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{{::industry-pitch.jpg?direct|}} \\
<wrap lo><wrap lo>//Video/Axanar Productions//</wrap></wrap>
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====== Axanar Studio Crowdfunding Campaign Begins March 20 ======

//**After Premature Leak of Pitch Video, Campaign Shifts from Kickstarter to Indiegogo**//
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//**__ __**// <wrap lo>**By [[user>cpedraza|Carlos Pedraza]]**</wrap>
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After delaying his launch of a [[crowdfunding_platforms|Kickstarter]] campaign to raise money for Industry Studios' rent and utilities, producer [[Alec Peters]] posted his pitch video on YouTube in which he articulated his argument for backers to donate $15,000-18,000 a month to keep the studio afloat.

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{{ :indiegogo-logo.jpg?direct&125|}}
<wrap lo><wrap em>UPDATE</wrap> In a March 17, 2017, email to Axanar donors, Peters announced his 30-day crowdfunding campaign would begin March 20, [[#Move to Indiegogo|on Indiegogo]] instead of Kickstarter.((Axanar Donor Update, email newsletter from Alec Peters, "Latest news on Axanar Productions' next crowdfunding campaign," 3/17/17.)) He failed to give a reason for the change in platform.</wrap>
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Peters appeared to be unaware his four and a half-minute video was publicly viewable. After **AxaMonitor** posted a link March 15, the video was changed to private, and later apparently removed from YouTube. But not before copies began to circulate on the Web.

===== Indiegogo Goal Amount =====

To pay the rent and operational expenses for the remaining nine months of 2017 will cost Peters $162,000; a full year would run $216,000.

===== The Pitch =====

{{youtube>V4173MUhdUk?medium|Industry Studios Kickstarter}}
<wrap lo>**INDIE FILMMAKERS** Tom Pike and Zac Wallnau, the creators of the crowd funded scifi webseries, //Personal Space// intend to make use of Industry Studios.<wrap lo><wrap indent> //Video/Industry Studios//</wrap></wrap></wrap>

Peters' Kickstarter pitch is to turn Industry Studios into "one of the very few nonprofit production companies in the entertainment industry today" by convincing Kickstarter backers to underwrite his operational expenses in favor of assisting independent and fan filmmakers.

==== The Mission ====

Peters described the studio's specific mission was to "help independent fan and student filmmakers in their science fiction, horror and fantasy projects to life,"(([[yout>V4173MUhdUk|Industry Studios Kickstarter Video, YouTube]], 3/14/16.)) calling his [[studio-financials#not_a_soundstage|soundstage]] the "single largest asset to help creators bring their projects to life."

His [[axanar_kickstarter_details|previous Kickstarter]] campaign raised more than $638,000 in 2014 to produce //Axanar// and build his own studio rather than rent one. A follow-up [[axanar_indiegogo_details|Indiegogo]] effort brought in another $574,434. All that money is gone.

Axanar's next campaign moved to [[axanar_indiegogo_details|Indiegogo]], where it was less successful, taking five and a half months to raise 89 percent of what it brought in from Kickstarter.

==== Others' Intellectual Property ====

The video shows off CGI footage from //Prelude to Axanar// and //Axanar// featuring Star Trek imagery, as well as clips from Harry Potter fan films, to entice viewers to contribute to the studio.

[{{ ::personal-space.jpg?direct&300|**PERSONAL SPACE** Actor Richard Hatch, a personal friend of Alec Peters, appears in this web series by Tom Pike and Zac Wallnau.}}]

==== Testimonials ====

**PERSONAL SPACE** In the video, filmmakers Tom Pike and Zac Wallnau pointed to their forthcoming web series, an original project called //[[imdb>title/tt5635832/|Personal Space]]//, starring the recently deceased Richard Hatch, as the kind of project they believe Industry Studios will support.

Hatch also appears in the video from archival footage recorded in 2016, an interview in which he generally supported fan productions. Hatch, who died in February, was a personal friend of Peters and had been due to portray the Klingon commander, Kharn, in //Axanar//.

In the pitch video, Pike described what Hatch's connection with Peters offered their project:

> One of the reasons we want to work with Industry Studios is because we want his performance to reach as many of his fans as possible.((Tom Pike interview, [[yout>V4173MUhdUk|Industry Studios Kickstarter Video, YouTube]], 3/14/16.))

Pike added that he hoped to shoot the series' second season at Industry Studios — for free if Peters' pitch was to be believed — if backers underwrite the operational costs of the facility.

**HARRY POTTER** Fan filmmaker [[imdb>name/nm2808985/|Justin Zagri]] (//Severus Snape and the Marauders//) also spoke up for Industry Studios in the pitch video:

> When you get to take meetings at a place like Industry Studios it gives you a professional veneer. It gives potential investors and other people that might be helping you a sense of confidence in you, that they see what your surroundings are.((Justin Zagri interview, [[yout>V4173MUhdUk|Industry Studios Kickstarter Video, YouTube]], 3/14/16.))

Incidentally, Zagri noted his two Harry Potter films had garnered in excess of 10 million views. //Prelude to Axanar//, by comparison, logged 3 million views in the course of nearly three years.

