03.29.08
Posted in Classes/Books, Film Financing, I-Man Cast Film Update at 11:34 pm by Amanda Rogers
Last Saturday I was back in San Francisco for a one-day workshop. This workshop was taught by veteran venture capitalist (VC) Frank Green, Ph.D, and sponsored by the Institute for International Film Financing (IIFF). IIFF is the same organization that put on the workshop that I attended last month featuring IFP founder Sandra Schulberg. It’s a forward-thinking organization that offers good opportunities for education, networking, and financing for filmmakers. I’ve been attending so many of their meetings lately that I decided to go ahead and become a member.
After getting a producer’s take on film financing last month, it was nice to get a venture capitalist’s viewpoint this time. The workshop was called the One-Day MBA Leadership Workshop for Film Entrepreneurs. A great deal of the day was spent on leadership skills where we learned the VRE Leadership Execution Strategy. I’m not going to go into detail about this but, basically, we learned how a leader must have a vision (V) for their project, cultivate relationships (R) to be able to work as a team, and be able to execute (E) a plan to get the desired results. One of the things that really impressed me was his emphasis on working with people of different personality types and temperments. This is not the kind of information I was expecting in this workshop but, as you will read later, it makes perfect sense why this would be important to a VC.
Interestingly, he didn’t cover subjects such as what a VC looks for in a business plan or how to find VC money. I guess he figures that you should know how to get that information. However, he did offer a couple of valuable tips:
- When pitching to a VC you better know what your vision and strategic goals are. He said that 90% of the people looking for capital don’t have a vision or any strategic goals and many don’t have a clue as to what those are. So you better do your homework.
- One of his favorite tactics is to interrupt a presentation early on and ask a question about something that is covered later on in your presentation. He does this to see how you’ll react. Will you accomodate his request right away and be professional about it? Or will you get all huffy and insist that he wait until you get to that part of the presentation? If it’s the latter, you can forget about getting any funding from him. You just failed his test. See (and this goes back to his emphasis on working with people), he wants to find out how easy it will be to work with you. He also wants to know if you crumble easily under pressure. If you can’t handle this simple request, how can he have confidence that you will be able to handle the pressures of producing a film? Okay, this I understand perfectly, because I admit that I sometimes do it myself. Without being rude, I’ll throw something unexpected at someone and see how they react. This is a great way to judge if I’m going to be able to have a working relationship with that person.
Later that afternoon, the entire class split up into teams of four. There were five teams total. Our assignment was to develop a project strategy for one of several films: a big-budget action packed thriller, a medium-sized-budget documentary, or a small-budget comedy. We then had to give a 10-minute presentation in front of the class with each team member giving part of the presentation. The other teams acted as judges and venture investors and had to decide how much of a $100 bill (for each project) they wanted to invest. My team chose to do a small-budget comedy. Everyone else chose documentaries.
I’m a bit biased, but I think my team totally rocked. We had a producer, an entertainment attorney, a venture capitalist, and myself on my team. I came up with a fun storyline that we tweaked. By the time we had all the pieces put together, we had what would actually be a great little project if it were real. Oh, by the way, we won the contest.
Thursday, I got a call from the chairman of IIFF who also runs a sister organization called Film Angels. They are just what their name implies…a group of world-class Silicon Valley VCs who invest in films. He congratulated me on my team’s win and, even though he knows my project is still in the early stages, he invited me to pitch at one of their meetings when the project is ready. I’m encouraged that he thinks enough of my project, even at this early stage, to extend the invitation. Major Hollywood players pitch to this group, so I better have a strong project to present to them if I hope to compete. It’s not a guarantee of funding, of course, but it is a wonderful opportunity.
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01.19.08
Posted in Fans, Film, I-Man Cast Film Update, Research at 3:45 pm by Amanda Rogers
This is a request to all you I-Man fans out there. I’m doing a research project and I need to pick your collective brains. I’m looking for the titles of movies that are similar to The Invisible Man in terms of genre, style, and/or tone.
To be even more specific, they must meet the following requirements:
- Must have been released within the last five years.
- Must be a movie, not a TV show.
