So far, so good. Although my directors are still on the road as I write this, they’re within a state or two of getting here. The weather this weekend will be awesome (30-40 degrees less than it was for Axanar four weeks ago); we’ll be in the 58-60 degree range with no rain in sight.
The studio is ready, the Assistant Director has the call sheets. The costumes are ready (thanks to the amazing work of KAREN SHUEY and her son STEPHEN). Alec’s house is full, including myself, TREY McELWAIN, and his wife NICOLE as guests. Others are in nearby hotels or will be driving to Lawrenceville in the next day or two.
And tonight, we gathered at Alec’s for the weekly Axanar Confidential livecast focused on INTERLUDE. I invited anyone who wanted to be on camera to take part, and we had a BLAST! There’s not much time (or energy left in my body) right now to blog—or probably for the rest of the weekend—so have fun watching the gang (or at least six of us) talk about everything that’s been going on…
Back when I started the GoFundMe for my Axanar Universe fan film INTERLUDE back in early June, it felt like November 2-3 was a million months away. Now I’ll be getting on a plane for Atlanta this Friday, and I’m feeling a dozen different emotions all at once: excitement, anticipation, dread, abject terror…it runs the gamut, folks!
Y’see, I watched all of those livecasts from the first AXANAR shoot four weeks ago, saw all of those moving parts—the 80-plus volunteers, the costumes, the sound and computer-monitoring equipment, the lights, the cameras, the action, the caterers—and I got totally overwhelmed. That’s a tough act to follow!
Granted, Interlude isn’t nearly that big of a shoot—we’re expecting about 30 people a day, not 80-plus. But make no mistake: there are still a LOT of moving parts to my project, too…and I’m smack in the middle of most of them!
I naively thought that, after the crowd-funder reached its $19.5K goal, that I’d just be able to slide into the proverbial back seat and let my Directors, VICTORIA FOX and JOSHUA IRWIN do the driving the rest of the way. Oh, sure, as Executive Producer, I’d pay the bills for things like patches, plaques, equipment rental, wardrobe, travel expenses, catering, etc. And I’d be supervising my friend LEWIS ANDERSON on the CGI effects. But aside from that and showing up at the shoot, running a few errands, and taking lots of photos and videos for the blog, I figured that I was essentially done.
Boy, was I wrong!
You might have noticed a slowdown in my blog coverage of fan films over the past several weeks. This is mainly because I’ve been doing a boatload of work on Interlude! This doesn’t mean that Victoria and Josh have’t been working their butts off, too. But they haven’t let me sneak into the back seat yet. I am still VERY much in the thick of things!
If you’re a fan filmmaker or, more precisely, are thinking of becoming one, then this blog is for you. I’d like to share my journey, my “trek,” with folks who might be curious to see all of the things a complete novice like me is doing and learning along the way…
As I mentioned in Part 1, these two blogs are intended primarily for those folks interested in fan filmmaking, whether they’re already making fan films or if they’re thinking of taking the plunge for the first time…as I’m doing right now.
Granted, fan films range from super-cheap where there’s only a handful of people (or even as few as two or one) to the super-large productions like STAR TREK CONTINUES and AXANAR where 50 to 100 people might end up being a part of the production. If I had to place our INTERLUDE project on this sliding scale from, let’s call it, one to ten, I’d say we’re a solid seven.
So this blog might not apply directly to every fan project. But if you’re smaller, it might help with a step up to a more ambitious level. And if you’re bigger, then you’d probably just be amused at all the stuff the “newbie” is going through. I’ll simply say that I wish I’d been able to read a blog like this before I started tackling Interlude!
Okay, let’s get back to discussing our rapidly-expanding team who will all be descending on Ares Studios in Lawrenceville, GA this coming weekend. (EEEEP!)
It’s been less than two weeks since the first shoot for AXANAR wrapped, and ALEC PETERS just released the first teaser-trailer for what will be called THE GATHERING STORM. PRELUDE TO AXANAR was episode III of “The “Four Year War” multi-part documentary series from the 23rd century. The first two episodes will need to remain left up to fans’ imagination. But the two Axanar sequels will be episodes IV and V, completing the series. It has not yet been revealed what the title of the final episode will be.
