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.

Below the line Fatigue, and moving forward.

Many time in my adventures on various set's in Chicago, LA I have found a PA or AD that is really dissatisfied with their job. The people that are apart of the AD department (AD = Assistant Directors Department) sometimes have been doing the same job for months often years with no sign of change. A friend of mine graduated from a prestigious film school with honors and has worked on more films in the last three years then I have total, almost all of them as a PA. (I am not counting stuff he has shot himself only his body of work that makes it too his resume). The last set he and I worked together he expressed his dissatisfaction with being talked to "like a child" and having to take out trash and clean up the rest of the crew's mess after a 16 hour day and still be upbeat. It's part of the Job of a Production Assistant(PA) to not complain but to simply "Make it happen" as some many PM's and AD's say. Being a PA can often be the place to start to get into another department and start making much better money, respect ect. There of course is a catch, that is if you want to be a director. The path to most of the other "Below the Line" jobs can be started on from a PA if you want it bad enough do a good job as a PA and talk up the department you want to work in. You wont necessarily get into the job you want right away but may have to do more PA work. If you keep your nose clean on set and develop a positive reputation good things usually start to happen. If the job you want is in another department on set and all the set's you have worked on, when some one ask's you "What do you want to do". If your answer is the same every time and you make a point of talking to someone in that department then usually I've seen people get a shot at being a PA for that department and then that begins your upward ascent.


Now back to my friends dilemma. My buddy, lets call him "Ken" not his real name has been doing all of what I said above except that what he wants to do is direct.

Unfortunately their is no direct path to the directors chair. Joining the Director's Guild of America is a great way to learn a lot, get benefits and be a really good Assistant Director. Universal Studios will not hire a Director who used to be an AD to direct a multimillion dollar anything if that person does  not have previous experience directing a big project. And the DGA as far as I've ever heard does not help AD's put together money and distribution to Direct projects to get this experience.

So Ken does not want to be a AD and is worn out, he essentially has spent the last year working on every show he could get his hands on and not had more than a week off in the last two years. While it is great to work, and his reputation is obviously good he at no point has been offered to direct anything.

The answer to this problem is of course to "Do it yourself". Ken has said no to any and all PA work from here on out, saved up some money and started to figure out ways to direct his own projects and every once in awhile get paid for stuff.

It's a leap of faith and is scary, but as far as I can tell the only way to go from a PA to Director.

I love the idea of this shot. I got this from a friend of mine Mike Hauser. Who is a pretty good director. He was a PA on this particular set.

This show was one of the most fun that I have ever worked on. I learned a lot and am now using that knowledge to put together a pilot that I hope to get in front of the Food Network.

KCX studio doing work for Suite Partners

New Studio Space!!!

NC/NDA's

Just a note, NC/NDA  or (Non Circumvention, Non-Disclosure Agreements) are only good from the date signed unless the language in the contract specifies a pre-signature time frame. If an NC/NDA does spell out that it goes retroactive you probably should not be signing it.

ANY TIME YOU HAVE A NEW PERSON IN THE COMPANY/CONVERSATION THE FIRST THING THEY DO IS SIGN A NC/NDA.

Btw, if somebody puts clauses in the NC/NDA that affect business operations and or ANY negotiation points DON'T do business with that person.

NC/NDA's should be about 2-3 pages long and be about the flow of information. "Who knows what when and why".  Not who get's paid, not who can make what kind of voting, nothing that is distribution sales ect.

The other aspects of the business and who can do what should be outlined in your partnership agreement or some business document that has been discussed. The NC/NDA is basically supposed to be insurance against people stealing idea's and cutting people out. It's almost a formality but if you don't do it you can get screwed.

Example, you remember the Spring "Epic" film contest right about the time of Transformers III ? I didn't get anybody to sign a NC/NDA. I had one signed but not the other way. It is sometimes a difficult step to consider when you get overwhelmed by the person your talking to because they are a "big deal" or a "studio".