[{{ ::cholos.jpg?direct|**CHOLOS** vs. Vampires is Hector Barron's independent horror project.}}]

**CHOLOS VS. VAMPIRES** producer [[imdb>nm5908622/|Hector Barron]] said access to Industry Studios would be a boon to independent filmmakers like him:

> I think independent filmmakers need a place like Industry Studios. This studio could help so many people.((Hector Barron interview,  [[yout>V4173MUhdUk|Industry Studios Kickstarter Video, YouTube]], 3/14/16.))
==== Axanar Sets ====

Peters also promised other productions would be able to use the sets constructed for //Axanar//:

>Maybe you have a fan film you want to make. Wouldn't it be great to have a place where you could come and use already-built sets? And do it for nothing? Well, that's what this Kickstarter is all about.(([[yout>V4173MUhdUk|Industry Studios Kickstarter Video, YouTube]], 3/14/16.))

===== Where the Money Goes =====

Normally, Kickstarter pitch videos include the monetary goal for the campaign, as well as a description of the most enticing perks that can be offered. Peters' pitch included none of that. People likely won't learn about either until the campaign launches at some unspecified date.

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//**__‘Contrary to Alec Peters' claims, Industry Studios would not be the first fan-funded movie studio in history. That title goes to Legion M.’__**//
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The move to Indiegogo would appear to require a new version of the pitch video; that presumably would be released with the campaign's March 20 launch.

==== Operational Costs ====

Peters described the aim for the use of the crowd funds: the operational costs for the studio, which are not identified in the video, but he had separately described the costs as high as $18,000 per month. //Axanar// supporters' $1.4 million was all but used up by studio-related costs even before the [[CBS]]-[[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] [[copyright infringement]] [[lawsuit]].

Backers' underwriting those costs would offer student and independent filmmakers free access to the studio, he said.

=== "Individual Compensation" ===

Peters made a point of claiming "none of the money raised will go toward individual compensation" — a criticism levied at him since he revealed in Axanar's 2015 [[annual report]] he had paid himself a salary from donor funds. He [[peters_kickstarter_facts|changed that story]] a year later, claiming he had paid the money back by paying for the studio rent out of his own pocket once he had used up donors' money.

== Propworx's Free Rent ==

Unmentioned by Peters is the status of his other company, a separate business called [[propworx-email|Propworx]]. Peters admitted during the lawsuit that company has never paid rent for its space at Industry Studios. It remained unknown whether this other business would contribute to the studio rent alongside donors.

=== Funding Other Fan Films ===

Peters promised that all the Kickstarter proceeds would go toward operational costs. Any additional commercial rental income would go to fund "other Star Trek and fan film projects."(([[yout>V4173MUhdUk|Industry Studios Kickstarter Video, YouTube]], 3/14/16.))

The studio's commercial prospects may have dimmed, however, with Peters' admission the soundstage is not actually [[studio-financials|soundproof]].

Meanwhile, none of the crowdfunding appeared to be earmarked for fan film production. That money is meant to pay 2017's rent and utilities for Axanar's commercial soundstage. Any funds raised over that amount would be applied to the same costs in 2018.

===== Launch Delay =====

Peters had prematurely announced the Kickstarter campaign on March 8, intended to bolster the flagging finances of his [[industry_studios|Industry Studios]], which is hemorrhaging money at $15,000 a month while bringing in little to no income.

In a "mea culpa" missive the same day, Peters said he was holding back on the Kickstarter campaign "so we can coordinate better with Kickstarter and plan out our perks."((Email from Axanar Productions to donors, Axanar Donor Update: “This is what happens when our PR guy goofs up,” 3/8/17.))

==== Move to Indiegogo ====

Ten days later, Peters announced the campaign would no longer be on Kickstarter, and would instead launch March 20 on Indiegogo. That platform, unlike Kickstarter, allows campaigns to keep whatever they raise; if they fail to meet their goal on Kickstarter, they receive no money.

==== Priority Over Producing 'Axanar' ====

Peters told donors, whose capital paid to build the studio instead of producing the promised //Axanar// feature, that he had to "get the studio on sound financial footing. And then we’ll work on the budget for the two [Axanar] segments."(([[yout>HuNVuYeAmKs|Axanar Lawsuit Settlement with Alec Peters, Trekyards Podcast #33]], 2/12/17.))

[{{ :legion_m1-logo.jpg?direct&200|**CONTRARY TO** Alec Peters' claims, Industry Studios would not be the first fan-funded movie studio. That title goes to [[http://thelegionm.com|Legion M]].}}]

===== Not the First Fan-Funded Studio =====

In the pitch, Peters repeated an [[studio-financials#first_fan-funded_studio|inaccurate claim]] he first made in a message to donors:

> 2016 was a challenging year [fending off its copyright lawsuit]. 2017 has seen the opportunity for us to create the first fan-funded movie studio in history. Won't you help us make that a reality?

Unfortunately, that reality already exists. **AxaMonitor** reported that [[studio-financials#the_other_first_fan-funded_studio|Legion M]], established in 2016, is the first fan-funded movie studio. Fans are actual equity partners in that studio. Supporters of Peters' Industry Studios would have no ownership interest. {{:axamonitor-ico.gif?nolink|}}

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<wrap em>COMMENTS</wrap> \\
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**Keywords** {{tag>Industry_Studios nonprofit crowdfunding Indiegogo}}