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!

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 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.

Thomas Mai Presentation ETMA, Strasbourg from Thomas Mai on Vimeo.

My sentiments exactly

Amen.

Stu Maschwitz set to direct Psy-Ops movie

Stu Maschwitz, author of the DV Rebel's Guide to Making Action Movies on the Cheap, and the incredible resource blog Prolost (get the RSS feed of this blog on our Texas Film Scene) has been tagged to direct the new biggish-budget film Psy-Ops. Excsssssellent. I'll be there.

Attention, Movie Tech Geeks: Great interview with Stu on why 24p rocks, here. Sorry, it's not embedable video (boo!).

Curtis Wayne Demo Reel

Drawing inspiration from my fellow Texas Film Scene member Tommy Kendrick's excellent short-form demo reel, I decided to re-edit mine. I took a little different approach, since I don't have the pedigree that Tommy brings. Instead of a dozen short scenes, I used just a few scenes (still short, about 90 seconds for the whole reel), but long enough to show different looks and some acting "chops," I hope. Please let me know what you think. I would love some feedback!

NOTE: HD version is available on YouTube.

UPDATE: I have heard and obeyed! Newly-updated reel now includes clip titles, as you guys suggested. To keep it short and focused, I left out other clips from comedy roles and such. Thanks for all the great feedback, folks!

Indie Film Fissure Starts its Texas Screening Tour

A shameless plug for my fellow Texas filmmaker Russ Pond.

The Award-Winning, Indie Film Fissure Starts its Texas Screening Tour

Indigenous Film Works and Top Pup Media invite you and your guests to a free preview screening of FISSURE in Dallas on July 21st, Houston on July 22nd and Austin on July 23rd. Showtime is 7:30 PM. Doors open at 6:30pm. The screening is free, so seating is first come, first serve.

Fissure star James Macdonald and producer/director Russ Pond will be attending all three screenings. Please join us for a night of mystery and indie filmmaking.

Details about the screenings can be found here: http://fissure.tv/screenings

You can register for the Facebook events at the following links:

Dallas Screening - Tuesday, July 21: http://bit.ly/fissure-dallas
Houston Screening - Wednesday, July 22: http://bit.ly/fissure-houston
Austin Screening - Thursday, July 23: http://bit.ly/fissure-austin

Synopsis: Detective Paul Grunning is trying to piece together his fractured life. When a routine disturbance at the Ulster House turns into an unexplainable death, all he has worked for will be tested. James McDonald is Grunning, an ailing, addicted cop, haunted by his own bad choices. He investigates the mysterious house, only to find shifting testimonies and perplexing new clues in every room. Sifting through the erratic claims of Emma, the victim’s wife, Rachel, the seductive grad student, and Andrew, a bitterly resentful son, Grunning uncovers motives, but no real answers. Ultimately, Grunning must navigate a fractured reality and his own insecurities to find what's real.

Fissure Trailer: http://www.fissure.tv/fissure-trailer

Choose your rut

There is a sign on an muddy dirt road: "Choose your rut carefully. You'll be in it for the next 26 miles."

Mary and I chose Austin, Texas. As ruts go, it's pretty awesome. As major movie projects go, well, we're kind of in a rut.

Other actor friends of mine chose L.A. As big studio movie projects go, it has been, and still is, the place to be. As a place of business, L.A. looks like it's becoming a pretty big rut, according to this op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Casting director and actor Mark Sikes, along with millions of other people, think L.A. is the bee's knees. Mary and I thought it was pretty cool, too, though with all the usual caveats- too expensive, traffic sucks (REALLY sucks, not like Austin traffic sucks), and smog, though it's gotten better. As a young single person, I think it would be great. As an old married couple with kids looking for a house and good schools, not so much. Especially not as a struggling actor. But Sikes is quick to note "[Y]ou'll be here ten years minimum. If that sounds like a prison sentence then you might want to get out now. "

Hey, every place has it's good and bad.

