It's an awesome project, no doubt about it - but the 2nd screenshot of the timeline has something which is asking to be sued for.

gossi | April 19, 19:39 CET

I'm so looking forward to this! I ordered it months and months ago, almost gave up on ever seeing it. :(

Evilpony | April 19, 19:39 CET

...although, of course, I'd no idea what they'd sue for. So it's possibly a little dramatic. But still, in a country of lawyer bots, it's probably worth being careful.

gossi | April 19, 19:48 CET

I don't think they can be sued, since it's actually would fall under hearsay, but it might make a few people upset with them.

RavenU | April 19, 19:50 CET

"Joss and Gail have not spoken since"?. That's a fairly bold statement. I would assume they can back it up.

Simon | April 19, 19:56 CET

Well, Sandy forcing the cancelation. If it's not actually true, or the makers can't back the statement up, it'd be possible to file a suit for it. All I'll say is that all 3 people named are multi-millionaires on that page alone -- you don't want to pee anybody off.

gossi | April 19, 20:04 CET

Well... if you feel its a signficant problem, then shouldn't Jeremy & Brian be emailed?

ETA: and can we get back to discussing how exciting Jewel is giving her time for this? or am I the only one?

[ edited by kurya on 2006-04-19 18:11 ]

kurya | April 19, 20:11 CET

Nae, it's not my place to tell them how to do their DVD. I'm sure they'll see it here anyway. It's got to be something they've considered, I just hope they have pants made of steel (I did go for tightpants but Nathan owns the trademark on that).

gossi | April 19, 20:13 CET

Hmm pants of steel... that sounds oddly close to superman man of steel... I dunno if that can be allowed.

kurya | April 19, 20:15 CET

Well, I don't know about lawsuits and all that (I'm assuming they checked their facts and can back stuff up), but man, is this ever gonna be awesome? I've said it before (and I'll say it again): I can't wait for this to arrive! And now there's Jewel doing narration (how great is that? And how great is she to offer her time for a fanmade documentary!?)...

This is going to get a place of honor in my DVD cabinet, for sure. (Yep, I'm happy, happy, superlative guy today).

GVH | April 19, 20:16 CET

What I want to know is, why are Alec Baldwin adverts appearing at the bottom of this page? Oh Google, how I mock you.

gossi | April 19, 20:22 CET

Because the topic includes Adam *Baldwin*. Get it?

pat32082 | April 19, 20:57 CET

At least its not advertising Gossi's Escort Service *looks to see if there are new ads*.

zeitgeist | April 19, 21:08 CET

I'm tyring to think of a way to say this without sounding like an ass, but hasn't this thing been almost finished for a little over 4 months? I bought a copy for a friend as a Christmas gift (I ended up wrapping a print-out of their about page as I had wrapped his gift a week before they put the the certificate on their webpage and didn't feel like rewrapping it.) but the way things are going it might be a Fourth of July gift. I just hope it doesn't become the Duke Nukem Forever of DVD releases.

war_machine | April 19, 21:14 CET

I also cannot wait for this DVD to come out. It looks amazing. And Jewel and Adam, to boot? Wow. As for the Gail Berman issue, all I can say is that I will forever be grateful to her for contacting Joss way back when and asking him to do a TV adaptation of his Buffy movie. I shudder to think what *wouldn't* have happened if Gail hadn't done that. (I get this information from the A&E special on BtVS, which was included as a featurette in the BtVS S6 DVDs.)

[ edited by phlebotinin on 2006-04-19 19:21 ]

phlebotinin | April 19, 21:15 CET

I was there when they approached Adam about it, so I'm not surprised at how involved he became in the overall product. But he and Jewel still rock for giving of their time. ;D

zengrrl | April 19, 21:42 CET

I don't mean to sound petty, but how did I get completely cut out of the timeline?

Allyson | April 19, 22:46 CET

I've been hearing a number of people wondering that exact thing war_machine. I'm not involved at all in the dvd, except being interviewed, but I do know they are working hard. I tend to give them a little slack for taking longer than expected. They all have regular jobs and are working on this in their spare time, which usually means when they are supposed to be sleeping. And they are adding so much extra content to an already excellent documentary that it will be worth the wait.

I also think they didn't realize just how much work it would be when they started and were overly optomistic with their initial release date. If they had never given November as a target, I don't think it would be such an issue now.

One thing to remember. Even if they do take until July to get this out, that will mean they went from concept to production to post-production to release in a year. And that's pretty damn good.

danregal | April 19, 22:55 CET

In terms of waiting forever... they are working on extras, and the amount of extras on the DVD seem gargantuan and you could easily spend more than 5-6 times the runtime of the documentary itself going through the extras.

