I aint gonna blow smoke

This week kind of sucked. Three great talents have passed on and a famous couple parted ways. It’s interesting how our society takes these celebrity goings on and passing ons so personally. I mean I didn’t know Farah Fawcett personally, but many of my male friends feel like they did and so I feel like I did. Interesting how all of this is going on and in a country far far away millions are trying to protest against what they feel is a completely unfair election process…yet media coverage of MJ being taken to the hospital far surpassed any coverage of war torn fill in the country here or coverage of our failing health care system where millions die every day because they can’t even afford the ambulance ride let alone a doctor’s visit. It’s a strange time, a time of immense change.

Thinking about celebrities and how important they are to our culture and what makes an actor or actress “worth” something as a Producer is kind of a crazy realization.  Talking to a director of one of our projects today he said that he was able to get a script to his friend, a manager of a well know actor (think American Beauty). She said she loved it, but would not give him the script without money on the table…AH the glorious catch 22… in order to get the $ you need the actor and in order to get the actor you need the $. So you sit there racking your brain of how to circumvent your “friend” the manager/ agent and how to get it said actor or actress personally.

The truth is actors and actresses make our society go round, or at least my society, the entertainment society that I have chosen to belong to. When Paul Newman died I was heart broken; I kept thinking damn I wish I could have had the opportunity to work with him because he was such a talent.  I keep thinking about who Farrah Fawcett was. She did some really great roles (Extremities for one), but she always made fun of the fact that she didn’t even need to read for Charlie’s Angels. She wasn’t an actress, but a body and a face. Yet I am personally saddened by the fact that she passed away. I would be saddened if anyone I grew up watching suddenly died. I am thinking back to Heath Ledger and the tragedy of his death. I remember interviewing Gary Oldman and Aaron Eckhardt and all they did was smile the entire time they spoke about him.

I have to wonder though, do we take too much stock in celebrities. Not only as the people who work in this industry, but as a society at large. The truth is they are just human beings like me or you who had their ups and downs like me or you, but the difference is they had their lives taped for all to see. Sometimes I wish that we would take notice of the greater things going on and not to forget there is a whole big world out there beyond this.

My heart goes out to the families that have lost loved ones whether celebrity or not because I think when it comes to the people who love us…we are all celebrities in our own right.

Smart web series that tanked

So I FINALLY got my computer back from APPLE tech support. Never give them your computer during the launch of a new IPHONE. I digress…

I just caught wind of this via the gang at Tubefilter.com and wanted to do a quick post about it.  This is a web series that the company Smuggler created. Smuggler now reps a lot of great directors and are developing film, theater and web projects. A partner is John N Hart who used to run Hart Sharp entertainment and produced such wonderful films as last years Oscar snubbed film REVOLUTIONARY ROAD.

This web series is essentially one big ad for Tampax Tampons and was sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. It’s a damn shame it didn’t do so well because I think it’s pretty damn smart. I also would have loved for it to continue on and really hope that the gang at Smuggler decide to create a full feature. I think the premise is very smart and really unique; what would happen if as a teenage guy you suddenly woke up with female parts? Though there have been films that have explored this with body switching (SWITCH with Ellen Barkin and Jimmy Smits is the example that comes to mind, sadly!)

Anyway check out this smart web series not because I think Tampax Tampons needs the revenue, but because I really enjoyed the series!

