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		TAMPA FILM BLOG Where Tampa filmmakers unite. News. Opinions. Knowledge. Power. Read, Post, Promote, Debate, Inquire - It is up to you! Tampa Photography Blog - Tampa Photographer Blog - Passinault Blog - Tampa DJ Blog Save Tampa Indie Film! START FROM THE FIRST TAMPA FILM BLOG POST ON 03/02/08 PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Wednesday, June 30, 2010 - 5:29 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault More Silence Before The Storm? It’s been a quiet summer so far for the Tampa Bay Film sites, and, no, we have not abandoned our sites, or our cause. The sites are in a planned dormancy right now, although they are not entirely idle. I’m planning on updating the online film festival next week, and will be updating all of the eight of the Tampa Bay Film sites in July 2010. So, what’s going on? A perfect storm of different elements. First, there isn’t a whole lot worth reporting in the Tampa indie film scene. Much of it has been de-listed as far as what we recognize as relevant in the Tampa indie film scene, and we will not be supporting, or reporting on, what we do not recognize. Second, my web team has been working on other projects right now, which gives us little time to work on this long term investment. The plan, which is on track, was to establish a network of Tampa Bay Film sites late last year, and then put them on standby for most of this year. We won’t really need to push the Tampa Bay Film sites, and my filmmaking agenda won’t require them, until 2011, at the earliest. Third, I am working on my businesses at the moment, and don’t have time to make any indie films. My indie films are one of the main reasons that I’ve invested so much into the Tampa Bay Film platform. Platform..... remember that word. You’ll be hearing a lot about it in the coming months and years. Of course, filmmaking is very important to me, and it will be a main part of my future as an artist, and as a businessman. Do you really think that I would pour more resources into my Tampa Bay Film platform than in anything else in my portfolio if I did not have a serious plan? I’m certainly not doing all of this work just to sit around and not go anywhere with it. The foundation is done, the Tampa Bay Film sites are not going away, and they can afford to sit tight until we are ready to utilize them. Currently, I’ll be in position to make films in 2011. Our film festivals will start shortly after we have a few films done. Everything else is timed according to the start of the film festivals. Everything is good. I plan on making a series of short films in 2011. By 2013, we will have a portfolio of short films, and a series of film festivals not only behind us, but ongoing. Film festivals are going to be extremely important to not only my filmmaking and indie film agendas, but my other business interests as well. We will have the dominant, and the most effective, network of interconnected film festivals and indie film events. I will have controlling interest in the Tampa indie film market, and the Tampa indie film scene, as well as the upcoming indie film community in Tampa Bay, will be the domain of Tampa Bay Film. In related notes, I’m rather disappointed that no one currently involved in the Tampa indie film scene has risen to the challenge of posting here on the Tampa Film Blog, or debating here. I’m going to suppose that this means that everyone agrees with my posts here? All kidding aside, this will change. Time is on our side, and time will accomplish all of our goals. You can expect some fierce debates here on the Tampa Film Blog in the future, as well as filmmakers posting content. After all, the Tampa Film Blog is not just by podium, but it is a tool for all Tampa filmmakers. Remember that. Oh, and I have a recent post on my Dream Nine Studios news section. Check it out while you ponder the future of Tampa indie film. Also, keep in mind that there is a lot going on behind the scenes that you cannot see (and a lot of work organizing and editing content here on the Tampa Film Blog. There really isn’t a point in posting a whole lot when organizing the content that we already have is not only something that has to get done, but it is more cost-effective as far as our ongoing SEO agenda). I’ve only revealed a tiny fraction of what we are working on. I will say that my short film projects will be nothing less than groundbreaking, if not revolutionary. Hell, they should be; I’ve spent enough time working toward making them. That’s it for now. Expect a post revealing the long term plans of Tampa Bay Film soon. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, May 6, 2010 - 8:30 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Blog Updates And Upcoming Reviews I’m editing my blogs, such as my Tampa DJ Blog, right now, and will be finishing up several new reviews in the next few days before I resume my marketing web site content and upgrades next week. Next up: The unauthorized review for The Tampa Film Review 2009 (which was a single event) and the unauthorized guide for The Tampa Film Review 2004-2009. The guide will become an hub of sorts, and will be updated as more information is added, and the upcoming reviews for CFR 2004 and CFR 2005 (CFR stands for The Coffeehouse Film Review, which was the early name of The Tampa Film Review the first two years when they were at the small coffeehouse, while TFR stands for The Tampa Film Review). These new reviews will join the already-published unauthorized reviews for The Tampa Film Review 2006-2007, and The Tampa Film Review 2008 (I bet the brothers secretly wished that they had me do their photography, marketing, and posters promoting the TFR, because the review title images are awesome, if I do say so myself; another area where I have most filmmakers beat.... You know it!)! Tampa Bay Film will be the authority on the CFR/TFR, and anyone referencing the history of Tampa indie film will reference Tampa Bay Film for the official history; it's only a matter of time before the search engines are aligned properly. I’m also working on the 2009 review of the online film festival, which is another awkward review because I also own it. Who else is qualified to review these things? Oh, and I also published a review of Rod Grant’s stageplay, Women want Everything!, and it’s over on Frontier Pop, which officially has not launched yet. Frontier Pop is going to be a massive site, and it will be my primary site soon. It will be Tampa’s premier pop culture and entertainment site, too, as well as the marketing site for The Frontier Society underground subculture that I own. Back to work. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - 8:09 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Online Film Festival Successors Detailed I’m currently writing the 2009 Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival Review (2nd Generation), as well as finalizing specs for the future, so I decided to write this post. This will give you an idea for the cool things that are coming! Of course, I also need to write this for use as a reference for my review. With the ongoing, and incredible, success of the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival (which, by the way, is also the best place to watch great indie films such as Spaventare; simply run the names of Tampa indie films in search engines, and, if they are playing on the online film festival, they will come out at the top of the results, and on the online film festival (once again, predictions that I made a couple of years ago come true, and are validated with proof; simply click on this Spaventare link, and see for yourself). Also, go to their source profiles on Youtube, or wherever, and pull their stats. See where all of the views are coming from? The proof is in the results! Spaventare had like 10 people in the audience at the Gasparilla International Film Festival, and has over EIGHT TIMES that amount of people watching it on the online film festival- we even have GIFF beat!), a number of improved online film festivals are in the works. Right now, we are running the 2nd generation online film festival, and are working hard on not just the 3rd generation online film festival, but the 4th, and 5th generations as well. There is even more, too. I was working on an international online film festival, but will, instead, be focusing all of those efforts on the present, and future, incarnations of the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival. Understand that the overall objective of Tampa Bay Film and our huge network of Tampa Bay Film sites has changed in the past year, and the Tampa branding now applies to the indie film industry as a whole. How is this? Simple. Our objective is to help make Tampa indie film a leader in the indie film industry, period. This justifies utilizing the Tampa branding for those efforts. Additionally, the online film festival has routinely received, and added, indie film submissions from all over the world. Yes, we will emphasis Tampa indie films when we can, but showing indie films from everywhere else not only serves to pick up the slack from the low amount of Tampa films being produced, but serves to inspire Tampa filmmaker; many of the indie films playing on the online film festival, but made outside of the Tampa indie film market, could be made in Tampa Bay! What this means is that the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival will become the international online film festival which we will want, and need, as well as continue to promote, and support, Tampa indie films. So, a lot of work if currently going on with the future generations of the online film festival. Operational details and specifications have already been established, and the only things that need to be done are the execution of these plans, as well as the establishment of support infrastructure. Here are the available details of the past, present, and future generations of our online film festival. 1st Generation Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival (2007-2008) Static HTML/ CSS / Tables web site utilizing external embedded video files. The online film festival began as a beta test with embedded files on the Tampa Bay Film Myspace profile in late 2006. When the Tampa Bay Film Raptor Class site launched on January 2007, the online film festival was built into the Tampa Bay Film site. The 1st Generation online film festival proved to be very successful, and defeated another online film festival in 2007. It was crude, but effective. 2nd Generation Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival (2008-Present) Static HTML/ CSS web site utilizing external embedded video files. This improved on the original online film festival, and fixed the flaws discovered on its initial shakedown. The 2nd Generation online film festival was a completely new site, with new files and directories. The 2nd Generation online film festival obtained its own domain name, and was launched on late 2008 as a Raptor Class stand-alone web site, which interconnected with the Tampa Bay Film site. It was then upgraded to a Raptor 3 Class site, as was Tampa Bay Film. In 2009, the 2nd Generation online film festival site was upgraded to a Super Raptor Class site, and interconnected with the other seven Tampa Bay Film sites with a new right-side menu array. The 2nd Generation online film festival is the current workhorse, and it has been extremely successful, although the manual maintenance requirements limit the number of available films to around 100 at any given time (the more films, the more untenable maintenance becomes). 3rd Generation Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival (2011) Dynamic PHP/ CSS web site utilizing external embedded video files. The database-driven version of the online film festival will open the door to user maintenance, and will allow a library of thousands of indie films, in a wide range of categories. This will be the version which will finally achieve, and then exceed, the original potential of the online film festival. The 3rd Generation online film festival will still depend upon embedded video files, however, although the flexible architecture will allow maintenance to be quick, and tenable, again. The 3rd Generation online film festival will be all-new, and will set the foundation for succeeding generations. The main 2nd Generation online film festival directories will be overwritten, and the static HTML files of the existing films will be archived within the site (and then phased out with the 4th Generation OFF). The 3rd Generation online film festival will be built with the future support of the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Community PHP message board and membership sections in mind. 4th Generation Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival (2012) Dynamic PHP/ CSS/ Flash web site utilizing internal video files and custom Flash player. The next upgrade to the database-driven 3rd Generation online film festival, the 4th Generation online film festival will end the dependence upon externally hosted embedded video files, and the ads that come with them. The 4th Generation online film festival will host the film files, and play them on a Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival custom branded Flash player. All previous embedded indie film files from the 3rd and 2nd Generation online film festivals will be phased out by 2013. 5th Generation Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival (2013/ 2014) Dynamic PHP/ CSS/ Flash Virtual Film Festival* web site, with expanded interfaces, built upon the 4th Generation online film festival foundation. TOP SECRET.* A revolutionary leap in online film festivals, many of the details of the 5th Generation online film festival are classified. This project is a tightly guarded secret, as this will be the most advanced online film festival in the world. The differences between the 5th Generation and earlier generations will be much like day and night. The current 2nd Generation online film festival would be primitive, and limited, in comparison. Since all of the films accessed by the 5th Generation online film festival would be pulled from a PHP database, an all-new base design is not out of the question. It is likely that the base design itself would be much more advanced than the designs of earlier generations. The primary VFF interface will be visual, intuitive, and highly advanced. The 5th Generation online film festival would be the standard for at least five years. A “Virtual Film Festival” built on the foundation of the online film festival established by 4th Generation standards, this online film festival would bridge the gulf between the shortcomings of an online film festival, and the advantages of a film festival event. It will be designed to directly compete with traditional film festivals in every way, as well as have advantages over every aspect of film festival events. The 5th Generation online film festival would have full integration with all Tampa Bay Film properties. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, April 30, 2010 - 9:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault An Ultra-Secret Indie Film Format In The Works I have a confession to make. I have a secret indie film project that I’ve been working on (actually, I have hundreds, upon hundreds, of good ideas which I consider to be trade secrets, but this is one of my top secrets. I am a creative, educated person of many ideas, and many secrets, and I have the mental horsepower, and experience, to work them out). It’s a new type of indie film which, to my knowledge, has not been done before. I’ve been working on this new format, or type, of indie film since 2005 (I always make detailed long-term plans), and other than an actor and a prominent local news anchor, I haven’t told anyone any details about it. In the world of indie film, and as an indie filmmaker, this is truly my ace card. This new type of indie film will give me an unmatched advantage as a filmmaker, and I expect it to be one of many tools which may make me the most visible, and top, filmmaker in the Tampa indie film scene. There won’t be a filmmaker in Florida who will be able to outdo my efforts in indie film, unless they, too, copy the concept, and by the time that it is revealed, they will be too far behind the curve, and will have to do too much catching up, to overcome my industry inertia (additionally, with Tampa Bay Film and my other publications, everyone will know that the source of these concepts is me. Steal from me, and refuse to give credit where it is due, and you will destroy your credibility). Think that I’m going to give any hints, or details, here, right now? No way! Although it may be a revolutionary idea, it’s not hard to do once you learn the details, and that’s why I can’t say anything right now. You can file this under *“Project Dragonfly”* for future reference, as I will refer to that project name once it is revealed. The project is so secret, as a matter of fact, that I did not stick to tradition, and didn’t even give out any hints or clues in the name. I chose Dragonfly because I am rather fond of the sneaky, and stealthy, nature of the highly skilled, predatory insect (Also, have you ever looked at the intricate coloration and the design of the Dragonfly? Awesome. Incredible. The process of evolution has me beat as a designer, hands-down). Additionally, I like Dragonflies because they eat lots of mosquitoes, which are quite annoying, much like certain "filmmakers" who are buzzing around Tampa right now. So, for the past five years, I have been working in secret, in the dark confines of a lab, working steadily on Project Dragonfly. The concept is quite sound, and will be so effective, I predict, that I no longer consider it to be experimental. I’ve tested it quite thoroughly, and once it is revealed, and deployed, it will be fully operational. Project Dragonfly will enhance some of my other projects, too, as it is a hybrid technology. Filmmakers, once they see, and experience, what Project Dragonfly is all about, will beat themselves up, and will wonder why they never thought of doing that. Well, it’s because they are not me. It's also because most filmmakers limit themselves by only making indie films, and not doing other things, as well. Remember, I invested many years becoming professionally certified in a wide variety of different fields. This gives me an advantage over most competitors, who generally have one-dimensional business mind sets, and are limited because they refuse to think outside of the box. They also tend to follow others, and do not think for themselves, innovate, lead, or take the initiative (and you wonder why most people, and filmmakers, bore me. I'm at the stage in my life, and in my career, where I don't tolerate simpletons, and I simply do not have to. I only have time to surround myself with the smartest, and the best, anyway; don't worry of these statements come off as cocky, or even arrogant, for now, because the future will validate them. I do rather enjoy the luxury of speaking my mind, and I tell it how it is). Another benefit of Project Dragonfly, too, is that it will kickstart some other project lines which are important to me, and will make them extremely cost-effective to do (I will give one clue: Killing two, or even three, birds with one stone). Project Dragonfly is on schedule to being revealed by 2012, and could debut as early as next year. I am very sorry if this is hard to comprehend, or to figure out what I am talking about, but it will be made clear once I am able to unveil it. The intention of this post was not to give away my store, or to put out a good idea which can be stolen from me, and then used against me before I have a chance to use it myself. It is to demonstrate that what you see isn’t the entire picture. What I write about, and what I allow others to see, is a tiny fraction of the scope of things that I am working on. Yes, I have a master plan, and there isn’t a person, organization, or business (even Hollywood can’t touch these ideas. All the money in the world can’t compete with great ideas, and these are not for sale, at any price. They are mine, and they will be used in my career, as well as used to benefit Tampa filmmakers) in the world who can compete against it. Every single thing that I’ve been working on has an important purpose in the master plan. Oh, and you haven’t seen anything, yet. I have a lot of other indie film-relevant ideas, too, which will prove to be revolutionary. I intend to lead by example. It is my hope that my efforts will inspire a new generation of Tampa filmmakers to work together and make Tampa indie film an innovative leader in the independent film industry. Time will reveal all. