Potemkin Pictures this week announced that there will be no fundraising done in 2024, Randy Landers also expressed concerns about the level of fundraising by fan films which is his right to question, not surprisingly this questioning was considered to be ‘disparaging’ of those who fundraise.

The right to publicly question is dead in large parts of the fan film making world, everybody is expected to sing Kumbaya and the Skyhooks’ 1990’s classic ‘Happy Hippy Hut‘ and just let things slide, no matter how bad somebody is or how fishy something looks.

Thankfully MTM while liking the song ‘Happy Hippy Hut’ is happy to question things that don’t make sense and will continue to do so.

‘Potemkin Pictures is not a money-making enterprise‘.

The above line by Randy is the way it is supposed to be, anybody who makes fan films knows that it is supposed to be a money-losing hobby, some like to fundraise so they can break even with costs (polite talk for reimbursement) and some just like fans to carry the financial burden for them to have fun.

I believe that Fan Film Studios shouldn’t have donation asked/hoped for tours and stores, fans shouldn’t be asked to pay the majority or totality of costs for every fan film a creator wants to make, and they shouldn’t be asked to pay for the majority or totality of studio upgrades, donors have no say in how things are run yet they’re the ones keeping fan film studio doors open.

When we created the Trekzone Fan Film Awards, Trekzone and MTM copped some stick because we proudly stated that we wouldn’t ask for a fee compared to other awards probably because they thought the policy was in spite of their policy but our philosophy is that because fan films cannot make money, we cannot ask for money, we’re in a money losing hobby.

Fans used to make fan films at home with whatever they had at hand and the casts were filled with friends and then expanded sets were started to be made but the big explosion was when somebody decided to hire professionals.

Fan films were now rarely homemade, they became big budgeted with five figures, six figures and then seven figure totals and they had lots of star power as Walter Koenig, George Takei, Richard Hatch, Gary Graham, Kate Vernon and others all ended up in productions.

These rapid improvements led to a race to get more from people and it inflated egos and we saw people trying to force their way into making fan films a profession by going as far as declaring their production an ‘Independent Star Trek Film’.

The Fan Film Guidelines got rid of the professional era and rightly so, it gave people a chance and the confidence to be able to tell stories without having to be squeezed out by Continues or New Voyages, Farragut or Prelude to Axanar etc.

Recent events with Axanar’s bank records have people wondering if there is any accountability in fan films, how do we know that a fan film/fan film studio properly uses every single cent given to them on their films? there’s nothing stopping them from giving themselves a salary or going to some giant Sci-Fi Convention or just buying stuff for themselves like some game makers have done when people crowdfunded their games (or putting a game on Steam’s Early Access and abandoning it when the well runs dry).

That’s why there is a growing hesitancy to donate to people down on their luck on GoFundMe etc., can you trust what you’ve been told? Always trust those who are willing to show people where everything is going.

I’m not saying that fan films must abandon fundraisers, that would be big headed, and God like to demand it, it is simply my personal opinion that fans should not have to do the financial heavy lifting, it’s the creators’ hobby, let them pay the bulk of it.

One of my hobbies is talking about Stock Car racing and I wish that I had the money to buy a Stock Car to run a team in Australia, but I would be laughed off of the internet if I went around rattling a tin to expand my hobby into the realm of car ownership, so fan film makers are lucky to be able to get money off people.

There has been a dip in fan film funding over the last few years with smaller totals being recorded for the fan film projects, some say it is because of the economic situation but it could also be because of the fact that there is plenty of Star Trek now available on Paramount+ etc.,

When Axanar was going to be the hottest thing on the scene, there was only the movies coming out every few years now we got a stack of TV shows to watch and rewatch at our leisure so why pay for fans to do it when the professionals can churn out about 30 episodes a year.

This piece has gone on quite a bit and there’s probably more to say on the subject but that is for another time, I’ve probably stepped on enough hornets’ nests today.

Until next time, be good to each other.