Film Strategy

HBD John Singleton (director of Boyz in the Hood, Poetic Justice, etc.) and Anthony Minghella (director of The English Patient, Cold Mountain, etc.) [d.] and RIP Victor Fleming (director of The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, etc.) who died this day in 1949. WRITING: Is it possible to be a screenwriter and have a family ? (the bad news and the good news) PRODUCING:  What is your filmmaking game plan for 2014 ? FINANCING: What are investors considering when they fund films?   DIRECTING: Everyone knows that having famous actors in your movie will help it get financed and screened. So once you have them committed and casted, how do you direct famous actors in a microbudget film ? LIGHTING: Here's an homage to all the things grips and electrics have to do to light and shoot without the gear they actually need... shitty rigs . SHOOTING: How can you use camera angles to sell your scene ? SOUND: A tutorial on the importance of the pre-production process for your sou

Amplifier circuit, common-emitter configuration with a voltage-divider bias circuit. HBD to the transistor , the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices , found in everything from TVs, mobile phones, radios, calculators and computers.  That you can read this post is a function of the transistor's capabilities, so thank you John Bardeen , Walter Brattain , and William Shockley for developing it at Bell Labs in 1947.  Thanks to the transistor we can watch movies on screens as large as walls and as small as belt buckles. WRITING: What are the elements of a good scene ? LEGAL: How much does an entertainment lawyer cost ? PRODUCING: Do women prefer films made by female filmmakers ? FINANCING: How do you finance a movie using VOD sales projections ? DIRECTING: How do you turn your boring movie into a Hitchcock thriller ? (h/t to Jeffrey Michael Bays and makes a great last-minute gift) SHOOTING: How do you add diffusion to your image by 'netting

Oh boy... started the day later than I expected so the Midweek MORNING Mixer became the Midweek MIDDAY Mixer.  You probably didn't notice but still felt like I had to explain.  Now... on to our program...  November 6 marks the birth of 2 important directors and film visionaries who should be better known by mainstream audiences - Thomas Ince and Mike Nichols . Thomas Ince - November 6, 1886 Born into a stage family in Newport, Rhode Island, Thomas Harper Ince would grow up to be known as the “Father of the Western.” At the age of 15, Ince made his Broadway debut. But despite his theatrical blood, and performing in a number of plays and vaudeville shows, Ince could never make his acting career pay off. Instead, he turned to the new medium of film. By 1910, he was directing one-reelers. And by 1911, he’d convinced the New York Motion Picture Co. to send him to California. In Los Angeles, Ince’s ambition blossomed. He leased land close to Santa Monica, and hi

November 4 Barack Obama became the first African-American president today in 2008. For many that was a new day of hope and, for others, the first step into hell. Well, whatever, I for one was happy.  But that's life, a heady mix of the good and the bad depending on your perspective.  And in the film & TV industry, today was both a happy one and a sad one too.   Happy for those born today, like... 1879 – Will Rogers , American actor (d. 1935) 1913 – Gig Young , American actor (d. 1978) 1918 – Art Carney , American actor (d. 2003) 1959 – Ken Kirzinger , Canadian actor and stuntman 1961 – Ralph Macchio , American actor 1961 – Jeff Probst , American television host and producer 1969 – Sean Combs , American rapper, producer, and actor 1969 – Matthew McConaughey , American actor And sad for those who died today like... 1982 – Jacques Tati , French actor and director (b. 1907) 2011 – Andy Rooney , American radio and television host (b. 1919) +++++++++++++++++++++

[ Note: I couldn't get the Monday Morning Mixer out on time because of some issues with my mom's health that I had to attend to.  We're still working on it, and even though she's strong (God bless her), it's taking its toll. ]   Nevertheless, here's the midweek edition, Halloween style. To start with, October 30 marks the day for two morbidly tragic true Hollywood tales; the suicide of Max Linder and the murder of Ramon Navarro . October 30, 1925 The story of silent comedian Max Linder, who committed suicide this week in 1925, is a truly tragic one. Beginning his career in 1905, Frenchman Linder was the first great screen funnyman, writing, directing and starring in hundreds of shorts, in which he played the instantly recognizable Max, the dapper Frenchman with the cane, top hat and moustache. He was a huge influence on emerging stars like Charlie Chaplin, who called himself a “student” of Linder and was greatly influenced by his