ETA: the poster above me said it better :P

And in terms of timeline, those were two snapshots of the WHOLE timeline. And btw... Jeremy has posted on various forums(serenitymovie.org serenitymovie.net etc) the timeline that would be included on the DVD, asking for people to add events and refine that timeline.

Here is a link on his messgaeboard. Allyson and kirsten is found on that timeline.

here


You know with the amount of negativity surronding this post, I am beginning to regret posting this story.

[ edited by kurya on 2006-04-19 21:01 ]

[ edited by kurya on 2006-04-19 21:02 ]

kurya | April 19, 22:57 CET

Sorry for being ignorant - but what is this 'timeline' people are talking about?

foofaraw | April 19, 22:58 CET

Ah. I see it.

December 18(ish?), 2002 - Fan campaign organizers, Kiba and Kristen are invited to the set of Firefly.

That's incorrect.

Allyson | April 19, 23:02 CET

kurya, why? I don't get the negative tone thing.. Allyson actually has a point about her name being missing from the time line. I'm sure they have time to fix that. The legal thing, personally (and I can't stress that word enough) I think should be raised, as the last thing they need is for it to all go down the tube after release.

Overall, I'm sure many people are looking forward to this. It certainly looks well made.

foofaraw - there's a time line feature on the DVD, voiced by Jewel I understand (well, might be slightly harder to fix), which counts what happened with Firefly/Serenity in 2002/2003/2004/2005.

[ edited by gossi on 2006-04-19 21:04 ]

gossi | April 19, 23:03 CET

Allyson, there's also this:

November(?) 2002 - Joss's wife Kai, writes to Joss Whedon "cheerleader": Kiba Rika asking what can be done to bring up the ratings for Firefly. Kiba contactes her friends Allyson and Kristen to start a Firefly save-the-show campaign "Firefly: Immediate Assistance". They start collecting donations for a Variety ad. They also organize a write in campaign to Fox and the Firefly advertisers. Details at:
http://emahollywood.com/firefly.html

Maybe you saw that already, and were just referring to the fact that your name also should have been included in the December entry, but just thought I'd point it out in case.
The DVD looks really interesting!

acp | April 19, 23:10 CET

I found the OB post where Jeremy had listed the timeline and asked for more info and corrections. It looks like Allyson is mentioned as working on the fan campaign, but not as one who visited the set. Is this correct? Not sure if what is listed changed at all in the text used for the dvd since the screenshot does not include November data.

I see that it's not correct, and someone already posted the text of the post. People sure are fast around here :)
[ edited by danregal on 2006-04-19 21:21 ]

[ edited by danregal on 2006-04-19 21:25 ]

danregal | April 19, 23:14 CET

danregal, I hope you mean 'like the wind' ;)

lone fashionable wolf | April 19, 23:35 CET

lone fashionable wolf, well...that is the cool kind of fast. And as you know, Whedonesquers are all kinds of cool. So yes, you are correct :)

danregal | April 19, 23:45 CET

The documentary looked great when I saw it (first cut) in Flanvention, and Wondercon. I can hardly wait to see what the final product will be, plus extras. I hope there will be some footage from Flanvention in the "extras".

impalergeneral | April 20, 00:37 CET

Exactly. I'm not angry at them, I don't want my money back or anything, I'm still aching to see this but when it was said "We'll have it done by X date." and that admitedly nebulous date comes and goes it looks unprofessional, the whole thing is a bit tainted now. It doesn't matter if you do this as a hobby or if you're a regular joe, the second money was exchanged you should be professional about it. If you set a date you should stick to it otherwise you can't expect people you've never met to trust you with their money. And if you aren't sure you can stick to the date then don't set one.

So now here we are several months past that date, I handed my friend a piece of paper for Christmas that I catch flak over every time I see him, and every month (if we're lucky) we get a post saying "Hey we're almost done."

[ edited by war_machine on 2006-04-19 22:43 ]

war_machine | April 20, 00:41 CET

I knew I remembered something. In May 2003, Gail Berman confirmed plans for Firefly movie. Always stuck in my mind.

Simon | April 20, 01:02 CET

I've emailed the guys doing this over and over again. Their only response to my concerns and frustration over being charged for this thing - and in fact paying about $10 more than those who waited and ordered later - well over six months ago is "If you want, we'll refund your money."

Nothing remotely like an email list to give anyone an update on what's going on. If you don't check the website, you don't know anything.

It's one of those situations for me that equates to: by the time I get it, I'll be so pissed about it that I don't know when I'll bother watching.

[ edited by ShelaghC on 2006-04-19 23:15 ]

ShelaghC | April 20, 01:14 CET

I knew I remembered something. In May 2003, Gail Berman confirmed plans for Firefly movie. Always stuck in my mind.

