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.
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