Remember: If you have a good idea, the money wants it as bad as you want the money. It may not seem that way but you have to be careful who you give your gems to. That whole "Pearls before Swine" thing.

General Thoughts on Start up's.

In the last few weeks I have spent a lot of my time doing research into Venture Capital firms and what it is that they do. Mostly what they do in terms of what kinds of projects are they looking to invest their money into and why.

One of the most crucial things I learned is that the term "Start-Up" is an actual level. What I mean by this is that like many people I had believed that a "Small Business" and a "Start-Up" where essentially the same thing. This is actually not the case most of the time. What I learned is that it is very relative.

You search "small business" in wikipedia and you get

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_business

The important part of this wiki is

"The legal definition of "small" varies by country and by industry. In the United States the Small Business Administration establishes small business size standards on an industry-by-industry basis, but generally specifies a small business as having fewer than 500 employees for manufacturing businesses and less than $7 million in annual receipts for most non-manufacturing businesses.^[1] The definition can vary by circumstance – for example, a small business having fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees with average annual wages below $50,000 qualifies for a tax credit under the health care reform bill Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.^[2]"

The "less than $7 million in annual receipts".

The reason this is so important is that all of the "small business tax breaks" and "special financing from the government" you hear about DON'T APPLY TO START UPS!!!

If you start digging through the Small Business Investor Alliance(http://www.nasbic.org/ ), or the National Venture Capital Association(http://www.nvca.org/). You start to find out that if your company is not generating some where in the neighborhood of $3-$4 million dollars in sales every year these groups and programs do not apply to you.

So a non-franchised business (mom and pop, Mel's Diner kinda place) that is basically worth less than $7 million dollars and/or has been in business(with actual proof of income) for less than 5 years is probably still considered a "Start-Up" by most investors,banks, government agency people's.

There is hope though, I have found a few companies that seem to be Venture Capital "Start-Up" friendly for all types of business.

Yes I know you would like a list of these companies but it's not something I am comfortable giving out until I have done my own "Due Diligence". I am not going to recommend an investor unless I know I can trust them.

The caveat to this is that when I do post the list and I will. That you people who are reading this(all 3 of you) will only approach these potential investors with responsible projects.

DO NOT approach an investor with a concept(Unless it's a 3 F investor. Family, Friend, Unfamiliar Financier). Basically any professional business investment firm needs to be approached correctly or you just wasting your precious time and their time.

Have the complete business plan done, have the 4 page investor package done, have a web-site of some sort up. Even if it just says "coming soon" on the site. Also be sure the name's and logo's you want to use are not copyrighted. Yeah you probably will have to contact a patent attorney.

The point is, you can have a great idea and if you just got drunk and though of it with your friends don't spend a couple of hours on it then hit up somebody from my list.

Spend the money on the thing's that you are capable of doing yourself and spend the time and energy to research what you don't know that you need to know.

The good news is that if your reading this your doing just that.

New options enabled

So I now have enabled the texting post and email post options on "The Castle Muse". This should cut down the wait time for new posts.

The Business Plan "Executive Summary".

The first thing when writing a business plan for a media type company would be(or any company for that matter) "what is the point". It may seem obvious but it's a crucial first step and it's harder than it may seem.

Take my company...
What is the point of my company that I have with my two friends? What is that the ACN Network is supposed to do, and how does it make money?

This is what I have had to ask myself and then clearly answer. I have to keep asking myself this question from time to time. Because believe it or not it evolves.

One of the ways that I was able to help myself work through the answer to this quesiton was by doing and Executive Summary which is the first step in my business plan.

My basic outline of my business plan is in the summary and it looks like this.

Executive Summary:

• Introduction (One sentence about who and what you are)

• Products and Services (One Sentence maybe two, no more than three about what you do(mine has one))

• Target Market (General Demographic target)

• Competitive Position (In your market, field how do you stack up against the competition? Is their a gap in the market for what you plan to do?(Two three sentences at most)

• Goals and objectives (Use bullets 3 goals 3 objectives. Give a time frame for each.)

