December 29 2018
Jonathan wrote a long message on our report on Part Two, it is an interesting read though about half of it seems to be for Carlos (click here to get to comments).
In short it adds more to what Jonathan was saying about Carlos only telling half the story during Part Two of the interview with Matt Miller.
After a couple of personal setbacks, I can now finish replying (started replying pre-Christmas) and reviewing to the best of my ability and apologies in advance for the length as it is some 800 words or so.
T. I just want to point out that, had you been in charge of Axanar and simply decided to “shut down,” you likely would have been held liable for tens of millions of dollars in damages…and so would your cast and crew. Simply shutting down production didn’t mean the lawsuit would get withdrawn. CBS and Paramount wouldn’t negotiate and didn’t offer settlement terms. They simply waited. So while they waited, Alec did the only thing he could (and had to) do: lawyer up and file a response (which resulted in the plaintiffs needing to refile the original lawsuit because the first one was so poorly written).
I did say I would shut down production after consulting lawyers and backers, it is impossible to know in a hypothetical what they would tell me but stopping what I was doing would be the first step.
Next would most likely be that my lawyers would say something to CBS’ lawyers like OK we have halted, now what? and CBS’ lawyers would say what would be next and then my lawyers will give an answer and so on and so forth.
Maybe my lawyers could do a better job, maybe they would of done a terrible job compared to Alec’s but who knows as it is all hypothetical.
Next part, a fan production can be mentioned as being late and not be said in a nasty way, movie studios push films back all the time, you’d hear a film is down for June 2019 and then later on January 2020.
Movie goers would be annoyed by that but unlike Axanar the big studios movies are not paid for in any amount/percentage by donations.
Examples 1, 2 and 3 appear to be more for Carlos than myself as it talks about his writing but let’s have a crack at going through the examples.
1) So the CA studio was fitted to the point that you’ve mentioned which was;
The giant green screen, new electrical system, track lighting, five-layers of sound-proofing on the floor that could also be used to brace the sets for stability), elephant doors for additional sound-proofing from parking lot noise, office space (carpeting, furniture, computers, etc.), make-up rooms, lounge area, editing bay, kitchenette, storage, not to mention the sets and production/editing equipment.
Carlos said it was never finished, is it true? was the CA studio 100% completed ready to go, if it was about 80% or more it can be upgraded to almost completed but it would still be never completed.
It could also be a ‘well advanced in completion studio but it was ultimately never fully completed.’
Number 2 is the mentioning of finances
“After sinking three quarters of a million dollars of donors’ money” – also important to remind people (every single time, Carlos?) while neglecting to mention the over hundred thousand dollars of Alec’s personal money that went into not just the down-payment and security deposit but also to keep rent and utilities paid after donor funds ran out.
The money situation has been interesting, the scoreboard is really out of whack when it comes to what Alec has chipped in.
During the lead up to Axacon or just after we were discussing it and the number $220,000 came up but the above mentions $100,000.
Now you could just be mentioning Axanar’s stay in California and then another $100,000+ has been spent in Georgia making it the $220,000 which since Axacon has probably increased by a couple hundred if not thousands of dollars more than $220,000.
Carlos can certainly write up that fans contributing one point something million dollars with Alec personally putting in an additional $xxx,xxx.
This leads to a new question, Does Axanar’s era in California and the current era in Georgia constitute one Axanar effort or is Axanar split off into 1.0 and 2.0?
Let’s think about it
California – 90 minute film planned, Prelude cast and crew sticking around plus newcomers planned, bulk of money spent there, sets other than the bridge were being made there.
Georgia – 2 x 15 minutes planned, new script, new personnel, Axanar needs to start getting funds again, bridge parts came from CA.
It’s interesting.
The donors knew they were donating to help build out a studio. And as costs increased, Alec never hid that information from the donors
We could possibly agree that even if people knew they were helping out and costs increased and Alec didn’t hide the information that people would be pretty unhappy that the Axanar brains trust (Alec surely didn’t think up everything alone) did not have a big enough buffer to compensate for any blowouts.
It would be interesting to know if Axanar was planned out for a budget comfortably under what it received or was it planned out to be small and then they tried to keep up with the soaring funds only to overshoot it?