The 1-minute YouTube video quickly went viral, with thousands of views in the first hour alone. You can check it out below…
Prior to the release of the above video, nearly 1,400 Axanar supporters gathered for a live premiere party at 9:00pm Eastern time. Then they waited about 5 minutes while Alec dealt with a technical glitch. But once the clip debuted, the reactions were very positive…judging by the 841 likes and only a handful of dislikes (less than 10 while it was still live). The only complaint was that fan wanted more-more-MORE!
Indeed, the actual amount of Axanar footage was only 25 seconds, but it was enough to give a tantalizing first taste of the quality of the video production, lighting, camera tracking, make-up, costumes, VFX, and look and feel of the sets and actors. Alec assured everyone that more and longer trailers would be coming soon.
Believe it or not, this was actually a lot of footage considering that editor BING BAILEY has a day job that exploded with a crisis this past week and took up most of his time. Remember, folks, that the Axanar team is made up of volunteers with real-life commitments along with their love of Star Trek and fan films (one fan film in particular!).
A question that came up was whether the superchat donations that came in during the livestream could be considered public crowd-funding (a no-no under the legal settlement with CBS and Paramount). Alec assured all viewers that any money collected through YouTube would be applied to Ares Studios (a separate legal entity) and NOT to Axanar Productions in any way.
Speaking of crowd-funding, Alec and his girlfriend CRYSSTAL HUBBARD were very careful during the 75-minute discussion following the premiere NOT to discuss Axanar crowd-funding in any way. The closest they got was suggesting that people sign up for the Axanar newsletter or go to Ares Digital…which is not the same as soliciting donations. Alec and Crysstal made certain not to say, “If you want to help crowd-fund, then go to Ares Digital where you can make a donation.”
The big news in the fan film world a week and a half ago was, of course, the wildly successful first shooting weekend for AXANAR. If you haven’t already, you can take a look at the many, MANY online streamed videos of the exciting shoot here, here, and here.
A week later, the biggest news is how much ALEC PETERS has managed to raise in just ten days of private crowd-funding for the production of the two Axanar sequel fan films. As of the publication of this blog, that number stands at nearly $15,800!
And what’s most amazing about that total is that those donations are almost exclusively from existing donors…with no public marketing or advertising of the campaign thus far. (In contrast, my GoFundMe for INTERLUDE took six times that long to raise that amount.)
You might be wondering why Alec is trying to raise money AFTER the shoot rather than before it. The answer is simple. Alec paid for the first shoot entirely out of his own pocket…about $75,000, according to him. This brings the total money that Alec has personally put into funding Axanar over the last five years well over a quarter of a million dollars.
“While I don’t mind fronting money for the remaining production,” Alec told me, “and I’ve certainly been doing quite a lot of that, Axanar was never intended to be funded by just one person. And honestly, I no longer have anything left to put into this project…much as I’d love to.
“So now we have to go back to our existing donors as we return to our roots of being a crowd-funded fan film. And that means we need $70,000 right now to fund the costs for our first two shoots. That’ll cover some of the expenses I already paid, although not all. Considering that our second shoot is going to cost another $20,000, even when we reach the full goal amount, I’ll probably still be left having put about $25,000 of my own money into these first two shoots. I don’t mind that, but I simply can’t afford $70,000 or more.
“So that’s where our existing donors need to step up. And they’re already starting to—which is fantastic!”
The next question I had for Alec is one that many people are asking right now: is Alec actually allowed to crowd-fund Axanar anymore? What does his legal settlement with CBS and Paramount let him do and not do when it comes to fundraising? Does he have to abide by the $50,000 limit imposed by the guidelines, or does he get a special waiver to exceed that limit (just as Alec has a special exemption allowing him to use professional Star Trek veteran actors like J.G. HERTZELR and GARY GRAHAM)?
The whole reason INTERLUDE exists (will exist) is because ALEC PETERS wanted to explain why Admiral Ramirez won’t be appearing in the Axanar sequels. In reality, actor TONY TODD left the production and declined to play Ramirez again. Actors J.G. HERTZLER, GARY GRAHAM, and the late RICHARD HATCH, on the other hand, decided to stick with Alec and see it through.
And while the loss of Richard hit us all very hard, it turned out that losing Tony Todd, even though he is an amazing actor, wasn’t as devastating a set-back for the Axanar script as was the loss of Kharn. In other words, it was fairly easy to write out Ramirez and replace him with a different Starfleet commanding admiral. In Alec’s original draft, Ramirez gets wounded while being escorted back on a convoy from a secret meeting. His injuries are serious enough that he has to sit out the rest of the war, turning over his duties to Admiral Threl of Androria.
