Welcome to the Wild West

There is a prevailing mindset in Hollywood that regards sudden or unexpected business models as unviable, or highly suspect at the very least. Paradoxically, ignoring that big-business mindset is the fastest way to lose the trust of the very folks who can execute bona-fide innovation. That's what this blog is about.

Over the last few years, the readers of this blog have heard me talk about two "Hollywoods". On the one hand, you have the Hollywood that has existed more or less since the release of Star Wars, where agents and money-managers patrol the corridors and protect the American economy from wacko creative types like me. These are the city-slickers of Hollywood.

On the other, you've got the world's most vital creative community. In this Hollywood, which is every bit as real as the other, goodwill and the desire to create rule the decision-making process. On a foundation of mutual respect and admiration, artists work tirelessly to elevate one another and the overall community by sharing stories that are meaningful to them. While it's not exclusive to indie film, this is the frontier mindset audiences recognize as independent.

Many, many times, you've heard me say that business skills are not exclusive to "Hollywood #1". In fact, I could argue that the money-managers and the agents have established such a tightly-run system that running 'Hollywood #1" takes almost no business sense at all. Just follow the rules, and you'll be fine. At the same time, those rules wwere put there for a reason. Much of the time, they work. These days, "Hollywood #1" mostly concerns itself with getting rid of all the occasions in which those rules are insufficient.

In "Hollywood #2", things are different. Those people in "Hollywood #2" who do have a strong feel for the business are visionaries, willing to create the business models that suit their objectives rather than tailor the ends to suit the means of 'Hollywood #1". Of course, there's also a horde of romantics and dreamers who moved West to chase down the Gold Rush or the adventure novel lifestyle, and those people are starving to death, either metaphorically or in actuality. Basically, "Hollywood #2" is scary! At the same time, there's gold in them thar hills!

Of course, the real problem is that nobody in Hollywood lives entirely in "Hollywood #1" or "Hollywood #2". Every single one of us is caught somewhere in between, with plenty of pre-conceived notions of how the business is supposed to work and plenty of crazy dreams we're pursuing regardless. Our entire industry is composed of people trying to fit square pegs into round holes, and success in this town is determined more or less exclusively by how we handle that paradox.

See with the resourceful eye of a frontiersman, and with the shrewd discrimination of a city-slicker. Master those business skills, dear reader, because you need to know the rules before you know when to break them.

Then, you become the leader everyone is looking for.

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Thank you for checking out this post.

Our film is Sam Bailey, about a 600 year old man searching for the illuminated manuscript that could reveal his identity to the world...

...who instead finds an unexpected friendship, and a reason to keep on living.

If you visit www.eventful.com/sambailey and CLICK THE YELLOW BUTTON, you're sending a clear message to the movie theaters, the studios, and the changing film industry as a whole that smart, quirky, independent content has a place in the future of our media.

Please show Sam Bailey your support, visit www.eventful.com/sambailey, and click the yellow button.

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Must Filmmakers be Businessmen?

One of the ideas that drives me to marry entrepreneurism with my creative interests is the observation that studios are becoming so risk adverse, that the rewards of producing original content will soon be exclusively in the hands of individuals with the vision and the cajones to take the risk on themselves.

According to this article in the Hollywood Reporter, the same is becoming true in the distribution market - even for wide releases!

This process will only continue, as shareholders drive the studios into more and more conservative investments and social media changes the marketing landscape. What we're seeing now is only the beginning.

The 8 Sided Forum welcomes Aryiel Hartman!

Visit Aryiel's FORUM PAGE.

Our greatest challenge in casting Heartsgaard has been finding a woman with both the depth and the playfulness to carry the role of Mariko, the prophet who brings Conrad's fantasies and fears crashing into the reality of his life. Those few actresses who share Mariko's sense of spiritualism tend to to be professionally unreliable, and none of the women I respected professionally had the internal quiet to carry the role... or so I thought.

Through Aaron Lyons, I've known Aryiel for several months. I've been hearing about her talent and professional ethics for a good while longer besides. Back when we first started auditioning, Aaron had suggested Aryiel for the part of Lady Macbeth. While all parties were interested, timing and prior commitment conspired to keep her away from the show.

Two weeks ago, Aryiel volunteered to be interviewed as a renowned UFOlogist as part of our ongoing Sam Bailey viral efforts (at www.whoissambailey.com). In the interview, Aryiel delved into a mess of crazy notions with the conviction and weariness of a woman who's lived with them her entire life... As soon as I saw the video, I knew we'd found our prophet!