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, April 29, 2010 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Film Festivals And Events Will Not Be Free Of Charge It was decided in the last week that the film festivals (with the exception of the private, invation-only underground film festivals) and the indie film events by Eventi Stage and Tampa Bay Film will not be free of charge. This, of course, includes the Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series (TFS), the Reverence Film Festival (RFF), the annual film festival (name TBA), and the Tampa Film Conference (TFC). With the decline of free events, such as film festivals, as well as the limited effectiveness of free events, there is, essentially, no competition. There would be no point in offering free film festivals and events, especially since doing so would dig us a hole where it would be tougher to start charging admission, which was always the plan with the Tampa Film Showcase (Eventually, we would have started to charge admission). There are rumors that The Tampa Film Review experienced this perception rut, and couldn’t climb out of it, when an attempt to obtain donations was made; It’s been reported that it didn’t work. Of course, with all of these film festivals and events being produced under Eventi Stage, which will be a non profit stage production and special events organization, the money will go to a good cause, as well as cover operating overhead. Do be effective, and to achieve our objectives, there will be substantial overhead, too. The Tampa Film Showcase, for example, will have a monthly budget of a good amount of money. So, what about submitting to the film festivals? There will be a submission charge, too, although, because our film festivals will give priority to Tampa indie films, submission fees for indie films made in the Tampa Bay market may, possibly, be waived. So, how much would the costs be? Not as much as the “tickets” for the large Tampa film festivals, although please note that these figures are NOT final, and may change without warning. Tickets, which would cover the entire event or film festival, and not be charged per individual screening (I think that the Gasparilla International Film Festival farming out venues to established cinemas and charging $10.00 per screening is B.S., and not cost-effective for someone who wants to watch all of the films at the film festival. Do the math, and you’ll see that it isn’t worth it), would not be over $10.00. Submission fees for the film festivals would be around $25.00. Obviously, these scenarios would be a much better deal than what is currently available (and I am going to be talking with Daniel Brienza, who offers a superb filmmaking workshop with his weekend film crew, about marketing cost-effective filmmaking workshops through my film festivals; keep in mind that I have no interest in the film workshop or film schools, either, and I will be offering free alternatives in my keynote presentations. It’s just that Dan’s workshops are, in my opinion, the best in the Tampa Bay market. There was a time when I had questions about those workshops, too, and I’m now comfortable recommending them, especially in light of some of the other things that are going on). Again, these are just numbers that I am considering. Nothing is final, yet, but just be aware that I will not be doing any free film festivals or indie film events. There will be tickets, and those tickets will cost. So, for those of you hoping that the Tampa Film Showcase will the next Tampa Film Review can stop holding their breath. It won’t be, although I can say that the only thing that The Tampa Film Review had which the Tampa Film Showcase won’t have was free admission. You really do get what you pay for, and the days of free film festivals, as far as I am concerned, are over. I’m going to be doing serious film festivals and indie film events. These events are going to be effective. I’ve invested a lot into all of these events. I want all of these events to be cost-effective, and the best value in the Tampa indie film market. For what they will offer, as far as benefits for filmmakers and indie film, they will all be worth the price of admission, and will be a great deal, regardless. To me, it’s about fairness, balance, cost-effectiveness, and, yes, being effective. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, April 23, 2010 - 8:30 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Why? Why Bother At All? I'm at the point where I am wondering why I pay any attention to what a lot of these people are doing in the Tampa indie film scene. When I criticize what is going on, or state my opinion, I'm stating the obvious. In some instances, it almost like making an issue out of nothing. Kind of like Wall Street de-listing a company from the stock market if it isn't doing so well, I need to simply ignore a lot of the B.S. that is going on. Some of what is going on isn't even worth reporting! Technology is at the point now where just about anyone can go out and make a film for less than $2,000.00 (and that is the outlay for equipment. Once paid for, additional films can be made for next to nothing), yet few are. This, of course, will change, but it's going to take a while. I will say this: 95% of everything in the Tampa indie film scene should simply go away. It needs to be replaced, and no one will miss those elements if they did just go away. The Tampa Bay Film sites are my investment toward my future filmmaking career. When I begin to make my first (solo) films, I'll be in position, with the best promotional and marketing platforms in the Tampa Bay market, to dominate. Hopefully, my work will inspire a new generation of filmmakers to emerge, and create a new Tampa film scene, as the present one is in shambles (and don't email me alleging that I contributed to the decline of the market with my opinions, either). I will also allow other filmmakers to share the resources which will market my films, as I truly care about a productive indie film scene. It's just that, right now, I'm not at all enthusiastic about Tampa films, film festivals, or filmmakers. Very few of them are even worth covering. Sigh.... I have a lot of work to do. Well, I will consider one thing. When my films start coming out, I'll pretty much have the Tampa Bay indie film market to myself. You see, there really isn't any competition. The few who make good films aren't good at marketing them, and no one see's their films. The few who are good at promoting their work don't do good work. It's my market, and there is nothing wrong with that, as far as I am concerned. A lot of people who claim to be working in the Tampa indie film scene should be more concerned that I don't cover them at all, rather than I give them a bad review. Tampa Bay Film, and this network of sites, will continue to grow, and be more effective, with, or without, them. If I am known more as a snob than a critic in the future, so be it. Much of what is going on isn't worth investing any time into covering, or writing about, and with the Tampa Bay Film sites the top indie film web sites in this market, it's bad to not get press. So be it. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, April 22, 2010 - 8:15 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Updating Tampa Film Blog. Almost Done. It's back to editing content on the Tampa Film Blog, and organizing it. I'm almost done, and then I can move onto one more blog before resuming my photography marketing web site work. That blog will take a day, at the most. The reason that this film blog has taken so long to organize is because it has a ton of content, and I've been working a lot. I had at least 20 hours of tedious work to do here. I'm almost done! I also found, and corrected, some typos, as well as added even more content to older posts! From now on, I will organize as I go, so I won't have to spend so much time doing it in the future. This will be more efficient, too. Expect the amount of content, and the length, of this front page to go down is size dramatically once the work is caught up. I will be removing a lot of the content, as it will be properly organized in our archives. There should be no more than ten pages of posts here, preferably five or six, and there are a lot more here, at the moment! In other news, news about the remake of The Quiet Place has been quite controversial (and it should continue to be for some time, as it would be my third, or fourth, short film. I have to do Friendship, and Reverence, before I can tackle it, so expect it sometime late in 2011, or 2012). That's nothing. Wait until I publish the review for The Quiet Place, as well as the behind-the-scenes expose article which has been mostly finished, in limbo, on my PDA since I typed it on the gadget in mid 2008. Yummy! PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 8:50 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Frontier Pop Web Site In The Works, And a Message For Gus The cat is out of the proverbial bag. My new pop culture and entertainment web site/ weekly online magazine, which is now officially in the works, will be called Frontier Pop. The name was decided last week, and the more that it was said among those who were in the loop, the better we liked it. I bought the domain name this morning (I spent $108.00 renewing 13 domain names and buying the new one this morning, and the reason that I waited to buy it is because this was after a bulk discount of 25%), and then uploaded an announcement and a cool background splash graphic on FrontierPop.Com. Frontier Pop will also be used as the principle means of marketing my Frontier Society web site, as well drive content creation for the long-dormant site. There is a reason for this tactic, and it rights a serious wrong. There is a looooong story (read more on my Tampa DJ Blog.... I also explained what happened, to Nolan, the other day) behind the controversy of directly marketing Frontier Society through its domain name of Frontier-Society.Com, and it has to do with cybersquatters taking my original domain name (which I owned in 2003), and then buying up every incarnation of my “Frontier Society” brand that they could think of, in an attempt to block me from marketing with my brand, as well as tricking my target audience into visiting the web site that those domain names now forward to. This is why the Frontier Society has not done much with Frontier-Society.Com in the past few years (and this crap has been ongoing for the past six years. I had the original domain name in 2003, it lapsed, and the cybersquatter issues began in 2004). By marketing the Frontier Society web site through Frontier Pop, as well as DJFrontier.Com, DJWizKid.Com, TampaDJBlog.Com, FrontierView.Com, and other sites which I own, it gets around the agenda of the cybersquatters, and makes their investment of Frontier Society domain names worthless. I’ve also done some things which made their scheme backfire, as I have rerouted search engine traffic to their business from them to their competition. I am also publishing content on Frontier Society which will undermine the marketability of their business. I taught them a lesson, as they messed with the wrong person on the Internet. How did I lose my original Frontier Society name to begin with? I made a mistake. I screwed up transferring the original domain name from Register.Com to Godaddy.Com, it lapsed, and cybersquatters took it. They then tried to sell it back to me for $1,600.00 (which should be a crime, in my opinion), which is why I bought Frontier-Society.Com. I messed up again, too, by buying the version with the hyphen, as there was another marketable version of the domain name which I did not think of at the time. They eventually got that one, too (I believe that this jerk bought up seven or eight variants of my original domain name, including the .org!). I guess I’m too good at coming up with domain names; I am a professional writer, after all, and am good with words (I was offered a lot of money for a few of them over the years). There are people out there who want to capitalize on my branding. I wonder how many other cybersquatters out there are monitoring my domains. Frontier Pop is good a marketing name (it can’t be mistyped as Frontier Society, yet it supports the Frontier Society branding. It’s also simpler.), and well as an operating name (contains relevant keywords). The result? I just beat the cybersquatters, and their investment into all of those domain names is now worthless. Frontier Pop will not be a doorway site to Frontier Society, however. It will be a huge weekly online magazine and web site, with its own content, and will be just as large, and relevant, as Frontier Society; both sites will compliment each other (It will be just like the symbiotic relationship between Advanced Model and Independent Modeling, as well as the other two geographically-optimized modeling resource sites). Frontier Pop will have its own brand, and will give serious competition to another pop culture web site / fanzine in the Tampa Bay area. There is more, too- much more. Don’t think that Frontier Pop will be just another one of my many web site properties. Frontier Pop will become my most important web site! It is going to become my main web site, and it will interlink with every other site that I have. Frontier Pop will even be more important, to me, than my business sites. What this means, too, is significant, Frontier Pop is going to be huge, and it is going to be everywhere! Our competition will not be able to keep up, although they, too, have a place. Our competition is very good, too, and we will reference them at times. There is more than enough room for both of us. Frontier Pop is scheduled to be launched in the fall, although it could launch earlier. Ok, switching gears to other news, and then I have to go. Gus has been trying to reach me since yesterday, but his timing is off. When you call, Gus, I’m either sleeping, or working. I often cannot talk to anyone for any length of time before 9PM (unless it is a client, and in those cases, I keep the calls short). I do most of my work at night, or on the weekends. I work a lot. As an example, I will not be able to call a swimsuit model who I need to talk to, and set up a time to work with her, until this weekend. I am that busy (I am also sorry that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye at the film festival. My model friend was hungry, and we left for dinner; we did not want to stay, because the film festival was so bad that there was no point. I never bothered to review it, or publish a review. It was her idea to leave, and we did). Anyway, Gus, to answer your primary concern, no, I did not publish what we discussed, and I won’t. I’m a person of my word. I know a lot about Tampa indie film which I will never publish. A lot of people talk to me, although I only get to publish a small fraction of what I learn. If a source tells me that it is off the record, I keep it off the record. Hope that helps. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 8:25 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Submission Process For Online Film Festival Has Changed The process for submitting films to the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival has changed. Filmmakers are now required to email us a link to MPEG video files of their films, where we can download them. The changes are required in order to maintain the integrity of the playlist of the online film festival (I am really sick and tired of filmmakers submitting films, only to remove them without telling me. I add the films, they later delete the films on their hosting account, and leave unannounced holes in my playlist for my viewers to contact me about; I then have to find the time to fix it). To read more about the changes (and why this had to happen), read today’s entry on the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival blog (also known as the OFF Blog; yes, we have two film blogs, one here, and one on the online film festival). PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 8:02 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Quiet Place Remake Is In The Works It’s official, and this is going to be extremely controversial. The rumors have been floating around for years, and finally, it's going to happen. There is going to be a remake of 2006's short indie film, The Quiet Place. Who dares to remake the film? I’m going to, and perhaps as early as 2011. I’m not entirely sure if the name will be close to the original or not (although I may call it, simply, "Quiet Place", dropping the "The", so that there is not any confusion), but it will have all-new characters, and an entirely new story. I will be starting with the premise of the original Chris Woods script, and will be writing an entirely new script from that premise. I’m not ripping off anyone, either, as I am only working off of the basic premise, and will be crediting Chris Woods with an “Inspired by the original script for The Quiet Place, by Chris Woods” in the credits, or maybe even on-screen at the beginning of the film (although, please note, that this is entirely my deal, and Chris Woods, unless he wants to get involved, will not be involved. He also had nothing to do with my decision to remake the film. I'm sure that he will be pleased with the outcome, however, although I think that Woods would have done the original justice. If Chris Woods had been abe to retain his full original script, and he would have directed the original, I believe that it would have been a great film, and a remake would not be necessary. Chris Woods is, perhaps, the best filmmaker in Tampa). I’m pretty sure that I can get Harmony Oswald, the lead actress in the original The Quiet Place, cast as one of the lead characters in this new film the next time that she is down in Florida, because I’m the one who referred her to the original The Quiet Place back in 2006. Harmony met me back in 2004 as one of my clients for headshot photography and modeling, and we are good friends. I may also cast some of the other actors from the original (I'll have to talk to Somali, and some of the others, about that, although I will have to cast a fresh actress to play the teen daughter), which, of course, will help to avoid any confusion with the flawed original. The remake will be a great short film, based on the premise of the original, and will be done at far less cost, with a smaller cast, and a minimal crew. The result of this effort, I predict, will be a film which will be superior to the original in every way. So, what will my original story for the remake be about? It will be about loss, guilt, and states of sanity. That’s all I can say for now. I just know, however, that I won’t go wrong casting Harmony in the lead, and the story will revolve around a young mother who has lost her daughter, and then has to deal with the consequences when she finally finds her. