Archive for June, 2009

Free Seminar: Texas Incentives – How To Get A Piece Of The Pie

June 30th, 2009

AUSTIN CONSERVATORY PRESENTS a free seminar featuring Texas Film Commission head, Bob Hudgins and friends. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to hear first hand what Hudgins has to say about the new law, about the positive impact on Texas film production and maybe even yet another explanation of the ‘Waco’ brouhaha.

TEXAS INCENTIVES—HOW TO GET A PIECE OF THE PIE!

Discover the ins & outs of the TX Moving Image Industry Incentive Program & building the biz in Texas.

Join this open forum for producers, directors, actors and crew. Learn about the new incentives for growing work in Film, Commercial Advertising, Corporate Film, Video Gaming, & New Media. Find out how the new incentives have impacted Texas production, who’s using the incentives, and how home grown creativity can benefit from the new program.

When: Sunday, July 12, 2009

4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Where: Congregation Beth Israel

3901 Shoal Creek Blvd.

Austin, TX 78756

(512) 454-6806

Panel includes:

· Bob Hudgins—Director, Texas Film Commission

· Linda Dowell—Regional Branch Division Exec Director, SAG

· TJ Jones— Texas Regional Director, AFTRA

· Craig Berlin—Business Manager, Pro-Tape Systems

· Ken Rector—Business Manager, IATSE Local 484

· Tom Booker—Moderator, Austin Conservatory

Cost: FREE

Please RSVP to Sheila Cooper at: (972)361-8185 OR (800) 724-0767, option 7 or  sheila.cooper at sag.org

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Posted in Austin Film, Bob Hudgins, IATSE, Indie Film, Ken Rector, Linda Dowell, Louisiana Film Production, New Mexico Film Production, Right to Work, SAG, SAG Eligible, SAG Membership, TXMPA, Tax Incentives, Texas Actors, Texas Film Scene, Texas Filmmakers, Texas film, Tom Booker, Tommy G. Kendrick

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TXMPA News – Tax Incentives Pass and What’s Next

June 18th, 2009

TXMPA would like to thank everyone who participated in our Regional Caucuses, and a very special thanks to all the candidates who stepped up to run for the open positions in each Region!

Below is the list of candidates for the six (6) open At-Large positions on TXMPA’s Board. Please take some time before voting begins to review this list and become familiar with the candidates. An e-mail with pictures of the candidates, their bios, and endorsements for these candidates will be placed on the TXMPA website  www.txmpa.org), and distributed to the general membership on Thursday, June 18; if you would like to have your endorsement included, please e-mail TXMPA at  info at txmpa.org no later than Wednesday, June 17.

1) Craig Berlin
2) Garry Potts
3) Jeanette Scott
4) Jeff Horny
5) J. Schuh
6) Justin Muller
7) Larry Cashion
8) Linda Alcazar Jurado
9) Michael Druck
10) Rick Olmos
11) Robert Curlin
12) Ron Bush
13) Will Raymond

Online voting for these positions will begin at 12:01 AM on Monday, June 22 and will continue until 11:59 PM on Thursday, June 25. Just a reminder: online voting will be handled by Ballot Bin  www.ballotbin.com); as a precaution, please “whitelist” Ballot Bin. This is simply done by adding their e-mail address ( notices at ballotbin.com) to your contact list, so that when voting begins, their e-mail will come directly to your inbox and not to your spam folder.

To be eligible to vote for At-Large members, you must be a paid-up member of TXMPA (at the full or supporting level) by 5:00 PM, Friday, June 19. If you are unsure of your current membership status, please contact your Regional Representative for clarification [or send an e-mail to  membership at txmpa.org]. You may find more information about your Region, and contact information for your Regional Representative, at TXMPA’s website.

Results of online voting, along with the three (3) newly elected Regional Representatives and their respective Alternates, will be announced at our Statewide Annual Meeting, to be held at Texas State University in San Marcos on Saturday, June 27. For more information on the meeting, please visit our website.

As always, thank you for all you do for the moving image industry here in Texas, and we’ll see you on the 27th!

