Star Trek: Cardinal Needs Artists; Possible Payment

[SLagonia]

For those of you who have not heard of us, Star Trek: Cardinal is a proposal for the next series. Not fan fiction or a fan series, rather it is a proposal for CBS to consider as the next Trek series, one with the fan's blessings.

While our project is so far ahead of schedual in three of four departments that we've attracted fans by the hundreds, the one department lagging behind is the art department. To put it bluntly, we're a bit understaffed.

So, as president of the project, I'm here to recruit some new artists. What I'm looking for out of you are 'glamour shots' of a few starships to get the collective imaginations of the CBS executives rolling in our direction.

This will include both work designing new starships from base specifications, as well as adapting sketches. We would offer a modest payment for any designs we use, but be warned that we will only pay for the designs we actually use. Just because you submit artwork is no guarentee of payment.

If you would like to review the project, out temporary website is located at Star Trek: Cardinal |. Any questions or concerns should be posted here, at the Cardinal website, or directed to our official e-mail at ST-Cardinal@hotmail.com.

[Hundred]

Hello SLagonia,

I'm not much of an ST artist, but I can do CG art pretty well. If you're interested, the link below is for a design (for a Federation star ship.) I started a good while back; I haven't had a chance to get back to it as of late, but just let me know and I can finish it up pretty quick. I also have some other ideas that I can pitch you r way, I'll post those links and or pics later.

Here's the link: (http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/3...rned-into.html)

Some of my other work can be viewed here, in the SFM 3D Gallery, and in the 3D WIPs Forum .

Thanx.

[SLagonia]

I've reviewed your work, and I'm fairly impressed. If I gave you a sketch, about how long would it take to get a 3D image?

[biotech]

I never realised Cardinal was a type of bird, I think for most people around the world, when they here that word they think of religeon.

It would be like calling it star trek:Bishop, or star trek:Vicar.

I'm not saying you havent got an interesting concept, but I think you might get more support, both among fans and more importantly with paramount/CBS with a different name.

Since you have it set on the border, maybe Star trek:Frontier, at least that word is long acosiated with trek.

[spudmonkey]

Originally Posted by biotech

I never realised Cardinal was a type of bird, I think for most people around the world, when they here that word they think of religeon.

It would be like calling it star trek:Bishop, or star trek:Vicar.

I'm not saying you havent got an interesting concept, but I think you might get more support, both among fans and more importantly with paramount/CBS with a different name.

Since you have it set on the border, maybe Star trek:Frontier, at least that word is long acosiated with trek.

I think Frontier has already been done as a series of books.

Edit: Star Trek "New Frontier" is/was the book series

[NightShadow]

I am honestly a bit dubious about this. For starters, your crew has quite a long list of characters- an ensemble cast is difficult enough, but the more characters you have, the harder it becomes. I highly doubt that CBS or any other major network would want to take on such an unweildy project (and, point in fact, they dropped "Jericho", possibly for other reasons, but it can't have been easy to manage such a large cast).

Also, the very idea of a new Trek series starting up on CBS is... well... senseless. Paramount owns the rights to the Trek franchise and Paramount/Viacom isn't beholden to CBS anymore. Neverminding the fact that Paramount has its own television network.

THEN there's the fact that Paramount/Viacom, just two years ago, made it fairly clear that there will be absolutely NO moves toward starting up a new series. Conventional wisdom, these days, is that Trek needs to take a break from TV for a while. Make a few movies here and there, sure, but let America kinda-sorta "detox" from Trek saturation.

And, finally, if this were a project with actual backing from CBS, does ANYONE really believe that the official website would be hosted at Freewebs.Com?!? And even if you're simply trying to convince CBS to give you some backing (which seems unlikely), don't you think that having a more cohesive website might be helpful? Everything you share there is text- no images, no conceptual drawings, no meat. Not many CBS execs are gonna be willing to wade through a few thousand words of text on each page- they want everything to be concise and pointed because, hey, time is money.

So, no, I'm highly skeptical about this project- its viability, its potential and even its name just don't have the ring of truth to me. Does this individual WANT to make it into a full series? Undoubtedly. Has he talked with a few CBS employees and tried to pitch the series? Probably. But his ability to pay for ANY work done on this kind of project is, IMHO, doubtful.

Just remember when you're left with nothing to show for any work you might do on this project: I've told you so.

[Mr. Wilde]

This is probably going to sound harsh, I'm sorry...

Originally Posted by SLagonia

Any questions or concerns should be posted here, at the Cardinal website, or directed to our official e-mail at ST-Cardinal@hotmail.com.

What are you going to do exactly? Produce a two hour long episode and then hope CBS will be impressed and make a TV show out of it?

Did you already ask CBS / Paramount if they even think about producing a new Star Trek show? I heavily doubt the answer was even a "Maybe".

There are hundreds or thousands of fans making proposals for this, and I bet all of their stuff is ditched without reading.

And then you're lowering your chances heavily, because the entire thing is already exposed on the web. Why? EVERYONE can come up now, yelling: "BUT I DID THIS, YOU STOLE IT!!!", because everyone was able to read it.

Read the submission guidelines for Star Trek novel proposals on Simon & Schuster to get an idea of how "it" works. They are strict as hell. No breathing room for non established writers. Same will definately go for any proposal of a new TV show (!).

Simon & Schuster: Star Trek: Submissions



Then, regarding your character descriptions... well I don't know how you plan on writing the proposal, but... If your proposal didn't already land in the trash can, it definately will after lines like "My first choice is Gary Sinese, who I picture when writing Captain Winters." (a totally unrealistic choice, which questions your credibility), "Rumors have abounded that her father is a Cardassian we have seen before on DS9... Whether or not that's true, I can't say." (either you know it or you don't. You wrote this thing, and you're trying to sell it, so DO you now know or not?)



You'd need a clear, well-defined, completely unbreakable roadmap for this. Characters that are very well thought out ("James Kirk, Han Solo, Malcolm Reynolds and Lt. Dan all rolled into one." is usually not the way you describe a character to an editor), characters that are totally unique (Naomi Wildman and an EMH are a total no go), with a clear and reasonable choice of actors, a budget plan, storyboards, concept artwork, etc...



Gene Roddenberry took his idea for Star Trek to dozens of studios and his chances of being successful were almost none. You are limited to one studio.


Seriously, before you start wasting a ****load of money and time on this, make this bulletproof. It doesn't seem like that right now.

This is fan-fiction right now. Ask yourself the question: Why is YOUR fanfiction better than any fanfiction already out there? Why should any studio take this into consideration? Why should the editor not stop reading at the line "Proposal for a new Star Trek series"? Why is your proposal the Holy Grail?



But well, maybe I'm wrong about this. You claim to have the experience on your site, so you should know how hard (or easy?) it is.

[Sovereign001]

stop mumbling, if the guy wants to do it let him!

[spudmonkey]

Originally Posted by Sovereign001

stop mumbling, if the guy wants to do it let him!

No one is saying don't do it. They are simply pointing out that there is a lot to doing something that is in someone else's domain in terms of ownership and intellectual property.

[Sovereign001]

i know but its not really fair. I asked also for a cover to be made. THe first post i received was from a guy of 35 or 43 posting this "MUHAHAHA".

No offence, thats low...

so let this guy do what he wants.