NATE AND KELLY the novel

1915.
A businessman and a prostitute find love.
And hate.

3-D is here to stay. Links to 3-D PRODUCTION information.

3-D is a story-telling tool, an advancement in production just like sound (from scratchy monaural to high-fidelity 7.1 and beyond), lighting, a variety of film stock types, digital cinematography, CGI, motion-capture, rotoscoping, etc., etc., etc.

If you’re interested in delving deeper into 3-D production issues, here are some links about 3-D that you might find informative and interesting:
(updated December 28 2011)

Our chance to rebuild the independent film industry.

FILMMAKERS, this is very important:

WHAT CONGRESS DID
The house has passed the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act which offers a tremendous opportunity to rebuild the independent film industry. The Act is designed to allow businesses to raise capital through crowdfunding. Under current securities laws, filmmakers can only ask for donations, and donors support the film without any participation in its potential profit.

WAR. UGH. WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Here’s a macabre exercise, which could be intellectually stimulating:

Consider that France and Germany are slapping around Greece, and Greece reacted with a strong nationalistic response. (Today, Greece may rescind its own referendum on the bailout, but maybe not.)

How might historians in the future look back on today and consider this the trigger that started WWIII?

BARNARD’S LAWS

Barnard’s Law No. 1
The greatest need of man is not food, shelter, or even sex. It’s the need to re-write what another has written.
 
Barnard’s Law No. 2
It’s not the idea. It’s the execution.
 
Barnard’s Law No. 3
Dinosaurs never see it coming.
 
Barnard’s Law No. 4
The responsibility to communicate is upon the communicator, not the listener.
 
Barnard’s Law No. 5
The job of children is to play. The job of teens is to deceive their parents. The job of adults is to slay their demons.
 
Barnard’s Law No. 6
Clarity is the soul of communication.
 
Barnard’s Law No. 7
Life is full of grand plans that suddenly need to be fixed with duct tape, and that’s okay.
 
Barnard’s Law No. 8
Be succinct. A short PowerPoint slide with just ten bullet points was good enough for God.
 
Barnard’s Law No. 9
In any group, the majority will misunderstand much of what you’re sure they understand.

Barnard’s Law No. 10
Hysteria breeds where context is ignored. Looking at results of history without knowledge of history leads to poor judgment and prejudice.

How to Start Writing a Screenplay

This is a verbatim conversation on Twitter from Friday, October 28, 2011, between me (@mrbarnard1) and Raven-Lee Royal (@Raven2BME).

Raven said: I read your post [The Movie That Needs to be Made], and I really hope you can get this movie made for all of us out there.

… So are you still trying to shop the film around?

Coffee joints for Writers & Filmmakers in NYC & L.A.

This is just for writers and filmmakers! =}

Writers and filmmakers are often hauling their laptops to coffee houses for writing and working. In New York and Los Angeles, there are many such places, but sometimes they are difficult to find.

Let’s build a list of coffee joints where we like to work.

Besides, we all love the adventure of finding a new place to hang out.

I recommend that you copy the info below, then paste it into a comment to this blog posting and let us know your recommended hangouts.

I’ll start adding some that I’ve found in both cities.

Here’s the form to copy and paste.

CITY:
Name:
Street:
Phone:
Website:
Twitter:
Facebook:
WIFI: [_]Free with purchase [_]Unlimited time [_]pay
AC outlets: [_]Many [_]Precious Few [_]none
Crowded: [_]Always [_]Seldom [_]Never
Atmosphere [_]chatting [_]boisterous [_]library
Crowd: [_]writers [_]tourists [_]mixed
Menu: [_]pastries [_]sandwiches [_]full menu
Price: [_]$ [_]$$ [_]$$$!
Comment:

THE MOVIE THAT NEEDS TO BE MADE

After working in television, radio, and video since high school, I eventually pushed myself into the indie film biz, which suited my creative and entrepreneurial nature. That involved me acquiring scripts and novels of other writers and trying to make them into movies. [UPDATED, see end of blog posting.]

Civil Rights Act of 1964

The following discussion started with this FACEBOOK post from Carey Borth:

July 2, 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House. In the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional.

The 10 years that followed saw great strides for the African-American civil rights movement, as non-violent demonstrations won thousands of supporters to the cause. Memorable landmarks in the struggle included the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955–sparked by the refusal of Alabama resident Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a city bus to a white woman–and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I have a dream” speech at a rally of hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C., in 1963.

WRITER’S AGENTS IN LOS ANGELES & NEW YORK CITY

This is the start of a list that will, I hope, build based on input from writers and others with knowledge of the agencies. For now, I will try to update the list and keep it focused on Los Angeles and New York City area agencies.

Please add names, contact information, the agency’s preferences, and other information that could help writers who seek representation.

Please post comments.

MOVIES IN A BAD ECONOMY

Image via Wikipedia

You know that your favorite movies, and even ones you don’t like, exist in an uneasy alliance of art and commerce. Movies have the potential to be both emotionally and financially powerful; sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes both. They brew in a caldron of artistic expression, profit potential, and career possibilities. Some movies find life solely because of demand for profit, and some find life solely because of someone’s passion for storytelling. Some come together for any number of reasons between those two ends of the spectrum.

