Celebrating 32 years of Tennyson E. Stead!

Dear Friends,

You are cordially invited to celebrate the birthday of myself, Tennyson E. Stead, in the fine company of friends and family on Friday, March 12th. Our party will congregate in the parlour of the Arclight Cinemas in Sherman Oaks for refreshments before a feature screening, and will recommence in the parlour until such time as either our revelry or the Arclight hospitality retires. The Arclight Sherman Oaks is on the third floor of the Galleria at Sepulveda and Ventura.

I hope to see you there! To RSVP, pleave visit our Facebook event page at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10150128778120553

Join us for HEARTSGAARD!

A comedy about destiny, love and other excuses...

All his life, Conrad Elisson dreamed of battle in the mythic ages of Scandinavia - and of a white-haired witch who tends his wounds and foretells his future. When he meets the girl who shares his recurring dreams, Conrad is forced to fit his fantasy into the reality of a modern world.

 

In three weeks, the 8 Sided Forum will introduce our cast and to the city of Los Angeles though the magic of interactive theater!  What we've created in Heartsgaard is a unique and bold theatrical performance, as well as the first element of a transmedia event that will span social media and the silver screen, uniting and exploring the strengths of the modern media landscape.

 

Whereas Sam Bailey is how we've chosen to formally present ourselves to you, Heartsgaard is about having fun.  We hope you'll join us, and ADMISSION IS FREE!

SUNDAY PERFORMANCES AT CAFE MUSE

7 PM on 3/21, 3/28, 4/11, 4/18 and 4/25

6547 Santa Monica Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90038.

WEDNESDAY PERFORMANCE AT AMSTERDAM CAFE
8 PM on March 24

10905 Magnolia Boulevard

North Hollywood, 91601

 

If you'd like to know more about Heartsgaard or meet the cast and crew, please join us at www.8sidedforum.com/group/heartsgaard.  If you aren't in Los Angeles yourself, please spread the word to those who are - and if you are, please bring your friends!  We'll see you there!

An Open Letter to Peter Hyams

Dear Mr. Hyams,

 

First off, this is purely a note of appreciation for your work.  Right now, I'm a filmmaker in pre-production with his own first feature, and your work is a big part of how and why that happened.  When I saw your e-mail on the IMDb, I thought you might appreciate knowing that.

 

My own work is grounded in a lifetime spent in the theater, a love of genre stories, as well as the experience and relationships I've built through seven years working day jobs in independent film finance.  My relationships with my actors and my passion for the fantastic are basically my two driving forces, creatively... and you're the man who taught me how to bring those forces together.

 

Growing up, 2010 and Outland were two of my favorite movies.  When my folks went to the video store, Outland was one of the movies I pulled off the shelf at least once a month - and my aunt illegally taped me a copy of 2010 which I eventally wore out and replaced.  My reason for loving them so much, I think, is that you embraced the universe so completely, with such a lack of self-consciousness, that it never interfered with the human drama and the truth of the scene you were shooting. 

 

What other director can claim that?  Spielberg, Kubrick, and who else?  I could listen to Roy Schneider and John Lithgow talk about mustard all day long.  Your work gave me permission to explore the human side of the fantastic or fanciful - and isn't that where human potential really lives?

 

How can storytellers inspire people without fantasy?  How is that inspiration supposed to help anyone if storytellers keep treating fantasy as if it were myth?

 

You put the future in my hands, Mr. Hyams.  While I hope you enjoy the films I'm making, and while I'd love to meet you in person as a fellow member of the film community, I definitely wanted to take this opportunity to at least let you know that I couldn't have gotten this far without your influence.  Thank you.

 

Yours truly,

Tennyson E. Stead

Bio: Tennyson E. Stead

This is the bio I've finally arrived at for my IMDb page, which you can find at www.imdb.com/name/nm2488064/:

 

From early youth, Tennyson busied himself with a future in space exploration... until his first real exposure to the sciences, when Master Stead's thorough distaste for mathematics interrupted his 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. 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.