More than that, what we've found in Aryiel is another member of the family. Over the last few years, Aryiel has positioned herself as a leader in the Los Angeles theater community, serving theater companies as a manager and sharpening her producing skills. On stage and behind the scenes, she's consistently proven herself to be shrewd, fearless, and unhesitating in the face of opportunity.

Of course, there was never any question that Aryiel belongs with us. To his credit, Aaron recognized that from the beginning. What's more, he patiently pointed out to me some months back that when the time was right, her place in the 8 Sided Ensemble would simply reveal itself.

Sure enough. At the very moment we needed her most, she showed up and immediately started challenging us with her depth, grace, and game. Her presence and her professional candor have already inspired confidence in the cast and elevated the production, and finally everything fits.

Sometimes, life happens exactly the way it is supposed to happen. Isn't that what all prophets secretly know?

Welcome home, Aryiel! Here, we pledge to give you the rigorous challenge and loving support an actor of your character deserves, and the rich opportunity and collaboration your pioneering spirit clearly demands.

Hot dog, we got a live one!!!

Who is the most important person on any given film?

Is it the director? Is it the writer?

My take is that individuals are only important to a film insofar as they create the interrelationships that create the film. No one person is most important, and every film is different. What matters in the end is what happens between everyone involved. That's where the movie is created.

Some people will take on leadership positions in that process, and sometimes one of those people is the writer or director. As folks are quick to point out, the director is the center of all the creative decision-making. Writers can set the framework for how all those relationships work, and what issues everyone is focused on, by writing the story. At the same time, those relationships are far from absolute.

Besides, other people can tell the writer what to do. Sometimes there's creative conflict with the director and the producers, the cast, or the production team. All those forces, all those dynamics, inform the film that is eventually produced.

Who's the most important person for New York City? If anything, New York City defines how New Yorkers are perceived. Any mayor will tell you that it doesn't work the other way around.

Should indie filmmakers shell out for minor celebrity cameos?

Will paying for someone with a minor following help the financing? Will it help the distribution?

This all depends on the investor and your business model.

Marketing-wise, this is a trick used by direct-to-video genre franchises. If an investor thinks that any name at all makes the movie more marketable - which is definitely not always the case - then the investor will see value in the expense.

If your business model is based on the demand for quality content, and if the investor knows the difference between marketing a film like "Attack of the Sexbots" and "Once" or "Primer", then the value of spending that money becomes dubious at best. Consider that even if your investor doesn't know the difference, your audience will. So will any distributors you go through.

Basing your marketing plan on a name that's only in the film for one scene can make an audience feel cheated, and create negative word of mouth at festivals, limited screenings, and online. Paying for the name and NOT using it means you wasted money that could have been sent on the kind of value audiences might actually respond to.

With "Attack of the Sexbots" and Corman, Troma-type films, the audience goes into the film knowing full well that you're going to cheat them. Basically, they expect the worst - and they're hoping that you'll make up for it with titties and gore. When expectations are that low, putting the name of a minor genre icon on the poster is an endorsement that suggests the film might not be all bad.

If you're out to convince audiences that your film is ACTUALLY GOOD, that same endorsement will cheapen it. Putting ketchup on a nasty fairground hot dog makes it edible. Put that same ketchup on the finest sausage in Frankfurt, Germany - and you couldn't give the thing away!

Is success in entertainment just a roll of the dice?

There is one fundamental difference between business and gambling: In business, the big idea is that everybody wins. In gambling, the idea is that somebody wins at the expense of others. How you work with others is obviously a key ingredient to good business of any kind.

On top of being a business, film is a collaborative art. The degree to which you create opportunities for those around you is twice as crucial a factor to success in film, when compared to any other industry. Performing a given cinematic craft with excellence, of course, is one of the surest ways to create creative and financial opportunities for others. At the same time, keeping an open mind and open eyes with regard to how and where those opportunities can be found will make success less of a gamble, and more of an inevitability.

My IMDB Biography

After his first real exposure to the sciences, Tennyson Stead's thorough distaste for mathematics interrupted an otherwise perfect plan to become the first grumpy artist to isolate himself on Mars. Undaunted, he began the long and arduous process of redirecting his academic attentions towards something more suitable. Passing through careers in both theater and the neurosciences, Tennyson finally found his way into the lurid arms of the film industry.

Today, Tennyson E. Stead serves as one of the founding executives at Unified Pictures, and works independently to develop feature films and transmedia endeavors.