One Producer in the City

Being open to opportunity.

I'm a  film producer, and have been working on several projects for a few years now. The first thing people want to know is "How did you get into that?". They wonder if you  attended film school, or interned in film production, or had family in the business. No, I explain, I always wanted to do it and an opportunity to do it just came up.

And how did that happen,  you may ask? In this case, my Italian teacher who knew that I liked movies introduced me to another student of his who was working on a documentary. I met the other student, saw a rough cut and declared with full brashness "It's great, can I help produce it? I don't have an experience but I've read a lot about this and will work hard". The reply was "of course!" and thus we began producing this project.

Thus was born "This Time", a documentary about musicians whose careers are facing challenges, and how they try to overcome them, and the faith and passion that keeps them going after so many years of obstacles and disappointment.  Four years later, after the trials of Job, that final film is coming out in theaters on August 10th at the Quad Cinema in New York.  You can see our trailer and our facebook page below.  Please go see the film and support your fellow artists trying to keep chins up in a brutal business!

And this work on a documentary brought, through an introduction by generous super-connector Michael Roderick, to Kennon Hullett. She was beginning work on the documentary about obesity and the science behind it, and needed some help. Michael knowing my documentary background, put us in touch and I'm working as an executive producer, to shape the presentation, make introductions and just be an adviser to a hard-working, talented first time filmmaker. Little did either of them know that at the time I've done lots of reading on the subject myself over the past few years and was excited at a chance to do more work on the topic and see these ideas spread to a broader audience. Now that project is coming into the final stretch on kickstarter (please support us below if you can !) and it looks to be headed to filming and raising the full budget in the fall. The fact that I knew nothing about kickstarter before this is incidental, because our team managed to include someone who did and is a generous teacher.

So these two documentary projects I've been working on, among others, are really the fruits of nothing more than being open to an opportunity and  to take a risk. For the past few years I've always had lots of meetings where things didn't line up between me and the person on the other end of the table. Or projects that I thought would be a financial mess, or  where I didn't share the  view of the creator. But, before you meet that artist or creator, or the producing team on something, you'll never know if it's going to be a good fit.

So the next time, make sure you take that random meeting someone proposes and learn more about the vision and the business behind it. Think it over, see if it feels right, and be open to taking a risk. One of those random meetings is going to turn into a great opportunity for you to move you into a whole new level of creativity and visibility for your work, you'll just never quite know ahead of time. And this sort of risk taking seems to feed on itself once you make the leap, attracting the like-minded and other brave risk takers

http://www.facebook.com/thistimemovie
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/thistime/

and

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kennonhulett/in-defense-of-fat-the-documentary


Mark Bower

Guest Blog # 31: Along came ANOTHER Spider....

 

 As you can see above, there is another Spider show on the horizon to join The Spidey Project and Spidermann and this week's guest blog comes to us from one of the writers of the show above. So take it away Randy!

When I was but a wee fat child, my mother bought me the most awesome present in the known universe: a crappy consumer video camera. It was one of those fancy models that recorded footage on tiny video tapes that had to be put into larger VHS tape-adaptor-contraptions. Very, very high tech for 1995. 

Shortly after receiving this brilliant gift, young Randy Blair transformed into mini Steven Spielberg, turning his mother's dining room into a studio and casting the neighborhood children as his tiny Randy Warhol Factory superstars. His oeuvre was strictly comedy, but the genres were varied, ranging anywhere from adaptations of R. L. Stine's Goosebumps to an outerspace epic filmed entirely with Troll Dolls (TM). And while that all seems frighteningly silly, the effects were pretty good. I remember filming one particularly incredible scene in my troll space opera where the ship exploded into the darkness of the universe, using only a music stand, a leather jacket, a plastic space shuttle, homemade confetti, and ghetto-awesome stop animation. Pretty swank.

I imagine that most creative kids had similar experiences of flexing their imaginations, because I haven't known of a 12 year old yet to have a $65 million dollar budget. The muscles we flexed back on the playground are the same ones that prove useful to us in a professional creative setting, and honoring those impluses above all else has become my modus operandi in creating theatre. 

Thus came Spidermusical.

How can you present a superhero story on a limited budget? How is it possible to make characters fly, transform into mutants, and save the day in epic fight sequences? To that I say - uhh, how is it NOT? If I could do it as a kid, I could surely remember how to as an adult! 

Now that isn't to say that the show is frivolous, silly, and without style. Just like little Randy played at Spielberg with a crappy camera and toys, we're aiming for the highest quality production possible with our limited resources. That mission begins with locating other cool kids who play in the same way, and I'm happy to say that we have some of the best in town. Adam Wachter creates Broadway style orchestrations with a 4 piece band. Connor Gallagher is the Bob Fosse of cult theatre. Tim Drucker and Matt Berger are enfants terrible, and Brian Fenty and Rachel Routh are super cool enough to give us the cash to do it all.

To those with questions, we are not a musical about Spider-Man. We are a musical about a teenage nerd with an unrequited crush on the girl next door who gets bitten by a radioactive spider in a genetics laboratory. Completely original. During the course of the play, we subvert the traditions of comic book story structure, turning stereotypes on their heads while celebrating their inherent craziness. 

I won't say any more, but rather encourage you to come and watch our low rent magnum opus. For more info and to buy some very affordable tickets, check out www.spidermusical.com (a very fancy website I made for $0.)

No Guest blogger today but....

Thought you all would find this management video to be very helpful if you are getting swamped with email like me. Special thanks to Michael Ian Cedar for introducing this to me!

Enjoy your weekend and the video

Excelsior!




Guest Blogger #2: The Weatherman Cometh!

This week's guest blogger is Norah Turnham. General manager of Small Pond Entertainment and director of The Six Month Cure in the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity this weekend.

Also, for those of you follow Melissa's Kickstarter progress, here is the update: 

Current: $4,810

Increase from yesterday $375!

Left to go:$3,190!

Go Melissa!

And now, take it away Norah! 

Excelsior!

I recently finished working toward an MA in Educational Theatre, which included two semesters of student teaching.  This past semester I was lucky enough to find a mentor in my cooperating teacher, Jessica, at the Earth School, which is a progressive public school on the Lower East Side.  One day Jessica shared an analogy about teaching with me: the teacher creates the weather in the classroom.  If the teacher is having a “sunny” day then the students will have one too, but if the teacher is having a “stormy” day the students will suffer from that bad mood as well.

 

It’s not much different when you are working as a producer or other administrator/manager on a show.  The use and feeling of professionalism, efficiency, and pride that is put into the work we do on a show trickles down from the tippity-top.  If the Producer, General Manager, Director, etc. behaves unprofessionally or speaks ill of the show or people on the team, even if it’s with people outside of the production, a storm can begin to grow and the final product won’t be what you hoped it would be.

 

So set the example and always go to work with a sunny attitude.  Model what you expect from your team and it will make a difference!  If you give your all toward letting the sun shine on your production, so will all of the people working with you.