My Interlude script took that quick “oh, by the way…” bit of exposition and expanded it into a 10-12 minute fan film (or so I hope!). The only problem is: now I need to show Ramirez!
Granted, he only needs to be wounded, so he won’t have any spoken lines. In the comic book version, it was easy to show him—as the artwork in the panel above illustrates him lying in the Ares sickbay covered in blood. But what about the fan film?
Of course, I could simply take the easy way out and just not show Ramirez in Sickbay at all…and instead have the doctor call up to the bridge, “Captain, Admiral Ramirez is in critical condition down here!” But that would have been such a cop out.
Also, I was kinda looking forward to filming a scene somewhere other than on the Ares Studios bridge set. Granted, it’s a AWESOME set, but I really wanted one or two other locations for the action, as well. Initially, that Sickbay scene was going to be filmed at Neutral Zone Studios in Kingsland, GA on the TOS sets previously used for Star Trek Continues and Starship Farragut. But that offer was rescinded. Fortunately, GLEN WOLFE stepped up and volunteered his WARP 66 Studios in Arkansas for the Sickbay scene.
Now we just needed to find someone to play Admiral Ramirez…!
It's nothing to do with what we got today. That's great. It's the next piece...and the piece after that...until we finish the work. And at that point, we can be judged on our finished piece of work. That's how it works. So we had a great time; we did some really great stuff. The trick is to finish it, not to start it.- PAUL JENKINS, Axanar Director
For the past almost-four years, I’ve been asked the same question over and over again: “Why do you stick with ALEC PETERS?” The reasons they give for me turning my back on him are numerous: he’s a con-man, he’s incompetent, he’s not a nice person, no one will work with him, he’ll stab you in the back, he’ll never make AXANAR, you’re wasting your time on this loser…the list goes on and on.
Earlier this summer, someone even offered me actual money to walk away from Alec (and pretty decent money at that!) in the form of an “investment” to help take Fan Film Factor to the next level. All I had to do was stop defending Alec Peters, make Interlude without him, and stop providing coverage of Axanar on my blog. It was a serious offer from someone with the funds to make good on it, and sincerely proffered. I refused. (And no, I won’t tell you who made the offer, so don’t ask.)
When you believe in something—a person, a thing, a dream—and someone else doesn’t, it’s hard to connect with them to convey just how important it is to you…how deeply you love it and are committed to it. It happens all the time with religion and politics…and with me, it happened with Star Trek, with fan films, and most deeply with Axanar.
I fell in love with Axanar, with the pocket universe within Star Trek that it created. It didn’t matter whether or not it was “canon”; it was canon to me. And I wanted to see more. CBS and Paramount almost took that away from me and from other Axanar supporters, but we never lost hope. We believed—we KNEW—this weekend would someday arrive. And now that it did, everything has changed.
On Friday, I was able to post video updates and features throughout the day from the first day of shooting for the long-awaited AXANAR sequel fan films. But on Saturday, I had to drive down to (and back from) San Diego to appear on a fan film panel at a Dr. Who convention there.
I wish I could have been down in Lawrenceville, GA for this amazing event. But alas, I can only afford one trip across country, and that’ll be in less than four weeks to shoot my fan film INTERLUDE! However, when Alec brings the Axanar shoot back to Los Angeles to film GARY GRAHAM’s scenes as Soval, along with other aliens like Threl and Mor’o, you’d better believe I will be there…camera in hand!
Now, when I say “event,” I really have no better word to describe what is happening this weekend at Ares Studios. There’s 80 people working on set each day! And yes, they are all doing something important—from director PAUL JENKINS to MARK EDWARD LEWIS doing sound and editing, to all of the actors, to the lighting guys, the assistant director, DP, construction people, the script coordinator, set security, to the guys recording interviews for the Blu-ray/DVD extras, to the caterers serving chicken cordon bleu, fresh trout, stuffed ravioli, and vegetables.
Truth to tell, I’m both a little jealous and kinda nervous that we’re looking at less than HALF that number of people on set when we shoot Interlude! But then again, we’re only making one 10-12 minute fan fan while ALEC PETERS is creating two full 15 minute films plus Blu-ray extras. Also, I’ve crowd-funded only $20K. He’s trying to crowd-fund (privately through e-mails) $50-70K…just for this one shoot! To each his own.
