[NEohioPAL]Film bi-czar

[Christopher]

Wow!  Where to begin...

I know I'm supposed to fill out the feedback form, but I suspect it was born with dust on it.  Everybody who cares in the slightest for Northeast Ohio's film and video community at least knows someone whose cousin subscribes to NEohioPAL, so my words, frazzled by ever-decreasing creative empathy and sprinkled with a dash of hypocrisy as they may be, are in good hands.

As far as I can tell from the expansive view provided by my basement studio's glass block windows, there are three base problems holding back this media arts community.

1. Homogenization of the community's organizational bodies

2. Underappreciation for a team-oriented work ethic

3. Absence of quality control on the parts of area producers

If this list elicits a big "hell yeah" from readers, then they can save themselves some time and stop here, you're just going to agree with everything else.  The less you agree, the more you should read.

Until these issues are not just addressed (ahhhhgain), but solved, the pursuit of a NEO film community is like mankind's pursuit of expansion into space.  Untold and uncomprehendable benefits await us as we ready ourselves to explore the final frontier, but none of that's of any use if we try to rush into the next phase as a trainwreck of a society.  We've got to handle the mess in our backyard lest we pollute someone else's, in this
case, with cliquish, fractured organization; productions that had to take shortcuts or fail altogether because of unprofessionalism and steaming piles of sloppily produced attempts at legitimizing sociopathic predilections.  Nobody's being specifically attacked here.  If you agree with me, say "amen" to your computer screen.  If the shoe finds itself fitting all too comfortably, then make sure it's tied on tight so we can't smell what
you've got hiding in there.  If you don't see these problems in our community, then you're just not in the community.  Maybe you're better off, because weez gotz major problems standing between "us" (the NEO film community) and "them" (an audience outside of people who still think making shoestring movies is a neat novelty).

Care to read more?  I've got solutions, or at least ideas if anybody's listening.

But before we go there, you may be wondering, "why does this guy think he knows all about what's wrong here and how to fix it?"

The answer is simple.  Having been buffeted by complacency, then uppercutted by unsubstantiated egos and finally kicked by addictions to mediocrity while I was down, I've taken on alot of ya'll's bad habits.  I'm becoming part of the problem.

I was Director of Operations for a long-defunct organization you may remember called The Alliance, which was supposed to be a pool of film, television and theatrical artists.  The brainchild of this organization started their own production company and inexplicably started treating The Alliance as competition, withholding audition announcements, badmouthing our board and trustees, etc.  So I was front row for the demolition derby that
was watching a fully incorporated 501 c 3 non profit organization fall victim to a proverbial scat-porn fest under the very people who created it.  I don't know the problems that must have festered in the Cleveland Film Society or other organizations, but none of them have substantively helped anybody I know.  And having been around for longer than I care to admit, I know many.

I've watched myself cut corners just to finish core scenes when cast and crew threaten to bail on us.  I've worked with people I had doubts about just because the ones I want to work with shuffle off to California without notice, and my product has suffered.  Anybody who claims to be or says they can introduce me to the "next big name" in this biz, usually has me running for the hills.  But other people are only a fraction of blame.

I mean, who reading this doesn't get complete erectile dysfunction over the thought of the unoriginality that runs rampant, or the "big deal" our local news agencies make of any Hollywood film that graces us with its presence, then hits the big screen like a big wet spitwad we want to wipe off to see the real movie underneath?  Add to that factors we can't control like the most unpredictable weather in the United States; locations that
build up and tear down without notice; "artistes" who instead of giving us their leadership, look down their noses at us; and a sociopathy whose indecision between whether to be a belt of bibles made of rust or vice versa, only makes certain that independent voices get revised into fourth grade English with "values," (without asking "whose values?") and I find myself in a working environment where I get one feature completed for every
two that go into production, and countless more that I would start, but can't even get off the ground.  Even so, with an average of one feature length production that gets screened at major national and international film festivals every year for the last sixteen years, I am one of the most productive producers of narrative cinema in the Midwest.  I'm far away however from being comfortable writing about myself in the third person except
in press releases.

