"Indie" Star Trek Movement

[spuwho]

Many following these boards are probably aware of the production of independent Star Trek episodes up in Georgia, well it seems the movement is going "big time".

Farragut Films produces episodes up in Kingsland, Georgia as part of their series "Starship Farragut"

There are many others out there producing materials. Some are interesting, some are pushing their luck, some others are extending the genre.

James Cawley, who started Star Trek: Phase II and Star Trek: New Voyages.

Star Trek; Renegades
Star Trek: Horizon
Star Trek: Captain Pike

and yes, even a XXX parody was created.

The only rule was that it had to be non-for-profit and couldn't be broadcast on TV or in theaters and it had to give credit.

Now we have Star Trek: Axanar being made in Valencia, California. Crowdsourcing has been a great revenue stream for these guys (over $1 million raised in total). The quality of the productions are now exceeding television standards and are quickly approaching theatrical levels.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/star-trek-axanar#/story

In essence, "Star Trek" has been open sourced like the development of Linux, and it is opening up this influx of creativity.  Each new production gets yet better actors, better production values, better stories & scripts. All of this at "no profit". It is an interesting phenomenon to say the least and even if you aren't a fan, it is interesting that so much is being done with it.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/K723TV7GZFQ" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/K723TV7GZFQ</a>


<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/1W1_8IV8uhA" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/1W1_8IV8uhA</a>

[strider]

While I enjoy Star Trek and have through out the years, I did not know this was going on.  Very interesting. 

[riverside_mail]

I have seen some of these and for the most part have enjoyed watching them. I would recommend the following for the best quality:

Starship Farragut series. It has decent writing and sets and approaches TV quality.


Star Trek: Phase II and Star Trek: New Voyages. Definitely the best quality series out there. The sets, writing , and acting are good enough for television.

Some of these have been able to get original Star Trek actors to act in their shows, most notably Walter Koenig and George Takei. Renegade Studios has produced a full length film, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, casting actors such as Koenig, Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Alan Ruck, Tim Russ, Grace Lee Whitney, and others from various Star Trek series.

[GoldenEst82]

I am a die hard Trekkie, and I find this "indietrek" to be FABULOUS.
Not fabulous in its execution most of the time, but the fabulous that so much effort goes into keeping that universe alive...

I think it speaks to the power of the Star Trek message of hope, that our future can be something close to what G.R. envisioned for humanity as a species.

I have seen the trailers for Anaxar; and it looks A++
Definitely looking forward to its release!

[finehoe]

How are the copyright issues handled?  Seems like the corporate lawyers would be all over this with cease and desist letters.

[spuwho]

CBS now owns the rights to Star Trek. The predecessor company (Paramount Pictures) purchased the complete rights from Gene Roddenberry during the pre-production of "The Wrath of Khan".  As long as Congress keeps extending the copyright law (usually called the "Mickey Mouse Law" to help Disney) it will not go into public domain until 2025 at the soonest.

I did notice that if you donate a certain amount to "Araxanar" they will send you a Blu-Ray of the finished product. To my knowledge this is the first time they are using this as a distribution method.

Araxanar also was a featured panel at Comic Con where they showed the new teaser and had the actors there to chat with the audience. That is pretty good PR for something that is not produced or endorsed by the owners.

When a crowdsource amount starts hitting the multiples of millions I suspect CBS will start stepping in.

[spuwho]

Here is the trailer for the indie release, "Star Trek: Horizon" which is currently in post-production. It is based on the era around the Trek show "Enterprise".

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/MWD9RMp_Gfk" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/MWD9RMp_Gfk</a>

[spuwho]

Here is the trailer for Star Trek: Renegades.  Directed by Tim Russ (who played Tuvok in Voyager). It has a wealth of Trek stars in it. Classic Trek star "Chekov" (at 143 years old) appears.

This one is currently being pitched to CBS to be funded as a "web only" series (like Netflix or Hulu).

