"The Starmind Record" Press Release

"The Starmind Record" Blazes Trail Through Social Media to Cinema

Audiences, critics, and festivals are embracing "The Starmind Record", a new science-fiction web series from repertory film company 8 Sided Films. Where most successful web content puts a focus on cinematic production value, "The Starmind Record" is unique for adapting traditional dramatic principles to an online format.

In his blog, writer and director Tennyson E. Stead comments that "the work of the actors [in 'The Starmind Record'] is as rich and complex, as terrifying and funny, as anything you could hope to see in an Oscar-winning production. 'The Starmind Record' may be the web series that finally shows people what this format is good for, and what it is capable of."

"The Starmind Record" itself is the story of two documentary filmmakers from Los Angeles who discover and investigate the presence of an extra-terrestrial intelligence. By presenting the series as a documentary, the show follows other productions in sidestepping the issue of production value. What makes the show unique is the degree to which it plays to the strengths of the performers and the story behind it.

Those strengths are driving a growing online community that will carry 8 Sided Films into movie theaters, claims Stead:

"Over the last two years, working together to build our audience has yielded strong results... Right now, our focus is on producing microbudget films for limited theatrical release, as a stepping stone for a more global 8 Sided audience."

Utilizing a group of creators, executives, and the principles of repertory theater, 8 Sided Films is building a social-media driven audience to propel theatrical cinema. Currently, their focus is on building viewership for "The Starmind Record," in support for the production and theatrical distribution of a film now in development called Quantum Theory.

"In Quantum Theory, a defense contractor steals next-generation quantum technology. The two, you know, sassy post-doc geniuses who created it will literally have to change the world to get it back," explains Stead.

Drawing on the cast of "The Starmind Record" and the writing and directing talents of Stead, Quantum Theory takes a pragmatic approach to social media.

"Branding can happen overnight. Building a community takes years, but that community is the only thing that trumps executive decision-making within the industry. Everyone wants steady ticket sales, so this is a filmmaker's only path to true independence," comments Stead. "Working by myself, I probably couldn't pull something like this off... but there's about ten of us. We can do it."

Fans of "The Starmind Record" can look forward to seeing series star Charlotte Gallagher at the top of Quantum Theory's cast list, where she will be joined by Starmind alums Danielle K. Jones, Ray Auxais, and Gerard Marzilli.

Watch "The Starmind Record" and learn about upcoming releases at the company's website:
http://www.8sidedfilms.com

Quantum Theory Interview 11

Tennyson E. Stead discusses the production pitfalls of the Quantum Theory script and how to avoid them:

Quantum Theory Interview 10

Tennyson E. Stead appraises the state of the Quantum Theory script:

Hollyweb Festival does social media right!

Every year, a number of Hollywood entrepreneurs turn to festival submission fees as a means to make their careers sustainable. Advertisements pop up on the IMDb and other forums promoting the attention of industry executives nobody actually knows, and hungry filmmakers take out their credit cards.

Most of these festivals never get past their first year. Those that do tend to thrive on the exclusivity promised by their initial marketing blitz, and lend themselves more to cinema than web content as a result.

In Los Angeles, the only web festivals that HAVE lasted beyond year-one are those with branded backing - namely the Webbys, the Streamys, and the Accolades. Big name support drives the submission process to these particular competitions.

Finally, there's a web festival that's taking time to build a bona-fide community. If there will ever be a web series festival to inherit the creative standards of organizations like SXSW or Sundance, it will be the Hollyweb Festival. By embracing the strengths of social media and web communication, they're quickly making themselves the first festival truly dedicated to online content.

I'm saying this not because of the impressive resumes involved, or because the companies behind the festival are major online players. I'm saying this because every time Hollyweb pops up on my twitter, they start a conversation with me.

Take a page, guys. This is how you build a community.

http://www.hollywebfestival.com/

Quantum Theory Interview 9

Tennyson E. Stead discusses the state of the Theory at the end of draft 3:

Quantum Theory Interview 8

Gerard Marzilli discusses his upcoming performance in Quantum Theory:

Quantum Theory Interview 7

Gerard Marzilli discusses the challenges of producing and performing Quantum Theory:

Janie Jones opens next week at the Sunset 5!

An old friend of mine, Keith Kjarval, produced a film with director David Rosenthal that has been garnering praise on the festival circuit for the last year... and I'm finally going to see it for myself! Join me this week for Janie Jones at the Sunset 5!

Quantum Theory Interview 6

Actor Gerard Marzilli points out why Quantum Theory is a film worth making:

Quantum Theory Interview 5

Actor Gerard Marzilli discusses his role in the upcoming film Quantum Theory:

We need your help!

Internet shows are not known for the thrust of their performances, and "The Starmind Record" has been getting fantastic praise for bringing great characters and strong drama to web series storytelling. From the ground up, "The Starmind Record" was built to bring something special to science-fiction. Based on the response we're getting, we succeeded.