Clearly Simon, she did it without _talking_ to Joss since it says so in the timeline. Confirmation, if it were required, that Joss and Gail Berman are in secret telepathic communication, as i'm sure most of us have suspected for years ;).

Quite a coup for the creators though (and not half bad for the rest of us either). What a lucky fandom we are, pretty hard to imagine many other actors helping their fans out in this way.

(must confess i've been waiting for the DVDs to actually go on sale before parting with my hard earned - *cough* ;) - cash but this is even more reason to buy one if and when)

Saje | April 20, 02:04 CET

Jeremy was actually in Vancouver yesterday to do the voiceover recording with Jewel. Unfortunately for those of us Browncoats at my Easter dinner, he arrived too late Monday night to join us. I, for one, am really looking forward to watching this DVD.

samatwitch | April 20, 02:20 CET

If you don't check the website, you don't know anything.

Oh, I know a solution to that! There's this really awesome website that posts all kinds of interesting news items, including any updates on Done The Impossible. It's so great, I go there at least once a day. :-)

AlanD | April 20, 02:24 CET

Hi all, Jeremy here, I just got back from recording the voice-over with Jewel in Vancouver. As expected, she was great to work with, and totally professional. Thank you all for the interest and discussion about our little documentary. I'd like to address some of the issues raised:

Legal Issues: With any of the facts we state we have done the best research we could to make sure they are accurate. However, the comment you are all referring to in the screenshot was stated as an opinion and an assumption, or at least it was when I wrote it. Apparently I guessed correctly, because in the time since I wrote it, I've had that very information confirmed by no less than three "powers-that-be". As far as any other legal issues, we have been very careful to use all original source material. And as much as we would have liked to have used clips from the show/movie to help illustrate our points, we haven't.

Slipped release date: Yes, I fully admit we missed our original, highly optimistic date. But Duke Nukem' Forever, this is NOT. You will have a disc in your hand in well under a year from when we started (actually sooner than that), Duke Nukem has been in production since before the first consumer 3D video card was invented! (that's like 8 years for you non-techie folks) We aren't going to make the mistake of announcing a release date again, until we KNOW exactly when that will be. But it really is soon. The website gives a pretty detailed explanation of exactly what's left to be done.

Feedback: I'm a little surprised to hear that some people consider this to be 'tainted.' I have endeavored to reply very quickly and as thoroughly as possible to any and all concerns. (I get about 2-3 messages a day, so from my perspective, its not like there's a massive swelling of concerns.) However, if you emailed me and didn't get a response, I apologize, I must have missed it in the sea of spam that I get everyday. We haven't done an email list, simply because we are too busy to take the time out to set all that up and maintain it. I'd rather put the time towards getting this out the door. We will update the website much more regularly as we enter the final stretch.

Money: Yes we have already accepted pre-payment money for this project. But the reason is practical. We simply didn't have the Amazon-like infrastructure to accept orders, but only charge on ship, PayPal and our Credit Card system didn't support it. But for the record (and I've stated this before on Whedonesque) we have spent less than 5% of the money received - the rest is sitting in the bank. This was very intentional, because we did not feel right about spending money that we hadn't yet earned, it's been a very financially straining decision, but we've stuck to it. If ANYBODY wants a refund, we will make it immediately. (And in fact, we have received exactly two requests for refunds, and I refunded them within hours of receiving the request). As for the comment about paying $10 more. I'm not sure what you are referring to, the price of the DVD has only fluctuated a couple dollars up and down, based on the promotion we were offering at a given time.

Alyson: As was pointed out, we certainly did mention your involvement, and we even offered to interview you for the documentary (and we were even considering making it, it's own special feature), but you declined. Which I totally understand as I HATE watching my own interview segments! And, if I may speak freely, I would like to say that the whole foundation of this fan movement was largely based on your early efforts, and I for one am very appreciative.

ShelaghC: If you are frustrated with the missed deadline, I don't blame you, so are we. But, beyond offering to refund your money, I don't know what else I can offer (I guess we could release it as-is, but that would be disappointing to everyone.) If we could work faster, we would. I hope that when you do get the disc, you'll at least take a look at it, cause frankly, I think it's pretty damn good, even if I do say so myself.

Jeremy

JeremyN | April 20, 03:35 CET

I just went back and re-read the comments. Alyson, here is exactly what we had Jewel read with relation to you:

"Firefly: Immediate Assistance
Joss's wife Kai, writes to Joss Whedon "cheerleader" Kiba Rika asking what can be done to improve the ratings for Firefly. Kiba contacts her friends Allyson and Kristen and they start a Firefly save-the-show campaign. They collect donations for a Variety ad, organize a write-in campaign to Fox and the Firefly advertisers, and promote viewing parties."

and

"December 18th - Fan campaign organizers, Kiba and Kristen are invited to the set of Firefly."