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/OjeX5drV9ms" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/OjeX5drV9ms</a>

[civil42806]

Here is the trailer for Star Trek: Renegades.  Directed by Tim Russ (who played Tuvok in Voyager). It has a wealth of Trek stars in it. Classic Trek star "Chekov" (at 143 years old) appears.

This one is currently being pitched to CBS to be funded as a "web only" series (like Netflix or Hulu).

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/OjeX5drV9ms" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/OjeX5drV9ms</a>

Looks better than abrams star trek, at least no lens flares

[spuwho]

It has been suggested that CBS just simply form a web channel for Star Trek material alone.  Re-runs throughout, with these new productions from these different creators during prime time.

No different than "House of Cards"  or "True Blood" and the other web only content.

A former Trek AD mentioned at ComicCon that they did propose the show "Enterprise" go web subscription only when the broadcast ratings weren't meeting their goals. He said they (CBS) wanted no part of it even through it was shown to be financially viable.

Actor Robert Hatch said the networks are extremely short sighted because Neilson's expire after 24 hours and many people today time shift their content. He noted that their thinking is very monolithic around short term advertising demographics. A policy that they have stuck too since the big 1970 programming purge.

By shifting their programming to the subscription model then they would have to abandon their allegiances from Madison Street ad executives, to the people actually watching the material. This was considered untenable in the current influence driven television "racket".

By shifting programming to what people really want, instead of what draws advertising it would force a new level of accountability in programming quality. 

This could represent the beginnings of a fundamental shift in program development.

[finehoe]

^^it tells you something that the best shows currently on TV are for the most part on the non-advertiser supported networks (HBO, etc).

[JimInJax]

 This looks better than half the stuff I see coming from the Networks today. When will they realize that some people want something better than "junk food TV" like The Real Housewives?

[spuwho]

I guess CBS and Paramount have finally become the Borg when it comes to indie productions.

The Axanar production crew have gone out of their way to make sure they don't violate Trek copyrights. In fact they have said they maintain contact with their (CBS) legal department constantly.

Now, Axanar is 2 weeks from starting their shoot schedule and CBS drops the bomb. Probably has something to do with the fact that CBS has a movie and new TV show coming out in 2016 and 2017. Resistance is futile.

Per Entertainment Weekly:

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/12/30/star-trek-crowdfunded-film-axanar-lawsuit-paramount-cbs

Crowdfunded Star Trek film facing lawsuit from Paramount, CBS

Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios have filed a copyright infringement complaint against Axanar, an independently produced Star Trek prequel film that has been a major success on crowdfunding sites Kickstarter and Indiegogo, where it has raised more than $1 million.

The lawsuit, obtained by EW, states that Axanar infringes “[Paramount and CBS’ works] by using innumerable copyrighted elements of Star Trek, including its settings, characters, species, and themes.” As a result, the two companies are seeking $150,000 in damages “for each separate Star Trek Copyrighted Work infringed.”

According to Axanar’s website, the film is scheduled to begin shooting in January. Although the filmmakers Alec Peters and Robert Burnett have not released a full statement yet, Peters did briefly address the lawsuit on the film’s official Facebook page.

“Well, it appears CBS knows that Axanar is exactly what fans want, because they are trying to shut us down!” he wrote. “While Team Axanar will have a response shortly, know this DOES NOT deter us from what we are doing! Delivering to fans exactly what you want.”

The movie — called “the first fully-professional, independent Star Trek film” on its Indiegogo page — is set to focus on Garth of Izar, a hero of Captain Kirk’s, as he and his crew struggle through the Four Years War against the Klingon Empire. Read more about Axanar at the project’s website.

[spuwho]

CBS/Paramount at the behest of directors JJ Abrams and Justin Lin will be dropping their lawsuit against the fan film "Axanar".

http://www.cinemablend.com/m/new/J-J-Abrams-Responds-Lawsuit-Against-Fan-Made-Star-Trek-Film-132397.html

[Westside Guy]

That's great news! I've been following the Axanar project since this thread was originally started. It looks really good and I'm super excited about it. Here's to hoping it's gets finished soon.