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, April 10, 2010 - 8:34 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Film Showcase Top Venue, And Taking Notes I stopped by my top choice for the Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series this morning on the way to the studio. I like it. It’s large enough for my big annual film festivals (although it wouldn’t be the best fit for the Reverence film festival), with fire codes rated at a maximum occupancy 500 of people (the venue is over 4,500 square feet. In comparison, the State Theater in Saint Pete, which was the venue of the Saints and Sinners film festivals, is 6,000 square feet; the venue can handle large annual film festivals as well as the Tampa Film Showcase), and as long as people can get past the dirt roads and barbed wire, it’s a great location. It’s a nice facility. January 2012 isn’t that far away. This could be the venue (and, at that time, I’ll be sure to verify if it is the same venue as the one which I am talking about, now.) I talked to Shelby Mcintyre a few days ago, and we were talking about venues. He suggested that I use a movie theater, but I told him that it wouldn't be ideal. It would be great for showing movies, but not for much else. Additionally, movie theaters can be confusing, with limited potential for branding. Professional networking will be a very important part of the Tampa Film Showcase, so the venue selected has to be good for watching movies and networking, and it’s preferable that both can be done in the same room (it will make sense once you see how I have this planned out). This said, the Tampa Film Showcase could be done at a venue of around 2,000 square feet, but we would need a maximum occupancy of at least 250. Don't take these stats as fact for now, too, as nothing is official ,yet. I will say that, if we had to do it at a venue identical to the original coffeehouse venue that The Tampa Film Review used at the beginning, and toward the end, that, although we'd take a hit on occupancy, we would be able to achieve all of our goals; showing both Pete Guzzo and Paul Guzzo what would have been possible had they organized The Tampa Film Review (Coffeehouse Film Review) properly. Regardless of what venue is ultimately used, the Tampa Film Showcase, when compared to The Tampa Film Review, will reveal just how flawed the old monthly film festival was. People are going to wonder why they put up with the flaws of the amateurish film festival after the Tampa Film Showcase sets the standard (If I had made a wiser decision about what I invested in in late 2007, I would already be making films, and it is possible that the Tampa Film Showcase would have launched in 2008, and would have gone head to head with The Tampa Film Review; in that scenario, my superior Tampa Film Showcase would have driven The Tampa Film Review out of the market, and they would have shut down in humiliation. I wish that I could have made that window. History would have remembered The Tampa Film Review as a failure, and everyone would have known that it failed. As it stands, they had no competition from the Tampa Film Showcase, and Paul Guzzo was able to spin it as the conclusion of his run; he shut it down with some believing that it was a success. As it stands now, the Tampa Film Showcase will launch three years after The Tampa Film Review ended, and it will take time for people to realize that The Tampa Film Review was over hyped and overrated, and that it was a flawed film festival which finally failed. The Guzzo Bros, in my opinion, were not able to fix what was wrong with The Tampa Film Review. Although they made some improvements, it was a case of too little, too late. In late 2008, The Tampa Film Review became untenable, and the Guzzo Bros quit; without competition (which would have highlighted the shortcomings of the TFR), Paul Guzzo was able to spin it as the end of a successful monthly film festival. I suppose that I will have to wait a while longer before I am able to demonstrate, and prove, that The Tampa Film Review was deeply flawed, and ineffective. In the future, people will remember it for what it really was; they will wonder why they spent five years putting up with the ineptness and the flaws of The Tampa Film Review. Paul Guzzo claimed that he could not continue to do his monthly film festival because they could not do it half-ass, which is ironic, in my opinion, because I believe that the main problems with The Tampa Film Review was that it was done half-ass all along! With the final Coffeehouse Film Review (CFR) in late 2005 (just before they moved to another venue and remained it The Tampa Film Review), they were not even close to having all of the bugs ironed out, and they had almost two years to get the film festival running right! When it ended after a five year run, The Tampa Film Review was still flawed, and that is a testament that organized events such as film festival should be left to professional event planners, and not mere filmmakers (mental note to myself: Get those CFR/ TFR reviews done!). Anyway, I’ll be spending the rest of the morning working on indexing the film blog content, and printing out review notes. This weekend, I have to do a shoot with models, and over an event. Other than my camera gear, I will have little on me (I will be writing on my Palm TX PDA using a fold-out pocket keyboard, as I cannot take a computer where I am going. I'll later transfer the text files to a computer, edit them in Wordperfect, and then format it in Dreamweaver. I've been creating content for web sites for years doing it this way). I’ll have a lot of downtime, though (at least 14 hours), so I will be writing reviews for Experiment 7 (film), What Women Want (stageplay), TFR 2009 (film festival), TFR 2004-2009 guide (film festivals), CFR/TFR 2004 (film festival), CFR/TFR 2005 (film festival), the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival 2009 (film festival), and 99 (film). With that last film, I’m watching Reservoir Dogs in the studio at the moment, so I’ll put that on next to refresh my memory. I’ll get screen grabs next week. All of the reviews, with the exception of the play review, will be published on the Tampa Film Review Tampa Bay Film site next week, and referenced from the Tampa Film Blog. I have to go. Mr. Blonde is about to dance with a police officer to the song “Stuck in the middle” (Actually, this scene reminds me of the movie "Swimming with Sharks", another great movie!). PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, April 10, 2010 - 8:15 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Message Board, And A Cool New Web Site I’ve been reading emails since Tampa Bay Film launched where the reader complained that there were options for a message board, but no message board. I can now announce that the official Tampa Bay Film message board, for forum discussions concerning independent film, is coming, and all of the Tampa Bay Film sites will use it. I could launch it tomorrow, but I won’t. I’ll wait until I’m ready. The message board will be launched on the Tampa Film Community site of the Tampa Bay Film site network, and all of the Tampa Bay Film sites will link to it, and use it, upon launch. When will it launch? I’m thinking early 2012 (Hey, I do things when I am good and ready, and when support infrastructure is in place. It's never if it will happen, with me, but when. Never forget that. I see no reason to rush anything, especially with no competition around to push things out faster). Upon launch, all of the “post on message board” links, and other message board references on the Tampa Bay Film sites, will link to the message board. A lot of traffic will be funneled there. Also, to answer the questions about why I do not post any more on the fanboy hate site message board, and why I choose to respond to them on my blogs, it is because Nolan and Terence cannot censor me, or edit any of my posts, on my blogs. In the past, when I was winning debates with their friends, they would go in and edt my posts to make it look like I didn't know how to respond to the posts of their friends, and it would look like I was losing after they did their creative editing (as a result, this made a lot of the responding posts from their friends a little confusing, as they were responding to points that were made which were no longer there). I will not be censored! Additionally, their message board is officially blacklisted by the coalition which I head (so, now they know what has happened; they messed with the wrong person, and it killed their message board. I am sure that they have suspected for some time, and I can now confirm it). Our members, of which are many, have boycotted that message board, and this is one of the main reasons that it has been a ghost town, and has been on life support, for quite some time now (and what's coming next in this blog post will surely be a cause for panic over in their camp- cue crying. I'm about to do something that they have been fearing for years, and it is about my new web site project). Anyway, what’s the cool new site? Well, I had a meeting with a group of my people, and have been talking to some supporters, and we are now working on a pop culture and entertainment magazine / resource web site. The site will have a team of writers, regular columns, headlines, a commentary section, commentary on current events and news, movie reviews (mainstream movies- indie films will be covered on Tampa Bay Film), video games (information and reviews... this will be a large, regular feature) and maybe a dedicated membership/ message board section. This new web site will use all of my web sites for support, will heavily reference the Tampa Bay Film sites, and will serve as my primary entertainment and culture web site. Frontier Society (which has not been updated, and has been neglected, sadly, for a few years now. This will change, and this will not be the case with the new web site, which will be updated weekly, at the very least) was originally supposed to do this, but it is more of a compendium of human knowledge, is for my Frontier Society underground subculture, and is not intended to be an online magazine or publication (at least, not anymore). Our new pop culture and entertainment site will also heavily depend upon Frontier Society, of course, and I have big plans for Frontier Society. At any rate, I just don’t want to cover Tampa indie film and film festivals. I want to cover entertainment, art, and pop culture in general, and if there is something cool going on, I want it covered on the new web site. Expect this new, revolutionary web site to launch in Fall 2010 (a certain web site out there is about to go out of business). The name of the site, and other details, are classified at this time (I refer to it, internally, as my “Legion Of Doom” project. The title for this was not my idea, and was coined by some fanboys, which is cool). Upon launch, the site will be ready with a large amount, and diverse range, of great content. Writing has already started for the upcoming site, which is under development. The new site will be the first of my new-generation web site design classes, and will use a lot of flash graphics and PHP. The Revo Class web site will also have a design which is not like anything that I have designed before. The Frontier Society site, and some of my other sites, may be converted to Revo Classes after it debuts with the new web site. In another update, the content indexing of the Tampa Film Blog is still moving along nicely. You can monitor the progress in our Blog posts section. I will be tied up this weekend, and won't be able to get back to it until Monday/ Tuesday, when it will be finished (around the same time, I should also be able to get those reviews up, too. I still have to shoot the covers for the 2004 CFR/TFR and 2005 CFR/TFR reviews, but other than that, I'm good. Sigh..... I'll have to go into Ybor sometime next week, and I really do hate that place. Best to leave my valuables at home; I'll shoot the covers, as I've always done, with a cheap consumer camera.... Although, looking at the covers, you can't tell. The pictures are pro). PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, April 9, 2010 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Film Blog Still Updating Hours of tedious work were done today. There is a lot of content on this blog, and there are well over 120 blog posts; some of the posts will have to be extended to several web pages, too, which will bring the content on this site to well over 200 web pages of content, all well-organized, and indexed, for easy access by both readers and search engines. Because the menu took a lot more time than planned, the work is now 70% done, and I hope to finish by tomorrow. I'll have to complete the archiving of all of the posts, and then set up navigation between the posts. That done, I'll then have to make menus organized by months, and then in other ways. I also plan on creating special sections for interesting people such as Paul Guzzo, Pete Guzzo, Joe Davison, Chris Woods, Andy Lalino, Nolan Canova, and Terence Nuzum (the most negative person that I know, and a killjoy, in my opinion. The time spent working with him on the set of Spaventare was the worst filmmaking experience of my life, and I left in a pretty foul mood. My friend, actress Sarah Bray, got to hear about it all the way back to Tampa. He is, overall, a talented filmmaker, though; His segment of Milk Crate Scars was surprisingly brilliant in a way.), as well as others. These sections will be blog sections with opinion posts specifically about the subjects, as well as additional information and links to other resources. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, April 8, 2010 - 8:22 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Updating 50% Done I spent hours filing and organizing over 130 pages of content on the Tampa Film Blog. Typical of the way that I do things, I pay attention to the details and went the long way around, avoiding shortcuts . I did it right, and even upgraded the existing archives to the new film blog format (I had to resize the older image files using Dreamweaver code, and used Photoshop to handle the calculations needed to scale down the image dimensions proportionally. I also had to do a lot of tedious tweaking with every archive page to configure it for compatibility with the new film blog format; this took a lot of time). It's pretty impressive so far, and I have to say that there is a TON of content! I'm not finished yet, and should be by tomorrow, but I will upload what I have so far for the thirsty search engines to sip on, and begin indexing. Drink, my search engines, drink! Google is going to have a lot of fun with all of this, especially after I add subject-category sections on the blog! I already have a mountain of good content in the blog, and now that the search engines can properly crawl, and index, all of it, I think that they will agree with me that this film blog is the most relevant source of information for Tampa indie film. No tricks, no shortcuts, and completely legitimate- that's the way I do things. With a couple of hundred pages of content, this site will be hard to ignore. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - 7:58 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Blog Content Editing And An Unintended Snub I can see what one problem is, now, with this film blog, as far as SEO goes. Content volume is not the problem. The Tampa Film Blog now has over 272 pages of content, and the big problem is that it's not organized very well. As a result, the search engines are choking on it. There is too much content on each page! This will be rectified shortly. As you can see by the navigation links around each post, this blog was never intended to have 50 pages of content per web page. Each blog post is supposed to get its own web page, and really lengthy posts are supposed to be split up among several pages. This blog will be edited, and organized, soon, and when it is, no other site will be able to touch it with Tampa indie film results in searches. Another issue came to my attention, too. Someone told me that, during the recent Sunscreen Film Festival screening of the Davision bomb Experiment 7, that Tampa Film Fan Lisa Scherer Ciurro was also in attendance, and tried to say "hi" to me. She felt that I ignored her. Well, for that, I am sorry. I didn't hear her, didn't see her, and didn't know that she was there. If I had seen here, I would have been cool with her. It is not my intention to snub her, or to treat her badly (and I wouldn't do that to anyone, especially since I know how that feels with the Tampa indie film clique). At any rate, I'm sorry, Lisa. I did not intend to ignore you; I just didn't see you. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Monday, April 5, 2010 - 6:15 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Major SEO Work This Summer The sites are in place, and I have SEO saturation, but I want more. With more Tampa indie film-relevant content published on the Tampa Bay Film sites that all other sources combined, I do not agree with some of the search engine results for some film terms. I don't care if I have to spend money hiring additional writers, and if we have to put the published equivalent-volume of the library of congress online. There are some people who need to be removed from search results altogether. In my opinion, they sell out Tampa filmmaking, and are not good for the advancement of Tampa indie film; the ass-kissing and propaganda are simply annoying. The outright lies are obnoxious, too. Perhaps I am being hasty, however. Things are working well, and we do have top search results for most specific terms. Our site traffic numbers are also at the top. It's just that I want total search domination. I am convinced that, with time, and some work, that total search engine domination for the Tampa Bay Film sites is inevitable. This may especially be true after we put some overblown film festivals out of business. Regarding SEO, I don't think that publishing more is the key, though, as I am already writing more than all the others combined; I'm passionate about indie film, I genuinely care, and I am inspired to write about it. I think it's how it is being organized. This summer, I will have the chance to edit and organize site content, as well as add more. 2011 is my target year for starting my indie film events and support projects, so I have time. Really, I've only just begun, and haven;t had the time to do what I've need to do. This will change in the summer. For now, however, I am tied up with another project. