FWIW, I researched this heavily for my book about fan films. For the studios, efforts like these are the equivalent of the 12-year-old next door taking your Maserati out for a joyride; even if it comes back without a scratch, you're still going to be furious--but what can they really do?
In most cases, rights holders have ignored the growing popularity of fan films, sometimes willingly since they are generally tribute films that provide a no-cost way to keep fans interested in a franchise during times of drought (witness the rise of high-profile Star Trek fan productions in recent years).
At the same time, studios are in business to make money, and prosecuting a fan film case is a poor financial move all around. First, going after your fans is bad PR (ask Lars from Metallica). More importantly, however, the cost of mounting a case against a typical fan filmmaker is far more than you could ever hope to gain from a court decision or settlement.
As an aside, coincidence or not, in recent years, most studios that have used cease and desist letters to shut down fan films that "compete" with their feature films have produced lousy movies. Fox canned a UK-based Max Payne fan flick in spring, 2008, and look how awful that feature turned out to be. Similarly, the folks behind the upcoming GI Joe movie have been shutting down related fan films for YEARS--and now look at the huge negative reaction across the web to the first GI Joe trailer. When a studio is afraid of a fan film, it seems to be indicative of a weak property.
Nonetheless, studios are going to have to find better ways deal with fan films. Lucasfilm was pretty canny in "accepting" them by creating its annual fan film contest--by creating strict entry rules, it created a way to control the content going into fan productions without having to send lawyers after every teenager with a video camera.
One of the things I talk about in the book is that the studios should try to cultivate these amateur filmmakers, not merely to help spread the word by creating flicks about fledgling properties, but also as a revenue source--sell 'em permission, official sound effects, visual effect clips to be edited into a fan film, and so forth.
With the technological point of entry so low now that anyone with a computer and a camera can "make a movie," it's a next step waiting to happen. It might shave the "outlaw" feel off an otherwise semi-pro production like "Hunt for Gollum," but officially ratified fan films are probably the next big step for the hobby.
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FWIW, I researched this heavily for my book about fan films. For the studios, efforts like these are the equivalent of the 12-year-old next door taking your Maserati out for a joyride; even if it comes back without a scratch, you're still going to be furious--but what can they really do?
In most cases, rights holders have ignored the growing popularity of fan films, sometimes willingly since they are generally tribute films that provide a no-cost way to keep fans interested in a franchise during times of drought (witness the rise of high-profile Star Trek fan productions in recent years).
At the same time, studios are in business to make money, and prosecuting a fan film case is a poor financial move all around. First, going after your fans is bad PR (ask Lars from Metallica). More importantly, however, the cost of mounting a case against a typical fan filmmaker is far more than you could ever hope to gain from a court decision or settlement.
As an aside, coincidence or not, in recent years, most studios that have used cease and desist letters to shut down fan films that "compete" with their feature films have produced lousy movies. Fox canned a UK-based Max Payne fan flick in spring, 2008, and look how awful that feature turned out to be. Similarly, the folks behind the upcoming GI Joe movie have been shutting down related fan films for YEARS--and now look at the huge negative reaction across the web to the first GI Joe trailer. When a studio is afraid of a fan film, it seems to be indicative of a weak property.
Nonetheless, studios are going to have to find better ways deal with fan films. Lucasfilm was pretty canny in "accepting" them by creating its annual fan film contest--by creating strict entry rules, it created a way to control the content going into fan productions without having to send lawyers after every teenager with a video camera.
One of the things I talk about in the book is that the studios should try to cultivate these amateur filmmakers, not merely to help spread the word by creating flicks about fledgling properties, but also as a revenue source--sell 'em permission, official sound effects, visual effect clips to be edited into a fan film, and so forth.
With the technological point of entry so low now that anyone with a computer and a camera can "make a movie," it's a next step waiting to happen. It might shave the "outlaw" feel off an otherwise semi-pro production like "Hunt for Gollum," but officially ratified fan films are probably the next big step for the hobby.
Clive Young