The Texas legislature recently passed historic incentives to lure productions back to Texas. I was in Shreveport for an audition last week, and a fellow actor mentioned that the Louisiana just passed higher incentives to keep productions there. More rut for us? *Sigh...*

One attraction of states like Texas or Louisiana is the absence of city and state income taxes, like the ones that Newcombe's WSJ article rails against. You also get a lot of quality life for your money. Summer is hotter, but we don't have earthquakes. Shreveport is nice, but basically a gambling town. My agent once offered my wife and I the chance to run her New Orleans office years ago, but I'm opposed to drowning in hurricanes. A well-known movie and television star once confided to me: "Hell, yes, I'd prefer to live in Austin. What actor wouldn't? But L.A. is where the work is."

With so much capability in the hands of independent filmmakers, and the old studio model changing under our feet, it is important to look at TQL- the Total Quality of Life package for whichever rut you choose.

For us, Texas, and Austin in particular, is pretty hard to beat. Forbes Magazine agrees, with Texas claiming the top five spots for Best Big Cities for Jobs in 2009. Austin is usually near the top of most such lists, whether it's CNN, Kiplinger, U.S. News and World Report, or acting colleagues. Most actors are unemployed most of the time, so we need other jobs to make ends meet. Those jobs are getting harder to find in L.A., even waitstaff jobs, the actor's bread-and-butter gig!

So when you're considering where to hang out your filmmaker shingle, choose your rut carefully. You'll be in it a long time.

Medium budget films too risky for Hollywood economy

In a recent episode of KCRW's The Business, host and Daily Beast writer Kim Masters and two of her journalistic comrades, Jonathan Horn, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, and Stephen Galloway executive editor of the Hollywood Reporter magazine, concurred with my prognosis that mid-level Hollywood films are dying, possibly already dead.

"Movies are more about concept than stars," said Horn. Which explains Transformers, Spider Man, The X-Men, Hangover, and, uh, Transformers 2. High-concept movies are nothing new, but they used to be a tasty desert on the Hollywood studios' menu; now they are the main course.

It looks like they will soon be the only dish that Hollywood serves.

How not to use the internet to find investors for your film or theatre project

Shara Nickell brought my attention (via Angela Lee's Film Austin Yahoo Group) to this excellent article from L.A. entertainment attorney Gordon Firemark, and he graciously allowed me to republish it here. Good stuff. I've been working with L.A.-based producers for over 10 years raising money for films, only modestly successfully. It's complicated and expensive. Before you stake your hopes on "InstantProducer.tv" or similar sites, read this article.

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How not to use the internet to find investors for your film or theatre project.

By Gordon Firemark | May 13, 2009

In recent weeks, I’ve begun to see more and more independent filmmakers and theatre producers using forums, chat rooms, and other internet-services to seek out investors for their projects. In most cases, these inquiries are couched in plain language: “Seeking investors for independent film” or similar.

Unfortunately for these producers, their use of the internet as a tool in identifying and securing the financing for their projects may actually serve as an impediment to their efforts, making the sometimes improbable chances of raising funds virtually impossible.

Projects financed through the use of funds contributed by investors must comply with myriad laws and regulations governing the manner in which the investment opportunity is communicated and the transaction completed. First among these laws is the 1934 Securities Act, which established the Securities Exchange Commission, and gave that agency authority to regulate the offer and sale of securities.

What is a “security”?

Generally speaking, any sale of an investment in a venture where the investor’s role is “passive”, in that he or she does not share meaningfully in the right to control the day-to-day operations of the venture, and/or does not share the risk of loss with those in control, is likely to be considered a security, subject to the rules and regulations of the SEC.

The Registration Requirement

The general rule is that every offering or sale of securities must be registered with the SEC unless there is an available exemption on which the issuer relies. Registration of securities is a time-consuming and often cost-prohibitive option for low-budget filmmakers and producers of theatrical plays and musicals.

Exemptions from Registration: Advertising not permitted.

Although there are several exemptions from registration available, those that are most commonly available to producers of entertainment arise under SEC Regulation D. Unfortunately, these exemptions are intended for private, limited offerings, rather than offers made to the general public. As such, the regulations prohibit the use of advertising in the offer and sale of the securities.