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 8:45 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault If A Tree Falls, And No One Is Around, Does It Make A Sound? Please. There is a small clique of people who refuse to believe that Tampa Bay Film exists. It’s like “If we ignore it, and don’t admit that it is the voice of Tampa indie film, we can deny its existence, and therefore it does not exist”. Except it does. Ignoring it does not make it less relevant. Just because you are ignoring it doesn’t mean everyone else is. The irony? All of you already realize this. You just refuse to admit it, at least publicly. Privately, in the darkness of night, many of you spend long hours with the glow of Tampa Bay Film on your screens. You ponder what is published on the Tampa Bay Film sites, and worry about the film scene which is coming- a film scene that may drop you like a bad habit, and if it remembers you at all, you will be remembered as a has-been, never-was, or a failure in the amateur era of Tampa indie film. At this point, Tampa Bay Film and its armada of seven other web sites have reached search engine saturation, and it’s only just the beginning of what is coming (you should see the flyers and other marketing tools that I am now using). Just about everyone, including the people who refuse to publicly acknowledge it, read Tampa Bay Film, read this film blog, watch indie films on the online film festival, and read the other sites. This site influences a lot of people, and makes a difference. At this point, Tampa Bay Film is one of the few sane, professional voices of reason that the Tampa film scene has. The Tampa Bay Film sites are dominant, and only increasing in popularity and effectiveness. There will come a time when Tampa Bay Film will be the definition of the Tampa indie film scene, and even the minority who are detractors will be forced to acknowledge it as a standard. It will become the standard, too, setting new benchmarks for indie film, especially with all the work going into it. There will come a time when Tampa Bay Film will be the source for all things indie film in Tampa Bay, will have the most relevant network of film festivals, and will have the best indie film events in the bay area. The next generation of Tampa filmmakers, who will displace the small group of current filmmakers, will come along in the next five years or so, and they will define the Tampa indie film scene because of Tampa Bay Film. I’ve experienced discrimination, slander, hate, threats (including death threats and threats of assault by Tampa “filmmakers”), and a lot of unprofessional and unethical behavior at the hands of the Tampa indie film clique, a clique which was masquerading as a Tampa indie film community. I did not start the fight. I’m certain at this time that they regret starting their B.S. with me. I was the wrong person to mess with. I am an entertainment ethics activist, with a proven track record of disrupting, and then changing, industries, and the way that business is done. I continue to work to change Tampa indie film. I am sincere about helping make Tampa indie film a leader in the independent film industry. I am also working to make sure that new filmmakers all get a fair shot at contributing to the film scene, are able to become a part of the upcoming Tampa film community, and will not be treated like I was. I am fighting for your rights, the rights of Tampa filmmakers, and the future of indie film in Tampa Bay. We are winning the fight, too. The back of the film clique has been broken, and now the remaining people are fighting each other (and I get a lot of amusement witnessing those fights.... It’s kind of like flying over a third world country in jets and watching the primitive natives throwing spears at each other, below). They are defeated, and are becoming more irrelevant every day. The Tampa Film Review, which was the hangout for the clique, failed. A fanboy web site, their online hangout, is in serious decline. I sit back and laugh at the infighting, and the ghost town which used to be a thriving message board. I won many great fights on that message board, and now, no one uses it because they chased away, or banned, all of the cool people. I’m looking forward to the day when the message board is deleted. The models, talent, and I will sit back and celebrate. It will be a great day indeed. The reason for your decline is not what you think. It’s not Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, or anything else. It’s you. You did it to yourselves! Your clique of hate, and your discrimination and slander against others, caught up to you. People stay away from you because they figured out that you are a clique of insecure haters. People are staying away, too. You had your shot, and you blew it! I love the spin that you give, and the excused, however; it’s amusing. In my opinion, you didn’t give up covering Tampa indie film because a lot of others are now doing it. It’s because Tampa Bay Film is doing it, and you can no longer compete with the new standard, the voice of Tampa indie film. We don’t need all the B.S. and propaganda. We need the real issues covered so we can address what is wrong with Tampa indie film. We need solutions. We don’t need some insecure kiss-ass endlessly promoting “popular” film festivals which do not have the best interests of Tampa indie film in mind. We do not need people selling out Tampa filmmakers, or selling out Tampa indie film! Nolan posted the following on what’s left of his message board: My original purpose in covering local film was because nobody else was doing it, and I felt it needed to be exposed. In the beginning there was the TamBay Film Festival which went broke after several years of groundbreaking effort. There was also Saints & Sinners for a while. But there was no Gasparilla Film Festival, no SunScreen Film Festival, no Facebook, no MySpace, and no YouTube. There was the TFR, TFF, and us. All that's changed. Through the efforts of The Tampa Film Review, the PCR, and the tireless work of local filmmakers, Tampa finally got put on the map. Then, the Gasparilla Film Festival grew way beyond its humbler roots into a national attraction. They've gone bigtime and certainly don't need me to promote them anymore. My status as a reviewer and film judge apparently went with Eric Odum. Doesn't mean I no longer support local indie film. When the GIFF was originally announced at TFR, the format was a different story. But that was then, this is now. I'm glad they've finally upped the percentage of local films into what they originally said they were going to do. And there's nothing wrong with the direction they took. GIFF is rivaling the Sarasota Film Festival and soon may outpace even them. I'm very proud of them. They bring money and attention into the city. I disagree, Nolan. GIFF has not hit the big time. Remember, too, that I WAS THE ONLY ONE who brought up the issue of the original format, too, and the only one who addressed it (also, when I dared to question Paul about it, he tried to attack my credibility with slander instead of answering my questions, or having a simple debate). The rest of you jumped on the bandwagon and blindly supported it! After the first GIFF, a lot of people realized that I had been right! In my opinion, it is an overhyped film festival created to market the Tampa Bay area as a production location for outside productions. Those outside productions would compete with Tampa filmmakers for limited resources, undermining the creation of local Tampa films, and keeping us off the map. It’s all about money, Nolan. In my opinion, the GIFF was created by the Tampa film commission (with the help of a Tampa filmmaker who sold out his filmmaker brothers. I was there at the Tampa Film Network meeting in 2006 when this all went down!), as a way to attract Hollywood here and bring business to the market. Hollywood has deep pockets, and it would be very hard for Tampa filmmakers to compete with large productions coming in, like locusts, and using Tampa resources at the expense of local filmmaking. I don’t believe that these current large film festivals have the best interests of the Tampa indie film scene in mind. I don’t think that they really care, despite what they say. In my opinion, GIFF is the marketing pawn of the film commission. The other large film festival seems to be more interested in selling expensive film workshops than in investing in, or supporting, the local film scene. We don’t need the fake pretension of Sarasota, either. Also, don’t get me started with the film commission. They need to stop trying to capitalize on the Tampa Bay Film brand, now! I don’t need them, and I’m sure that Tampa filmmakers are beginning to realize that they don’t need them, either. Tampa Bay Film is the only publication which is addressing the issues with the Tampa indie film scene. I’m one of the few who actually question what is going on. The cool thing, though, it that everything that is published on Tampa Bay Film is significant. The issues that we raise are seen by everyone now, and many people are now asking those same questions themselves. Oh, again, GIFF has NOT hit the big time! I am hearing from more than one source that the GIFF almost did not happen this year, and in my opinion, that would have been a blessing for us all. A curious fact about GIFF is that is was a lot shorter this year, too. I hardly call that growth! Also, who in the hell in their right mind is going to travel to all of those different venues all of the days it ran and pay $10.00 per screening? Did anyone have the time, or the money, to attend the entire GIFF, despite its shorter length? These film festivals are the biggest load of B.S. ever, with simple movie theatre screenings branded with the GIFF name. I know a lot of people who did not go to GIFF because it sucked, it was overpriced, and it doesn’t do anything, in my opinion, to put Tampa indie film on the map. Why are we one of the few who are openly pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes? This, at least, is my qualified opinion. This is one of the reasons that Tampa Bay Film did not cover GIFF this year. We don’t see it as being relevant to the future of the Tampa film scene. Don’t believe the hype. Ask questions. Also, don’t blindly support something just because you think that everyone else is doing it! Check the search engines lately? All the resources poured into Tampa Bay Film are working. I own 53 web sites now, and soon it will be 60. Of those 53 sites, 8 of them are Tampa Bay Film sites. Tampa Bay Film, out of all of my internet investments, is the single largest investment that I have made into online resources. Even my top modeling and talent resource sites take second place to the resources that have been invested in Tampa Bay Film. I’m serious about Tampa indie film, and am also serious about addressing all of the fake B.S. crippling Tampa indie film. Progress cannot be stopped. Market domination is inevitable, and the first place that will happen is online. I’ll keep doing this, and working on this, until our objectives are met. Do you think that we would do all of this work, and not do anything with it? There is a plan, and although some progress has been slow, things will get done. For now, though, I am happy about how far Tampa Bay Film has come in the past three years. I’m also looking forward to making indie films, bringing new filmmakers into the Tampa film scene, and then launching a network of revolutionary film festivals which will be sincere about supporting the advancement of the Tampa indie film scene. I will say this now. Right now, in my opinion, the only reason that GIFF is still around, and is hyped, is because it is the only game in town (much like the TFR used to be). Everyone of you sheep out there who jump on the bandwagon and blindly support things like GIFF should be ashamed of themselves! Once my film festivals, real film festivals, are introduced to the market, I’m looking forward to putting as many of these film festivals out of business as possible. I’m C. A. Passinault, and I am honest about supporting the advancement of Tampa indie film. I don’t cheerlead, I don’t hype, I don’t sell out Tampa filmmakers, and I don’t compromise. How many out there are with me on this? I don’t roll over. I don’t go away. I don’t give up. I don’t stop. I fight the good fight, within legal and ethical boundaries, and stand up for what I believe in. I am the opponent that you don’t want to go up against. I win. It may not seem like it now, but the movement is growing. Tampa indie film, and Tampa filmmakers, will one day be taken seriously, and these false people now making a mockery of Tampa indie film deserve the backlash that they get from the professionals who are fed up with all of the pretense, politics, and B.S.! You should see all of the emails that I get denouncing all of the crap. It’s like “Hi, I am so and so, a filmmaker in Clearwater. I am a regular reader of Tampa bay Film, and I agree with the points that you have brought up on your site. Before you continue reading, please understand that I am, in no way, affiliated with Paul, the fanboy clique, or.........”. That’s right. They denounce the Tampa film clique. They denounce the unprofessional B.S. that the Tampa film scene has had to endure. I’m not the only one who is fed up with all of this. Our numbers are growing. People are opening their eyes to the truth. Deal with it. Tampa filmmakers do not need Hollywood to come here and “save us”, creating Hollywood East. That won’t happen. Hollywood productions in Tampa Bay, in my opinion, and as the production of The Punisher demonstrated, would undermine Tampa indie film. With Hollywood here, local filmmakers would find it much more difficult to make their films, and to sell put Tampa indie film on the map. Tampa filmmakers need to make it happen. We need to form the first professional indie film community, and establish our own Hollywood east! I’m determined to help make this future happen. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Sunday, March 28, 2010 - 2:19 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Boring Indie Film I browsed some magazines recently at the local book store, and, with fading hope, took another look at filmmaker magazine. Is it me, or is the magazine just boring? I want to like filmmaker. I really do. It’s just the same B.S. and pretense, about filmmakers doing the same old thing that other filmmakers are doing. Who cares if some well-known actor tries to buy their way into a filmmaking career. You either have it, or you don’t. You can’t buy it, and you certainly cannot fake it. I remember my editing final in 1993, when I took television production course at the University of Tampa, spent a lot of time working on various productions down at Jones intercable, and worked on a variety of local independent films and local productions for major networks. Those were the days. My friends would go night clubbing all weekend, and I’d spend my time doing camera on some show, floor directing, rigging lighting, running sound, directing, or acting. You have to pay your dues. I saw a lot of people come and go. Some realized that they didn’t have it. Some did. I knew that I did. It was in my blood. It didn’t come easy, though, and certainly, nothing worthwhile ever does. I remember my first night running a camera on a live show. I was so nervous. The technical director would direct me through my headset, and I got all the directions backwards. Laura, an actress and model from Orlando who also worked in production, was floor director that night. She saw that I was in trouble. She covered for me. The director was screaming at me, and all sorts of profanity was filling my ears. She smiled, and calmed them down. “Hey”, she said calmly, “You guys ever hear of a reaction shot? Leave the kid alone, and let him figure it out.” I did figure it out, too, as Laura helped calm my nerves. I quickly became very good at running a television camera, and soon became a floor director myself. Within a few months, I was certified at just about everything, except for producer. I’d have to do my first program to get that. With editing, though, there was no learning curve. I just did it. I had been a popular underground DJ for a few years, and was working on my third generation of cassette program releases. I did a lot of editing with my audio programs, and video wasn’t much different. Editing was just something that I did naturally. So, there I was. It was my editing final. I had a few CD’s on me, and some random 3/4 inch tapes from the station library. I sat in there a while, turning the knobs on the editor, spinning the wheels to find what I needed. I got creative, especially since I had to. I put together some footage with beats, almost like an actor would deliver lines, and made a tape which delivered. I then mixed a music track with my CD’s, and matched up the audio to the video. My instructors were impressed. They were especially impressed that I was able to take random clips out of context, make something totally new with them, and then turn it into a music video which told a story. Hey, that’s what filmmaking is all about, really. You tell a story. My instructors and I really got on well. In my life, I never see a middle ground. People either love me, or hate me. Those that get to know me usually get along with me well. Those who don’t get to know me assume the worst, usually, and that demographic is where I find people who hate me, for one reason or another. That’s how I became an actor. The doors opened because people liked me. I fell into it. Laura could see it in me. So could others. I worked with some instructors, too, and in one case, during a graphics class, we began to talk about old Sid and Marty Krofft shows from the 70's. It turned into a singing bout with the song for H.R. Pufnstuf, and before you know it, I was being invited to help with indie film and stage projects, which I did. I did a reading one night with a comedy troupe from Ruth Eckerd Hall. I was there on the production side of things, but was open to other things. We were short on actors, so I read lines with them from a script which one of the actor/ directors was shopping around. At the end of the night, I was offered the lead in a play. I declined, and settle for acting in television commercials, which I did a lot of from 1994 until 1997. Laura, back at the station, was one of the few actors/ models who I knew who also did work on production crews. She bridged the worlds, much like I did. Even in the early days, too, I really got along well with actors and talent. Some of them would tell me that I was one of them, and they could tell that I was going to end up doing a lot of cool things in the industry. Of course, with the DJ’ing, event planning, and later, the photography and modeling industry work, I did accomplish a lot of cool things, but overall, all those things going on slowed down my production goals. Indie film, and television production, was a passion for me, and