• Management (The structure of your business, who is doing what. Give a little bit as to why, maybe how the word the description of "who".)

• Finaces (Overall day to day cost, overhead before day one and on day 1. Make a cash flow chart and projections. Projections should be monthly quarterly and yearly.)
  

This whole thing should be clear, to the point and no more than two pages. Most of the information up to "Management" will fit onto the first page.

The second page in my report is my financials. Keep in mind the details in the finacial section will be covered in much greater detail later in the plan and the nuts and bolts numbers covered in the Appendix at the end of the business plan. Keep it straight forward and simple, typically an investor won't look at anything else during the pitch. If he has not seen the plan before you pitch, then those are the only two pages the investors will likely look at during your meeting anyway. They should be able to get enough information from that and your pitch to know if they want to buy in.

That's all for now.

PS- Update

Will be putting up some video's of my adventures in Producer land soon, on a youtube page of the same name "TheCastleMuse".

The link to the video youtube deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYFZqY7vNbQ

First Meeting of the New Year

Well it's 2012 and the production company that I started with two of my friends will be one year old at the end of this month. On that note I am about to go downtown to a new office and have a meeting with one of the partners and a Director that did some work with us last year.

We ACN Network had the opportunity to film the 1st ever Chicago Greek Film Fest, we had an amazing time. Michael J. Hauser took over the Director's chair for the show. Rob Rhodes, Bayley Pokorny, Dan Machut, Allisha Lillion, and of course Spiro Frentzas where all on hand for the show.

All of these wonderful people where able to donate their time and equipment to the show. We are still in post but hoping to get some final shots and have something up soon.

The really good news is that a Greek newspaper is doing a piece on Spiro and he of course mentioned the company! Now, Spiro, Rob and myself will all have our pictures in a newspaper in Greece!!

The possibility of having our work internationally distributed is amazing and I am really looking forward to seeing how far this project can take us. Will update more after the meeting. So excited, I didn't sleep last night.

Before the First Money meeting:Nuts and Bolts

"Your always two meeting away from the money", that's a little saying that I say to myself so that I don't get too excited when I have an upcoming investor meeting.

This of course begs several questions, mostly what in the world should you do with an investor meeting.

Here is what I know so far.

1. Investment meeting come in layers:

• Introduction


• Pitch and Facts


• Initial Asking


• Counter Offer, Negotiating


• Contracts and Terms


• Due Diligence


• Final Negotiations


• Final Price


• Contract signing


• Cutting Checks

2. The more prepared you are in the first meeting the faster the other meetings can happen

3. Here is what you should have or be working on.

• The script is DONE! (See Treatment VS Script for more on this)


• Initial story boards done, initial production illustration


• Budget top-sheet


• Schedule out line


• List of locations


• List of staff


• List of talent


• Contact info for all of the above(and price quotes if you can get them)


• Distribution projections*

4. I try to have a list of questions in mind for the investor, remember just because you want the money they have does not mean that you want to get into bed with anybody. If you get the wrong investor you can find your self locked into a nightmare and no chance of actually getting your film made.

• What kind of turn around time are you hoping for?


• Have you ever invested in a film before?


• If yes, what kind of experience was it?(much of this may happen naturally in the course of the conversation)


• If this goes well would you be interested in doing more films?

More than anything your trying to create a dialogue with the investor where you get a really solid sense of their expectations. Many times new investor's to film will have no idea what to expect. Be wary of the person who is dropping too much industry slang. It has been my experience that the people who are using waaay to many acronyms and sound like they are trying too hard are trying too hard. That is usually an indicator that they may not be legit and your waisting you time or they could just be a putz. Industry slang is only helpful if it's relevant helpful and used in context with the meeting your having. An example is if someone is saying LOI or using a term you don't understand and they start using the heck out of it they probably caught on that you are not familiar with the term and now they think they have a one-up on you. They don't usually if it's being overused it's suspect. Which means they are compensating for something and that is another clue.

