Category Archives: Film Featuring Invisible Man Cast

Writing and Financing Updates

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Sorry for being so quiet lately.  When I got back from Comic-Con I was really looking forward to getting caught up with blogging, among other stuff.  Instead, a nasty virus caught up with me and had me down for the better part of a week.  This put me so far behind with everything else that I’ve been scrambling to catch up ever since.

So let’s talk about the film project, shall we?  I’m way overdue on giving you all an update.

Back in January I mentioned that two treatments were being worked on.  One by the writer I’m working with and one by me.  So how are they coming along?  Well, slowly.  The writer has the first revision of her treatment finished and ready to send to me.  I just haven’t seen it yet because we are busy negotiating a producer/writer agreement right now.  It’s a bit of a time consuming process and, ideally, it’s something that should have been done right at the outset of our working relationship.  But once we get the agreement hammered out and fully executed, she’ll be sending me the next revision.  I’m looking forward to seeing what she has done with it.

My version of the treatment is coming along much more slowly.  Instead of writing, I got sidetracked with financial matters, namely, my own.  Now I’m not one to talk about my personal finances on a public blog, but in this case my own finances are very much a factor in this project because all of the money that is keeping this project moving forward right now is coming out of my own pocket.  I need to get this project to the point where it is packaged so that I can pitch it to investors and get presales.  If I get lucky, maybe I can find an angel investor who is willing to come aboard the project early and help out with seed money.  But, in the meantime, I’ve had to get creative and find ways to stretch my own money.  While I make an okay living, I’m not by any means a wealthy person, so this has been a challenge. 

A couple of years ago I had refinanced the second on my tiny condo.  Then, at the beginning of this year, as I watched real estate prices plummet and people lose their homes, it didn’t make sense to hang on to my riskier loans any longer so I decided to refinance both my first and second into one fixed-rate loan.  Fortunately for me, I was in a position to refinance.  There are a lot of unfortunate people in this country who got into risky loans and didn’t have a clue what they were getting into.  I really feel for them.  But having a little bit of a background in real estate, together with my propensity to do my homework and make sure I understand what I’m getting myself into, really gave me an advantage.  So I’m not in any danger of losing my condo even though it’s not worth much anymore and I have virtually no equity to speak of.  But I have a roof over my head and that’s the important thing!

Refinancing allowed me to get my monthly payments lowered a bit and pay off my car.  It’s not a huge amount, but it’s freed up enough money to allow me to keep the project moving forward.  For now.  Eventually, in the not too distant future, I’ll come to the point where I’ll need equity and/or debt money.  So even though the writing got put on the back burner for a while, I’ve been moving the project forward by taking care of some necessary financial matters.  And speaking of financing, I’ve met a few investors over the last few months who have shown some interest, so maybe something will come of that…we’ll see.

Getting back to the writing has been a challenge for me.  When developing a movie there always seems to be a ton of other things that need to get done and are demanding my time, so I found a way to basically force myself to focus on the writing:  I signed up for a screenwriting class.  The goal of this particular screenwriting class is to have an outline or beat sheet of one’s story finished by the end of the semester.  This is exactly what I needed because once the outline is done, writing a treatment from it should be a snap. 

Getting the feedback of my classmates and especially my teacher is a real help.  My teacher has worked in the industry for years as a writer, story analyst, studio executive, and executive producer; and has been involved in the making of such movies as Silence of the Lambs, Platoon, and Bull Durham.

Each week we are required to write a three-page scene.  Rather than try to come up with a random story idea each week, I decided to take the story I’m going to outline and use the characters and setting to fit the scene.  Most likely none of the scenes will actually be used in the story because I had to change some things to fit the homework requirements, but it does give me a chance to explore the characters and the story and really makes me think about where I want the story to go.

The first week’s scene assignment was to have one character follow another, so I had the protagonist follow the antogonist in an interesting setting.  My teacher liked it so much that he posted a note on the bulletin board and told the whole class to go read my “very instructive scene in the vein of I AM LEGEND.”  He also said I “include(d) so much action and suspense and communicate(d) the flow of action with some real clarity.”  I’ve never seen I Am Legend, but from the trailers I’ve seen of the movie, I can see where he would get that comparison even though that’s not really the tone I was shooting for.  Now, mind you, this scene was far from perfect.  The formatting was too “Old Hollywood,” but considering that we had just read an old Hitchcock script, that’s what I was using as a guide.  Also, the ending fell short.  Nevertheless, I’ll take the compliment, especially coming from someone with his experience in the industry, and considering that, so far, I’m the only one in class that has been singled out for praise.

Going on my trip and then getting sick afterward has really put me behind in this class, so if you’re wondering why I’ve been so quiet lately, it’s because I’m scrambling to get caught up on homework.  There are only about four weeks left before the semester ends and I’m determined to get the most out of this class, not just in terms of getting the outline finished but, also, in terms of learning as much as I can about screenwriting, which will make me a better producer.

