Baby Face Danielle: Supahstah!!

Just learned that my oldest daughter's first TV commercial (shot at the ripe old age of 18 months), and featuring her mommy Mary Bucek, is on the web here, courtesy of the Sherry Matthews Agency. ALERT:  It's for a breastfeeding campaign, so beware of boobies.

Best of Texas Movies

Don Graham's book about Texas Movies

Here's a fun article from Texas Monthly on making movies in Texas that I just stumbled across.  A "panel of experts" (WTF that means, I'm not sure) decides the Top Ten Movies ever Made in Texas.  I'm not big on "top 10" lists about pop culture, but the article is interesting more for the details you learn about the particular films, and of course, the predispositions about the people naming them, which may serve some of you aspiring filmmakers well, especially those in our Texas Film Scene community.

While the article is from June 2011, the content is evergreen, and I think you'll get a kick out of it.  Enjoy!

New year, new challenge!

Since I last posted, Mary and I had our third (and final!) baby girl, Niesha (pronounced nee-shah).  I've been working on various film projects, in various capacities, including acting, writing, script coverage, and stage daddy.  On the business side, I wrapped up several consulting projects, and was looking for something to keep me closer to home, and closer to my wonderful girls.

And I found it.

Next Monday, I will start full-time as the Director of Operations Chief Operations Officer at an exciting Austin-based company called Appiction, which makes iPhone apps.  Actually, we make apps for several devices, including Android devices, Blackberry (RIM), iPad, and iPod Touch.  It's an exploding industry, and the position harnesses both the left and right sides of my joyful little brain.

The company is a wonderful collection of opposites and complements, hipsters and veterans, artists and strategists, and I'm right in the middle of it- exactly where I love to be!  I've been working there on a consulting basis for three weeks now, and have enjoyed every minute of it.  It's always fun to be in on the ground floor of a new venture, and to have a hand in shaping it's success.  Plus, it's just plain ol' fun.

I'll keep working my film and music jones, but will be combining that with my love of technology and business.  Gonna be a great year!

Hey, if you need an iPhone app for your movie, holla.

Acting class starting

UPDATE:
This Saturday, I am launching the "beta" version of my on-camera "Auditioning" acting class.   This initial class is by invitation only, so if you would like to attend, email me, and I'll let you know if there are any spots left. 


The class will focus strictly upon auditioning, which I believe to be a little bit of a black art, no matter what anybody tells you.  Many folks who read this blog are veteran actors, some are newbs, and some are not actors at all.  A few of each have signed up for the initial class, so you'll be in good company.

We'll cover some of the following items. The rest we'll cover during the full-length course:

• The kind of auditions you should be focusing on for your "type."
• 7 things you should ALWAYS do during an audition.
• Differences between auditions and on-set performances.
• 3 things you should NEVER do during an audition.
• Owning the room.
• How to handle improvised, no-line, and 1-, 2-, or 3-line auditions.
• Group auditions vs. solo auditions vs. "firing line" auditions.
• Role reversal tips.
• Taking direction and making adjustments.
• Making use of the full frame.
• Sit, stand, or lie down?  How to handle stage directions.
• Hot choices and when to make them.
• What to wear, and what to NEVER wear!
• Off-book or on-book?  Should you memorize your lines?
• Live auditions vs. taped auditions.
• Regional casting directors' likes and dislikes.
• How to make story-accurate choices.
• Bait & Switch- what to do when you are asked to read for a DIFFERENT part.
• Using your voice to best advantage.
• Cold Readings – Sides are given to each actor in the audition class and they have between five and fifteen minutes to prepare for the audition.
• Warm Readings – sides are e-mailed to the actors several days in advance and they bring in their prepared auditions.
• Text Analysis – Method that teaches how to efficiently break down a scene to create certainty while auditioning.
• Improvised auditions.
• How to use your nerves to your advantage.
• Transitioning your auditioning skills into a real world audition. Many actors perform fabulously when going over sides on their own, in acting class or with a coach only to have a less than par audition in a real world situation.
• How to kick off your audition with "guns blazing."
• Keeping records of your auditions.
• Keys for product commercials.
• Reading for "non-actor / real people" roles.
• other fun stuff.

In the course of each audition class, actors will work, and see their work on-screen.

Happy auditioning, everyone!  

P.S. - A shout-out to our friend Karl Anderson, who booked a role on the new TV series Chase.  Way to go, Karl!

Pitching a TV show to Oprah

I'm in Dallas this weekend, for the in-person pitch to the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). As always, there were important lessons to be learned.

Things like this are always a long shot, but my friend Kai Dupe and I met many wonderful people, and enjoyed the experience quite a bit. Props to Mary for clueing us in to the whole event!

Today was one of the four American Idol-type "cattle call" events. You can also submit online. I did both.

The online video pitch, which you can find below, allows you to vote easily, with no registration, and as often as you like. I suggest 500-600 times per day, please. :-) I'm shooting for 10,000 votes. Most importantly, though, I'd love to hear your comments and feedback, as I may pitch this to other networks or self-produce, so I'm anxious to hear what you guys think. By the way, much love to Marissa, Roze, James, and L.A. Houston for their great comments. If you're not a member of Texas Film Scene yet, try joining up, and connecting with others like you, who are doing it for themselves.