Internet postings seeking investors ARE advertisements.

Lawyers are in agreement that any communication put on the internet for the purpose of raising money via sales of securities WILL be considered an advertisement, and thus, renders the Regulation D exemptions inapplicable. Therefore, by posting in an internet forum, chat room or social networking site, producers often make things much harder for themselves.

Solutions

So, how can a producer effectively use the internet in her efforts to finance her project?

One possible solution is to work outside the securities realm. By this I don’t mean to skirt the law, but rather to ensure that the offering being made does not involve securities, but instead, an opportunity to become an “active” investor and participant in the production. Typically, this is done by posting or offering prospects the chance to review the business plan for the project, and the chance to join as a partner, co-venturer or founder of an initial incorporation for the purpose of producing the project.

This drastically limits the universe of likely financing partners, since by being “active”, the partner shares in the downside (liability) as well as the possible upside from the profitable project.

Another viable approach (if executed carefully), is to use the internet as a tool for developing and building relationships with people whom you may later approach on a personal, private basis with the investment opportunity. Care should be taken, however, that this relationship building is in fact more than merely window-dressing. The common interests of those involved must go beyond the project being financed. The internet in such situation isn’t involved in making the offer, but merely in networking with like-minded individuals.

Finally, there ARE some internet based organizations that focus on attracting “accredited” investors and building a pool or network of people interested in investing in entertainment projects. By engaging the services of such an organization, (which has a pre-existing relationship with pre-qualified investors), some producers have succeeded in securing financing.

Ultimately, however, the internet should be thought of as simply another medium for communication. It cannot be used in ways that older, more traditional communication methods would be prohibited. Before starting any campaign to raise funding for a film or theatre project, producers should consult with a qualified and experienced entertainment lawyer (like the author), as the pitfalls for noncompliance with securities regulations are onerous.

NOTE: This article addresses U.S. Law only. Securities laws vary from one country to the next, and from state-to-state within the U.S. This article is not a substitute for legal advice obtained from an experienced entertainment attorney you’ve hired to counsel and represent you.

Trent Haaga's new DVD out in UK

Moviemaker pal Trent Haaga has just released his very successful Dead Girl on DVD in the UK (PAL players only, sorry). But look for it soon here in the U.S.

Kick ass, Trent!

On taking better photos

Great post on taking better photos from Stu Maschowitz over at Prolost. Read it from the home page RSS feed at Texas Film Scene.

Tough times for big stars

Tough times for A-listers.  Scarlett Johansson was recently tapped to replace Emily Blunt as the leading lady in Iron Man 2.  Marvel Studios' initial offer to the young superstar?  A measley $250,000, reports Kim Masters of KCRW's The Business, in her Daily Beast column.

Now, a quater million dollars for an acting gig would cause most of us, even most "working" actors, to wet their pants with glee.  But to an A-lister like Johansson, the offer must have hurt;  at least her pride, not to mention her pocketbook.  After all, Malibu mansions don't come cheap these days!

What does that mean to indie filmmakers?  It means even in elite Hollywood circles, budgets are key.  The more you can do with less, the better off you'll be.  Sounds like a perfect reason to make your own damn movie!

New TFS Podcast - Mike Maden of Pink the Series

Photo courtesy of Pink the Series

My guest today is Dallas-area film writer Mike Maden. Mike is the co-creator of the pheonomenonally successful Web show PINK THE SERIES, which has almost 6 million hits on YouTube, and can also be seen on many other Web sites, including the WB.com. Mike is a Texas writer who has lived and worked in LA, but it was his work with fellow Texan Blake Calhoun on Pink that earned him a deal with L.A.-based production studio Generate, and production deals with Warner Bros. and Hollywood wunderkind McG.

Mike and Blake's company site: www.altfueltv.com. For more information, additional shownotes and links discssed in our podcast, visit the Texas Film Scene site.