In the producer/writer agreement that I’m currently negotiating, we’re setting deadlines and right now we have asked for a completion date for the treatment of October 31.  However, since the negotiations are currently eating into our writing time, I’m pushing to move the date back to November 30.  This means that all treatments, both hers and mine, need to be in final form by that date.  In addition, I’ve been accepting story submissions from another writer and if I feel that one of them is worth developing, I’ll have my attorney draw up an agreement with that writer also with the same timeline.  The goal is to get all the treatments done at the same time so they can be submitted to the cast at the same time.  After that it will be the decision of the cast as to whether they like any of them.  If they do, then we’re looking at a six-month timeline to get the script completed.  If they don’t, I start all over again looking for more stories.

So that’s where we are right now.  If things go well, we are looking at having a finished script by next fall, hopefully sooner.  I know that seems like quite a ways off, but getting the script right is absolutely vital.  According to Dov S-S Simens, you don’t just need a good script, you need a great script.  Yes, the standards need to be that high because the competition is intense.  Nothing less than great will do.  Hollywood may be able to get away with mediocre scripts, but independent filmmakers can’t.      

California Independent Film Festival

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This weekend I went to my first film festival.  The California Independent Film Festival is a small festival held in nearby Livermore, and this year was its tenth year running.  Time didn’t allow me to see everything, so I only attended a few events.

The first event I went to was a seminar on Saturday on Directing, Producing and Distributing Indie Films.  It was only 45 minutes long.  What could they possibly share in only 45 minutes that I didn’t already know?  The answer was…nothing.  I’ve heard it all before.  They mostly talked about distribution of indies.  Nothing much about directing or producing.  There simply wasn’t any time.  The prevailing attitude that shorts are nothing more than a calling card was expressed and so I shared a story that I know of a short that actually did make money.  I’ll have to blog about it sometime.  It’s a great example of out-of-the-box thinking.

The next seminar immediately followed and it was on Indie Music for Television and Film.  Okay, I actually learned a few things at this seminar.  Most notably, I learned about the importance and role of a music supervisor in a film.  Besides finding the music for a film, a big and very important part of a music supervisor’s job is to get clearance on music rights.  Without the proper clearance, lots of legal problems can crop up and that can cause all kinds of headaches that could have been avoided simply by doing due diligence. 

One of the panelists was a music supervisor with a long list of TV and film credits.  He has the kind of experience I would be looking for to build a strong team for my film, so after the seminar I talked to him and got his contact info.

I got an invitation to the filmmakers party that night, but the darn thing didn’t start till 10:00 p.m.  I’m an early riser and I need my sleep, so I passed on the party.

The next morning I was back at the theater to watch the Tri-Valley Shorts Showcase…a slate of nine short films from filmmakers here in the Valley.  The reason I wanted to see this series was because I knew a couple of the filmmakers whose shorts were being featured.  One of them was John Meredith.  You long-time readers may remember that I blogged about his On The Lot entry last year.  Well, John has come a long ways.  This was the first time he got one of his shorts on the big screen and his filmmaking skills keep getting better with each film.

Overall, this was a nice introduction to film festivals.  One of these days I really need to attend one of the big ones like Sundance, Toronto, or Cannes.  Oooh, visiting France sounds like fun. 

Film Financing From a VC’s Perspective

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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.

I Need Your Brains

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Group ThinkingThis 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!

Treatment Update

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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.  

The IT Room

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Mike McCaffertyI 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!

    

Shoom Zone’s One Year Anniversary

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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!

Story Analysis and Script Development for Film and Television

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That rather long title is the name of a course that I just started taking.  The class started Friday and for the next twelve weeks I’m going to be immersed in watching films; reading scripts, books, and articles; and writing coverage and development notes for the assigned reading material.  Fun! 

Coverage, for those of you not familiar with the term, is the process of reading and analyzing a story and then writing a summary and critique of it.  Story analysts or “readers” are employed by production companies to do this job, and some independent producers also hire readers.  They are usually the first person to read the scripts sent to production companies and their opinion counts.  If they don’t think a script is any good, it usually doesn’t get passed on to the producer for consideration. 

But for independent producers who don’t have the luxury of having a reader, having the ability to analyze a story and assess its potential both artistically and financially is an extremely important skill (and, really, all producers need this skill).  Contrary to what some people believe, producing isn’t just about business.  It also has a creative side.

The timing for this course couldn’t be better for me.  I’ve been giving notes and comments about the story in progress to the writer for a few months now, but I’m really looking forward to this class to sharpen up my skills and help the writer make the story the best it can possibly be before I submit it to the cast for consideration.

If I thought my life was busy before, it’s now going to be absolutely insane.  But this beats being bored any day.