Production Function

Okay... Why are there so many amateurs out there who are afraid of linking forces? Is it because they know that their work is awful and the other guy's work is awful and so linking forces would be doubly bad!? It really doesn't have to be that way...



The truth is that most of us "amateurs" are giving up a lot of time and not making any money at it. So, why does it seem like there are so many people who want to float their own careers until they make it?

I've been following this blog: Playbills Vs. Paying Bills. I'm not going to lie, they spawn my own blogging topics. Its a fantastic blog and I'd like to maybe join its group. On of their most recent posts is all about career direction or what one can do for their career. Here are a few of the many great suggestions:

• Get together with your actor friends to discuss what they’re doing for their respective careers
• Start a mastermind group
• Get together with other actors and practice your on-camera technique
• Write your own blog about your career
• Take classes/work with friends to get VERY specific about your type

What I noticed here is that all of these suggestions are about working as a group. The theatre (and film) are all about collaboration... but often people are so busy that they don't seem to have time to collaborate.

Now, I'm still new, but I've been on a few films and done some stage... It turns out that the best films I've been on have been the ones that have lots of help. Surprise! This is true for the stage... Everyone dreams about what they could do if only they had a large budget and fantastic resources, but nobody puts the full effort into making that dream a reality!

All I'm really talking about here is collaboration, or unity. The best sets by far have been student films by classmates who for one reason or another have been able to pull in their friends to work on a project. By and large non-student independent directors have little to no resources and few if any people helping them film, light, costume, edit, etc. their film! And then we all just accept that it's not high quality like that's okay? These people want to be able to compete in the real world - and that just wont cut it... and I'm an actor - I need you guys to make me LOOK GOOD. Smoke and mirrors people, smoke and mirrors...

So here's what I'm asking... is it really that difficult to say no to other projects (even if they are your own) and say yes to a coalition of amateurs who can take turns rotating who to spotlight? Last I checked if 5 people work together to make one fantastic film that gets noticed it's "hooray for everybody!" But if 5 people all make their own poorly lighted, bad sound, low coverage, terribly edited, badly written film its "oh, you have a bad short film on Youtube? yeah, me too..."

Look at the great collaborations of our time. Moscow Theatre created the careers of Anton Chekhov, Stanislavski, Michael Chekhov, Nemirovitch-Danchenko, etc and was carried over to USA with the Group Theatre and The Actors Playhouse: Meisner, Adler, Strasberg, etc... leading to actors like Dean, DeNiro, Hoffman, Pacino, Brando, Elia Kazan, etc...

Now, I know that's a bit actor heavy sided... I don't know much about film directors other than they all had talent and they all found a way to get discovered as great filmmakers... All I'm saying is, is it possible that collaborative associations that are focused could be a worthwhile investment of time and energy?

Well, I think it is. I'm announcing here that I am going to start a production company and it's function is going to be to finance talented people's work and create an environment for good work to be made and sent out to festivals, etc... It will be technical and business oriented. Most pay will be on the back end, but there will be upfront pay. That means scripts will be beaten up until they are GOOD. Projects will have talented cast and crew and will make GOOD works of art. Everyone will be benefited from being a part of it - For Realsies.

Now taking Submissions!