Do It All Tonight

Just wanted to share this music video from uber talented Xavier Toscano who generously provided two great songs for Mismo's soundtrack.

This video is produced by Bay Area talent.  I was supposed to be there on shoot day, but I stupidly tripped and broke my collar bone. Congratulations to Xavier and his team.  I'll be there for the next shoot... that is if I'm not producing it;-)

NCS Expo - some notes

“What do you have to do to get your movie made?”

“You do whatever it takes.”

That was James Dalessandro interviewing Bobby Moresco to a packed room of aspiring filmmakers at Northern California’s Screenwriting and Filmmaker Expo in beautiful Napa Valley on Friday, March 26th.

The audience was all ears. Bobby Moresco is a back-to-back Oscar winner for Crash and Million Dollar Baby and James Dalessandro is a best-selling author and screenwriter of Pixar’s soon-to-be first live action film about political corruption in San Francisco during the time of the Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire.

It was obvious the two men had respect for each other. The road to getting a script produced is not an easy one. While being turned down by every studio in Hollywood, Bobby had both family cars repossessed and had to give up his house because he couldn’t pay the mortgage. James quipped that 1906 has been in development longer that it took San Francisco to be rebuilt after the earthquake and fire.  Both were emphatic:  if you can do anything else in life, anything at all that will make you reasonably happy, do it!

Writers live every moment thinking they have nothing to give, but they claw at their souls and give it their all. And this is what it takes to become a success. Bobby said that no one can stop you from writing, directing, producing, but they can stop you from getting paid. He advised that you have to take control of yourself and not depend on someone to give you anything.

Despite the challenges, they offered words of encouragement and advice, one of the most important of which is find your voice; look for something personal in the human condition that you want to explore. Find a story that keeps your fire lit.  

Drama is two ideas of equivalent strength in opposition to each other.  Essential to any piece of drama is the core question, "do I care what's going to happen next?"

On the subject of writer’s block, “Sit at your desk involved in your world. Something will come. Even if it’s bad, it will lead to good writing.”

The Indie Fest - Our First Laurel!

Just opened letter to read:

Congratulations. You've won an Indie!

Award of Merit for feature film, Mismo.

It's not easy to win an Indie as the judging standards are high and winning means the craft and creativity exhibited by your entry is outstanding and stands above other productions. You can be justifiably proud of winning.

Here's a link to their website: http://www.theindiefest.com/Merit.aspx

Woohoo!

Compulsion... Trailer for a feature film

I thought it would be fun to post this trailer that I produced and Gino directed what now seems a life-time ago.  The trailer is based on a story that I came up with and, as with all films, there are three versions, the script I wrote, the trailer we shot, and the one that was edited.

It was so much fun doing this, I'm thinking making a short may be a fun project for the summer... something like One Sound that I produced for Donna Bellorado's directorial debut two years ago and on which Gino also worked. 

Northern California Screenwriters & Filmmakers Expo and Pitch Fest

So excited for the Northern California Screenwriters and Filmmakers Expo this weekend.  Great line up of industry peeps to learn from and network with:

On both Friday, March 26th and Saturday, 27th, there will be classes and presentations by oscar-winning screenwriter, Bobby Moresco (Crash, Million Dollar Baby); acting teacher and coach, Howard Fine (Fine on Acting); acting teacher and coach, Scott Sedita (The Eight Characters of Comedy), advertising genius, Tony Seiniger, (Star Wars, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, and over 1,500 iconic movies); and many other heavy-hitting industry insiders... including my good friend and mentor James Dalessandro, author of 1906: A Novel and screenwriter of 1906, which is being produced by Pixar.

And this is what I'm polishing my script and honing my pitch skills for - getting in front of those industry peeps!

On Sunday, March 28th, after a brief welcome speech by Napa’s Mayor, Jill Techel, there will be a pitch fest where attendees can pitch their scripts, projects, and headshots to Hollywood agents, producers, and studio executives.

In addition, at 4pm on Friday evening, March 26th, a wine-tasting event will be held where attendees can mingle, make connections, and sample fabulous Napa Valley wines. (Must be 21 to participate.)

Fingers crossed!!

Cinequest Wrap-up

It's been a marvelous eleven days of indie film and Maverick meet-ups.  Highlights included an evening with Deepak Chopra and a Day of the Writer with Lew Hunter and other eminent writers discussing the art of writing comedy.  While the opening night's film The Good Heart was enjoyable, at a budget of $3.8 million, it doesn't fall into my personal category of truly indie... So, here are my picks for the best indie films I saw this week... while recognizing that there may have been a few notable flicks that I failed to see:

The Road to Sangam was truly wonderful in its storytelling of how a Muslim man uses Gandhi's peaceful methods to bring his community together.

Another indie from India, Semshook tells the story of Tenzin, a Tibetan born and raised in India, who hops on his motorcycle and embarks on a quest to find his identity and discover the beauty of his homeland.

Cost of A Soul tells the tale of two Iraqi vets who return to their hometown Philadelphia and are drawn into a vicious circle of violence.

Anyone You Want from Scottish filmmaker Campbell Graham tells the story of a couple exploring a life of fantasy until they come up against and have to deal with each other's reality.

Krews tells the story of two high-class cons who get caught in the drug and gang world of L.A.'s Watts neighborhood... full of twists!

And, here's a shout out to British filmmaker Beryl Richards for her short Perfect World.

Congratulations to one and all.  I will look forward to seeing your films in my local theater and on DVD at the video store!  Or, maybe, on demand on Zillions.tv:)

And tonight... it's off to the closing night awards announcement and a final Maverick's meet-up... I am going to miss my family of new-found filmmaker friends... until the next festival! 

And to close, in the words of Deepak Chopra, "Science is an expression of our mind. Art is an expression of the soul. Great art is more than an expression of the soul, it's an expression of a higher consciousness."

Go indie filmmakers!!!

To Screen or Not to Screen...

Sufficient time has passed with no word from our would-be 'distributor' that I feel I can comment on their proposition without being accused of libel, and, in fact, I'm not going to mention the company's name.  So here's the deal:

First of all, my connections in the film biz said outright, "it's a scam."  Never pay for representation! 

I might add that they were asking for $25,000, which is double what it cost us in hard cash to make Mismo.  Of course, the scammers didn't know that, and if anything good came out of this it's that they said Mismo looks like a $300,000 production.

I was still willing to pursue the "opportunity," so I did the due diligence, which initially means Google.  The word "scam" was associated with the company in several blog/article mentions and my experience was recited virtually verbatim.  But, in fairness, I still thought that if it got me traction or industry connections, it still had potential... assuming, of course, that they would do what they said they would i.e. screen Mismo with an after party at Cannes.  I thought that could be worth $25k.

So the next time they called, I asked for references of people they'd worked with in the past.  And therein lies the rub.  They would not (could not?) supply any names.  I continued to get the hard -- though extremely slick -- sell, pressuring me to make a decision.  I said that my partners and I don't do things in a hurry and no decision would be made without proper checking...

And I've not heard from them since.  Except, I did get an email from an intern apologizing for "the delay," explaining that they had to deal with a catastrophe caused by the rain collapsing the roof of the Regency Cinema where their film festival was traditionally held.