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Captain’s Log – April 29, 2015

By April 30, 2015 Captain's Log

Court_Martial_095

Lawyers!  Samuel Cogley showed the best of the legal profession in “Court Martial”.  But lawyers are also a fact of life and in the Entertainment business, a necessity.  You are deal with money, creative types who are all right brain and need to both be protected and have structure put around them, licensing issues, rights issues, union and guild issues.  It can be very daunting!

Fortunately, I went to law school (UNC Chapel Hill,’87) and passed the North Carolina bar exam.  So I get lawyers and speak their language.  And we were lucky to get in with the legal firm that represents both Editor Robert Burnett (writer, director of Free Enterprise) and Consulting Producer Charles De Lauzirika.  They also were production accountants on the recent Cosmos TV series, so these guys are solid.

From them we got 8 standard documents that we are now disseminating to our cast and crew.  Everything from simple Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) to Deal Memos.  So unlike a fan film, that does everything on faith, we are doing everything needed to protect Axanar, Axanar Productions, and Ares Studios.  It really protects everyone.

CNC Machine

A CNC machine at work

Meanwhile, the bridge work proceeds as we are lucky to have a wood shop across the parking lot with a CNC machine.  These machines custom cut wood or other materials to the exact specifications you enter through a computer program.  Dean has been drawing out the console panels in AutoCAD to get done this way.  Will save us a ton of time!

Alec

Join the discussion 7 Comments

  • Ron Gamble says:

    That CNC machine is sick. There’s a fabrication studio I pop into near me that has one I use occasionally for signage. I love it!

  • Michael Sherman says:

    That CNC machine looks real cool, 🙂
    if i had a large workshop , i would find a place for it. heheh

    or course would need the money to but one.

  • Brian says:

    I do work with a similar one in my company for prototype purpose and though so simple, it’s a mighty tool. Wonder if the input are numerical CNC codes or an input with the CAD files mixed with a graphical UI

    • Mark says:

      That looks an awful lot like a Dremel in the tool holder so I expect that this is either a kit made one or a home build. Can’t be certain of course but I would expect that it has a G code engine instead of taking the CAD files and doing the interpretation and generating the tool paths itself. For those who are looking for a similar (smaller) CNC they are available for a couple of thousand dollars or you can get build your own kits for a few hundred, including all of the hardware.

      • Brian says:

        Looks bit too big for a Dremel. Actually for this kind of work you can use a high speed spindle directly. They can reach speeds up to 30.000RPM and are perfect for milling wood . I even use that for 3D cutting as well as far the machine’s dimension allows it. A very nice device.
        Usually the the construction itself isn’t that expensive but the controller unit is.

        But one thing – since there isn’t any cover at all, I guess the dusty air isn’t that healthy – take care

  • Dennis Castello says:

    I hope to see Ares Studios doing many projects beyond Axanar so I’m extremely pleased to read about the vitally important work being done with the attorneys.

    If any project’s crew believes in that project they will go thru hours of back-breaking, sleep depriving work — suffering thru blistering hot location shoots in the desert or bone-chilling night shoots in the rain — and not only love it, but come back for more! But the things that will kill their motivation to even show up, let alone work hard, are in-fighting among the leadership and disagreements among the key staff over who owns what and who is owed what. I’ve seen this happen before and I would hate to see this happen to Ares Studios.

    That’s why I think that the work with the attorneys does more to insure the long-term viability of Ares Studio than any set that’s built.

  • Michael Morris says:

    As an intellectual property rights attorney and Star Trek fan, you are doing exactly the right thing. I have seen even small charities blow up over questions like who owns the website, gets credit for the logo, etc. There is never a way to make people play nice with each other, but at least you can protect yourselves and try to limit damage from “creative differences.”

    I must say, though, that the first time I saw “Court Martial” as a child, I thought it dreadfully unfair that everyone else int he Star Trek universe seemed to keep their records and references on computers, and that poor Samuel Cogley was having to go through actual books!

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