Oct. 7, 1996 FOX News Channel launched today in 1996 to 17 million subscribers.  Rupert Murdoch launched the 24-hour news channel on both cable and satellite as part of a News Corp. "worldwide platform" for Fox programming, reasoning that "The appetite for news – particularly news that explains to people how it affects them – is expanding enormously." [And yet "We report. You decide." is the logline.]  Murdoch's foray into cable television faced two legislative hurdles; first, no company outside of the US was allowed to own broadcast stations there and, secondly, a company could not simultaneously own a newspaper and a television station in the same city.  Using charm, influence, vision and money, the rules were relaxed or revised. In January of 1996, Murdoch hired former NBC executive and Republican political strategist, Roger Ailes , to run the channel.  "Ailes worked individuals through five months of 14-hour workdays and several wee

October 2, 1979 Sony v. Universal Studios may be the most famous of all copyright cases because it was a decision that would determine the future of media. People who know nothing about copyright know that the Sony-Betamax case held that home videotaping of television programs is fair use.   One of the key moments in a case that found its way to the Supreme Court occurred today on October 2 when a district court handed down an opinion that absolved Sony of liability.  The copyright law, Judge Ferguson held, did not give copyright holders “a monopoly over an individual’s off-the-air copying in his home for private non-commercial use.”  Universal appealed to the 9th Circuit and remanded it back to the district court.  The following day, members of Congress introduced legislation in both the House and the Senate to legalize home video recording.  On June 14, 1982, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Sony case, and members of Congress sat back to wait and see what the Court woul

Film-Makers’ Co-op Press Conference, 1964 L to R: Gregory Markopoulos, P. Adams Sitney, Andy Warhol, Ron Rice, Jonas Mekas © 1964 On September 30, 1962, a group of New York filmmakers (including Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Emile de Antonio, and Jack Smith) released “ The First Statement of the New American Cinema Group ,” a manifesto by New York artists to herald in new age of cinema. Railing against current modes of exhibition, distribution and financing, this group proclaimed low-budget filmmaking as its own aesthetic: “The low budget is not a purely commercial consideration. It goes with our ethical and esthetic beliefs, directly connected with the things we want to say, and the way we want to say them.” Overall they called filmmakers to unite and storm the box office. In their vibrant last words, “we don't want rosy films — we want them the color of blood.” While few of the filmmakers became household names, The Film-Makers' Cooperative they started liv

Captain's Log. Star Date:9.18.13 62 years ago today A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE opens When Elia Kazan’s film  A Streetcar Named Desire  opened in September of 1951, those who’d read the play or seen the Broadway production, knew this was something very different. The 1947 drama, for which playwright Tennessee Williams received a Pulitzer Prize, was for the most part intact. The haughty Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) comes to live with her sister Stella (Kim Hunter), and her sister’s earthy husband Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). But the nuances that defined William’s dramatic style were quietly erased. The Production Code Administration, led by Joseph Breen, demanded up front 68 changes (some rather major). Blanche’s dead gay husband is now simply referred to as sensitive; the rape is covered in darkness; Blanche’s sexuality is quieted down. But even this was not enough, as Warner Brothers worked out a 11th hour deal with the Catholic League (unbeknownst to either Kazan or

Some people don't like to know how a magician pulls off his tricks on stage to avoid spoiling their suspension of disbelief.  I'm not one of those people; I want to know and I appreciate any opportunity to see how it's done.  Besides, the technical trick itself is just one of the many elements to enjoy in a good show, there's also the banter, the misdirection, sleight of hand, etc. So knowing how it's done doesn't detract from the overall experience for me. Creating illusions as well, the filmmaker is also like a magician and for those of us making a living making films and videos we have to constantly pierce the veil on how things are done.  With this knowledge, we learn how great videos are made and then use that knowledge to replicate or, even better, improve upon what's been done.  Then if we're good enough, the next filmmaker will take what we've done and build upon that. And so on, until cinema is no more. Being a big fan of music video