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Posted in TXMPA, Tax Incentives, Texas Actors, Texas Film Production Fund, Texas Film Scene, Texas Filmmakers, Texas film, Tommy G. Kendrick

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Message From Jeanette Scott TXMPA Rep for Central Texas

June 18th, 2009

Hello to Central Region TXMPA members!
This is likely my last correspondence as the official representative for the Central Region of the TXMPA. I want to tell all of you that I have been honored to serve as your voice in this relatively new and important alliance of film industry professionals. During the past year, the Central Region has raised more money for our cause (largely from the Spaghetti Western) than any other region in the state! Our membership has grown astronomically as the word has gotten out. But, we must not become complacent. We must build on our successes in preparation for future legislative battles!

On June 27, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra & Shelley Schriber will officially take over as Central Region board representative & alternate, respectively. I look forward to their input, energy and organizational capabilities as we move forward in our mission – growing our membership, establishing firm financial footing, lobbying the legislative body of Texas to bring work home.

I have spent the last several months in Oklahoma, on a feature film set in Texas. We are filming here for one reason. Legislative incentives. The Oklahoma state legislature has just signed into law a bill granting a rebate of 38% to film productions, and believe me, the studios are lining up and salivating. Never mind that there is NO crew base, NO infrastructure, NO soundstage, NO office facilities. We are based in an abandoned department store. The toilets work intermittently. Next to my desk, the water flows down the pipe each time someone flushes the toilet. But the people are lovely, the locations are good, and the community is eager & ready to build up the crew base and infrastructure to make this a truly competitive destination.

This story is writ large across the country. Incentive legislation is the MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR in drawing film production to any state today. Witness Michigan! They are building one of the biggest sound stages in the country. New Mexico, as we all know, is now firmly ensconced as a production destination, growing from nothing to the powerhouse it is today in a few short years. The main, the only, reason they have been able to accomplish this is the incentive package offered by the state of New Mexico. The single purpose of the TXMPA is to change this imbalance. The biggest lure, the most important factor in bringing back our jobs, is legislative action. That is our goal.

The TXMPA at large elections begin next week. I hope all central region members will vote for our proposed slate:
Craig Berlin
Rick Olmos
Jeanette Scott

We want to have as big a voice as possible from the central region as we move forward on our quest.

Thanks to all of you for letting me represent you. We have made great strides. Now, we must take the next two years to build our membership, raise money, establish a permanent office, and muster forces for the next legislative session. Many people have been out of work. Frustration levels are high. I have been forced to leave home and family for work. Nothing does more to change the equation than legislative action. In 2011, the battle begins all over again. Nothing is automatically renewed. Let’s all band together and come back bigger and stronger, with one voice, to insure the future of the film industry in Texas.

I ask you for your vote, your support, and your time and effort to build TXMPA into a force to be reckoned with.

Respectfully yours,

Jeanette Scott, outgoing board rep for Central Region

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Posted in Austin Film, Filmmaking, TXMPA, Tax Incentives, Texas Actors, Texas Film Production Fund, Texas Film Scene, Texas Filmmakers, Texas film, Tommy G. Kendrick

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Tom Wilson “Character Actor”

June 13th, 2009

You will probably recognize Tom Wilson from his many roles in films and television. In case you don’t know he’s also a very funny comedian, singer. His song “Character Actor” is so on the money that I wanted to post it here.

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Posted in Character Actor, Tom Wilson, Tommy G. Kendrick

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Lost Footage From Wild At Heart

June 13th, 2009

A few days ago I posted some information on posting videos to YouTube, including some possible rendering settings, software used, etc. I’m happy to say that I’ve had a few contacts from actors who have been trying to get their footage to look as good as possible on YouTube and other sites and they thanked me for my post. Cool. If you’re interested and didn’t see that post, look back a few days and you’ll find it.

Today, I’m going to post some ‘bonus’ footage, footage I don’t include on my demo now…deleted footage from the David Lynch film, WILD AT HEART. This scene is from a grainy work print but in the current context, I think the imperfections in the media add to the experience of seeing something that was for so long unavailable.

I no longer have the WAH footage on my demo because it’s just way too old. There was a time when I thought it helped my reel, even as a deleted scene, because of the other people involved. But time marches on and it’s time to leave this one off the newer reel.