 

If you think of any great trivia bits I should be posting on my IMDb profile, please leave them in the comments section here. 

What does it mean to license a film?

Most filmmakers go to festivals and markets hoping a distributor will buy their film. Some studio pays the filmmaker money, and the film becomes their property. That's called a purchase.

If a distributor doesn't want to invest as much money, they can make arrangements with the filmmaker to own the rights to a film for a specific purpose, like showing the movie in theaters in the UK over a certain timeframe, for example. Either the distributor pays the filmmaker for these rights upfront, or they can give the filmmaker a percentage of what they make - or both.

That's a license. You have a license from the filmmaker to show the movie in the UK.

Licenses can be for anything. Maybe you license the rights to show a movie on cable television to a cable channel, for a certain amount of time. Maybe you license the right to sell DVD's to a DVD company for a year or two. Maybe you license the video game rights. No matter the kind of license, one of the key elements is the expiration date. Licenses always expire. If a cable network pays you for the right to show a film on cable, and they owned that right forever, you'd never get to make more money from cable down the road.

Also consider that licenses need to have a start date. If you let TNT show Batman while it's still in theaters, they'll do it. Their ratings would skyrocket, to the detriment of the box office.

Then, when the terms of the license are complete, you still own your movie.

Does that make sense?

Why are money and creativite integrity always in opposition?

THEY'RE NOT!

Money and creativity are not separate forces in film. In fact, money is a huge part of how people relate to one another. Those relationships are the most profound force in how your film turns out. Money is the most controllable, hands-on way one can hope to shape and model social dynamics. Why do you think it's such an important tool to those in power?

Building a business model that plays to my strengths reinforces my creative integrity. Instead of trying to find people who will force success out of my work on their terms, I allow my work to succeed on it's own terms.

Here's what really gets me about the notion that money and creativity are mutually exclusive forces:

If my actors and production personnel are attracted to the financial stablity I seek to provide them with, do they seek any truth in our work together? Frankly, I find the implication that they don't offensive - not just on my own behalf, but even more importantly because of what's implied about THEM. Those people are my family, and their creative integrity and passion is the most reliable, trustworthy, beautiful thing in my entire life.

At the same time, providing for their future sustains their trust. Part of my job is finding ways of using their efforts to generate the safety, security, and sustainability we need to take the leap, to pursue the highest creative risks and the most fun and challenging projects. That task is not only critically important, it is my sacred and proud duty.

Do not impune the creative integrity of my actors and crew without careful consideration, because I will defend it without hesitation or reserve. My family comes first.

Think about it. This is a team effort. You've got to look out for your team, and money is a great tool for doing that. Imagine having to trade movies directly for food! There was a time when that's how it was done. There was a lot less art back then, and artists were much hungrier.

If you don't like how financial decisions are being made in this industry, learn how to make better ones yourself. Learn to trust money as a tool. How else can you expect to have any?

Essential Reading in Film

Whether the conversation related to screenwriting, directing, or any other film discipline, one of the most common questions I get is most fertile tofledgling filmmaker.

There's a few books I always recommend:

The Screenwriter's Workbook, by Syd Field

Making Movies, by Sid Lumet

An Actor Prepares, by Stanislavski

At the same time, the one person who has given me the most raw, useable information about the art of cinema is Roger Ebert. Paradoxically, Ebert never comes up when people talk about great places to go to for information on film!

Who in history has been more knowledgeable about movies? Name one observer of cinema with more experience or insight. Fortunately for filmmakers, Ebert writes for a living! Why Roger Ebert is not at the top of everyone's reading list, I'll never fathom.

One objection I hear a lot is that his taste in film differs from mine, or yours, or anyone's... Really, I don't care whether Ebert likes or dislikes a given movie. His reasons for doing so are where his acute sense of cinema shines through, and all his energy goes into illistrating those points as completely and clearly as one can in a few hundred words.

http://www.rogerebert.com

For pure cinematic eye-opening power, Roger Ebert is the best use of your time.