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reel_trek [2019/01/21 14:49] – created Carlos Pedraza | reel_trek [2019/02/15 23:40] (current) – [OWC Timeline] adds update Carlos Pedraza | ||
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====== Planning for Worst in Patreon Effort to Save Axanar' | ====== Planning for Worst in Patreon Effort to Save Axanar' | ||
- | **//Patreon Boycott Endangers Campaign, | + | **//Patreon Boycott Endangers Campaign, |
{{TOC}} | {{TOC}} | ||
{{page> | {{page> | ||
- | /* Less than a day after launching his Patreon, Axanar producer Alec Peters' | + | Less than a day after launching his Patreon, Axanar producer Alec Peters' |
Meanwhile, details casting doubt on Peters' | Meanwhile, details casting doubt on Peters' | ||
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<WRAP center 90%> | <WRAP center 90%> | ||
<fs smaller> | <fs smaller> | ||
+ | </ | ||
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+ | <WRAP right round todo 320px> | ||
+ | <fs smaller>< | ||
</ | </ | ||
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Peters unexpectedly took to the air again the day after the first livestream to stave off complaints he had received about using the Patreon platform. | Peters unexpectedly took to the air again the day after the first livestream to stave off complaints he had received about using the Patreon platform. | ||
- | PayPal | + | An increasing number of conservatives, |
- | Even less accountability | + | |
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Peters, whose own avowed political views tend toward the left, spent a great deal of time on his ad hoc Reel Trek episode defending Benjamin' | ||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | < | ||
+ | // | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Dark Money ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Peters tried to assuage potential supporters' | ||
+ | |||
+ | That alternative would create a revenue stream for Ares without any accountability. Peters ran similar operations for Axanar, with direct donations at conventions and via PayPal, as well as sales on his Donor Store, raising an undisclosed amount over and above the $1.2 million in crowdfunding. That money has never been accounted for. | ||
+ | |||
+ | [{{ :: | ||
===== Planning for Failure ===== | ===== Planning for Failure ===== | ||
- | Business model: | + | Peters said he would rely on Patreon, plus YouTube |
- | - Mobilizing | + | |
+ | Peters has been here before, however. When his 2017 Indiegogo effort failed to produce enough money to keep his studio he was forced to break his lease and relocate to Georgia, an eventuality he appeared to have [[rocketworx|prepared for]] even before launching the Indiegogo campaign. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Another Move Already Planned ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Tucked deep into his hour-and-a-quarter long live chat, Peters admitted he already had an alternative should he fail to reach his Patreon goal: | ||
+ | |||
+ | > If we don't raise $4,000 a month, we raise less, we're going to have to move to a smaller facility — a brand new facility — it's right next door. We're going to roll the sets over. [But] I want to stay where we are.(([[yout> | ||
+ | |||
+ | Unexplained in his Patreon pitch was a reason for the otherwise arbitrary February 15 deadline for the $,4,000 commitment from contributors. Some have speculated that may be a date by which he must either give his current landlord notice to renew his lease or have a deal in place for the new, smaller warehouse. The two warehouses appear to have the same landlord. | ||
+ | |||
+ | [{{ : | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Current Warehouse Already Listed ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Lawrenceville, | ||
+ | <WRAP center 90%> | ||
+ | * Ares Studios' | ||
+ | * Six smaller, newly built warehouse spaces are in fact available next door to Ares Studios. At about 3,000 square feet, each is about half the size of Peters' | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | < | ||
+ | // | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== When OWC Walked Away ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Peters has been vague about the circumstances under which tech company Other World Computing [[ares_patreon# | ||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | < | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Peters Paid Rent ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Peters was also vague about when the sponsorship was withdrawn. Rumors about it had begun to swirl in autumn 2018 after more than a year of growing tensions around Peters' | ||
+ | |||