Also, I should mention that there are many OTHER verbs out there besides “sinking” (which certainly implies a negative connotation): “applying,” “utilizing,” “injecting,” all come to mind as less negative alternatives to Carlos’ careful selection of the more manipulative “sinking.” Again, good “journalism,” Carlos…don’t want to “lead” the reader too much to.
Sinking doesn’t have to be a negative, you can say that you have sunk a lot of money into a project and in the end you got what you wanted back from it.
Just plain old ‘spending’ could also work well, ‘after spending a total of three quarters of a million dollars, a total that was contributed to the studio and to the production by donors’.
Example three
Rob Burnett spent months editing the Vulcan scene while sitting inside the studio in his editing bay office. So production actually happened inside the studio.
That does sound logical, while the Vulcan scene was shot outside, the scene was produced inside the studio.
And frankly, where does Carlos think the actors were when they got into costume and had their make-up done and waited around away from the hot California sun as shots were set up? In the parking lot? Hardly! They were INSIDE the studio using make-up rooms and the lounge and the costuming room. Silly boy!
Silly boy! really isn’t required, it stinks of arrogance and cockiness when facts alone can say all you need to say.
So the message is that the actors made full use of the studios when getting ready to film their scenes outside.
Now, Carlos will argue that he says “shooting,” but just about anyone in the industry–including Carlos–will tell you that “shooting” includes getting the actors into costume and make-up. Otherwise, you’re just shooting Gary Graham in a T-shirt and jeans, not Soval. Hollywood professionals would laugh at Carlos’ wordplay “gymnastics” of turning the sentence into “shooting any of Axanar inside” just to mislead people into thinking the studio was never actually used.
Gymnastics seems to be the favourite sport of Carlos and yourself, it will be interesting to see who makes the US Olympic team first.
Based on that definition it appears that there was shooting done in California.
If somebody really wants to split hairs they could say that preparation was done in the studio, producing was done inside the studio and filming was done on the grounds of the studio.
Fast forward to December 29 2018, no scenes from the 2 x 15 minutes of Axanar have been filmed or produced in Georgia but production updates have.
And that’s the difference between me and Carlos…other than the fact that I write my blogs in the first person when I talk about myself.
Some people may feel like they are part of what they create and say we, some may say we to sound stronger, others may say it because it feels natural to say it.
There’s just no reason for such manipulation and negativity on Fan Film Factor. I celebrate fan films. I am as positive as I can be about all of them. I have no agenda other than making sure fans have a place to support and learn about fan films in an inspiring and uplifting way…because that’s what fan films should be!
And that is why the Fox News analogy does not ring true for Fan Film Factor.
The Analogy was for Fan Film Factor’s reports on Axanar alone, aside from Jonathan’s voice work on a production, he has no part of any of the other productions.
Jonathan is the second most visible person who has worked on Axanar and he does work on Axanar as he will appear in the Axanar special features as an interviewer and he has read a version of the script.
The FFF reports on Axanar and Axamonitor reports on Axanar basically come down to saying that they are telling the truth and the other side is not telling the truth.
Outside of the message
There was one part in Part Two that got my interest, it is 47 minutes into Part 2 and I have written it down the best I can, first up Jonathan said the below would probably ‘p**s Alec Peters off’.
“Most of the time, Carlos does not lie, Uh I know Alec likes to think it’s all lies or whatever, no it’s not, it’s half truths, he tells one side of the story, uh he usually bases his information on fact, there’s a couple of times he’s actually you know fibbed but for the most part Carlos is honest about what he produces and what he publishes and he does a lot of research but what he does is he presents it in such a way that no he doesn’t say I accuse of Alec doing this but his choice of phrasing, his choice of adjectives, his choice of headlines in the way he interprets things is very skewed and it makes it sounds like ‘there is some they’re there’ as they’d like to say and they the media you know that there’s something under the surface….” (Jonathan then plays an example).
Out of curiosity was Alec p***sed off about what was said? what percentage constitutes Carlos telling the truth ‘most of the time’? What parts of the Axanar story has Carlos not lied about?
That wraps up this around 1,800 word blog entry, a couple of hundred words do belong to Jonathan so it is not a personal epic.
I hope I have given people something to think about, remember Axanar fans and The Tractor Company, don’t make fast conclusions and don’t use emotion, take your time, think deep and write slow.
Until next time, be good to each other.
Mentioning Trekkie Mentions 