Now, it's time to use that success to reach a bigger audience. For the last few months, 8 Sided Films has been in development with a science-fiction feature film that we are confident will give cinemagoers one hell of a great time at the movies.

To make that happen, we need people to see the show. We need our audience behind us. If you know people who love good entertainment, we are asking you to share "The Starmind Record" with them. If you're excited by the creative process by film, we are asking you to ask us about it on the Forum. If you know bloggers or reviewers who love sharing great science-fiction with their readers, we ask that you make sure they check out our show.

If you haven't seen "The Starmind Record", the best place to check it out is on our website, at www.8sidedfillms.com. Great work only reaches an audience with the support of those who love it. Now is the time. Help us get our stories and our art to the world.

Please, watch the show. Tell the world. Thank you.

Yours truly,

Tennyson E. Stead

Quantum Theory Synopsis

I've spent tonight working up a marketing synopsis for Quantum Theory. Help me out, and let me know if this makes you want to see the movie:

For Dr. Chelsea Barrington and Dr. Gertrude Monroe, quantum theory represents an opportunity to change the world. Their research pits mind over matter, their work has made them renegades... and their experiment is a complete success!

For Loki Defense Initiatives, quantum theory is the key to controlling reality itself. When Barrington and Monroe refuse LDI's defense contract, LDI steals their data and uses their own prototype against them. Trapped in an alternate reality of LDI's design, tricked into working for a dummy scientific institute called Fulcrum Laboratories, Chelsea and Roe perfect their research for military applications...

...until the girls uncover LDI's deception! To reclaim their technology and their world, Chelsea and Roe will have to steal it back from a company with unlimited resources, the ability to monitor their every move, and almost omnipotent power.

No problem has ever been so complex that Chelsea Barrington and Gertrude Monroe could not solve it. Nothing has ever held them back for long, and nothing has ever come between them. Now, LDI is using their own research to make their worst nightmares come true.

LDI will pay.

Who is Tennyson E. Stead?

Telling fantastic stories had always been part of my life. As a boy, I literally learned to write so I could record what was happening in my imagination. Later, when I was sixteen, a friend came to me and told me that a spotlight operator had dropped out of his production of Merrily We Roll Along. His show was one day from dress rehearsal, and he asked me if I'd spend the night learning the cues so I could get them through the weekend. That was my first time backstage at a theater, all my friends were there, and that's when I finally understood who and what I was writing for.

Since moving to California, my priority has been finding a way to tell great stories, with the cast and crew I love, in such a way as to make our future together secure, sustainable, and as creatively challenging as we want it to be. Repertory is a concept we arrived at because it's worked effectively for centuries as a tool for performers to cultivate an audience, and because social media allows us to extend those principles worldwide.

Over the last two years, working together to build our audience has yielded strong results. We just wrapped a science-fiction webseries called "The Starmind Record", which is now in contention for 2011's round of web awards. The series itself is available for viewing at http://www.8sidedfilms.com, and our IMDb page is at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2058517/.

In terms of longer-term resources, we have cultivated good relationships with independent exhibitors. Our production relationships have afforded us Academy Award-Winning attachments to films we have now in development, and industry manager Katarina Garcia has begun the process of building an 8 Sided management company in partnership with our film and media production efforts. Her relationships extend to all the major agencies, many major festivals and markets, and financiers both inside and outside the US.

Right now, our focus is on producing microbudget films for limited theatrical release, as a stepping stone for a more global 8 Sided audience. At the same time, our management is diligently pursuing opportunities to leverage our creativity and relationships to give us a measure of immediate security and some investment capital of our own.

To meet the gang and find out who we are, please join us at http://www.8sidedforum.com/. My name is Tennyson E. Stead, and I look forward to seeing you there!

On Production Companies

Lately, I've been thinking about the sundry production companies I've worked with and my decision to found my own. These reflections started with a message I received from a fellow who was exercising due diligence on a business deal with someone I know, and who asked why I left.

What I've come to is that production houses are like playing with someone else's toys. There are some very cool houses to visit in the neighborhood. Some people's moms let you eat things you're not supposed to, some kids have the super duper playset, and some kids have cool friends. Some kids have a great TV, or the best Nintendo collection (Tennyson is dated thusly), and a small handful of kids and their parents may as well be family.

Still, playing at someone else's house means playing by house rules. There are things you would do in your own home that you can't do here, and it's not a big deal.

Maybe you want your own basement to be a cool place to hang out, and maybe you don't. If you do, it's not necessarily about having rich parents. If you build a fort down there, that's cool. If you think up fun things to do, that trumps everything else. Building your own production company is more or less like that. There's a group of people that hang out in your basement, because the things they do down there are things they can't do someplace else. Not the way they'd like to, at least. Also remember that just because folks like hanging out in your basement doesn't mean it's not cool to go someplace else. That other kid's mom still makes good meatloaf, and you really can't argue with a strong Nintendo collection.

Cultivating an environment like that is how you make yourself relevant in the Hollywood community. Start there, and the money will come.