Anyway, the most amazing thing about this shoot is how much of it has been livestreamed and/or quickly posted to the Internet in real-time. Never before have fans been able to get this much coverage of a fan film shoot as it is happening!
I’ve collected the videos from Day Two below. There’s a LOT worth watching…
WARNING!!! If you are an AXANAR detractor, do NOT read this blog! If you have spent any or all of the past four years confidently predicting that ALEC PETERS would never get his act together enough to start making his ambitious fan film a reality, look away now. If you think that nobody will work with Alec anymore because he’s incompetent or nasty or whatever, then you really do NOT want to watch the six videos below.
If you were gullible enough to believe CARLOS PEDRAZA’s nonsense when he wrote that CBS’s lawyers “…could interfere with this weekend’s scheduled shoot for Axanar” or cheered because you naively believed that Alec Peters had received some kind of “cease and desist” letter (he didn’t), then you absolutely, positively shouldn’t expose yourself to the videos on this blog page…especially the fifth one!
Detractors, you have been warned. Look away now!
Of course, if you’re like me and have been keeping the faith, waiting patiently but eagerly for this moment since CBS and Paramount first filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Alec Peters and Axanar Productions at the very end of 2015 and then settled at the beginning of 2017, then this blog and the events of this weekend will feel like a dream come true.
And if you’re one of those people who’s been on the fence wondering why it’s taking so long to make a “simple” 30-minute Star Trek fan film when others can seemingly do it in a fraction of the time, well, the videos on this page will hopefully give you some idea of how complex and challenging this particular fan film is to produce.
For the past week, Alec has been live-casting updates from Ares Studios as the bridge set is being completed, the lights are being assembled, cameras and computer monitors adjusted, costumes fitted, and all sorts of last-minute details that show just how many moving parts are…well, moving! These live-casts have been going up primarily in the Axanar Donors Facebook group…meaning most folks out there (including the detractors!) have no clue how much has been going on and how exciting it’s all getting. You can feel the rush of energy and enthusiasm from Alec as he watches all of the hard work from his team come together.
For the next three days, the entire Axanar shoot will be live-streamed from the Axanar YouTube Channel. But if you want to see the flurry of activity leading up to the big event, I’ve collected the various video prep updates all here for you. And I even “flipped” them horizontally, since Alec’s phone always reverses everything (which drives me nuts!).
So assuming you’re not a detractor, please enjoy the following magic…
I’m sure some folks are thinking, “For the love of Spock, Lane! ANOTHER update on AXANAR??? Just make the damn movie already!”
Actually, one of my readers posted a comment last week during the previous Axanar update, asking the following question: “Isn’t the finished product the important thing?” Well, yes and no…
Obviously, we all want a really awesome Axanar fan film—so the finished product is certainly an important thing. But so is the JOURNEY in getting there.
It’s been a long road, getting from there to here with Axanar. A lot of time, money (!!!), and patience has gone into this project…along with copious amounts of hard work, support, team effort, and faith in the dream against all odds. Axafans and Axanerds have been waiting years for the moment when production finally begins again…ever since the lawsuit shut everything down six weeks before cameras were set to start rolling in February of 2016.
But now all the hard work, patience, and planning is coming together. This is where the fun begins, Saavik.
So please indulge me if I get caught up in the excitement. And for anyone wondering why I don’t give this sort of coverage to other fan productions—I actually do…when they have it. I’ve covered pre-release updates on Temporal Anomaly, First Frontier, The Romulan War, The Holy Core, The Constar Chronicles, and other fan projects, each using information, interviews, photos and footage they supplied to me. It just so happens that ALEC PETERS is posting a LOT of content and updates these past few weeks… so I cover it!
(I’ll also be features Interlude updates over the coming weeks and months, as I can supply myself with lots of content, too.)
Anyway, this week’s Axanar Production Update is a quick and energetic 10-minute video that features Alec talking with Axanar director PAUL JENKINS. Some folks wondered if Paul had walked away from the project because his name wasn’t included in the recent Axanar press coverage that made it to some news outlets in the Atlanta area. But that was only a small oversight. Paul is still very much involved, and his enthusiasm for the project and his camaraderie with Alec are very evident in the video.
