Make. Movies. Dammit.

19
June

Ted Hope yesterday finally (and thankfully) posted his reaction in rant form to the pending implosion of our industry as predicted by Spielberg and Lucas. As Ted points out, the belief and proof of our broken industry is all around us. His rant (which should be read in its entirety) can be summed up by the final words of the title [...]

Dogfish Accelerator Applications Observations

11
June

I am feeling so much Indie Film love right now. Today Team Dogfish will be going through the last of the applications for the Dogfish Accelerator program and sending out notifications tomorrow morning. It has been an EXHAUSTING four days of review and re-review and discussions and we are so humbled, touched, and amazed by [...]

Business Theories: Thoughts on [adult swim] and Fox

05
June

On June 23rd [adult swim] will begin airing episodes of the new Fox sensation Bob’s Burgers. This is now the 6th Fox TV show that TBS (the parent of William Street and Cartoon Network) has picked up for syndication (Family Guy, King of the Hill, Futurama, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show). As a die [...]

Dogfish Accelerator: Accelerating YOU

10
May

I have one more day until I’m done with classes for my MBA at NYU. As part of my coursework I had to make a commercial for a “fake” company. Exhausted having just came back from the SFIFF A2E program (of which I am preparing a post about, stay tuned) I quickly (and recklessly) whipped up this minute [...]

My Tribeca Dilemma: How to Use Your Audience

24
April

Prince Avalanche is doing the festival rounds and for the first time ever I have a film at Tribeca. This is an exciting and honorable moment but one that has left me in an interesting pickle: I have no idea whether or not to encourage people to see my own film. Whenever one of my [...]

Is NATO Anti-Filmmaker? The Importance of Leaders and Feeders

16
April

Read the original article from Deadline HERE This is a HIGHLY offensive notion to me: “NATO Chief Urges Studios To Produce More Family-Friendly Films” In a sustainable community there are leaders and there are feeders. The leaders say what we are going to make and the feeders supply that idea and system with everything and [...]

What I Look For In A Project: Why Producer Team Is More Important Than the Script, Director, and Actors Combined

09
April

There are only two factors that I look at when considering a film investment: the script and the producer team. I’ve probably just caused outrage from all my director and/or actor readers.  Let me first mention that without a strong filmmaker and cast, your chances of making an extremely powerful film are much, much lower [...]

Fail Fast and Early: Learning From Mistakes

29
March

My first credit for producing a feature film is nowhere to be seen.  It’s a horror film called Psychopath that I attempted to produce and direct in 2009 while a senior at Northwestern University.  What business did a 22-year-old have directing a feature film for under 10K?  Almost none.  The film speaks for itself.  Or [...]