After WAH played at Cannes, the film was trimmed substantially, so I’m told and mine is one of the scenes that did not make the final cut. David Lynch was kind enough to provide me with the footage on 3/4″ tape, state of the art for that time. Until recently I had never seen the footage in another form. Actually, the quality of the 3/4″ footage that I have is a bit better than the DVD version on Lynch’s Lime Green Set. No doubt due to compression of the footage for the DVD. I’m posting the deleted footage here because I think it might be of interest to Lynch fans and to actors who may or may not have been eliminated from a film. It’s always a let down to get cut from a project (this was not my first time and not my last) but this is the only time I’ve actually gotten to see the raw footage that we shot. Sorta fun to look back on this one.

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Posted in David Lynch, Demo Reels, Directors, John Lurie, Nicolas Cage, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Tommy G. Kendrick, Wild At Heart

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Tax Incentives Pass, A New SAG Contract is Ratified – Time To Get Busy

June 9th, 2009

Screen Actors Guild LogoAFTRA LOGOAfter months of acrimonious negotiations between SAG and the AMPTP and cross guild combat between SAG and AFTRA, a new contract has been ratified. For better or worse, and I personally hope we don’t look back on passage of this contract as the beginning of the end for both SAG and AFTRA, the SAG membership has spoken and we have a ‘deal’. The fact that this deal has the potential to eviscerate actors’ residual income was not enough to keep the membership from giving the agreement its overwhelming approval by a vote of 78% to 22%.

Here is a press release sent to the membership tonight ( 6/9/09):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Screen Actors Guild Members Overwhelmingly Ratify TV/Theatrical Agreements

Los Angeles, (June 9, 2009) – Screen Actors Guild announced today that members have voted overwhelmingly to approve its TV/Theatrical contracts by a vote of 78 percent to 22 percent.

The two-year successor agreement covers film and digital television programs, motion pictures and new media productions. The pact becomes effective at 12:01 a.m. June 10, 2009 and expires June 30, 2011.

The contracts provide more than $105 million in wages, increased pension contributions, and other gains and establishes a template for SAG coverage of new media formats.

Approximately 110,000 SAG members received ballots of which 35.26 percent returned them – a return that is above average compared with typical referenda on Screen Actors Guild contracts. Integrity Voting Systems of Everett, WA, provided election services and tonight certified the final vote tally upon completion of the tabulation.

The vote count in the Hollywood Division was 70.70 percent to 29.30 percent in favor. In the New York Division, the vote count was 85.74 percent to 14.26 percent in favor. And in the Regional Branch Division, the vote count was 89.06 percent to 10.94 percent in favor.

Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg said, “The membership has spoken and has decided to work under the terms of this contract that many of us, who have been involved in these negotiations from the beginning, believe to be devastatingly unsatisfactory. Tomorrow morning I will be contacting the elected leadership of the other talent unions with the hope of beginning a series of pre-negotiation summit meetings in preparation for 2011. I call upon all SAG members to begin to ready themselves for the battle ahead,” Rosenberg added.

Screen Actors Guild Interim National Executive Director David White said, “This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future. Preparation for the next round of negotiations begins now. Our members can expect more positive changes in the coming months as we organize new work opportunities, repair and reinvigorate our relationships with our sister unions and industry partners, and continue to improve the Guild’s operations.”

Screen Actors Guild Chief Negotiator John McGuire said, “I want to thank the SAG members and staff who dedicated their time to the negotiations process. We emerged with a solid deal that the members have now voted up. The negotiating team worked tirelessly, building on the work of the first negotiating committee, to deliver these improvements to members.”

Screen Actors Guild began talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on April 15, 2008. Guild Chief Negotiator John McGuire, Interim National Executive Director David White, and Deputy National Executive Director for Contracts Ray Rodriguez, working with a 10-person negotiating task force comprised of Screen Actors Guild board members and officers representing the three divisions, reached the tentative agreement on April 16, 2009 after 12 months of periodic negotiations with the motion picture studios and television networks.

In what should be a ‘perfect storm’ of events that could, and MUST help stimulate a substantial increase in SAG theatrical contract film production in Texas, ratification of the new SAG / AMPTP agreement was preceded by passage and more importantly, full funding of the requested $62 Million Texas film incentive legislation.

Texas Film IncentivesFrom TXMPA President, Don Stokes:

It is my extreme pleasure to report a very successful legislative session for the moving image industry. TXMPA has played an integral roll in the passage of HB 873 which created our enhanced and flexible incentive program as well as HB 2521 which creates guidelines for preferred vendor status for Texas based companies in producing media-related services for the State and SB 1929 which creates media production development zones which encourages the creation and development of production infrastructure like sound stages.

