Changes to this blog again...

This blog is changing it's name again mostly because it is difficult for me to maintain as it is attached to an Email that is no longer in use. 

It will henceforth be known as "My Producer Plus Archive"

How this blog works

Basically each story is numbered at the top so anyone can follow the story they are reading as I add to it. The entries may not be necessarily in order so that's why the number system is set up.

Happy reading
~JMC

SIn City: Ace of Diamonds

Story# 00815

Sin City: Ace of Diamonds

[Set in Frank Millers universe, is a story I would like to tell about a character in Basin City. I do not claim any rights to Sin City or any of it's characters. This is a piece of fan fiction not intended for any profit purposes.]

Old Town, strange that the place most people avoid is the one pace I feel safe. Got a spot right next to Kadie's. Asking double what the place is worth, but not asking about anything else which suits me just fine.
That's the funny thing about this place, it's not just like every other Ghetto or bad part of town that you can just drive across some line and wash it off. Ya just like the way Old town makes you feel, just a little bit. It's like some part of ya that sleeps all the while with the good job, family, and what not is just too clean.

Couldn't handle it myself. The clean part, never wanted to wash it off...so I got in and got dirty, real dirty. Marv woulda said I just got honest with myself, he picked one hell of a way to go out.

Old Town, a long time ago used to just be called Downtown, back then things where broken up into four quarters. Each with it's own...organizations that helped the public. The city grew, sections changed or broke up. One thing that stayed where the Organizations, they where well still in tact strong long before the Cardinal and the current group of gentlemen. When I was...working in Old Town years back the Four where still around trying to fight for the new spot and the deciding vote in how to divide up the ever growing city.

I of course helped out where I could, sometimes it went well. Other times, not so much.

Blog Change

So this is to inform all four of you reading this that I have changed where my producers blog is to another locations. The Castle Muse will from this day hence be more about my writing the craft of writing and so on. The producers blog is located at [MyProducer+].

I will still keep the old producer blog stuff on here since there is 51 posts worth I am not inclined to trash that. But the most recent post's about "My journey through the film industry." will be on the new blog.

That's all for now, thanx.

~J

Line Producers, and other Money Things

1:36am and a ton to do still on the latest project. Looks like this one might actually have a chance at getting on a screen somewhere. Right now I would love to have a Line Producer or two. It's funny I ironic that I put that down since "two" is exactly how many LP's we have gone through in the last two months. I am the UPM/Producer/EIC on this project and I can't seem to keep my LP's. It would totally help if I could pay them. HAHAHA, this is an indie feature nobody get's paid till they get paid.

One of the craziest parts of this are the people that are fighting to stay with the project. I've got these guys whom I have vouched for that have made me look bad by bailing on me just before crucial budget dates and the one person that is sticking with me I have not even considered to be an LP.

We are supposed to have interns after the first of the year. I am in need of help with the nuts and bolts of what I am actually doing but it's not going to come. The pressure is somewhat relieved in that we have other people on this show and some fairly competent associate producers. The director has produced before so he is a big help. Also his savings and good credit are a huge boost to us have some cash on hand.

I guess my issue is that I want to be able to focus on other aspects of actually producing and doing UPM work but I now have to sit down and work the budgets for: the whole film, the trailer, the kickstarter.

This is not just 3 budgets, I have to start with a "Dream" or template budget for the the Feature and the Trailer. Then I plug in and change things in accordance with things that are donated or monies that we actually receive. I also have to make multiple budgets for what we are most likely to actually end up with. Then I do budgets for investors at different levels, so a budget for: $25k, 50k, 100k, 250k, 500k, 750k, 1m, 5m, 10m.  So in all right around 17 different budgets. I have to do a cost analysis sheet for the kickstarter because paying out the rewards actually has costs that you have to calculate. This is what I want a person to be doing for like the next 3 weeks, just this. And now I have to do and sit down and write a bunch of contracts.

The contracts I have to write: Location Agreement(templates are a good base but the contract should be specific to your specific needs), Deferred Payment Agreement(a head to toe original work), Signatory Contracts with SAG and any other Unions that make sense for us to use. Partnership agreements, Offering Memoranda(with regards to selling units in the LLC that is the film).

Now on top of this I have to arrange for an intern program to be created, hire the rest of the department heads, get the bids from vendors about camera packages, lighting packages, hire crafty, get a location manager but I can't do any of that without a budget so I can at the least have a number to promise people money and then take forever to pay them. FML

Additionally I've got set up investment meetings, distribution meetings, potential product sponsor meetings. At each one of these meetings I should have ready multiple "3 page" , "5page", and "10page" proposals. We need to be able to pitch and close with no more than a 3 person team at any meeting.