The day my computer died…

Updates have been and will continue to be spotty due to my computer going in for repairs. Writing entries on my phone are annoying and slightly more time consuming than I’d like. I will sum up my conference experience as soon as I’m back online including detailed info from the sessions as promised, but for now I bid you farewell until Apple decides to release my macbook book pro

Produced By Day 1.0

Before the actual start of the conference on Saturday the 6th there was a pre-party Friday night over at Paramount Studios.  I have to assume the reason it wasn’t over at SONY was because Main Street was being occupied for other events that night, SONY was too busy setting up for the weekend or Paramount felt left out and groveled a little bit. Either way I drove my ass to Hollywood to pick up my registration packet dressed in semi cocktail attire per the request of the Produced By Conference and ended up being entertained by the Cinegear Expo instead. I inadvertently made a wrong turn and got to scope out some fun new camera equipment. When I finally made it to the right area on the lot I was greeted by a DJ spinning way too much Britney Spears. As Gimme More blasted through the speakers I found a mini red carpet that led me to the indoor area to pick up my packet. I was anxious to find out the times of my sessions and prayed that my one on one roundtable would not conflict with the ONE panel I was most excited about, the indie financing panel on Saturday. My prayers were NOT answered and now got to choose between asking Marshall Herskovitz personal questions about the business or finding out money resources for my film projects…NOOOOOOOO!

After being offered three different tote bags with t-shirts emblazoned with the Paramount logo, I hit the bar for a drink.  Blinded by the thousands of flood lights I opted for water and started to mingle around for a bit until I realized most people had opted to sit in corners on benches around the party instead of being on the inside where the party was supposed to be happening. I didn’t think this made for good networking and so I then opted to go home and prep for two long days at the conference…

And in the end

Boy oh boy do I have a lot to say about the Produced By Conference held at the SONY lot this weekend June 5-7.  I will go into much greater detail tomorrow and will highlight some of what I felt were important points during the panels I attended. First let me say that the Produced By Conference was probably the most efficiently run conference I have ever attended, which quite frankly makes sense. I mean it better be considering it was organized by PRODUCERS. It’s what we do, we are on time and stay within budget (clearly I do not know what was spent, but considering the price of admission and the number of panels that were sponsored by someone I have to figure they came in under budget).  

Overall I was both inspired and deeply depressed. One other serious downer for me was that my roundtable was the same time as the panel I was most looking forward to on independent financing and probably the one right now I couldn’t afford to miss. However, I got some one on one time with a very important person who I will talk about in my next post. 

I will say this…I am inspired to start my own conference after this for all of us indie producers just trying to make it in film, tv and new media. I want all of us to get together in a room, hell my apartment and start brainstorming ways to make it happen without the confines of a broken system that does not always take kindly to outsiders. However, before that can happen I will be trying to organize a monthly meet up of indie producers like me who simply want a forum to brainstorm, discuss their needs and to share information…more later!

The Big deal conference of ’09

Is anyone that I personally know going to the Producer Conference on the SONY LOT this weekend? I mean not the big head honchos, but the mom and pop Producers with no big studio deals or those sitting on $200 million in private equity? I mean jo shmo normal producer…like me? Any of you types going to this…

Home

Essentially a lot of industry big whigs are going to this. There will be over 100 big name producers everyone from Clint Eastwood to Marshall Herskowitz. Now apparently the event is officially sold out and I registered about a month ago. There is going to be some big time swanky party at the Paramount Lot on Friday night, which is a little weird considering the entire conference is being held at the SONY lot. My guess is that since Paramount is not doing so hot these days that they felt left out of the party and so the hosts and sponsors decided to throw Paramount a bone? Anyhow there have been some rather humorous comments made about this event on Nikki Finke’s blog. Comments such as, “A great event where the town’s producers can pat themselves on the back.” Personally for the little guy, or shall I say little gal like myself, I hope that this will be a good networking opportunity where I can meet people who could actually be helpful or perhaps if I am really lucky will actually learn a thing or two. 

However, there is also a fear that all the big mucky mucks will convene together in private shop talk leaving the little gal on the outer circle unable to be heard or seen. That would to put it bluntly, SUCK. Frankly if that is indeed the case and the event becomes more of a high school prom than a real opportunity to learn and connect, I may have to start up my own indie conference sponsored by Book Soup, Annie’s Organics and held in my duplex! Here’s hoping this weekend is a successful bridging of the gap between studio producer and us indie types struggling to make it…