Didn’t Win but the Party was Nice

OK. I didn’t even submit the show for a Nomination this year but the Emmy Nomination Party was nice. A few actors from “Out of Darkness” showed up. I have to make certain to get the show on the air this year so I can send it off to get nominated. A lot of work there but a Nomination (and a win) would be great toward getting a national sponsor.

Still working on the national sponsor for the end of this summer.  Again a lot of work. And I just found out that the Board plans the Emmy Awards show for the Chapter. Which I kind of knew but it didn’t sink in. Well, I am new there so I am just going to follow orders and do whatever they need me to do. Again it will be nice for contacts and experience.

I am working on focusing outside of here. I know there isn’t any support for movies and TV in this city. No one really gets sponsorship here. Theaters do and other arts programs do, but the city is odd when it comes to movies and TV. While I could cry about it, I won’t. There are a lot of instances where companies get support from other places.

Going to do some more writing and shooting for next weekend. I ams till up in the air with some decisions on new cast people. I do like the fun relationship with one of the Detectives and his new daughter.

Again, I am really not too excited to write things I can’t shoot. I’d like to shoot the new first episode I wrote but I would need some key cast people that I do no have. I’d like to go union but that takes cash and I don’t want to jump back into talking to sponsors right now but I will probably have to since I don’t have others to do it for me.

Contrary to popular belief, I do not like doing everything by myself.

Rockwell Cleveland

Visit the site www.rockwellcleveland.com

Virgin Party

OK, I’m just being silly with the headline but technically this is my first year going to an Emmy Nomination Party as a Board Member for the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Lower Great Lakes Chapter. So that makes me a virgin here.

I first went to an Emmy Nomination Party about two years ago. I figure it was a good way to network and since I am in TV, I should know who is in the business around here. I met a real cool guy named Bud Ford. Bud has been in TV since the early days. Later on, I helped him out with the newsletter. I also met with a lot of cool people like Gary Manke, Terry Petterson, Sandy Scott and the local news people.

Then just a few months ago, Gary, who is now the President asked me to be on the Board of Governors. Of course, I said yes.

I didn’t submit anything this year cause I was busy working on business proposals, but I will definitely get the show back on the air this year so we can submit it.

The Party is this Thursday and I invited a lot of the cast for “Out of Darkness.” I also have the new promo site ready as well.

Last few weeks have been interesting. I have been a bit worn out from things. I do feel that it is the right direction now that I am focusing on building the audience for the show. I still want to hit up some sponsors and should be able to make some good contacts at the Party.

And since it is a Party, I will have to make certain to have some fun as well. I could definitely use a little “fun.”

Darkness in High Definition

Achieved one of the goals for the show this Summer. We are now shooting in High Definition. It is interesting and holds a series of new technical challenges. We shot at the Studio on Saturday. The tall grass in the back provided an interesting backdrop for the Lt. and one of his Detectives who stumble across a “dead body.”

I didn’t direct either. Bryant Anderson who directed me in the short movie “Get Him” came in as a guest director. He was great. We got a lot of good footage. It took longer than I planned but it was OK cause we got a lot of scenes.

Now the next day, I shot the footage for the Mayor’s scenes and introduced one of the Detective’s family members.

I think its important that all the characters in the series have a background. I wish the Prosecutor had a more “stable” background. He can be a bit of a whore at times. Which is funny cause people assume if you play a character like that, you share some of his qualities.

We had a lot fun on the set. Except for me. I had to be in character and at the time, my guy “Raft” was not having fun. Still I only did one of his scenes. I could have did more but I didn’t want to shoot the scenes if I couldn’t work them into the series later on. The actress I was playing opposite with is planning to leave to go to California this month.

And there becomes the problem in shooting in this city without a set budget. Everyone is planning to go out to California. I do understand it, but it still doesn’t do us any good. Which is why the cast gets so large cause I have to replace people from time to time.

Still right now, after abandoning the “business financing” search here in the city, I can focus on building the show’s audience and getting us a national sponsor.

I still have some contacts here and out west but really I want to get the audience up.

Going to launch a new site to promote the show June 12th at the Emmy nomination Party and I invited my cast and sponsors. So definitely “Out of DARKNESS” will have a presence there.

Well, back to work. Oh, there are more photos of the shoot on Facebook

Click Here to See Photos

Me and Harry Concick Jr.

No, I don’t know him, but I love his music. And I have to remember to listen to him today cause I’m shooting “Out of Darkness” and I have to step back into the shoes of Prosecutor George Bailey Raft from New Orleans. The accent isn’t too hard and to be truthful, I really do have it but I hide it cause most of the time I talk to people from the North and if you talk in a Southern accent then they have a certain impression of you.

I was up in the studio redoing the green screen. I should have been writing the scripts but its a new cast and some old cast members and well the stories have taken on a life of their own.

I still adore “Out of Darkness,” but it has become very different than my original vision. Things are more organic and I can’t plan as neatly as I did. I spent a lot of time writing scripts that we never got to shoot cause of budget and cast changes.

It would have been interesting to do them, but I think the show has become more challenging without that strict structure. I know the audience might get “lost” but I think that other shows prove that audience are willing to use their brains when they watch TV.

And TV is the question? These new clips will air on the web first and then TV later. The TV run was for the Emmy consideration. Which might not be needed if….

Well, I’ll let you in on that later. Let’s just say, it opens uo a whole new world.