NOTE: I wanted to have Mike on during Blake Calhoun's interview, but I wasn't smart enough to make Skype conferencing work with non-Skype numbers.

I really want to pimp what these guys have done, because it's the model of the future for filmmakers: (1) Make the best quality content you can, (2) Post it for free on the Web, (3) Repeat.

Doing just this (which is simple, but not easy), these guys secured a deal with a strong L.A. production company, and production deals with Warner Bros. and one of the hottest talents in the world (McG). Listen, learn, emulate.

Is that thing loaded?

Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, and editor of Wired Magazine, wrote a terrific article on how shooting digitally affects the performance of actors.

Big-name directors that Anderson spoke with, such as Tony Bill (Flyboys, Untamed Heart) explained that shooting digitally eliminates the actors' fear that every take was costing hundreds or thousands of dollars of film, and thus put the actor more at ease.

Photo by Larry Furnace

It also allowed directors to eliminate rehearsals and roll on every take:

It's "the difference between pointing a loaded gun at someone and a toy gun. You point a loaded gun at them and they're going to act different. A film camera is a loaded gun. Digital is not."
--Tony Bill

Having shot on both multi-camera 35mm sets and indie digital sets of various sizes, I have to disagree just a bit. It is true that film is expensive. For an indie filmmaker with a nano-budget, shooting even 16mm is often prohibitive. Robert Rodriguez' book Rebel without a Crew explains this well.

However, there are usually other factors at work that are even more prohibitive than the cost of film, such as crew costs, limited location availability, daylight, and the number of takes an actor (or director) has in them. Actors are like racehorses who wait, wait, wait, in their stalls, while the crew dresses a set, makes up the actors, rigs the lighting, sets the props, and grabs focus. By the time the director yells "Action!", the actors are often emotionally spent. It's like war: hours of boredom punctuated by minutes of sheer terror.

In the still shot above, for example, I am freezing my nips off on a 40' F morning, with a 30' wind chill, while pretending that it is 90' outside. [Photo by professional set photog, industrial videographer, and all-around mechanical genius Larry Furnace.]  But when director Kat Candler called action, we all had to be ready to go, knowing that we had limited time and resources for getting this shoot wrapped.

Even in my former life as a musician, digital media did not change the economics of hourly studio rental and producer fees.  When we rolled, uh, RAM... it was much the same as rolling expensive 2" tape:  time is money.  Time is always money.  Maybe not yours, but somebody's.  And if you are a professional, you appreciate other people's time, and do not waste it.

Digital definitely allows long tail movie-making. But it does not preclude common sense and pre-planning in the process.

Happy Thanksgiving- we're on strike?

Looks like SAG president Alan Rosenberg (pictured) is pushing for an actor's strike authorization. The threat of a work stoppage from one of the major artistic groups has put a crimp in productions for the last nine months, causing networks and studios to rush-release the properties they already have developed, and to hold off launching into any new productions.

A friend of mine is a 30-year veteran Hollywood costume and set designer, and has been suffering through the squeeze this past year by taking on jobs for Ringling Bros. and other clients. But his bread-and-butter business of TV and film costuming has been hurt by AMPTP fears that, once pilots and films are in the middle of production, actors will walk off the set, and have the producers by the short hairs.

I am not yet a SAG member; merely SAG-eligible. Living in Texas and shooting indies, it has not made sense to me to join SAG until I move to Hollywood.

Looks like we picked a good time to postpone our L.A. trip.

Bambino #2 on the way

Mary is pregnant!! Yea!!!

We were really hoping for two kids, but felt so blessed just to get one beautiful baby, Danielle, that we thought we were really pushing it to hope for two. We are thrilled. Danielle will make a great big sister, I know.

As for L.A., well... we are going to wait for another year. Again! Kind of ironic, since having a baby was what stalled our plans the first time. But not going enabled me to be here in Austin when I landed the Living and Dying and Prison Break roles (and a shot at a good role in Microwave Park), so, nobody knows anything, really. We are just happy to have another bambino on the way.

Currently scrambling to find a house and set up shop. We'll keep y'all posted!