+ | During his first Reel Trek episode on YouTube on January 18, 2019, Peters made an offhand comment that made it possible to calculate when the partnership ended and what effect it had on Peters' | ||
+ | |||
+ | > Right now, we're paying $4,000 a month. For the past four months I've been paying that out of my pocket. I don't have $4,000 a month anymore to be paying for the studio. … That's what our Patreon campaign is for. The Patreon campaign and the YouTube channel pay for the studio. We need to raise $4,000 a month.(([[yout> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== OWC Timeline ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Counting four months backwards from January means OWC had pulled out by the end of September 2018, with Peters taking over rent payments in October. That coincided with when **AxaMonitor** first heard OWC may have pulled out. | ||
+ | |||
+ | One of the last direct references Peters made to OWC's sponsorship turned out to be in late September 2018 — just about a week before Peters reportedly began paying rent himself — when he must' | ||
+ | |||
+ | === 'Still Very Happy' === | ||
+ | |||
+ | **SEPTEMBER 2018** In an interview, published on Axanar surrogate Jonathan Lane's Fan Film Factor blog on September 24, 2018, Lane asked Peters, " So no one is giving any money to Axanar or OWC Studios at the moment … other than you, of course?" | ||
+ | |||
+ | > No one is funding Axanar right now except me. <wrap hi>OWC Digital is still sponsoring the studio that bears their name, and they’re still very happy with what we’re doing both now and going forward.</ | ||
+ | |||
+ | Three months earlier, in June 2018, Peters had also described the relationship in glowing terms with a bright future, | ||
+ | |||
+ | > I have been working on a program to open OWC Studios to high school students, and we had our first student film filmed at the studio! <wrap hi>This program is being expanded as we work with OWC studios to make the studio more robust and able to handle more professional productions. Our conference call with OWC last week went very well, and I am pretty excited</ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <WRAP right round important 320px> | ||
+ | <fs smaller>< | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | **OCTOBER 2018** About two months later, OWC was no longer paying Peters' | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Staying Mum ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | As Peters has demonstrated several times before, he refrains for months from publicly sharing with supporters any bad news (see " | ||
+ | |||
+ | For those who have followed the Axanar saga, the circumstances sounded familiar. | ||
===== Patreon Mirrors Failed 2017 Effort ===== | ===== Patreon Mirrors Failed 2017 Effort ===== | ||
- | Structure of the Pitch | + | By May 2016 in the middle |
- | Testimonial from " | + | |
- | Two Fan Films Planning | + | A year later, with months still left on his lease, Peters had been paying the studio rent and expenses himself and turned |
+ | to raise the $200,000 he needed to set the studio' | ||
- | Video Message to Indiegogo donors | + | He raised barely more than 10 percent of what he needed, from only about 300 fans. Instead of paying for a studio, that money went to pay his moving costs to the Georgia warehouse now the subject of a Patreon campaign. |
- | we hope to deliver some really great here this coming year. we hope you' | + | |
- | Apologies | + | ==== Same Pitch ==== |
- | Perk Update | + | |
- | RMB blame for no Origins Blu-ray. After paying for it two yrs ago he never delivered, plus no footage to have another of our editors produce it. Lawsuit threat. RMB releasing footage, link to latest one | + | |
- | OWC lapsed | + | Even though that Indiegogo campaign was a failure, Peters' |
- | ===== OWC Walked Away Last Fall ===== | + | Just as in California, Peters had run out of other people' |
- | More Details | + | For his Georgia warehouse, Peters included a testimonial from Gwinnett County Public Schools educator Pasha Souvorin, who touted the benefits the studio was to offer his students. |
+ | |||
+ | Peters also claimed two fan productions were slated to use his Georgia facility, though he could only name one producer of almost-no-budget films, Vance Major Owen. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Effect | ||
+ | |||
+ | Unaddressed by Peters was the impact the prospect of losing or moving his studio might have on his always-slipping production schedule for the two //Axanar// short films for which donors have been waiting for nearly two years. He had recently said he was aiming for a spring 2019 shoot. {{: | ||
+ | |||
+ | <WRAP tip 75%> | ||
+ | <wrap em> | ||
+ | Discuss this article in [[face> | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | **Keywords** {{tag> |