- Can be a theatrical release, a TV movie, or a straight-to-DVD movie.
- Must have been released in the U.S., but can also have been released in other countries.
This isn’t a frivolous request. I’m doing this research for the film project and I can’t think of anyone better to ask than my fellow I-Man fans. After all, you are the ones who know and love the show. I need as many similar movies as you can think of, so if you can please put on your thinking caps and help me out, I would be very grateful. The more, the better. If you want to explain why you think a movie is similar to I-Man, I would be very interested in hearing that, but it isn’t necessary. Don’t worry if you’re listing some of the same movies as someone/everyone else. It’s actually very helpful to me to see which movies you agree upon.
Please reply here in the comments section. If you’re reading this from the mailing list, remember that the mailing list is read-only, so please don’t hit reply to the email. Instead, just hit the direct link at the bottom of the email to get to the blog.
Your help is very much appreciated! I hope to hear from you!
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01.12.08
Posted in Classes/Books, I-Man Cast Film Update, Scripts/Screenwriting at 6:49 pm by Amanda Rogers
Back in October I told you about the screenplay treatment that the writer had turned in. So you might be wondering what’s happening with that. Well, it got put on hold for a while. Why? Because I got sucked into the homework cyclone and it wouldn’t let go. That Story Analysis and Screenplay Development for Film and Television class I was taking ended up eating just about every free moment I had and then some for the past few months. While I regret that it slowed down the project, I think the benefits outweighed the negatives.
For the past three months I’ve been completely immersed in learning to analyze the basic elements of a story: premise, plot, structure, character, and dialog. Our teacher would assign a script for us to read and then we would have to write a log line, a synopsis, and an analysis of the script covering each of the basic elements. We would have to comment on what works and doesn’t work and then give an explanation why. Then we would give our recommendation as to whether the script should be considered for development or not. This is the exact same process a reader goes through for each script he or she analyzes for a producer or studio. For someone who loves to read stories and then pick them apart, it’s a good job. The downside is that you end up having to read a lot of stories that may not be to your liking. It can be quite a challenge to put your personal taste aside and try to look at a story objectively.
Some of the most interesting assignments we were given involved reading a script that had been produced and then watching the finished movie. We then had to write a comparison/contrast where we identified what had changed from the script to the screen and how that had affected the movie, for good or for bad. It’s amazing how much some movies changed, while others stayed fairly true to the script. Films are such a collaborative medium with so many people having an input that it can sometimes be hard to discern where the changes are coming from. Sometimes it can be due to decisions the director makes. Other times it’s due to decisions made in editing. Sometimes the acting isn’t there. And sometimes it’s a combination of various factors. But whatever factors influence the final product, I found it to be disappointing to read a promising script and then watch it get poorly executed on film.
So these past few months have been extremely busy and educational for me. I’m happy to say I got an A in the class. I’m not going to claim to be an expert, but I do think I’ve got a decent grasp of the basics. So would I ever want to become a reader/script analyst? In one word, no. The reason that I say this is because whether you enjoy the story or not, as a reader you still have to read and give feedback on it. Producers don’t have to do that. Sure, they will get stories that don’t interest them, but they aren’t required to read them. Usually, reading a short synopsis, treatment, or the first few pages of a script is all they need to do to know whether or not it is a story they should invest some time in. Of all the stories I read in the class there was only one that I would have been interested in producing.
As a producer I would much rather spend my time looking for that special story that I can get excited about or else working on one that has the possibility to be really good. This brings me back to the treatment. About three week’s ago, I was finally able to sit down and start writing development notes. Development notes, for those of you who may not know, is feedback that producers give to screenwriters to help guide them in developing the story. In the notes, the producer points out areas that work, areas that need work, and can even offer suggestions and ideas that the screenwriter can use or get inspired from.
In my enthusiasm for this project, I offered a ton of ideas and suggestions. At that point, the writer suggested that we write two treatments. It’s an idea that makes a lot of sense. As I have said before, I’m not the only one who decides which story we do. The decision also belongs to the cast. I have to like the story, but so do they. So writing two treatments gives us twice the odds that at least one of them will be something they are interested in doing. What happens if they don’t like either story? Well, then it’s my job to start all over and look for another story. I keep looking until I find the right story.