Of equal importance, our full funding request of $62 million dollars for HB 873 was passed by both the House and Senate. Congratulations to all of you who assisted in these achievements. None of this would have been possible without our industry coming together and speaking with a singular voice. Thanks again to all of you who participated in Lobby Day and spoke as witnesses in the various committee hearings. We also owe thanks to our friends at HillCo Partners who lobbied tirelessly to make sure our message was heard and that legislators understood that we only wanted what benefited both our industry and the State. And finally I want to express our gratitude to the Texas Film Commission for all of work and efforts they put forth on our behalf. Our success was truly a team effort. Take a moment to bask in our successes, but only a moment…

FILM & TELEVISION PROJECTS

* Feature Films
* Documentaries
* Episodic Television Series
* Television Episodes
* Television Movies
* Miniseries
* Reality Television
* Interstitial Television Programming
* Nationally Syndicated Talk Show

Program Overview

* Tiered incentive payments of 5-15% based on level of Texas spending.*
* Option to choose incentive calculation based on total in-state spending or wages paid to Texas residents.*
* Possible bonus of 2.5% if 25% of production completed in underutilized area.
* Texas spending can include eligible pre-production, production and post-production expenditures.
* No cap on incentive amount.

Minimum Qualifications

* $250,000 in Texas spending.
* 60% of shooting days completed in Texas.
* 70% of paid crew must be Texas residents.
* 70% of paid cast (including extras) must be Texas residents.*

* except reality television and talk shows.

Below is the latest list of possible SAG signatory productions for south region states, Louisiana and Texas. This list is assumed to be the last such list to be published before the new Texas film tax incentive program has a chance to impact production in Texas and possibly in states such as Louisiana and New Mexico.

Louisiana

“Dead Whisper” - #00231285
Dead Whisper Productions – Theatrical
Location: New Orleans, LA; Big Bear, CA
Start Date: To be determined

“Hurting Kind, The” - #00244310
TNC Shreveport, LLC – Low Budget Modified
Location: Shreveport, LA
Start Date: July 26, 2009

“Jaws of the Mississippi” - #00225090
Jaws Productions, LLC – Low Budget Modified
Location: Lafayette, LA
Start Date: July 6, 2009

“Untitled Alphi Phi Alpha Doc” - #00241154
Omnipotent One, Inc – Theatrical
Location: New Orleans, LA
Start Date: July 9, 2009

Texas

“Beyond the Whispers” – #00244882
Broken Camera Productions – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Boerne, TX
Start Date: To be determined

“Broken Promise, A South Texas Story” – #00210652
Que Tal Productions, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Brownsville/Mercedes, TX
Start Date: To be determined

“Carried Away” - #00238361
Carried Away, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Start Date: To be determined
Casting: James Johnston 817-915-4565

“Imago” - #00244751
Upstart Filmworks, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Houston, TX
Start Date: August 1, 2009

“Iron Horses” - #00237421
Curveball Films, LLC – Low Budget
Location: Austin, TX
Start Date: August 1, 2009

“Last Thanksgiving, The” – #00243410

TLT Productions – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Donna, TX
Start Date: To be determined
Casting: Pedro Garcia

“Letter H, The” – #00233247
GCP Film, LLC – Theatrical
Location: Houston/El Paso, TX
Start Date: September 3, 2009

“Matter of Honor, A: The Assassination of Sam Giancana”Distraught Sound and
Film Works in Association with Tommy Fadd and Good Boy Films
Location: Austin, TX
Start Date: To be determined

“Maybe, Maybe No” – #00239585
Red Raider Films, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Start Date: 6/12/09 – Wrap Date: 7/26/09
Location: Wylie, TX
Casting: Ryan Paige 310-424-5256

“Mongolian Death Worm” – #00244759
Sweet Tater, LLC – Low Budget
Location: Dallas, TX
Start Date: June 22, 2009

“Red, White and Blue” - #00244689
RWB Films, LLC – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Austin, TX
Start Date: June 14, 2009
Casting: Karen Halford of Casting Works L.A.