So to try to wrap this up, here are my ideas for solutions in (as) brief (as possible).  If the Film Czar agrees with me, maybe he can help institute some of them.  His administration can reap the benefits, but remember, you heard it here first:

1.  Start a large bodied organization by making its mission statement something that a majority can agree with.  Does everybody want to be famous?  Does everybody want Northeast Ohio to be the next Hollywood?  Not from what I've heard, and I mean that with sincerity.  Not everybody who is interested in local film even wants to actually produce movies, let alone produce them here.  What is a thread common to the most people with interests
related to making movies in this area?  The lagging economy?  The need for creative growth?  What are the issues that would bring artists, professionals and beginners to the table regardless of clique or perceived experience?  We've tried espousing Cleveland as a diverse location for production, but our diverse weather shat that one down.  We've tried marketing the talent in the area, but the only productions we have to show for it are
ones that local audiences find to be too "edgy" or "controversial," while more cosmopolitan markets outside of Ohio think we're a bunch of poseurs.  Said organization may not be able to be as ambitious as getting movies made, but some smaller component of the lifestyle, if it's to draw as diverse a crowd as possible to beef up its networking opportunity street cred.  The organization has to address issues relevant to all who are
interested in this field, regardless of what kind of production is being made, what the individual's expected role is, or the intended audience.  I know I sound like I contradicted myself just now with an earlier sentence about sociopathic predilections, but hold on to your britches.  I'm not hatin', I'm just sayin'.  The closest to doing this now is IndieCleveland, but I'm talking about something that has sway with community leaders.

2.  Create a reward/accountability system for those who want to be considered a pillar of this area's creative media community.  Start a website, for instance: www.auteurorposeur.com and model it after Ebay's feedback system.  An artist voluntarily posts a profile, a filmography, the like, and others can post feedback- positive and negative.  Of course, the artist can retort negative feedback on the message board.  I know this smacks of
turning into an extension of the good vibrations we all read on NEohioPAL once in a while-often, but something has to draw attention to the infectious lack of work ethic that often even ensnares me, exhausting me to the point where I don't even have the energy to return phone calls.  When I meet cast and crew who haven't been exposed to some of the attitudes of the NEO film community, I'm often embarrassed for our community when faced
with the proposition that they soon will get such a dose, that they often relocate.  I mean a producer or professional actor can only work opposite so much indecision, "my boy/girlfriend won't let me act," or other sudden objections to the material you've all been working with for the last three months just because half way through production, they got around to reading your screenplay.  But why should they help us producers with THEIR
professionalism when area producers need to:

3.  Stop trying to force their fantasy lives down your throats while acting shocked when you don't know how to react to some of the strange demands that they put on you during all processes of the production.  Now am I getting my morality panties all in a bunch?  No way!  One of my current productions plays like John Waters directing an episode of Law & Order SVU, but I'm up front with people about what it is, and as long as they
actually read the material before they say yes, then there are no hard feelings, and only mutual respect if and when they say no.  But too many producers try to sneak it in on ya and then make you feel like you've got the shortcoming when you question doing material that wasn't in the script.  It's got to feel like you got your picture taken by someone who was pretending to not take a picture of you, but of something else.  That bait and
switch hurts cast and crew relations, but (to me) more importantly, it compromises a production a) by risking its failure due to walk out, and b) wincing in the face of intellectual confrontation.  You've got something ballsy to put out there?  Let us check it out, if you sound like you know what you want and why, there are alot of actors here who will back your play.  I know, I've worked with and am working with artists who help me take
on some of the most controversial subjects a regional film has taken on, at least with sincerity.  Worse still are the ones who pull punches and hope we don't notice.  Do the films that feel right, and do them the way you feel they should be done, because people smell distrust, and if you don't trust them with your material, they're not going to trust you.  That is, in my humble opinion, the biggest obstacle stopping films made in this
area from being some of the greatest films made in any area.

I know one attracts more flies with honey than vinegar, but I prefer to think of what I have to say as bittersweet.  And besides... attract flies?  I'm not trying to imitate a pile of...... purchasable film awards...

Christopher K. Young
www.shallowfocus.com



alexcine at aol.com wrote:

> Emmy winning writer and indie filmmaker Alex P. Michaels will be acting
> as Cleveland's first Film Czar.  It is a position Alex has thrust
> himself into because he is not satisfied with the "powers that be" not
> being supportive of the local community and that Cleveland does not do
> as much as it can do to promote filmmaking here.  Being involved in
> independent films in Cleveland and shooting a TV Series based on his
> Emmy winning movie, Alex has a unique perspective on how to bring
> movies to the region and also how to support the filmmaking community.
> Ironically a few years ago, Alex "divorced" himself from the film
> community to work on building connections with the business community
> and work on a proposal that is being shopped around to bring about an
> incubator that will serve the local community and draw in productions.
> Being Cleveland Film Czar is part of Alex's larger goal of making
> Cleveland live up to its' potential and be a true part of the movie and
> TV industry.
>
> The Film Czar would like some feedback on what this City truly needs to
> make the local film community
> To get your feedback fill out the form at
> http://www.prelude2cinema.com/filmczar.htm
>
> Thank you
>
> Sincerely,
> Alex Michaels