Because the writer is busy working on the original treatment, I’m taking on the job of writing the second treatment, which will be a co-authored venture. The treatments are basically two different versions of the same story. The goal is to get both versions in tip-top shape before the cast reads them. After they have gone through as many rewrites as needed to get them in great shape, I will then be getting at least a couple of outside opinions on them from experienced, professional writers/analysts. Getting feedback from pros in the field is absolutely vital and I wouldn’t even think of submitting anything to the cast that hasn’t been thoroughly looked over.
So stay tuned and as we make progress on the stories, I’ll keep you posted.
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11.22.07
Posted in Classes/Books, Contests, I-Man Cast Film Update, Internet, Mike McCafferty at 8:10 pm by Amanda Rogers
I apologize that this piece of news is over a week late, but I’ve been snowed under with homework. It’s the middle of the semester and our assignments are getting more complicated and, thus, more time consuming. In addition, I’ve also taken a business plan class and a cash flow analysis class within the last couple of weeks. Busy. Busy.
But I don’t want to talk about my classes tonight. Let’s talk about The IT Room! This is a brand new webisode series starring Mike McCafferty. It’s a cute little show that pokes fun at IT problems. I think a lot of us can probably find something to relate to here. I know I sure can. You may, also, find it fascinating that this show is completely improvised.
Look around the site and you’ll find lots of ways you can interact and help out. They are looking for IT horror stories, which you can submit via a video or their blog. You can even submit a design for the official IT Room t-shirt. There’s a couple of contests with some pretty cool prizes too.
The first episode went online on November 11 and is ready for you to watch. Simply go to http://www.theitroom.com to view it!
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10.30.07
Posted in Classes/Books, Fans, Film Production, I-Man Cast Film Update, MySpace, Website Updates at 10:03 pm by Amanda Rogers
Yesterday was the one year anniversary of this little project going online. Can you believe it’s been a year already? Wow, where did the time go? This is a good time for me to catch everyone up on the latest happenings.
Film Project Update
A week and a half ago was a nice little milestone. The writer turned in the first draft of the treatment. I looked it over and, overall, I have to say I like it. Now, first drafts are never perfect and this one will probably have to go through several edits before it’s ready to show to the cast, but there were some really good scenes in it and it has a lot of promise.
Classes and More Classes
The last few weeks have been especially hectic for me. Besides doing a lot of homework for my Story Analysis and Screenplay Development class, I have also taken a couple of film budgeting classes.
One class was an overview of all the various film budgeting programs available on the market and their various applications. The other class was an introductory budgeting class. It’s funny, I would have never thought of budgeting as being a creative endeavour, but film budgeting is actually quite creative. Did you know that a budget describes the fundamental look, feel and style of a film? Yep, budgeters have to be able to take a scene in the script and have a point of view about it. They have to imagine how they would shoot or direct the scene. Now the director might have a totally different point of view on how a scene should be played, but if a director isn’t available yet, the budgeter has to make a best-guess estimate based on his or her own vision. Every excruciating detail of each scene must be budgeted for: every prop, every actor, every light, every vehicle, every piece of wardrobe, every camera. And it’s just not what’s on the set that must be budgeted for. A budget has to allow for how you’re going to feed the crew, how the actors are going to get to the set and how they are going to get home, how you’re going to get the equipment to the set, who’s going to build the set. It can seem endless. Needless to say, budgets are incredibly detailed documents. Screenplays are often described as the blueprint of a film, but, interestingly, budgets are also blueprints of a film. It’s really all very fascinating.