it would be some time before I could find the time, and the resources, to work it. I have a lot of experience in a diverse array of professions, though, and that foundation will become essential for being able to transcend the same old things that have been going on in indie film for as far back as filmmaking has existed. I certainly have invested in something really special, and that should become apparent in the coming months and years. With filmmaker magazine, I really want to like it. It’s kind of like an indie film which I watched recently, Experiment 7. I really wanted to like the film going in, and once I saw how slick and cool the introduction was, my hope grew. It quickly fell, though, as the film skipped over the exposition and the character development, and then disintegrated into a series of random action scenes. Experiment 7 just sucked, and although I am a professional writer, you didn’t have to be a writer to realize that the film just didn’t cut it. A lot of people in the audience realized that it sucked, too. Ultimately, though, that’s where the film failed; it failed in the writing and character development. Some things you just can’t fake. Filmmaking and writing are among them. As a writer, you have to write what you know. You can’t B.S. the audience if you don’t know what you are writing about. You also can’t create a good script by rushing it. You have to take your time, do your research, and flesh out the script. You have to know who your characters are, put some logic into the plot points, map out an expositional arc, and do a hell of a lot of tweaking. A good script for a short film averages a few weeks to get it right. For a feature film, it could be as much as a few months. When I wrote the original script for the Reverence feature film back in 2001, it took me over a year to finish it, at 120 pages, and I ended up bringing in another writer to help me. Although it came out ok, it wasn’t some of my best work. The other writer helped the script considerably, and even added some things which I missed, fleshing it out, but in the end, I was never completely happy with it (check out the original Reverence script, and judge for yourself, if you wish). I’m a good writer (read The Point, which will be turned into a short film, an excerpt from my Frontier 4 novel, and Born Beautiful, a series of stories, if you need proof), and I know my material well when I write it. Despite this, the original script for Reverence fell short. It was simply too ambitious. Had those two production teams not withdrew from the project, and we had made the film, I don’t think that it would have sold, and I would have been in serious debt. It would have ended up like The Web Of Darkness, or Unearthed, which were two feature films which were also done around the same time. I would have had to self-publish the film on customfix like Rick did with The Web of Darkness. Also, despite having a superior script (as relayed to me at a casting by an actor who had read it), Unearthed never sold, either, as far as I know. I’m glad that the original Reverence failed. Really, I am. I don’t think that it would not have sold, and I do not want to be known for doing films the same way that everyone else does them or is supposed to do them. I’ve learned so much since then, and have a lot of time to work on the details for a new game plan. That game plan has the potential to be the future of Tampa indie film, and all filmmakers, not just myself, will benefit. It will be my gift to them, with no strings attached, and no hidden, self-service agenda which some Tampa filmmakers are infamous for. Does Tampa indie film really need cookie-cutter, assembly line, film-by-numbers indie films like Experiment 7? Does it really need some of the pretentious film festivals that we’ve had to endure, also? Film festivals like Gasparilla and Sunscreen, frankly, bore me, also. We need creative filmmakers making indie films in new ways, and making films that no one else is making. We also need film festivals which are sincere about supporting the few good Tampa filmmakers who are out there, and not film festivals which are simply little more than marketing platforms to lure the competition of Tampa filmmakers here to use Tampa Bay as a location to shoot films. We need good Tampa indie films, and film festivals which support them! That’s why I’m bored. Is there anyone out there doing anything worth getting excited about, or am I going to be the only one to take initiative? I guess we will all find out. In the meantime, though, I’ll just leave it on the shelf, and look for more exciting things. Or, shortly, at least make them happen. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Monday, March 22, 2010 - 1:35 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Indie Film History Database In The Works I finished downloading relevant content from a web site, and content from an infamous message board (a message board which is now a ghost town because of discrimination, censorship, and the support of the Tampa indie film clique; the Tampa indie film clique also in shambles) in order to research the documented history of Tampa indie film. It looks like 2006-2007 was a pivotal year for Tampa film, and the repercussions of that period are in the events of today. It was also a period which saw the launch of Tampa Bay Film, which is now seen by many as the future of Tampa indie film. Tampa Bay Film was a result of the frustration of bias, discrimination, and shady politics in the Tampa indie film scene. It was also created from the frustration of nothing actually being accomplished in the Tampa indie film scene (some of you may recall a war between Tampa Bay Film and unethical elements in the Tampa film scene from 2008 to 2009. Tampa Bay Film won, of course, and one of the casualties was the flawed TFR, which shut down in failure in early 2009- many blame me for the demise of the TFR, but I believe that it was a victim of neglect and poor planning. For the record, I never wanted the TFR to fail. I only wanted Paul Guzzo and Pete Guzzo to take the criticism constructively, like all professionals would do, and fix what was wrong with their film festival. In the end, they gave up, and shut down the TFR. While I do think that the Guzzo Brothers are good filmmakers, they've proven that they are not good film festival organizers; at least they demonstrated a need for a monthly film festival, even if they ultimately failed to pull it off). As an example, now, in early 2010, there still isn't a Tampa film community, and we have a lot of work to do before that will happen. The Tampa indie film scene is still fractured and crippled, with a lot of seriously flawed, high-profile independent films being made in a cookie cutter assembly line; films which do nothing to put Tampa indie film on the map, or to advance Tampa indie film. We expect those filmmaking efforts to implode and go away, especially when the investors behind those films find out, the hard way, that they cannot make their money back. With all of this research being done, an official historical database for Tampa indie film is now being built, and will be published on the main Tampa Bay Film site (history, after all, is written by the victors. We'll be sure that everyone knows what happened). It's all about accountability. The upcoming Tampa Film Conference, an annual event series which is sincere about supporting, and advancing, Tampa indie film, will make all of the participants accountable for what they do, as well as facilitate the free exchange of ideas; the theft of ideas will be discouraged, and the authors of those ideas will receive their due credit. The backstabbing and the credibility attacks of the past will, as well as the other unethical activity which went on, hopefully, become a blemish of history, and stay in the past. Some of the unprofessional and unethical people of the past who have sold out Tampa filmmaking, played politics, stole things from others, and worked to advance their cause at the expense of Tampa filmmakers will not be allowed to become a part of the first Tampa film community. Additionally, regarding Tampa Bay Film, which split into a network of eight sites in the past year and a half, the main Tampa Bay Film is lacking in content (the content for the other sites was taken from the main Tampa Bay Film site). What's coming up? The official Tampa indie film historical database, which will document who did what (I'm sure that people will want to look back and see who was responsible for things when they turn out to be bad. It's all about accountability. Also, those who refuse to study history are doomed to repeat it; we want Tampa indie film to move ahead, and not be stuck where it is now, floundering and impotent, ten years from now). I'm also working on the 2010 Tampa Bay Film indie film scam analysis database, and a series of articles and other resources for the main Tampa Bay Film site. Other upcoming articles will include an expose about the making of The Quiet Place, the failure and resurrection of the Tampa Film Network, filmmaker information profiles, a series of articles exploring Tampa indie film politics (including a series of articles about The Tampa Film Review), and more. I can't wait. This is going to be good. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Monday, March 22, 2010 - 10:29 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault *A Significant Gasparilla International Film Festival (GIFF) No-Show* Once again, the Gasparilla International Film Festival comes to a close, with a significantly shorter film festival this year than in previous years. Did anyone go? We didn't; Tampa Bay Film is in business to support Tampa indie film, and we are the voice of Tampa indie film. Tampa Bay Film did not see a point in going, especially with all the pretentious, overpriced parties, and high ticket prices (although, in fairness, we're sure that we could have obtained press passes, although that wouldn't help people who simply couldn't afford to attend, and we are pretty sure that few were able to attend the entire film festival, as it was scattered among many venues and many days). In our opinion, celebrities being in town to support a film festival is insignificant in comparison to supporting, and growing, Tampa indie film. We could care less about what "celebrity" is attending whatever (and we're sure that they don't care to meet regular people who pester them for autographs), because Tampa indie film is where our priorities are. Never fear, though, Tampa indie film sell-outs, because we are sure some out there covered this landmark film festival! We are sure that the Tampa film commission was there! In our opinion, the Gasparilla International Film Festival is is aspiring to become another Sarasota Film Festival, something that the Tampa indie film scene can do without. Thank God that the State of Florida has cut back on economic incentives for motion picture production in Florida. While some out there may be trying to promote the Tampa Bay area as a nice location to shoot movies at, the sour state incentives are doing wonders to keep the competition of Tampa filmmakers away from the area. Now is the time for Tampa filmmakers to make their films, and we can do so without larger production companies competing with us for limited resources. Although we do keep an open mind, and would certainly admit to misjudging certain parties if we had evidence which convinced us otherwise, we do not blindly jump on board with questionable agendas and sell out Tampa filmmakers, much like a certain Tampa filmmaker did a few years ago. The sell-outs must be held accountable for what they do, and say! Be sure to read our SAVE TAMPA INDIE FILM notice (added to Tampa Bay Film this morning). PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 6:24 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Branding Clarification I just checked our Tampa Bay Film email account, and found a notification from twitter that "Tampa Bay Film" was following us on twitter. This was odd, since our twitter account, http://www.twitter.com/tampabayfilm, IS THE REAL Tampa Bay Film on twitter. What happened, it seems, is that the lovely Tampa Film Commission, which, as we know, is honest about supporting Tampa indie film, and is no way involved with politics which are not in the best interests of Tampa filmmakers, also has a twitter account, http://www.twitter.com/FilmTampaBay, misbranded on twitter as "Tampa Bay Film". We certainly hope that this was an honest mistake, and that some dim-witted intern misbranded their account. I, for one, would like an explanation, as I am not happy about this. To clarify, Tampa Bay Film is, in no way, affiliated with the Tampa Film Commission, or their "FilmTampaBay" accounts and web site. We have no desire to be, either. Tampa Bay Film also had nothing to do with a Tampa Film Commission sponsored event a few years ago, under the last commissioner, titled the "Tampa Bay Film Forum". Come on, they can't be that clueless. Especially since they are now following us on twitter, they have to know what is going on. I've invested heavily in the Tampa Bay Film brand, and am not going away. I certainly hope that this is not confusing anyone, and if it does, I'm going to be more unhappy about it, and so will my attorney. I may also be inspired to issue a press release to my media contacts addressing this, if it continues. Deal with it, and stop using our branding, please. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 5:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Experiment 7 And Sunscreen Film Festival Screening Coverage. Well, at the last minute, I decided to drive to Channelside and see Experiment 7 at the Sunscreen Film Festival. The drive over was uneventful, and I arrived at Channelside just before 8:30 PM. That’s when my adventure begins. Without turning this into a full review, I’ll gloss over the reviews here. First off, there were two major things going on which did not bode well. The Channelside parking garage was undergoing some sort of construction project, and there was a Lightning Game going on at the forum. I was not aware of either development, and would have, frankly, stayed at home if I had been. It was chaos, and not fun at all. Our coverage of the Sunscreen Film Festival screening of Experiment 7 will come in three parts (and, at the rate that this is going, it may be tomorrow before everything is up. Like everything else that I work on, I’m not rushing this). I will be doing the following, and here is what I will be writing, in synopsis form. Links to the reviews will go active one the reviews are up. *Experiment 7 Review* published on Tampa Film Review, a Tampa Bay Film site. In my opinion, Experiment 7 was the worst Tampa indie film that I have seen. It had some good points, and even had a title sequence which was awesome, but after the film began, it began a disintegrating plummet into one of the worst films that I’ve had to endure. High Points? The title sequence, some of the music, most of the acting (particularly the great performances from actors Rod Grant and Jack Amos), the awesome poster, some of the special effects (Rod’s “Scroll” PDA was brilliant, and the rocket launcher and burning city effects were well done!), and some of the camera work. Low points? The script. No exposition. Weak characterization. Boring story with a few bland plot points and lots of repetitive action sequences. Washed-out film footage. Glitches in the sound. Joe Davison and his “acting”. Lots of confusing story elements. Aco hitting on Joe Davison’s character in what seemed to be a dream sequence, because it broke character and came out of nowhere, only to be revealed to be reality, which confused a lot of people (kind of like the lack of chemistry and the murky definition of the relationship between the two lead characters in 100 Tears, another indie film which Joe Davison wrote). Rod Grant’s character slapping Aco, and moments later, Aco and Rod’s characters behaving like best friends. The old-lady doctor and the blonde girl in their “who knows, and who cares what is going on” side story; a side plot which seemed to be more of a rip-off of “I am legend” than relevant to the main story. Made-up science and scientific gibberish which had no basis in reality, and which served to insult the intelligence of the audience. Zombies in the wake of a nuclear war. Ridiculous premise. Lack of explanation for relevant plot developments (again, poor script!). Characters breaking character. Interjection of comedic “buddy movie” elements in a story which should have focused on drama and horror (once again, poor script!). Paul Guzzo asking stupid questions during the Q&A segment, a segment which Joe Davison skipped out on (yes, Paul, you were one of the few who bought the made-up crap in the film, and one of the few for which the film’s B.S. was indeed “over your head”. Experiment 7: best enjoyed by morons? Perhaps!). A big rule in writing is to write what you know. If a writer does not know the subject, then they have to take their time and research it. This looks to be, in my opinion, another poorly researched, rushed script by Joe Davison, and it crippled the film! Did the screenwriter even know what he was writing about? Why did we leave with more questions about the characters, and their actions, than answers? Why were the characters, and what happened to them, so hard to care about? Why was the Aco character (Tits, pits, and slits... who writes, or talks, like this? Certainly no one educated, or who I would like to know!) written so trashy that she was no longer attractive, despite what she looked like? *Sunscreen Film Festival Screening Review* published on Tampa Film Review, a Tampa Bay Film site. Another bad experience. I’ve been to, and have reviewed, a lot of Tampa film festivals, and this one was a mess. One of the worst Tampa film festivals that I’ve been to, and it made the Tampa Film Review look like it was well-organized. The high points: Good venue for viewing films (the theater was top-notch), Derrick Miner was cool to talk to, the film festival staff (when they could be found), were nice, too. The low points: Parking. Lack of easy parking validation (if it was possible at all). Conflicts with the Lightning Game, which made parking hard to obtain (several people who I talked to could not find parking, and did not attend). No Sunscreen branding or signs. The table where you bought tickets was off to the side and not obvious. Cheap carnival tickets dispensed at full movie prices; tickets which could not be used for parking validation. Poor organization. Bad schedule (Experiment 7 started an hour late, and I had to find out by heresay from other confused people at the specified time of the screening, which made all of us wonder if we had been directed to the correct theater), and confusing directions to the screening theater. High ticket prices ($10.00 for the film, and $10.00 for parking made for a $20.00 price tag, which was a rip-off, in my opinion- I could have seen Avatar at AMC Regency Brandon, or at AMC Veterans, with a date, for less; a good movie, with the same good venue set-up! I left pretty pissed off when I left, with the theater was already closed due to the late start of the film, the late start being the film festival’s fault, and no one could be found to validate my parking.). Overall, a confusing film festival, which became lost in the clutter of normal cinema business. Is this what happens when you spread a film festival too thin over a variety of film venues and days- lack of focus and direction? *Channelside Venue Review* on Tampa Film Review, a Tampa Bay Film site. Ah, then there was Channelside. Who in the hell thought that it was a good idea to screen an indie film at a film festival with all of the construction, parking issues, and other venue conflicts? The Lightning Game made attending very difficult. The high points: AMC theater is a nice venue. Best quality theater for film viewing, with stadium seating. The low points: Parking. Construction. Conflicts such as the Lightning Game. Too crowded. No easy way to validate parking, if it was possible, at all, with the Lightning Game going on (God, I hate sports!), idiot AMC employees who can’t tell you where a film is being screened (I had to check, twice, with the same person. A thought: With the gross incompetence that I experienced, it wouldn’t take much to take one of those cheap carnival tickets that Sunscreen gave out, use it to get past the overwhelmed ticket checker, and see any films that they wanted to see). Read this, AMC: I will never, ever go to Channelside to watch a movie at AMC ever again. Your parking sucks! This B.S. is a BIG reason that I will never use AMC Channelside for one of my film festivals, or film premiers, too! All reviews, which include anecdotes, will be referenced from Tampa Bay Film, and Tampa Film Festivals. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 3:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film Updates. Review Policy Revealed. I decided to resume updates on Tampa Bay Film, and the Tampa Bay Film sites, three months early. Although the online film festival is doing well with the search engines and traffic, I’m not too happy about the lower than expected performance for Tampa Bay Film itself. This will change, as there are flaws in the code stemming back to the original site conception in late 2006, and content from the main site was cannibalized to start the other Tampa Bay Film sites (you should see what it did for the content count when I had to move the reviews from Tampa Bay Film to Tampa Film Review). Tampa Bay Film is going to need a lot of work, and that work has to be done by late spring. See, I openly recognize, and acknowledge, my own shortcomings. I am then free to correct those shortcomings, and move ahead. I’m not perfect, but this is how we grow. I’ll come out ahead, every time, with this process. Why can’t Tampa filmmakers, and film festival organizers, do this? Why? So, I am now going to be spending a good percentage of my time working on Tampa Bay Film and its sites, regularly, although we will not be spending much time covering film festivals and Tampa indie film for the rest of the year. Those efforts will come in 2011. Content-wise, there are going to be a lot of reviews, and most of those reviews are backlogged, and already in the works. The Tampa Film Review Tampa Bay Film site will see a lot of updates in the coming days and weeks. Starting now, and especially in the future, coverage of film festivals, and selected films, will be segmented. For example, take film festivals. We will send a crew to cover film festivals, with part of the staff covering the film festival and interviewing people, and the other part reviewing the film festival itself. In those instance, there would be coverage of the film festival published on the main Tampa Bay Film site, and a review of the same film festival on Tampa Film Review. For expanded coverage, we’d cover the film festival of three fronts. A part of the crew would cover the film festival, a part of the crew would review the film festival, and another part of the crew (or team) would watch and review the films; each film being given its own review on Tampa Film Review. With a large film festival, you could expect to see an article covering it on Tampa Bay Film, A review of the film festival on Tampa Film Review (with both referenced on Tampa Film Festivals), and a review of each film on Tampa Film Review, as well. As you can see, that’s a lot of content, and a level of coverage never seen before in Tampa indie film. Each Tampa Bay Film site will be a “channel”, with the appropriate content published on that channel, and referenced from the others. So, why are we going to do so much work covering, and reviewing, Tampa indie film? Because it needs to be done, and no one else seems to be doing it, and if they are, they are not doing a good job doing it. So far, all that we’ve seen have been politics and hype. The Tampa indie film scene needs balance, and qualified opinion to weigh in. We need to see, realistically, where we stand, with problems identified, and acknowledge where we are before we can move on and advance the Tampa indie film scene. Now that I’ve said that, I really need to qualify my position as far as content, coverage, and reviews. Contrary to what some in the Tampa indie film scene may claim, I did not set up Tampa Bay Film to slam people in the Tampa film scene, and the site is not intended to trash the efforts of filmmakers. I set up Tampa Bay Film to advance Tampa indie film! I really do not have anything against anyone, although I certainly do have reason to do so. Despite conflicts with certain people, I am objective and unbiased; if the people who I don’t personally like make a good film, I’ll be the first one to say that they made a good film. I don’t like writing anything bad, or negative, about anyone. Every film festival which I cover, and every film that I see, I go in hoping for the best. If Tampa filmmakers and film festival organizers did good work, they would not get bad reviews from me. It’s as simple as that. Want good reviews? Do good work! I’ve always stated that one issue that I have is that I state the obvious. Well, that would be an issue, indeed, if I really did state the obvious, and everyone was able to sift through the hype and be able to form their own opinions. In the case of Tampa indie film, everything is not obvious. There is so much hype, politics, propaganda, misinformation, and other games going on in Tampa indie film that someone has to tell it how it is. No one is, and I have to step up to the plate and help others sort out the mess. Tampa filmmakers are self-deluded, and so is their audience. It simply shocks me when I see the crap which people accept as good, and the way that people will spin things in order to justify their values. If I don’t make a clouded issue obvious, no one else will. I have the strongest voice in the Tampa inde film scene, and it would be a shame if I didn’t use it to improve Tampa indie film! There is a lot wrong with Tampa indie film, and we all have to come to terms with what it is that is wrong before we can fix it. Right now, we don’t have a film community. We have no strong leaders. We don’t have very many good films. Tampa indie film, despite the advancements in filmmaking technology and more people becoming involved, has not made any progress in the past ten years! We have a corrupt indie film scene with self-serving, back-stabbing politics, and no professionalism and support. We have a fragmented indie film scene where Tampa filmmakers are not respected. Ask yourself this: Do Tampa filmmakers deserve respect? At this point, I am beginning to realize that many filmmakers in the Tampa indie film scene do not deserve to make it in the industry. I’m thinking that we’ll all be better off bringing new filmmakers into the market; talented new filmmakers who can compete with the old guard and displace them from the market. Yes, that is a hint to something that I am working on. New filmmakers, in my opinion, are the key to putting Tampa indie film on the map. If the established, current filmmakers do not improve, I will do what I can in the future to assist their new competition, and will do what I can to inspire the old filmakers to hang up their hats and retire. You had your chance, and failed. It’s time to move over for talented, new filmmakers who will actually make a difference! We have much to realize. Our eyes must be opened. We have much to address. We have much to discuss. We have a lot of work to do, and a long way to go, before Tampa indie film is on the map. We have even farther to go before we are in position to become leaders in the indie film industry. But I assure you that this is a possible, and perhaps even probable, future. Although it is not going to make me popular, I don’t care. I have to do something about the issues with Tampa indie film. So, I will deliver comprehensive, unbiased coverage and reviews. I’ll tell it how it is, because no one else is. In related issues, I am rather annoyed with my requests for screeners being ignored by some filmmakers. Are you embarrassed about your films? Are you afraid of getting a bad review? If it’s difficult for people to see your films, what’s the point of making them? Although annoying, in general, and inconvenient, I’ll do my best to review those films when I can; it’s just hard to give films and coverage if I can’t obtain the material that I need, you know? I’m going to review Tampa indie film, like it or not, and if anyone tries to make my job more difficult, I will be sure to note that in my reviews. Disagree with me? That’s fine! Disagree with me! Look at the Tampa Film Blog. Notice anything interesting? That’s right! The Tampa Film Blog is no longer limited to my voice, and my opinions. It is a platform for all of our voices. If anyone out there disagrees with me, I invite you to openly debate with me here on the Tampa Film Blog. I’m always open to a public debate regarding any of my published opinions or reviews. So far, I haven’t had any takers, and I am beginning to wonder why. Perhaps it’s because everyone realizes that I am right? Perhaps, then, I really am stating the obvious, and people are just keeping quiet in an attempt to avoid conflict. Cowards. We need to start asking questions, and challenging what’s being done, before we will be able to improve the Tampa indie film scene! Conflict is unavoidable in our quest for change, and improvement. It is the only way that we can grow. Someone told me the other night that “We are laughing at you!”. Well, that’s great for you then, and I don’t really care, but it doesn’t address the real issues. In my opinion, the large film festivals, and even Hollywood, are laughing at them, and that’s a whole lot worse than a few unprofessional filmmakers making jabs at me because I take a stand, and tell it how it is. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Sunday, March 14, 2010 - 3:34 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault I Saw Experiment 7, And It Was Disturbing; Just Not For The Reasons Intended. Oh, my. I didn't have a great time tonight. I decided to go see the Tampa premier of Experiment 7 at Channelside, and found serious issues with Channelside, the film festival, and the film. I'll go on record saying, for now, that in my opinion, the film festival and the film were, perhaps, the worst that I've experienced since I began covering Tampa film. The film festival was unorganized, with conflicts from other events at Channelside. The film, too, was a mixed bag, with the most schizophrenic characterization in any film that I've ever seen, no exposition to set up a foundation for the characters, and a fragmented expositional arc; the screenplay itself was the prime culprit, and it should have never been filmed as it was. In my opinion, if this is the future of independent film in Tampa, then we don't have a future. My reviews are not going to be popular, but since no one else is telling it how it is, I have a responsibility to publish comprehensive reviews without bias. It's just going to take me a few days to write the reviews. I actually regret spending the time and money going to see this tonight, and the only highlights which took the edge off were the cool people who I met and talked with. Many of those people echoed my opinions, too. In my opinion, Experiment 7 (and indie films like it) is an insult to the talented people on the crew, the actors who acted in it, the film festival which decided to screen it, and the audience who had to endure it. Joe, you should be ashamed of yourself! I'll even go on record saying that the characterization in The Web Of Darkness was better, and that's saying a lot. For a film with few redeeming qualities, I no longer have any intentions of buying the DVD, used, off of Amazon, and even if it were given to me, I'd never play it. I think that it is a bad film; films like Hard Rock Zombies may be bad films, too (and, technically, Hard Rock Zombies is a worse film than Experiment 7), but at least they are fun to watch, and have entertainment value. Experiment 7 did not entertain me, and it proved to be a chore to watch; I felt ripped off paying to see this film, and would have felt the same way if the screening was free, too. I'll explain more, later. Stand by for a series of reviews, but don't take my word for it. If anyone disagrees with my opinions, I simply encourage you to see the film for yourself, that is, if you dare. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 5:15 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Experiment 7 Screening @ Channelside Tonight, at Channelside, 9PM, Experiment 7 will be screened by the Sunscreen Film Festival. Tickets are $10.00 at the door. Anyone going? Just a thought. If you're into local Tampa indie films, check it out. I really want to see this film, but at $10.00, I might just wait to buy a used DVD off of Amazon one day. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 3:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Indie Film Announcements Commence Again I've resumed posting Tampa indie film announcements on the Tampa Film Blog, and have added a new update about a new film festival called "Art by chance". PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 2:30 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Dream Nine Studios Site Updated After yet another email complaining that the web site for my independent film production company, Dream Nine Studios, is outdated, because it's been years since it's been updated, I took some time this morning to add more content and refresh the entire site. There is now information on the Dream Nine Studios site which hints about what I'll be working on (seriously, I can throw a few bones out there, because at this point, the dominance of all 53 of my web sites makes it really easy to confirm that those ideas and concepts belong to me; don't hold your breath as far as me publishing any trade secrets, however, as that's not going to happen. I have a ton of trade secrets, and it will be years before some of them are revealed). The information on my Dream Nine Studios web site is now current. Enjoy. The Dream Nine Studios web site is a Diana Class marketing web site, and was commissioned in 2005. It's quite the workhorse, and has been doing well even though it hasn't had many updates since 2008. A new Dream Nine Studios web site is planned for 2011 or 2012. Dream Nine Studios is my indie film production, video game development, and music label company. Dream Nine Studios (DNS), is a Passinault.Com production company, and it is a part of the Passinault Entertainment Group. Dream Nine Studios is primarily about production work, but also retains the right to publish, market, and sell our product. Dream Nine Studios was founded in 1999, and will begin major operations later this year. Dream Nine Studios is my future, it is one of the main reasons why I started Tampa Bay Film, and why so much hard work has gone into the Tampa Bay Film sites. Dream Nine Studios will need the Tampa Bay Film infrastructure, and if it's good enough for me, other indie filmmakers will benefit, too! PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, March 11, 2010 - 4:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault All The Time In The World I believe that the line above is from a James Bond movie (In her majesty’s secret service, the one with Diana Rigg, if I am not mistaken), but it fits here, too. Simply put, the Tampa indie film scene is close to where it needs to be to finally make some progress, but we are not quite there, yet. Another reason why my film festivals and other projects are on hold. With the film festivals, too, I don’t want to do any of the more conventional ones until I have films to show. Also, I might point out, that I don't answer to anyone but myself, as investors are not involved, yet. I will not be making films and producing revolutionary film festivals to "prove" myself, but, rather, because it is in my best interest to do so (I have noting to prove to anyone, and I will not be goaded into doing anything prematurely; the few who are complaining are in no position to effect me one way or another). It's not a question of if, but rather when. All this is going to happen. It'll just happen when I choose for it to happen. I don't rush anything, or cut corners. I am in the position to do what I want to, at the pace that I dictate, and, as a result, whatever I do will be the best in the market. There sure are a lot of film festivals in Tampa, and despite the large number of them, none of them have been that effective, especially for Tampa filmmakers. Right now, the market is quite cluttered. This said, I'm going to take my time; I am in no rush to do anything. Whatever shall I do before I proceed with the film festivals? My event planning and stage production companies will not be limited to producing film festivals, although those film festivals will be the best that Florida has ever seen. We’ll be doing other types of events, too, and all those events will cross-promote each other. Lately, for those of you who do not know, I've been working on a video game festival. What does this have to do with me as a filmmaker? Well, I will become one of the best indie filmmakers, and a leader in the industry, but what most may not know is that I am one of the rare few who are equally proficient with video games (one of my greatest advantages is that I have experience in a wide variety of diverse fields and industries, and I have a talent for adapting ideas between them- good luck trying to follow my path. If you're really smart, and really talented, expect to spend at least ten years becoming professionally certified in each industry. I did in 20 different professions, and it wasn't easy, despite my advantages with my early education, talent, and IQ. If you start now, I can expect competition in the next ten to twenty years- if things work out, it'll be too late to compete with me in less than five). I’ll be able to do equally significant work in both the indie film and video game industries; in some instances, too, I’ll be able to do some crossover projects between the two, too. My main media production company, Dream Nine Studios, is an independent film production company, a video game developer, and a record label. Besides the independent publishing business, my company will be making high quality, innovative media projects which will be marketed in a variety of ways. Regarding video games, I have some rather unique concepts in new types of video games which have not