1st up is the "fact" that Ken Whitman has all this video production equipment that was paid for by the KoDT: LAS Kickstarter. Equipment that was supposed to be rented, but instead was bought, which helped ensure the fully-funded Kickstarter was under-funded in production. This is the same equipment Ken Whitman allegedly sold some time ago. Whitman is trying to get some struggling actors to pay him to shoot demo reels.
Bonus tidbit: the man himself confirmed he is in Duluth, GA and not Las Vegas.
The next bit is Ken Whitman leading people on about the fate of the Traveller Pilot. Evidently he spliced in a bunch of Firefly/Serenity footage instead of using the CGI he never paid for. This is only a 1 minute promo/teaser, but the take away is the ripping off of more material and the never-before-used* "give me a couple more weeks".
That's it, but I'd thought I'd go ahead and dive in just a bit on something that Ken Whitman said that really wasn't picked up on by others. According to the Traveller update....and I couldn't make this up..."I can't promise that it will get picked up, but I can promise that we have a predominate executive producer pitching it to showtime, hobo, amazon, netflix AND we have a predominate director who is currently up for an academy award interested in the property." I don't have a screen shot of this update (a little help here would be awesome), so I'm going to have to assume this is part of the actual update. I mean, it fits....poor spelling and grammar, preposterous claims, and a statement (earlier part of the update) essentially asking for a few more weeks.
What hit home with me is the claim of one of these men are "interested in the property":
So, we are to believe that one of the currently-nominated (Academy Awards) directors is interested in this project? Yeah.....I have to call bullshit.
*Yes, this is sarcasm.
What whitman doesn't realize is that he inadvertently insulted the very "producers" he has supposedly been talking to by saying they "need to be spoon fed" (these images stolen from another real film studio). It is also foolish to think that a mere 2 minutes of footage with no original work (everything borrowed from other artists) will be attractive to anyone. To top it off, Whitman is once again dragging Far Future Enterprises into this mess of his.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering, who owns Traveller? Whitman must have licensed the property from someone, and if so, have the owners made any statement? All licensing contracts include a brand protection clause.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Far Future Enterprises website:
DeleteThe Traveller game in all forms is owned by Far
Future Enterprises. Copyright 1977 - 2008 Far Future
Enterprises. Traveller is a registered trademark of Far
Future Enterprises. Far Future permits web sites and
fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice,
that Far Future is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of
permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site
are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of
Far Future Enterprises's copyrighted material or
trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files
should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights
or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on
this site cannot be republished or distributed without the
consent of the author who contributed it.
Spinward Traveller was a product with a license from FFE/ Marc Miller. Don't know the situation with this "product."
In January I received an email from FFE stating that Spinward Traveller would be out in mid-2016.
I believe that Marc Miller owns Traveller and licenses it out to other publishers/creators.
Delete*stolen from other artists.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies. I didn't know how to properly describe the demo reel. I guess none of it was paid for. The producers are watching stolen material to evaluate something that doesn't exist anyway ( we, Traveller backers, only have unfinished raw footage with no CGI work).
DeleteFor extra-special giggles, Whitman himself started posting rebuttals and defensive posturing in the Tavern post you linked above. Read the comments, as Kenny's in fine form with even more lies and outlandish claims regarding all of the Kickstarters.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tenkarstavern.com/2016/01/yes-you-can-pay-ken-whitman-for.html#comment-form
That was a good read. It's like he is simultaneously trying to play down that he stole everything and botched the production WHILE AT THE SAME TIME claiming to be successful in both the RPG and acting communities. He keeps houses in several states after all!
DeleteNot a hint of humility or regret.
His latest reply to Jolly in that thread is...ugh...
DeleteKen Whitman January 19, 2016 at 8:42 AM
Nope, I would tell the real story of how stupid I was for trusting you without a contract. And how I spent 15k on hiring employees and infastructure to do KODT audio books only for you to say no after I told you I would not work with your wife after she cursed at me.
That's about 9 months before the release date of KODT, the month you started attacking me on line. AND orginizing groups.
Basically shutting down all revenue for d20 to continental work.
You sir are the mastermind behind d20 going under, so why has Kenzerco not taken Ken Whitman to court.
Because the ugly truth will come out publicly and they don't want Jolly to look like the behind the sceans backstabbing asshole he is.
Ta-da.
Oh wait, jolly so cute and cuddly and awesome. Yeah right! Wait till his God fearing wife calls you a mother fucker.
He just sounds like a bully.
DeleteHopefully, his statements will end up in the "Ken sez" page?
If I understand correctly, what was promised to backers was a 22 minute long episode. What they are getting is 1 minute of footage from Eve Online and Firefly? Additional promises were Resin Ships, most of which were not sent or sent damaged. Ken's defense of all this was it was not his "intent" to screw it all up so badly on SIX Kickstarters. And yet, he has stated outright that he funneled other money, specifically Pencil Dice, right into unrelated projects. To sum it all up? It took 6 failed Kickstarters to get everyone some broken ship casts and 1 minute of footage from Firefly and Eve spliced together.
ReplyDeleteHaving seen the Spinward Traveller pilot at GenCon it is hard for me to believe any "predominate" director would be interested. Nor do I see any major production company being interested. The friend that dragged me to it was involved in the Kickstarter and was supremely disappointed.
ReplyDelete