“Secret Dark, A” – 00241474
30 Days, LLC – Low Budget
Location: Houston, TX
Start Date: June 15, 2009

“One Moon in Luck aka Shoot Out of Luck” – #00244805
Liz Destro – Theatrical
Location: Austin, TX
Start Date: October 1, 2009

“Untitled Ana Zims Romantic Comedy” – #00244038
Ana Zims – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Texas (unspecified), CA
Start Date: June 14, 2009

“Walk Away Joe” - #00242161
WAJ Productions, LLC – Theatrical
Location: Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA
Start Date: To be determined

“Where’s the Dan? The Search for Dan Schneider” – #00242803
Cosby Siringi – Ultra Low Budget
Location: Huntsville/Conroe, TX
Start Date: To be determined

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Posted in AMPTP, Actors, Alan Rosenberg, Austin Actors, Austin Conservatory, Austin Film, Big Media, Bob Hudgins, Don Stokes, Indie Film, Louisiana Film Production, New Mexico Film Production, Tax Incentives, Texas Actors, Texas Film Production Fund, Texas film, Tommy G. Kendrick

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My Actor’s Demo For The Internet

June 2nd, 2009

Okay….so I’m working on a new demo for play on the internet. Each clip is kept brief in an effort limit the total file size and to maximize the quality after all the video compression takes place. It’s still a work in progress but here’s where I am today. This version was uploaded to YouTube in HD and pushed their file size limit to the max.

The first ‘reel’ is my final edit…maybe… and one that I’m happy enough with to distribute to casting sites. I’ve always tried to keep demos to 5 minutes or so, knowing that few pepole will sit through more, if that much tape on a actor’s reel. This online version is a trim 1:43.

So, while I’d like to let scenes play longer, I’m trying to reach a ‘happy medium’ of showing enough to get the character played before having to move on to the next clip, and keeping the total reel to a manageable file size. I’ve had to leave off some clips I’d like to use for various reasons….they’re good material, but just way too old, or I couldn’t find a way to put them into the mix and still keep the time and quality combination at an acceptable level for internet distribution

The issue I faced, that everyone faces when trying to put decent looking material on the net is the issue of what settings to use for conversion and rendering of the footage so that you have the best results once YouTube gets through processing your clips. This is where YouTube itself is a big help.

A search on YouTube will result in quite a few video tutorials on how to optimize your video for YouTube. Frankly I haven’t been much of a YouTube user and I’m not up to speed with all the nuances of how to use the service. But I’m learning. If you’re like me and want to take a shot at editing and publishing your own demo, it’s definitely something that can be accomplished. But even if you take your footage to a professional editor, the best choice for most of us, you can use this information to make sure that the person who cuts your demo will give you at least a version of your reel that will play nicely on the net.

Here are the rendering settings I used in Sony Vegas 9 Platinum Pro Pack to get the results above…results with which I, at least, am happy:

File Type: MP4 – Some tutorials suggest saving as WMV, others as MP4. I had the best look with MP4. If you use WMV, try the WMv 9 setting in your software
Frame Size: 1280 x 720
Frame Rate: 29.970(NTSC) – same frame rate the source material was captured in
Field Order: None (Progressive scan)
Pixel Aspec Ratio: 1.0000
Bit Rate (bps): 10,000,000 -This may be adjustable in your software – I used as high a setting as possible and still keep the final rendered file under YouTube’s 1 gig file size limit.
Audio Sample Rate (Hz): 44,100
Audio bit rate (bps): 128,000

Below is a slightly different edit of basically the same material except for a clip from Dancer,TX Pop. 81 which is not in this version:

In case anyone is interested I’m using Vegas Video 9 Platinum Pro edition to edit. Each scene is a DVD rip using DVD Decrypter, DVD Shrink and MovAvi Converter in that order. I’m converting the rips to uncompressed .avi files, bringing those files into Vegas Video for the edit. I’m now playing with various rendering schemes in order to get the best quality for YouTube and other online distribution outlets. When I get that done to my satisfaction, I’ll cut a somewhat longer version for DVD distribution to my agent, etc.

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Posted in AFTRA, Acting, Auditions, Austin Actors, Austin Film, Demo Reels, Friday Night Lights, SAG, SAGIndie, Screen Door Jesus, Self Promotion, Texas Actors, Texas film, Tommy G. Kendrick, Video Demos

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