Why Make Movies?

Read about the making of the independent feature film NATE AND KELLY here:

Has a movie ever touched your life?

Filmmakers and Email versus Social Media

As filmmakers, we need to grasp how to reach our audience and let them know our film exists, and communicate how the film might interest them. This used to be the jurisdiction of distributors, but that old world is in turmoil and may be dead. With filmmakers scrambling to figure out the theoretical pathways of DIY, DIWO, rent-a-distributors, four-walling, etc., they find themselves needing to grasp some basic marketing concepts.

The cost of asses-in-seats

Here’s what I think specifically about MARKETING LOW-BUDGET INDIE FEATURE FILMS (NARRATIVE FICTION).

This is an effort to help visualize the numbers needed for this new world of filmmakers becoming responsible for their own direct distribution.

Piracy.

Online piracy became a phenomenon about a decade ago with music—triggered by smaller files via MP3 and faster downloads via broadband.

The record companies jumped on it with the “big stick” approach to the problem, tossing consumer piracy to their Legal Departments, which led to lawsuits that destroyed the companies’ credibility and goodwill. Handing the problem to Legal Departments proved the old saying, “To a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”

The Internet needs to be free.

THE INTERNET NEEDS TO BE FREE

Yes, free.

That’s not a statement about pricing, it’s a statement about democracy.

This is what is commonly referred to as “Net Neutrality.”

Indie filmmakers and BRANDING

BRANDING.

Most people don’t think much about branding, and when they do, they take a look at a logo, think of it as “a brand,” and move on.

But a brand is so much more than a logo. It is the entire perception, the emotional feeling evoked, of a company, person or product. The brand is a product of diligent, consistent and focused marketing efforts.

Just what the hell IS an “Indie Film?”

Everybody talks about “INDEPENDENT FILM” but it means different things to different people. There is not a consistent, clear definition for the concept.

How do you define “INDIE FILM?”

Aside from the famous definition used for porn—”I know it when I see it,”—what specific qualities define a full-length motion picture as “independent?”

Please answer the survey questions. They are about several different elements about movies that may or may not be part of your definition.

To help us understand how you determine that a full-length motion picture might be an “indie film,” please answer how each element may affect your opinion about a movie.

AND if you have comments, please post them here so we can start discussions.

Thanks!

Kwik Surveys

More…“Indie Film” Survey

GLOSSARY for the film/TV industry

GLOSSARY of terms for the film/TV industry. This is a work in progress. Comments and suggestions welcomed.

Is the INDIE FILM BIZ dead or not?

Did the Pythons have the indie film biz in mind when creating their masterpiece, Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Aside from the buffoonery of this so-called business, what else could have inspired the great scene, “I’m not dead”?

Movie Industry Slouches Toward Digital Future

Republished with permission from eMarketer.com

The past few years have been bruising for the movie industry. After more than a decade of growth, the DVD began stalling in 2007. For the first time in its history, the industry saw its primary revenue source shrink without a new format coming along to take its place in the driver’s seat.

Logically, Blu-ray and digital formats should have stepped in to fill the revenue gap, but this has not happened. And at least two forecasts suggest it will be at least five years before these formats can lift Hollywood out of its doldrums.

Crowdfunding reveals vibrant new class of citizen funding.

Crowdfunding has great promise. And, it has exposed a vibrant new class of citizen funding.

In the spring of 2010, in comments on Jeff Steele’s Film Closings blog at http://filmclosings.com/2010/04/new-method-indie-financing/, I publicly assessed crowdfunding as having the potential to generate a normal maximum of, say, $5,000 if one spent all one’s time on it. Then, that leapt forward to the potential normal maximum of $15,000 to $20,000. Now, this year, there have been reports of reasonable numbers of fundraisings over $50,000. This is merely an anecdotal assessment, but those are numbers I now see reported.

Further Clarification of the PMD and Economics, by Jon Reiss

REPUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION

“This from the man himself, Jon Reiss, in response to the many wonderful posts this week from Michael R. Barnard, Lucas McNelly and Dennis Peters regarding the PMD.” ~ Sheri Candler Marketing & Publicity

Indie filmmakers abuzz about new PMD position

Right now, the indie filmmaking community is grappling with the new concept of a role called PMD, the “Producer of Marketing & Distribution.”

The confluence of the collapse of the indie film biz, scores of digital distribution options, and the ascent of social media has resulted in an incredibly strong and vibrant online community of filmmakers, especially on Twitter and Facebook and, of course, on various blogs. This online community is, in my opinion, more effective and vital than all of the panels and seminars about indie filmmaking that I’ve heard of and attended over at least the past decade.

And it is currently focusing on the PMD role.

The battle to make an independent movie

One of the odd things about being an independent filmmaker is the battle to get into production. Those of us who don’t have well-to-do families or impressive connections to powerful people have to cultivate other ways to fund the production. This is especially true today with all the turmoil in the indie film biz and the economy in general, but it’s always been true anyway.

When looking back on many years of trying to get A FATHER AND SON into production (at one point the title was EVERYBODY SAYS GOODBYE–The Story of a Father and Son), I realize there were many experiences that I call “a fishhook in the eye.”