Well, have to go and get ready. Going to shoot some photos from the shoot. I should really finish the scripts though.

Freedom

I like this comment. about our show on the Youtube Channel.

” you guys have something unique happening. Something that needs work but has the right idea and brings in good support.”

I agree. I am working on a new look for the show. Going to concentrate on doing the look I really want with the show and involving the audience.

Also Going shopping tomorrow. Rebuilding my green screen. I want the entire room to be green, even the floor so I can work on doing virtual sets.

The way to get sponsors is to build the show. Which I should have been doing instead of wasting time with those presentations. Still, it was valuable in the sense that it taught me to focus on hitting the right people. So all this month, the only thing to do is work with the Emmy board (good contacts there) and put more clips on line and network with people on Youtube to build up the subscribers for the show.

The Party June 12th should be interesting. I invited a lot of the cast from the show there.

Been watching a lot videos, especially those by David Fincher

Going to be working with some of my cops (actors and one real cop who is in the cast) and also new actresses.

I was looking back at the clips that I didn’t edit before. I do like them. Still, I wanted to do a different look for the show. More cinematic. Going to cut down on the dialogue for the show and make it just on-line for right now. I think we can get the audience if we keep pushing. Have to stay focused so no “business” things this month.

Movies and Television do not Make Money

This is according to people in Cleveland.

So, we will focus outside of Cleveland.

As my Consiglerie says “Nuff Said!”

You Have No Audience

The great thing and worst thing about my Family is that “being from New Orleans, we tend to speak our mind.” So in talking to my Brother, he mentioned, “I have no Audience for my show so how can people make money by being connected to it.” I did offer up some proof to the fact we have an audience, but I had to be honest and admit that we lost a lot of it while I been involved in the business side of things.

Too much Business and not enough Show. It is Show Business. I been forgetting the “Show.”

So to that end, I have to scale back on the business end and rebuild the audience. There is a lot of unedited footage for “Out of Darkness.”

I have two new external Winbooks and a new HP that can edit. So there is no excuse.

The DVD will be out this coming month. There is another expense that will go on a new credit card. I’m not crazy about being in debt, but …

Anyway, with the campaign for Season Two planned, I have no doubt we will make the sells. I’m only starting with 100 DVDs. To which, my Mom, another one who speaks her mind, said, are you sure you can sell 100.

I responded, If I can’t ain’t no use in doing the show.

I also have plans to release the new footage online as web episodes of about 5 minutes each. That should build our audience back up and I’m looking into some other shows as well.

Still I do keep up with things on the business end, but I can’t focus on it like I have been doing.

VC, Money, and Angels

Been an interesting set of days. Prelude2Cinema was one of the finalist at the COSE Arts Business Innovation Awards. It was very nice to be recognized as an artist but also a business person. I took Megan Weizel, who will be playing the “Bride” in “Out of Darkness.” She was delightful company.

I had already decided that no matter if we won or not, that the TV show had to move forward this month. So afterwards, I talked to one of my partners and we went SHOPPING.

We picked up a new Canon HD Camera and two 750 GB WinBook hard drives to add to the new HP Edit Computer. So now, we are good to go. Of course, I have to start doing some writing and scheduling the actors.

I’m also going to look into producing some other web series for Prelude2CinemaTV.

Next month is the Emmy Nomination Party. Since I’m on the Board of Governors, I get to be involved in the Party. One of the Governors talked about New Media and how online producers (like us) affect TV. There is a committee about it and I’m on it.

Also I had another Business Pitch. I learned a lot about VC’s (Venture Capitalist). I think our focus should be on Angel Investors and also some people “still don’t get it.” Well one guy summed it up nicely. He said that VC’s  want companies formed around ideas so the individual can become dispensable whereas the creative industry want the individual focused on.

He called us a “Excellence Person Business.” None of it was meant as an insult. I really liked their honesty. I do know that without me, there isn’t a company so therefore I (and my team) have to focus on getting funds from people who understand that. There are people who fund creative businesses and are richly rewarded by it.

Still, the company (i.e. Me and others) have a lot of work to do. So in that sense, I have to start focusing on getting programs for Prelude2CinemaTV. So with no further ado, “On with the Show!”

Getting Political without Getting into Politics

I was talking the Editor TIm Franke about promoting the TV show “Out of Darkness.” We are almost finished with the DVD and ready to do Season Two. I came up with an ideal about creating a site for our fictional Mayor about running for re-election. Real Politics seems to get a lot of attention and be really entertaining more than substantional so it should be interesting to run a campaign as she runs for re-election in Cleveland.

I filled Tim in on yesterday and in retrospect after watching the video, it wasn’t that bad. I explained Branded Entertainment. People just didn’t listen so I had to explain it again.

And back to politics, I’m having lunch with JaNience Walter who plays Mayor Carolyn Rockwell in our TV show Monday. I think she’ll like the ideal. It gives us a chance to do some shooting for the show before the new season.

BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT TIP #1

You have to create Events around your Program to get people involved.

The run for re-election for our Mayor should get a lot of people involved in the show. We are going to do a party at one of our sponsor places next month and our Mayor won’t be asking for any donations. She’ll tell people to keep their money. I do need someone who runs against her though.

Audiences have their choice of where to go nowadays and if you don’t involve them, then they can elsewhere. And you definitely don’t want that.