Kevin's Watch

'Star Trek' Copyright Settlement Allows Fan Film to Proceed

Better than nothing, but they're allowing a maximum of two 15-minute 'movies' when the script was written to cover 90 minutes.

Maybe they're afraid it'll be better than any of the recent 'canon' stuff?

Original post retracted due to author's lack of dedication to keep his facts straight.

To be fair I had just binge watched a crap load of Star Trek fan films.

I'd be curious to see what they could do, given free rein. The Powers That Be certainly seem to feel threatened by the idea.

Then again, I followed another fan-made, very low budget production for many years, so it's possible I have a soft spot for such things.

Watched Prelude to Axanar again. The more I watch the more impressive it seems.

aTOMiC wrote:Watched Prelude to Axanar again. The more I watch the more impressive it seems.

Yeah, I was surprised by your first impression.
I loved it.
I felt for the characters immediately which is hard to do with me.
I didn't know any of the actors either, I've always thought "star power" was over rated or something studios just hyped to sell.
The story and the way it was being told was fresh and engaging.
I would have gladly paid money to sit in a theater and watch this at full length.
Paramount can f-off and die for killing this for no other reason than it shows how badly they suck.

HLT I have to confess to originally mixing up Axanar with (edit) Of Gods and Men. (not Renegades of which I still haven't watched but will soon)

I retract my first post. It was born of confusion and ignorance.

I just watched Of Gods and Men and it was painfully bad. Renegades is next.

Sorus wrote:'Star Trek' Copyright Settlement Allows Fan Film to Proceed

Better than nothing, but they're allowing a maximum of two 15-minute 'movies' when the script was written to cover 90 minutes.

Maybe they're afraid it'll be better than any of the recent 'canon' stuff?

My take on the Axanar legal settlement in general is that depicting and examining Captain Garth's (sorry, Lord Garth) actions in that historic battle (required reading at SF Academy) is fertile ground for main stream/Paramount produced productions to cultivate. I can understand why the owners would be motivated to protect portions of their property to save for future use.

If, for example, the Axanar team chose an unknown and original event that did not revolve around such an identifiable character the production may not have gotten noticed by Paramount the way it did. The Axanar legal action has also had unintended consequences. On going and future fan produced films will now be restricted per the guidelines of the settlement.

Vic Mignogna, actor and producer of Star Trek Continues, recently stated in an interview that the Star Trek Continues team had originally envisioned producing 13 episodes but because of the Axanar law suit guidelines they have opted to prematurely end the series after episode 11 to comply with Paramount/CBS's wishes.

https://youtu.be/nEBLz3w6a7U

I'm not saying the Axanar team deliberately did anything wrong, in fact they created a top quality, professional, film that goes far beyond the general understanding of what a fan film is, but the fallout for attracting the kind of attention they received has had an unanticipated negative impact on Star Trek fan films in general.

Being an amateur film maker myself and an avid Star Trek fan I would love to be involved in a passion project of this type so I am somewhat personally disappointed.

I respect that they want to protect their intellectual property and whatnot, but in an ideal universe they would have muzzled the lawyers and offered a job contract. Too bad this isn't an ideal universe.