No offense guys, but you were the ones who were insulting him and berating him behind his back, I’ve just gone through this thread after the link was posted on a Star Wars Reddit (SaltierthanCrait) thread, he isn’t forcing anyone to give him money, or pay for the edit, if people want to give him money in appreciation for the work then that is their prerogative.
If he loved doing the work so much he wouldn’t be asking for people to pay him so he can do it full time. He wants to be paid a wage for doing it and pay others in the process. That goes against everything fan editing is about . And the quickest way for Disney to crack down on fan edits and shut them all down. He is profiting from material he doesn’t own the copyright to.
Despite being an avid supporter of this edit (if any edit will make this movie watchable for me, it will be this one or none), I do have to concede at this point that I fully agree with you Ady. If the patreon was so that he could quit his normal job to become a self sufficient film editor that then contracted out his editing work to studios and simply made free fanedits on the side, then this would be realising “his dream” while not making any profit from essentially marketing his fan edit.
Such is not the case though and from the start I have always felt uneasy about his motives behind starting the patreon, saying as much in an earlier youtube comment as well as another comment when I made him aware of the fact many people back here were not happy with the direction he was pursuing with the patreon and that he needed to be crystal clear that any money raised was all going straight back into the edit itself (like you do) and that the finished edit would be completely free to obtain. He did come to comment and eventually make a video that the edit would be freely available to anyone (not just patreon supporters) but the fact he is using the patreon funds to effectively take a wage from and pay others for their time is where it clearly crosses the line and I think for the sake of fan editing and this site, any remaining ties to Ivan should be completely and obviously cut (such as banning his account) apart from just general discussion of his interesting edits.
I am still extremely interested in the fan edit he is making of TLJ but after the time frame for it’s release seems to have gone from 2-3 months from the opening of this thread to I believe the end of this year, he is clearly milking it for all it is worth despite otherwise just coming off as a passionate Star Wars fan and generally good bloke, which is a shame.
Anyway time will tell how this all pans out, I just hope OT.com doesn’t get caught up in any potential fall out if the mouse ends up getting a hold of him (though I get the impression from him with him being in Mexico that he believes he can get away with it and is why he is so bold in throwing it in their faces).
Val