I got the info from your website and my memory, but if there is incorrect information there, please do be specific, and I'll see if it can be corrected. Thanks.

JeremyN | April 20, 03:51 CET

It's small, Jeremy. Kristen and I visited the set. Unfortunately, Kiba was home studying, so Tim sent her a crew jacket in appreciation.

[ edited by Allyson on 2006-04-20 02:17 ]

Allyson | April 20, 04:16 CET

Hey! How come I'm not mentioned anywhere in the documentary or timeline or anything??? What am I? Chopped liver?

...Oh. Yeah. Right. I didn't do jack. Silly me! *ducks*

ZachsMind | April 20, 05:37 CET

Sorry about that Allyson, I'll see if I can do a bit of audio cut and paste.

[ edited by JeremyN on 2006-04-20 04:31 ]

JeremyN | April 20, 06:31 CET

April 20, 2006 -- Whedonesque poster and grumpy old man about town, Zachsmind, remains chopped liver ;)

zeitgeist | April 20, 06:31 CET

LOL! I can totally hear Jewel reading that on the DVD, zeitgeist! (Or maybe we can get ZachsMind to read it himself!) What's the icon for "chopped liverness"? ;-)

billz | April 20, 06:46 CET

ZM would be so busy listening to it over and over that we would never see him again :)

zeitgeist | April 20, 07:06 CET

IF zachsmind can voice stuff, why can't I? Its the hair...just admit it!!!

kurya | April 20, 07:48 CET

Up until now I had only given a briefest thought to buying the dvd...now I want it! Funny how just getting more background on the production challenges and the really polite post by Jeremy has me enthused.
Thanks for all your work on this Jeremy! And all who have/are helping with it!

Ceslas | April 20, 08:28 CET

Now, more than ever, I wish MOH and I had been at Universal City the day Jeremy & co interviewed some Browncoats! We had gone back to the hotel because we were tired and didn't make it back in time.

I know that the guys have been doing everything possible to get all the facts right, but they can't read minds.

I am still so excited about seeing this documentary and figure that the wait will absolutely be worth it!

vampirefan | April 20, 09:14 CET

I know it will be worth the wait, Jeremy! Jeremy and Brian are class acts, everyone. This project couldn't be in better hands, even if I hear horrible rumors that there are disgustingly embarrassing moving pictures of me dancing on the DVD. ACK!

TamaraC | April 20, 09:31 CET

Actually we put the dancing shot in there to mostly because of James' dancing, you were just caught in the "cross fire". But now I'm feeling guilty because of the kind words James had about us in this thread (not guilty enough to remove his shot though... I have keep my journalistic integrity after all).

JeremyN | April 20, 10:20 CET

When I pre-ordered the dvd in september, it was said that people ordering this soon would have extra discs of "raw" material, if I understood well. Is this promotion still up and running?

Le Comité | April 20, 11:42 CET

Because I was one of the very early buyers, I'm not sure I can now find my proof that I paid all those many months ago. So if I don't get it, due to some error, I'm not sure what my options would be. If there had been a regular update sent to those who had already paid, then any problems would have been caught early.
But what I paid for was the documentary. All these extras will be great and worth waiting for.

Lioness | April 20, 15:57 CET

Lioness, you should send an email to Jeremy, maybe you can send him your name, and they will have it in their records...

kurya | April 20, 18:43 CET

While like everyone, I really appreciate all the extras being added. But there is coming a point where, IMHO, Jeremy needs to stop adding more and more to the project and finalize it. Earlier this month (more than four months after it was due out) Jeremy said that he hoped it was going to the replicator by the 15th. And he's still working on it. I'm not trying to be an azz about this, but there needs to come a point where the one extra final brushstroke on the painting really needs to be the final one. I'm not asking that what is ready to be sent out as is, but permaybehaps anything else major could be in volume two?

It has been so long I'm not sure how much I paid, what all I was told I'd be getting, if I'm getting that plus all the other stuff being added on, whatever. I know, I know, email Jeremy. I did. Just venting a little. Just take it as a sign of how anxious I am to get it in my grubbies.

tinktanker | April 20, 19:11 CET

Actually we put the dancing shot in there to mostly because of James' dancing, you were just caught in the "cross fire". But now I'm feeling guilty because of the kind words James had about us in this thread (not guilty enough to remove his shot though... I have keep my journalistic integrity after all).

Who is this James you speak of?

I think maybe you should listen to that guilt, you'll have plenty of integrity left over :)

danregal | April 20, 19:25 CET

I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my shiny new disk (and I'll wait as long as necessary)! WOOHOO!

themarina | April 20, 21:40 CET