WE(meaning production) has to have an Investor event and a movie theater.

Then after all of this I still need to try to chase studio's for funding/distribution, and try to get name talent to replace the already great cast we have. Why you say, well that is a valid question. I have to try to get a name for multiple reasons only two of which actually involve having a name attached to the project directly.

One of the secrets to sale and networking is the art of the "no or pass".  People may pass on your offer/project but they might remember you for years. Also if you conduct yourself professionally you may make an impression on them and this could lead to many things. One of which is that you call a hundred people in high positions in the industry and they all say know but now 100 people in the industry that are in a position to say yes know your name and will possibly take your call on the next one. Often if you work hard enough this creates buzz about the project and somebody who is looking for what your selling finds you first. And if none of that works when you go looking for a job(or it come for you) you've got a foot in the door.

If I can get through this project and get it distributed I will be able to walk into any studio in the world and say something that instantly separates me from 90% of my current peers. I can point to a DVD on the shelf in a store, or a Poster at  theater and say "That's my name".

Not in the "We got it into A theater kind of way" more like I can take someone somewhere and they can buy a copy, rent a copy, or rent a seat in a theater. Any way I look at this, when BUP is done I will be ready for the next level of film making. It's at this point that I can take what is in my mind and make it happen.


Oh yeah, to top it all off. I have a company asking me for numbers on a cooking pilot, an outline for a radio show that I want to host, and I am acting this weekend in my friends short. There is a wall in my bedroom with the list of pending projects on it, the current feature is at the top, I stopped putting them down after I got to 8 projects. If I can get a little more help this is going to be an amazing year.

The best part about all of this is that it's what I have been waiting to do for the last seven years. I am so happy with where my life is going that sometimes I have to pinch myself. Eventually something is going to work, and then a bunch of stuff is going to start working and their will be no looking back.

Independant Films...But not really

So I just finished watching "Young Adult" with Charlize Theron. It has left a bad taste in my mouth that seems to be all to familiar. It's not really an independent film it's highly produced and directed by Jason Reitman. My response to this film was not really that I didn't like it it's more like it's not what it could have been so it was more disappointing than "a bad film". Which lead me to the thought of many films that are coming out of late that seem to have a "Indie" vibe to them but are as produced and giant budgeted as the next green lit drama. Melancholia a great film, but had the kind of Indie feel too it. Except you had a bunch of great actors in it a multi-million dollar budget and distribution presale. "Oh but it premiered at Cannes", ok so what? Cannes, Sundance, and even Toronto/NYC film festivals have tons of super-produced films for the "Indie" circuit. Don't get me wrong their will always be some unheard of film that blows everybody away with a tiny budget and maybe a "D" list name attached. This is just how things are, Kevin Smith years ago blew people away with Clerks, which today would not even make it in a film festival let a lone get him any recognition. He's said it himself. If he tried to do now what he did then Clerks would never be able to do what it did in today's Indie film world. Basically the kids with the money and toys figured out a way to use Indie Film to reinvent themselves. Got typecasting problems? No worries, reinvent yourself with a fakie Indie Feature that you through some money at and go act really serious at Sundance and watch the offers pour in.  Hey kid that spent all of his life's savings and borrowed beg and stole to try to make a film. F you, you have to actually compete with the studios! (Oh well, just their renamed indie departments, don't tell anybody!!!)

I am always reminded of Comicon, used to be that it was mostly comics, and the celebrities where people in the industry. Now, it's a huge deal with WarnerBrothers, Disney, and giant corps buying up booth space. It actually gets more than local news coverage every year. Yet somewhere in the back of comicon some vendor sits who scrimped to get a booth to preview an online comic. Which brings me to my final point. The internet has saved us again, it's not there yet but the hope exists for distribution. It will happen in my lifetime, the internet will be the place that a movie/show goes first. The money will eventually be worked out and I hope I can carve a part of it out. If not, I will still be able to get my work out there for everybody to see, one way or the other.

Here I sit on my 33rd Birthday in the production office of the current project that I am working listening to Metallica and looking at two shots. This job is a great one to have on your birthday.  We have a huge show for Nike this weekend and I am sitting in the office with Rothwell and Charles two great production guys who are handling the job of at least 6 people on a normal film set. I hope everybody is having a great August. No worries.