One lesson in this experience has been that you don't get the call if you don't show up. One guy in Kai's group got a call back, so it DOES happen, and we were close. Another lesson is the importance of being "good in a room," that is, knowing HOW to pitch; in other words, sales. So, 20 years later, that communications degree doesn't look like such a bad call, after all! Finally, you have to remember: you're not actually pitching Oprah. Sorry. You are actually pitching a young (like, 25 year old) junior casting associate. So if your pitch falls flat, take heart. Oprah might love your pitch, when she eventually gets to hear it. But to do that, you may have to make your OWN way for a while, until O comes knocking on your door, saying, "Hey, I'm a big fan of your show!"

Please VOTE if you like the video, and let me know your feedback. Thanks! Here's the URL.

Is your Website ready for Google TV?

Google just announced that Google TV is real, and gave a public demo, via YouTube (above).  It's been the talk of the digerati for a few months now, but at last it's confirmed.  Google also said that by summer of 2011, Google TV will be open-sourced.  That's a big deal.

For one thing, it could pull the life-support plug on AppleTV, which was already reeling from Netflix's partner offerings, like the Roku box, and Amazon's similar service.  For another, it pretty much squashes any hope Microsoft had of jumping in with a new dedicated hardware offering and/or service; fortunately, the X-Box 360 is a sanctioned Netflix-streaming device, but that's all MS has got, really.

I remember a presentation by MIT prof Philip Greenspun in 2001 here in Austin.  He talked about how these awesome new 3G phones were the rage in Japan.  People could websurf on them at ridiculous speeds, and the technology was coming here soon.  Corporations needed to prepare their sites by offering a WAP (wireless access protocol), or 'mobile' version.  Philip was a little ahead of his time.

Mobile browsing did eventually catch on here in America, much later than Greenspun predicted.  Now Google has given the same heads-up:  is your Website GTV-ready?  I don't even know what that entails, but you can be damn sure I'm  gonna find out.  Soon.

Be the Media

David Mathison, former CEO of Kinecta Corporation (purchased by Oracle) has written a book called Be the Media.  Great title.  The content is good, too, though a little shallow.  Mathison attempts to cover an ocean's range of subjects, and while the topics are a mile wide, they are only about a foot deep.  Actually, more like a yard deep, to be fair.  It's a good introduction to several areas, but probably nothing most indie producers don't already know.

Even better than the book, though, is Mathison's Be the Media Internet radio show on BlogTalk Radio.  He's got some impressive guests, and deeper discussions on the topics he scrapes the surface of in the book.  Recent guests included Seth Godin and Terry McBride.  So far, every episode I've heard has been good.  One of the best for filmmakers was this one, featuring distribution guru Peter Broderick.

I like the book, but cannot heartily recommend it.  But I do recommend Mathison's BTR podcast.  Check it out.

Instant jam session- just add iPhone

Musicians, have you ever felt the urge to have a jam session with some friends, to try out new ideas, or just commune with the muse, but found it too much hassle to get everyone together?  Well, check out LaDiDa, a new iPhone app that applies some old technology in new ways, to let you throw an instant "pickin' party."

Years ago, when I was playing a lot as a singer-songwriter, I missed the sound of a full band, and the chemistry of trying out new ideas instantly.  Digital recording systems are great, but they are very solitary affairs, and require you to not only know how to play your instruments, but also those of the musicians you are replacing with a computer (usually the drummer).

A clever piece of software called Band in a Box (PC only) used pre-programmed styles and (terrible) MIDI sound files to provide a backing band, complete with notation and arrangement options, but you had to do at least a little pre-planning, entering the number of measures, chord changes, tempo, key, and style for the program to do it's thing.

LaDiDa is different.  You hum.  That's it.  Literally hum into your iPhone, and LaDiDa figures out everything else on the fly, as you can see in the video.  Very, very, very impressive.  I'm curious to see if it responds to instruments as well as voice.  But even if not, it gives you a great starting point as a songwriter, allowing you to make changes on the fly, and it also gives you motivation to finish the song, since you can easily imagine how great it will sound when complete.

Check it out, and post some feedback of your experience here on this post.  Let me know what you think.

The Futures of Hollywood

A sample of movie futures soon to be on offer from the Cantor Exchange.

The Hollywood Stock Exchange has been around for 15 years.  It's a game where players bet on the "securities" of Hollywood properties, including make-believe stocks, bonds, and even derivatives.  In a truth-stranger-than-fiction move, Cantor-Fitzgerald, a Wall Street investment brokerage and consultancy, bought the HSX.  And now they are hoping to make reality out of fiction.

On April 20, 2010, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) expects to tell Cantor whether they will allow the new company, called the Cantor Exchange, to actually trade movie titles as securities (specifically, as futures).  This means we'll all be able to bet, literally, on whether a movie will make money or not.

This is an interesting twist on the "internal prediction markets" that are happening at companies like Google, who run an exchange to bet on the delivery dates and health of a particular project or product.  Movie returns have always been wildly unpredictable, so it will be interesting to see if commercializing our predictions adds any accuracy, and really makes anyone money (other than the Cantor Exchange, which takes a cut of every transaction), or, if William Goldman was right when he famously said, "Nobody knows anything."

If, like me, you predicted that Hot Tub Time Machine would have stunk up the box office, well, you probably would have lost your retirement fund.  Who knew?

The future of movie distribution

Next time you have a free hour and a half, enjoy this treatise on the future of movie distribution.  Me and many others have been saying the same thing for a few years now, but it's interesting to hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.  Mai is a former distributor sales agent.

Thanks to Lorie Marsh for hipping me to this presentation.