Saturday was a really busy and exciting day for me. In the morning, I had my weekly Story Analysis and Script Development class. In the afternoon, I met the writer of the treatment. She had flown out from the east coast and we had a really enjoyable meeting over a seafood dinner at the wharf in San Francisco. We hit it off and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with her on this project. She’s just as excited about it as I am. In the evening, we both headed up to Marin County, north of San Francisco, to attend a shortened writer’s workshop given by writer/producer James Hirsch. I say shortened because, originally, the workshop was supposed to be all weekend, but the LA fires put a crimp in those plans. Cheech Marin was supposed to be a special guest the first night, but because his home was in the middle of the fire area, he was busy hosing down his house and yard. Thankfully, Cheech’s home is safe. Because of all this, James Hirsch decided to give a “sneak preview” of the workshop instead. It was a great mini class and James is a really nice guy. I’m looking forward to attending the full workshop, which will be rescheduled in the future.
Whoa…I just felt some tremors. As I’m typing this I’m wondering if that is it or if they are just a precursor to a bigger jolt. Well, so far, so good. Let’s continue and wish for the best.
Website Updates
Between everything else in my insanely busy schedule, I’ve managed to get a few much-needed updates done to the website.
First off, the Blog Info page has been updated to more accurately reflect the various ways that readers can get news from this blog.
There is still the mailing list, of course, and I’ve updated the mailing list subscription page with some info that subscribers might find useful. For example, while the mailing list has a digest option, I don’t recommend it. There’s a couple of reasons why: For one, I rarely blog more than once per day. Secondly, digests are usually sent the day after the blog has been posted, which often delays the receiving of time sensitive information. Of course, the digest is still there if you want it and you are free to choose the options you prefer for this mailing list. If you want to change your options, PLEASE DON’T EMAIL ME. Simply go the mailing list subscription page, scroll down to the bottom and enter your email address. You will be then be prompted for your password. Enter your password to make the changes to your options. Forget your password? Scroll further down the page and you’ll see where you can have it emailed to you.
If you prefer the convenience of a blog feed, a feed for both posts and comments is available for your convenience. Simply scroll down to the Meta section of the sidebar (available from any page of the blog) and click on “Entries RSS” and/or “Comments RSS”.
For you Live Journal users, a syndicated feed is available for your convenience. I want to give a big shout out of thanks to Sheera for setting this up. To add the feed to your friends list, simply go to http://syndicated.livejournal.com/shoomzone/profile and click on the “add this journal to your friends list” link.
Lastly, if you have a MySpace page, you can subscribe to the blog via the Shoom Zone Productions MySpace page. Just click on “Subscribe to this Blog” and you’ll be notified whenever new items are posted to the blog.
Available on the front page of the blog, which you can get to from any blog page by simply clicking on the header, is a section for the online petitions. Just because I’m not actively pursuing an I-Man project right now, doesn’t mean that they should be ignored. I might be able to use those petitions to help sell my current project with the I-Man cast so, please, if you haven’t signed them yet, please do so. We all benefit by getting to see the cast together again.
If you haven’t checked out Shoom Zone’s home page in a while, you’ll see that it looks quite different. Well, I’m playing around with a new look when I can squeeze out the time and, as you can tell, it’s not done yet. The logo there is simply a placeholder for now. I’m going to be getting a new one designed in the near future. Eventually, the whole website will have a new look.
Fans Worldwide
Without you, fans from around the world, this project wouldn’t mean much. Without an audience, films would be worthless. So whenever I go and look at my website statistics, I am very encouraged by what I see. It’s obvious that there are a lot of you who want to see the cast together again just as much as I do. In the past year, the number of visitors to this site has more than quadrupled. Fans from 55 countries around the world regularly visit this site.
I thought it would be fun to see what countries we hail from, so following is a list of all 55 countries in alphabetical order.
- Algeria
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bosnia-Herzogovina
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Costa Rica
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Great Britain
- Greece
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Italy
- Iran
- Israel
- Japan
- Latvia
- Malaysia
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Poland
- Romania
- Russia
- Saudi Arabia
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Ukraine
- United Arab Emirates
- United States of America
- Vietnam
- Yugoslavia
Wow. I want to thank each and every one of you and I know the cast appreciates your support too. It’s this kind of increasing awareness that will help to make this film a success. Thank you and I look forward to another productive year as the film project moves forward. I can’t wait to see Vince, Paul, Eddie, Shannon and Mike together again on the screen!
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