possible, folks.) I’ll be inviting people to submit questions to me next week after Alec releases his financial summary to donors–and therefore, to the public–and folks have had a chance to review it. No sense in asking questions when you haven’t seen the document yet (so stop typing, people!).

In preparation for what’s coming next week, I sent Alec a few questions via e-mail a few days ago, asking him to provide some information about the upcoming financial summary, how it is organized, and a little about the committee that was assembled to review it. Those answers just came back from Alec, so I’m copy-pasting them here to share with all of you (along with some brief IMing I just did to clarify a few points)…

Continue reading “ALEC PETERS discusses AXANAR’S FINANCIALS and his REVIEW COMMITTEE! (Interview)”

STAR TREK: DARK ARMADA, Part 1 (2005 to 2009)

To quote Scotty, “I’ve always held a sneaking admiration for this one.”  Actually, my admiration for the efforts of Fan Trek Productions (out of the Netherlands) has never exactly been “sneaking.”  These “semi-professional” (their words) fan filmmakers have consistently turned out really impressive, self-funded episodes of their fan series.  And now, after ten years, that series, STAR TREK: DARK ARMADA, has released its final episode.

But that’s only the beginning!

I’ll explain that unusual comment in Part 2, but first, let’s take a look back at a decade of a truly remarkable fan series…

Continue reading “STAR TREK: DARK ARMADA, Part 1 (2005 to 2009)”

JUDGE issues TENTATIVE rulings on EXCLUSIONS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT! (Part 2)

Yesterday in Part 1, we began looking through Judge R. Gary Klausner’s TENTATIVE (important word!) rulings in the AXANAR lawsuit regarding the exclusion of evidence and witnesses from the jury trial.  The rulings were issued to the attorneys early Monday morning (before oral arguments, which is standard practice) and released to the public the following day.

Court-watchers on both sides of the case (pro- and anti-Axanar) were left confused and somewhat speechless, and neither side knew whether to gloat or mope.  Some of the rulings seemed to slam the hopes of the defense, while other rulings seemed to cripple the chances of the plaintiffs.  And a few of the rulings even contradicted each other!  (We’ll look at an example of the latter in just a moment.)

Yesterday, we began with the plaintiffs’ motions in limine (to exclude evidence and testimony).  All but one defense witness was tossed out (I was tossed out–bummer!).  And the plaintiffs were able to get the judgeto exclude any script version and any other piece of evidence produced or created after the lawsuit was filed on December 29, 2015.  But confusingly, the judge allowed Alec Peters’ revised and audited financial statement (which wasn’t produced until just two months ago).  The plaintiffs also received a nod from the judge preventing the defense from bringing up Alec Peters’ previous professional working relationship with the studios prior to his making of Axanar.  And the judge is still considering whether or not to allow the defense to mention the existence of other Star Trek fan films.

All in all, if I had seen only that, I’d have said it’s pretty much over for the defense (assuming all these TENTATIVE rulings stand, which is fairly unlikely).  Some of those exclusions are potentially devastating (especially if the judge rules the defense can’t bring up other fan films…even though the judge himself did on page 14 of his Order on Motion for Partial Summary Judgment).

But then I read his TENTATIVE rulings on the defense’s motions, and it suddenly seemed the plaintiffs could be in major trouble, too!  So today, we go through those…

Continue reading “JUDGE issues TENTATIVE rulings on EXCLUSIONS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT! (Part 2)”

JUDGE issues TENTATIVE rulings on EXCLUSIONS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT! (Part 1)

Okay, nobody cheer, nobody panic!  These are all TENTATIVE rulings in the AXANAR lawsuit.  Judge Klausner himself even made sure to put the word TENTATIVE in ALL CAPS in his ruling yesterday:

The Court makes the following TENTATIVE rulings on the Motions In Limine:

  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 1 – Denied
  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 2 – Granted
  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 3 – Granted
  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 4 – Granted
  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 5 – Granted
  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 6 – Under Submission
  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 7 – Granted
  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 8 – Granted
  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 9 – Denied
  • Plaintiff’s Motions In Limine No. 10 – Granted

 

  • Defendant’s Motion In Limine No. 1 – Granted
  • Defendant’s Motion In Limine No. 2 – Denied
  • Defendant’s Motion In Limine No. 3 – Granted
  • Defendant’s Motion In Limine No. 4 – Granted
  • Defendant’s Motion In Limine No. 5 – Granted
  • Defendant’s Motion In Limine No. 6 – Granted
  • Defendant’s Motion In Limine No. 7 – Denied
  • Defendant’s Motion In Limine No. 8 – Denied
  • Defendant’s Motion In Limine No. 9 – Granted

So what the heck just happened?  Well, first of all, each party submitted motions in limine to Judge R. Gary Klausner on December 16 asking for certain pieces of evidence and witnesses (including me!) to be excluded from being presented or mentioned during the trial.  I wrote about all of those 19 motions in a 4-part blog starting here.  (It’s nice light reading.)

Then, last Friday, both the plaintiffs and the defense submitted 19 separate OPPOSITIONS to those 19 motions in limine…which I’ve collected for your reading pleasure into this single 143-page PDF: Oppositions to Motions In Limine.  (Yeah, talk about light reading!)

I’d actually begun preparing one of my meticulously entertaining  (or entertainingly meticulous) blog analyses of those oppositions, but I got sidetracked on blogs about the Judge’s ruling on fair use last Wednesday , the likelihood of a successful appeal, and a possible trip to the Supreme Court.  And and much as I was looking forward to reading through and summarizing 143 pages of dense legal arguments, that all seems like “old news” now that we’ve got this TENTATIVE (ALL CAPS!!!) ruling to look at.

So let’s look, shall we…?

Continue reading “JUDGE issues TENTATIVE rulings on EXCLUSIONS in the AXANAR LAWSUIT! (Part 1)”

TRISTAN Production Crew releases new episode: “BETWEEN TWO WORLDS”!

Okay, time to stop calling it STARSHIP TRISTAN.  Show-runner RANDY LANDERS told me there are no series or episodes, there are only individual fan films made by the various creative teams working under the POTEMKIN PICTURES “umbrella”: Tristan, Deimos, Kupok, and Endeavour.  The reason for this nominal change, of course, is the fan film guidelines that prohibit a fan film from releasing more than two 15-minute episodes of the same story “…with no additional seasons, episodes, parts, sequels or remakes.”

So the “elephant in the living room” (or “mugato in the cave”) question that I asked Randy was: if you’re being so careful to follow the guidelines, then why is this fan film 30 minutes long and not broken into two 15-minute parts?  Randy’s answer:

It was filmed over a year ago, and it is our understanding that the guidelines probably wouldn’t apply.

Fair enough (at least as far as I’m concerned).  Randy went on to tell me a little more about the making of this episode:

It was actually one of the first episodes we began filming once we moved here.  Nearly all the dialogue shot at the park had to be ADRed…

[re-recorded and dubbed over later – Jonathan]

…and in some cases dubbed by a different performer.  It was a challenging experience.  We had folks recording their lines on phones. That’s where you can really tell.  We’d’ve rather they’d returned to the studios for ADR, but that just wasn’t possible.

This is just a hobby for us, and real life and real jobs have to come first.

I always keep that last fact in mind when I watch the “low-budget” fan films.  While not as slick and polished as the studio-made films and series with the professional actors and production crew, fan films like those coming from Potemkin Pictures show heart and dedication and, most of all, fans just having fun.  For me, that’s extremely important.

Randy says the Tristan creative team currently has two films completely shot and now in post-production.  And there’s three more films in pre-production for 2017.  In the meantime, you can watch their latest release “Between Two Worlds” below or visit the website of Potemkin Pictures to catch up on all the episodes of their various series…oh, excuse me…to see all the independent fan films from the four creative teams.