A real money person, is relaxed. They have done this many times and are mildly excited to see another venture work out, if your numbers are right and the project your selling them on is one you believe in you should be relaxed too. Bottom line, you both want to make money and nobody wants to waste the other person's time.

The social investor: This should probably go in a "Pit-falls" section. Basically a social investor is somebody with money but no real interest in dealing with you financially. They want to go to parties and hang out with you and talk about film. They want to be a part of the scene with out taking risk. So you'll hear them from time to time talk about their cash but mostly they just want to be social.

The good part about this type is that they often have massive networks of industry people and it is a good way to meet folks who are higher up on the film food chain. Maybe even actual investors. So keep the contact but don't get your hopes up.

Recap:

• Have your numbers ready ahead of time.


• Be ready to defend your script.


• Don't be afraid to walk away to protect your project.


• Don't lie about what you have in place.


• Don't be intimidated, if they are not gonna invest they are waisting, YOUR TIME!

*Distribution is your most important piece next to the script. If you have distribution in place with actually theaters, include that. ANY theater that you have on paper is a huge step in the right direction. Internet, and Film festival's almost don't count unless your target is a festival. DVD distribution at retail stores and other avenues(ie RedBox) have forms that you can download to submit your project. They want a finished project though, unless you have some special relationship with them. I add the filled forms for the different DVD avenues in the packet at the back of the distribution section. When I say filled out I mean a printed pdf, not filled in with pen.

Downtime...what to do when nothing is happening

Downtime(aka unemployment) is a really good time too________. It's a really good time to WRITE!

Many times when I am on a set or out with other film makers there is a lot of (Set Downtime) in which your basically killing time until your needed to do some specific task(this is usually in between takes). The thing that happens the most is people begin to talk about projects that they would like to do or idea's that they have been thinking of. This is always entertaining and exciting unfortunately even the best idea's usually need a script. So if no one has written anything down(which is usually the case) then your stuck with a good idea and no way to do anything with it. I try to take notes, little one lines that help me remember idea's that people had. I add to the note the persons name, location,ect so I have reference for the conversation.

Now after the job is done, or in my case when it's winter and most of the work has gone to warmer climates . It's when I go back through my notes and get a chance to take a better look at some of the idea's that came up on the show.

As a producer it's important to have a constant bank of concepts and where you got them. Having the reference of where you got an idea/person who helped inspire it can lead to a creative relationship down the road that is beneficial to both parties.

Now to the actually writing, first issue "But J I am a producer not a writer!" Great, you and I both know that if your reading this you have concepts in your head that you want to see come to life. Make script notes, if you think of a really good piece of dialogue put that in there. Then, your task is to make your notes presentable. In other words you idea's for a project should be organized enough so that another human can read them and turn them into 90 pages of gold.

Obviously you need to find somebody who can write.

If you want to learn to write I recommend read "Save the Cat" by the late great Blake Snyder.

Of course the best advice one writer can give another is "just keep writing".

The other thing that is good to do with downtime besides writing is the different parts of "Pre-visualization"

Check out "Film Directing:Shot by Shot" by Steven D. Katz

This is the thing, many and I mean by many almost EVERY SINGLE ONE of any indie project I have ever been apart of that dies does so because of Development/Pre-production.

The bottom line is, if you don't have a script you can't even start. You don't have a good idea that has substance too it you don't have anything to build into a script.

Also DT(downtime) is a great time to expand your film knowledge by reading and taking classes. Of course your watching film, this is also a good time to catch up if your behind on your "gotta see it" list.

So to recap:

• Organize and review notes


• WRITE!!


• Pre-visualization/Pre-production practice(haha PPP)


• Expanding your film IQ (reading, movie list, classes, ect)