been done before, at least not in the way that we will be doing them. Rather than focus on the type of 3D crap currently dominating modern video game hardware such as the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, I’m going to focus on older styles of games, sprite-based 2D games, which are about gameplay, and, well, playing around with the games. Game designer Jeff Minter (Tempest 2000, Defender 2000, Space Giraffe) coined the phrase "Retro Evolved", if I'm not mistaken. A lot of my video games will be retro evolved types of games, arcade games like they used to make in the 1980's, but made with modern technology and new ideas. My games will have stellar gameplay, lots of innovation, will be customizable, and instead of relying on patterns and standard AI subroutines, we will be incorporating things like artificial life and ingenious ways of introducing random elements to the games (with computers, it is presently impossible to generate genuine random numbers because of the nature of computers, not counting some innovations in fuzzy logic. I have figured out ways of introducing true random variables into games. Sure, games like the NES Castlevania are cool, and hold a certain charm, with their predictive patterns, but an even better game experience can be achieved if the game experience was more focused on actual gameplay, and there were no patterns which could be predicted. Also note that I love, and still play, those games). In artificial intelligence circles, computer science has attempted to solve the myriad problems associated with AI with sheer computational power and scripted subroutines. This has not worked, and science needs to take cues from nature (you'd be surprised by how much watching nature work has taught me about business.... weird, but true. Most animals would starve to death if they didn't work smart routines every day, and be truly independent in most cases). In nature, higher intelligence is built upon by the building blocks of simpler biological processes. From the interactions of these processes arise the unpredictable, and fluid, nature of intelligence. The key to artificial intelligence is artificial life. I recall a simple exercise in artificial life that I experimented with using a Commodore 64 in the late 1980's, when I was in school. It was an experiment with variables, statistics, and interactions which were unpredictable because of the way that the variables interacted (also keep in mind that this has nothing to do with my concepts for introducing true random variables, and that this experiment is done with conventional computer subroutines and “random” numbers taken from the system clock upon boot. The interactions of those variables, however, become quite complex, and the results are quite unpredictable). At any rate, I had read about the exercise in Omni, and replicated it with my computer. It proved to be really interesting, as well as eye opening. In the experiment, a computer program creates a type of “game” which “plays” itself. It is a virtual ecosystem, where you have resources such as land. On the land you have edible vegetation and water, and you start out with some rabbits. You also add foxes. For the population to grow, you have to have two genders, of course, and resources like food and water to sustain life. So, you add four rabbits, two females, and two males. You add three foxes, a male and two females (and pray that the male fox is able to survive long enough to have offspring with the females; I’ve seen instances where the male fox starved to death before he could reproduce, and the foxes died off, allowing the rabbits to overtake the limited environment, eat all of the vegetation, and starve themselves into extinction themselves). To make it interesting, you’d make is so that you could make a map with trees and other terrain features, and the game had simple behavioral rules based on input and output, and and /or subroutines. The game would have a time cycle, of course, with each real-time “turn” representing one day. For example, the rabbits could move two to three spaces per turn, and would have to navigate around obstacles in their way. Certain terrain slowed them down, too. The foxes also had to be able to move, and were limited to one to two spaces per turn. Each “animal” had perceptual abilities, too, like in real life. The rabbits could only see two spaces in front of them and one to the sides. They could hear for two spaces all around, though, and the noise that any animal made depended upon their speed and the terrain that they were moving over. You also had other variables taking into account things such as hunger, food consumption, etc. So, the rabbits roamed around, eating vegetation and drinking water. The foxes hunted the rabbits, which, in turn, were not as fast as the rabbits, but were successful in eating them when more successful tactics, such as ambushes, were stumbled upon. The foxes which ran around and couldn’t catch the rabbits starved, and didn’t pass on their “learned behaviors”. Thus, the game became populated with foxes who snuck around and ambushed the rabbits, rather than chase them around. The rabbits, on the other hand, learned, too. The rabbits when were not constantly looking around for dangers became dinner. The ones which did, survived, and passed those behavior subroutines to their offspring. You get the concept. I programmed that scenario, with crude graphics representing the land, the animals, and other things, and let it rip. No two scenarios played out the same, and you had a “game” which took on a life of its own. The smallest changes would have significant long-term results. Sometimes, the rabbits outnumbered the foxes, consuming all of the natural resources. The rabbits, in turn, died off... mostly because, once they starved, they were slower and much less alert, becoming easy dinner for the foxes. The rabbit population declined, the fox population grew, and the vegetation recovered. The foxes would then outnumber the rabbits, starve because of a lack of prey, and the rabbits would rebound. Sometimes, things got out of balance, with the foxes eating all of the rabbits, and then dying off as they starved, leading to mass extinction. I found that the best scenarios spread out the risks, where more animal types and behaviors were introduced. The more variables, the more unpredictable the scenario became. Most of the time, the scenarios would keep going indefinitely, achieving and maintaining a balance. Most interestingly, when you allowed the computer animals to retain the solutions to behaviors that they stumbled upon, and pass them on to their offspring, the animals were able to achieve that balance on their own over time. With more complex sets of interacting variables, resulting is subroutines which could learn the best solutions, you begin to have the building blocks of artificial intelligence which does not depend upon scripted scenarios, but is rather fluid and unpredictable. Video games which use such processes are the future, as are games where the players can customize the games to suit their preferences, and games which allow the players to create their own content (I realized the custom game concept years before games such as Little Big Planet came about, too.) Games should offer total and complete freedom; sure, you can play it as-is, and have fun, but you should also be able to get under the hood and tinker with it as little, or as much, as you wish. At this point, some of you may be wondering what advanced video game theory has to do with indie film. Well, that depends upon the scenario, now, doesn’t it? In the video game industry, it has long been the case where video games based upon films generally suck (and vice versa), with a few notable exceptions (The Nintendo 64 game Goldeneye being one of them). This, of course, is because of incompatible differences between the entertainment formats. Video games are interactive entertainment, and they are all "cause and effect". Films are passive entertainment, where the participant can only watch, and is along for the ride. Video games based upon films often make the mistake of trying to shoehorn the established plot and sequence of events into the game, so that the “player” can “experience” what happened in the film themselves. This does not work. What video games should do is to take the premise of the film, and then allow the player to define their own experience through playing the game, allowing the “plot” to unfold within the limitations of the interactive medium of the video game. Limitations of the interactive medium? What’s that? Two examples. Yuji Naki and his Sonic Team created “Nights”, a 3D platformer, for the Sega Saturn. Nights was a fast paced game when the character transformed into Nights and flew around, but was a slower paced walk when the character was on the ground. On the ground, you could move in 3D, just about anywhere on the map. Because of the fast pace of the flying portion, though, the game designers decided to limit where they player could go to pre-determined 2D invisible “tracks”, as it was deemed that full 3D flight would make things too complex, and make the flying much less fun. They were right; by limiting where the player could fly, the gameplay was polished to perfection, making a more entertaining, and fun, game than a game where you could fly all over the place (incidentally, Nights also uses artificial life with the creatures that populate the world. The creatures interact with each other using natural cause and effect subroutines, and can even cross-breed to form hybrid creatures and new type of creatures. Such AL features were also included in later Sonic Team games such as the Dreamcast hit Sonic Adventure). Shiguru Myamoto’s Super Mario 64, for the Nintendo 64, also enhanced the game experience by limiting what the player could do. There are levels where it looks like the player can go anywhere, but where you have to stick to paths in order to proceed in the game. Those limitations, which enhance the focus of the gameplay and the game experience, are implemented so brilliantly, in fact, that the player never realizes that they never have the freedom that the game teases them with. As my friend Rachel Eaglin used to tell me, structure (limitation) frees you; a saying that she used to describe the limitations of the screenwriting format. The key with both passive and interactive media is to figure out what they are really optimized to do, and then play up to what they are good for; to play to their strengths. At any rate, the reason that I am posting about video games on my film blog is that I am thinking about doing a video game festival before I debut my film festivals. I have all the time in the world to do film festivals, especially when I have to have some of my short films done first. There are a lot of film festivals here in Tampa, but not a single dedicated video game festival or event. I'll probably just circle the wagons with other types of events, first, demonstrating how advanced those events are, before moving in and taking the Tampa film festival market. And, with that, I have to go now. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, March 4, 2010 - 7:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Underground Film Festival Status I haven’t made much progress with my indie film projects in the past three months, because of business obligations, but things will progress quickly, soon. I hope to have new computers and filmmaking gear sometime this spring. The good news is that this gear is not too expensive; $2,000.00 in equipment, and I’ll be making some of the best short films in the history of Tampa indie film. With my photography services company, that’s only a few shoots; I can make that in a couple of weeks with a light workload. I plan on buying three cameras this year, will build a steadycam, and will be investing in at least two new computers (the new studio computer will be needed, at the very least, to convert my old DJ programs). Regarding the underground film festivals, I plan on having four of them this year, all private film festivals, of course, which are invitation-only. I’ll have three Tampa Bay Film Reviews, and Halloween Drive-In 2010. I already have the marketing material for all of them made, and am ready to go once my schedule allows me to do them. The official web sites for the underground film festivals will be on TampaFilmFestivals.Com. The underground film festivals will be covered on Tampa Bay Film, and reviewed on Tampa Film Review. The main coverage on Tampa Bay Film will reference, and link to, both the review of the underground film festival, and the official web site. Future coverage of Tampa film festivals will be done like this, with a split team covering and reviewing each film festival. The main coverage will be published on Tampa Bay Film, and reviewed on Tampa Film Review. With the ultra-low budget underground film festivals covered like the conventional and major film festivals, the underground film festivals will be the ultimate cost-effective film festival, as they will be just as effective and any film festival out there, and also will be much cooler. Expect the first Tampa Bay Film Review in the summer, with the second in fall, and the third by the end of the year. The Halloween Drive-In underground film festival, the first one originally planned for October 2009, will be held in south Tampa on October 10, 2010 (10/10/10!). The second, upgraded version of the Halloween Drive-In, originally planned for this year, has been pushed back until October of 2011, where it will run around the same time as my first film festival event, the Reverence Film Festival. The Reverence Film Festival, a horror film festival along the lines of Horror and Hotties, Ladies of the night, and the Halloween Horror Picture Show, will be a “new species” of film festival, and will also serve as a lead-in for the debut of the Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series, tentatively scheduled for January 21, 2012. I love it when everything is displaced a year. I would like to thank everyone who bailed on the original Halloween Drive-In last October, which would have been my first underground film festival (and, yes, after almost five months, I’m still mad, and I’m still not talking to them). AS it now stands, the first underground film festival in Tampa will be the Tampa Bay Film Review this summer. The Tampa Bay Film Review is a small, private film festival where a group of select indie film professionals and talent watch, and review, indie films. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, February 27, 2010 - 1:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Checking Out The Tampa Film Network I went to the Tampa Film Network meeting for the first time last night. They had a talent expo and a lot of networking going on, so I did not go with the intention of covering it like a film festival (there were no films being shown, and no seating. It was standing-room only, and everyone stood around talking). Although, in retrospect, I should have, and should have also taken some pictures, I was much too busy talking with people in a crowded room to bother with any of that. Upon arrival, I was dismayed to learn that the venue, The Art Institute Of Tampa (and NOT the organizer, I must clarify), was charging $5.00 for people to enter the networking area. This, as it was explained to me, was to help cover the costs of food. I told them that I did not plan on eating any food. They told me that I would still have to pay. I spotted Tampa film network organizer Dan Brienza and asked him about the cover, which was not disclosed on the TFN web site and the event announcement, and then I realized that Dan had nothing to do with the price of admission. What we had here was a breakdown in communication, and nothing more. So, I gave them $5.00, even though I had alternate plans, as my friend, model and performer Ann Poonkasem, and my other friends were calling my cell to invite me to dinner near USF. Dan, though, I must say, you might want to send out a notice regarding the admission cover surprise. I suspect that more than a few people were not happy about it. I heard, also, that Tampa filmmaker Joe Davison had shown up, before I got there, and he was upset about it. Someone said that he stated “But I am the founder of the Tampa Film Network! I’m not paying!”, and left in protest. I can understand that, as I almost turned around and left, too. Joe, too, is right about one thing. He, and Chris Woods, were the founders of the Tampa Film Network. He shouldn’t have had to pay as a courtesy. Poor Joe. I don’t have anything against him. He should have stayed. The last time that I was around Davison, at the Ladies Of The Night film festival almost two years ago, he was actually pretty cool to be around. I hope that Dan addresses the issue, though, because I would think that people would quit coming if surprise admission fees kept cropping up. There is nothing wrong with charging admission, but at least let people know if there is a price to get in or not, before they go. I do not think that it was Dan’s fault for the mix-up, though, but I do think that more people would have been in attendance if there had been no cover, or, at the very least, they had known about it. In all fairness, though, it was said that the film networking event extended to the downstairs area where a student expo was going on, but, come on, the Tampa film network was really only going in the area where you had to pay admission. I had been down in the student lobby, initially, and no one from the Tampa film network was doing anything down there. At any rate, I will say that, as luck would have it, I had a five dollar bill in my wallet, and that’s all I had on me. If I did not have that money, I would have had to leave and track down an ATM machine which would not charge me a fee (which did not exist in the area), or a store where I could get cash back from an ATM POS; this would have been both inconvenient and unacceptable. If I did not have the cash on me, I would have left and had dinner with my friends, instead. How many others left because they did not have the money on them, or refused to pay? I suspect that there may be some complaints in them there woods. I did address the cover with Dan, and I quickly found out that it wasn’t his fault. I’m going to guess that the lack of communication was a one time thing. At any rate, the Tampa Film Network was not only fun, once I got inside, but it proved to be productive. I met a lot of interesting people, and dispensed a lot of my Tampa Bay Film marketing material, as well as business cards, coupons for photography specials, and marketing material for Tampa Bay Modeling. Everyone was quite cool, and I was in constant conversation. Only one person was rude to me. He stood nearby snorting at me that there was too much information on my Tampa Bay Modeling flyers. I told him that I broke the rules of design intentionally with that one, and that I was aware that some might not like the three pages of content on the 5 ½ by 4 1/4 inch flyer (you can see what it looks like on the main index page at Tampa Bay Modeling, and I stand behind my work... It’s a great, and effective, design). It was readable, however, and it was a lot of good information. I told him that the point was to pique the curiosity of the recipient and inspire them to go to Tampa Bay Modeling to read what was on it. I also told him that it was working, and people were going to the site because of that very reason. He seemed to get even more angry, and stormed off. Was he a designer who was offended by my choice of design, perhaps? Who knows, and who cares? Everyone wants to be a critic, and I can take criticism very well, thank you very much. I went to the Tampa Film Network meeting on February 26, 2010. Despite the entry free, I stayed. I met a lot of cool people, and it was worth it. Dan Brienza has a good thing going on here, and it has a lot of success, as well as future potential. I intend to have Tampa Bay Film support the Tampa Film Network, even after my Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series debuts, and begins regular operations, in 2012 (oh, and by the way, the Tampa Film Showcase has a comprehensive business plan, and a developed long-term plan. I’m constantly improving on it with new details). Although this post isn’t really a review, I will say that, in my opinion, that attending the Tampa Film Network meeting was well worth the price of admission. It was also worth missing my dinner appointment, although I’ll be making it up with my friends tonight, instead. I had already planned on attending the TFN before I was invited to dinner, and that’s why I didn’t hang out with my friends. The only question, though, is why so many of the TFR regulars do not seem to be supporting the TFN. They should. I’ll have to explore that issue soon. Oh, yes, and one more thing. Because I was promoting Tampa Bay Film, I went ahead and updated all of the content on the Tampa Bay Film sites. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, February 25, 2010 - 6:06 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault If You Can't See It.......... Is There A Point? Some things continue to amaze me about Tampa filmmakers and filmmaking in the Tampa Bay market. There is an old question, that if a tree falls in a forest, and there is no one around, does it make a sound? Well, I ask this: If you make a film and the average person can’t see it, did you make a film? What is the point of making a film if it cannot be seen? They make these films, and some of them appear to look good, but what’s the point of making films if the average person can’t see them? I’m not speaking for myself, as I am able to get my hands on any film that I want to see (you should see my independent film library, as well as my library of DVD and VHS movies. I am constantly watching, and studying, films). I’m talking about the average person who would be open to watching your film. You know- your target audience. The main problem that I see is that filmmakers make it too difficult to see the films that they make. If it’s inconvenient, people are not going to bother. I wouldn’t. An actor told me in 2008 that a certain high profile film made in Tampa obtained distribution and was available now at Walmart. Well, I went to Walmart and looked for it. This girl who worked at Walmart and I even looked up the store’s online store. You couldn’t get it. It wasn’t listed. Then I went to Amazon (just now) and looked it up. Ok, it’s available there. New, it sells for $23.00, which does not include shipping (it does say that shipping is free for orders which are $25.00 or more, but you would have to pay shipping, still). A used copy is available, too, but just one, and it’s $10.00. Keep in mind that the filmmaker does not make a dime off of the sale of used copies, too. Anyway, with $3.00 shipping, that’s $13.00. Ok. Not only do you have to wait to get your movie, but regardless, it’s expensive compared to the films that you can walk in to a store, buy, and watch as soon as I get home. Right now, I can get the best movies at the store, legitimate movies, for $5.00. For $10.00, you can get newer movies, and even that is a bit expensive. Why would I want to buy an independent film for over twice that (remember that the only sales that count for the independent filmmaker would be new sales); an indie film which isn’t as good as most of the $5.00 ones? I’m not going to pay $20.00 for a new DVD release of an awesome big-budget movie. Do you think that I’m going to pay even more for a film which isn’t as good? Isn’t as good? Am I knocking indie films? Not at all. Another problem with most indie films is the filmmakers have creativity issues, and try to emulate Hollywood in their productions. The problem with that is that it is expensive, and not at all cost-effective. Unless you have millions of dollars, expensive equipment, and large, qualified crews, it’s going to be very hard to compete with Hollywood. There are a lot of indie films being made in the world today, too. If you make another me-too Hollywood rip off, do you think that you are going to stand out from the crowd of other me-too’s, which make up the majority of indie films? Filmmakers aim too high. They are too protective of their films, too. Sure, if you make a feature film, it’s going to cost, and you have producers to answer to. The issue is that you make these indie films which try too hard to be Hollywood films and try to hard too compete with Hollywood, and it’s very difficult to make that money back, especially if the movie costs too much too buy, and no one knows who the filmmaker is (or even cares to), or even knows about the film, to begin with. The answer? Indie films need to play to their strengths. Filmmakers need to do write screenplays and tell stories that Hollywood isn’t doing. They need to shoot quality films with the limited resources that indie films actually need, and not try to make them some impressive production (cut the fat!). They need to keep their costs low, and keep their prices low, making their profits in volume instead of pricing the films high. They also need to build buzz, and become known for doing good, innovative films (it doesn’t cost more to be innovative, and it shouldn’t have to cost anything). You need to hook your audience with something that they can’t get from Hollywood. I have so many answers, and I dare say answers because they have been proven (I just haven’t been able to apply them to indie films, yet). I will be writing a series of tutorials on the subjects for Tampa Bay Film, and those tutorials will be available free of charge on the site, eventually. Just don’t expect the content until I am making films, and am in the position to take advantage of those ideas, myself, in practice. These ideas, all proven concepts, are the future of Tampa indie film. Until then, I will sit back and watch certain Tampa filmmakers knock themselves out pouring tons of resources into emulated Hollywood “features”, and not make their money back for their investors because the films are hard to see, no one knows who they are, and no one cares. Don’t do step three when you should have done 1 and 2. Filmmakers should be seen and heard. Right now, it’s not happening, and don’t expect the Hollywood way of doing things to work well here in the Tampa indie film industry. Tampa isn’t another Hollywood, at least not yet, and we need to do what we realistically can do right now until we can do what we want to do. Alright. I’ll post this much. Here is what I’m going to do. 1. At first, I’ll shoot short films with strong scripts, good actors, and respect for the limitations of low budgets and limited sets (and no, I will not be making boring PBS-type soaps, either... I used to hate those, and I’m sure that I’m not alone). Most of my short indie films will be shot for less than $1,000.00, with a crew of less than 5, and small casts. Although it is possible to shoot such films now for less that $1,000.00 in equipment, dropping production costs of subsequent films to almost nothing, since most of the costs are in equipment overhead, I’ll do mine with $2,000.00 in filmmaking equipment, which includes the computer editing workstation and the camera, and make my films(after the first one) for less than $200.00 each. Can you make a good short film for less than $200.00? Someone else already beat me to it, and showed that it can be done. Chris Woods did his short film, Spaventare, last year, for less than $50.00 (he already had the camera and gear), and it is, in my opinion, one of the best indie films ever made in the Tampa Bay area. Chris Woods did it, too, with a cast of 2, and a crew of 3 (which could have been 2, also). I’m going to be hard-pressed to get things done in such a cost-effective manner. This film will be the ultimate bang for the buck for quite some time. 2. Build a strong portfolio of short films covering a wide range of genres, demonstrating that I can make good films with limited resources which can stand up to any other indie film out there, if not beat them altogether (and, yes, even better than the emulated Hollywood films being made now with tons of resources.... my efforts will make those look excessive and wasteful, with limited returns on those investments compared to mine). 3. Use my range of film festivals (already-established marketing support infrastructure) to expose my target audience(s) to those films, building recognition and buzz. It helps to own Tampa Bay Film, here, and don’t worry- I will allow other filmmakers to take advantage of all of these resources, too, as I genuinely care about Tampa indie film and the advancement of indie film in this market. What’s good for me is also good for others. 4. Allow all of my short films, which make up my indie film portfolio, to be seen online, free of charge. After debuting at my Tampa film festival events, all of my short films will be playing 24/7 on the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival (as well as others). I will also make best-quality versions of my shorts available with my future feature film product as extras, or sell compilations of short films (no short films sold individually for $15-20.00, which is not worth it). 5. A few years after I start making shorts, I will have a marketing portfolio to show investors. I will also be well-known, and have a lot of buzz (I am shocked at how many Tampa filmmakers don't know how to market themselves, and most do not have professional tools such as web sites!). I will then use investment money to obtain high-end filmmaking gear, and make more complex feature length indie films. These feature films will be sold. How do the numbers work out, there? Let me tell you. Sure, I’ll have DVD versions of my films available with a ton of extra features and short films added, making them collectable, for around the price that DVD’s are available in the stores. The bulk of my business, however, will be online distribution. Let’s see. Make a feature film from between $10,000.00 and $50,000.00, and then sell those films in a download file format for less than $5.00 a pop, and make a profit in volume. Convenience, and quality, are the keys. My films will be seen, and the business will snowball from there. That’s it for now. I'll post a lot more, soon. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 6:48 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Online Film Festival Dominates The Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival continues to impress, and dominates not only all of the Tampa film festival events with our numbers, but all of the Florida film festivals combined. There is no better promotional platform for indie films in Florida. Currently, the online film festival has been playing films 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with over 1,100 days of programming (over 26,000 hours) behind us. With a high number of virtual attendance, and multiple viewings every moment, there is no equal; if you were to take every film festival ever done in Florida, and combine them, they wouldn't even compare to our numbers. The top Tampa film festival is our online film festival. At the moment, there are next-generation online film festivals in development (see the OFF Blog, or Online Film Festival Blog, available on the UPDATES option on the left menu, for details). The future? An online film festival which will be superior to film festival events in every way, bettering all aspects. How? Find out in the future. More films will be added to the online film festival in the coming weeks, as well as archived films from the early days which are in que to be adjusted and re-added. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 8:32 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Talent Launches The new Tampa Bay Talent site has launched. The site will serve as a "point" lead-in site for Tampa Bay Modeling, Tampa Bay Acting, Tampa Bay Film, and Tampa Bay Photographers (the latter has yet to launch). By 2011, Tampa Bay Talent will become a very important site, and together with Tampa Bay Acting, will address the relationship between talent and Tampa indie film. Tampa Bay Talent is now online and fully operational, although the thumbnail array is offline, some content remains to be added, there are no images, and the ads need to be added. Expect more content for Tampa Bay Talent to be added in the coming weeks, and for the site to becomes a major marketing asset, shortly, in the coming months. One critical feature for Tampa Bay Talent will be the audition board, which will be available free of charge, with no obligation to by anything from the site or elsewhere. The cores of the audition and job boards (the actual boards themselves) will be on the Independent sites, which include Independent Talent Network (upcoming), Independent Acting (online but needs an overhaul and re launch), and Independent Modeling. The site using these job boards include Tampa Bay Talent, Tampa Bay Film, Tampa Bay Acting, Tampa Bay Modeling, Florida Modeling Career, Advanced Model, and some other sites. Of course, the three Independent sites will also use their own job and audition boards. Although the job boards will contain plenty of job leads, we want talent to be truly independent, and the boards will also reference tutorials which teach talent how to evaluate jobs (such as modeling jobs and indie films), as well as find their own leads. We do not want talent to become dependent upon anything. The job boards also cross reference assorted resources, such as featured talent profiles, scam analysis databases, forms, pay vouchers, releases, and other free career tools. The boards will also reference career services which are not free, and are an investment; these services will not be required to use the boards, to contact job leads, or to be considered for any job. The audition boards on Independent Acting and Independent Talent Network, utilized by Tampa Bay Acting and Tampa Bay Talent, will directly address Tampa indie films (I will be making films this year myself, and need these boards for my own productions. Other indie filmmakers will benefit, too, free of charge, since these boards will be a free service). The audition boards will become the standard for Tampa indie film, as well as indie film in Florida and elsewhere. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Monday, February 22, 2010 - 8:23 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault New Tampa Bay Talent Site To Be Launched Tomorrow I have another new addition to the Tampa Bay talent sites due to launch tomorrow. It has a prime domain name, one which Busch Gardens used to own, to my knowledge, and one which I have been waiting for years to acquire (they moved to a shorter domain name, which I am certain someone else used to own, too; this is kind of like a game of musical chairs, or a group of Hermit crabs moving to other shells and displacing each other). Thank God that I didn't jump the gun and open up the new site under a less effective domain name (I'm up to 53 domain names now, and may eventually maintain up to 60. That's a lot if you're actually using them, which I am.) I bought the domain name on Saturday, 2/20, and it was ready to go up on the same day after I spent seven hours working on content and design (The Raptor 3 templates somewhat sped up the process). I have some odds and ends to do to the 90% complete web site in the next few hours, and will launch it at 9AM tomorrow. Look for the main "breadcrumb" link index at the top of the main Tampa Bay Film, Tampa Bay Acting, Tampa Bay Modeling, Independent Modeling, Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and many other sites to change in the morning, too, linking to the new site. Many of my sites will also announce the launch. This week, I will be doing a lot of work to Independent Modeling and Tampa Bay Modeling. Next weekend, I am planning on officially launching Tampa Bay Photographers. So, what does the new site do, and why is is relevant for Tampa indie film? Good question! This new site is only the most relevant site for Tampa entertainment and film, and will become a "point" site, used in the marketing and promotion of all of the current, and future, Tampa Bay talent sites, including Tampa Bay Film. The new site will serve talent and filmmakers, and, along with Tampa Bay Acting, will educate talent on which indie film projects are worth getting involved with, and why many are worth skipping. As for my own indie film projects, I want to control most of the audition market in Tampa Bay, and will be setting a standard. This new site, and Tampa Bay Acting, will allow that. Within a year, most of the casting process for Tampa indie film will go through my projects. Actors and talent will have access to the most worthy Tamp indie films, such as mine, as well as having no issues avoiding the ones which aren't worth getting involved with. The best entertainment industry job and audition boards will be maintained on my sites (and notice that I said "sites"). Actors, models, and talent will no longer have to settle for any less than the best projects for their careers. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Film Blog Content Edited, And Some News After a lengthy conversation with both my attorney and my public relations people yesterday, some content on the blog was edited today. Additional content on some of my other blogs will be edited as well. Among other things, this will pave the way for me doing events, such as film festivals, and public appearances (and, I may add, will give me additional leverage in other ways). I also have some rather cool things planned for the upcoming *Tampa Film Conference* (now scheduled to debut in 2012), and will be a regular keynote speaker at my Tampa indie film events, which includes the Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series. This said, I have some new schedule announcements, too. The Halloween Drive-In underground film festival (yes, the film festival in a car- This is a cool idea and I am determined to do it. This is the delayed first-one which was supposed to be done in October 2009, and the sequel has also been delayed a year) will be done on October 10, 2010 (10/10/10!). For those who are wondering, I am still not speaking to the people who dropped the ball on the last one; it's their loss. This was very important to me, and I am still very much annoyed with them. The latter half of 2010 will also see a few other underground film festivals, such as the Tampa Bay Film Review, where a panel of entertainment industry professionals will review indie films from Tampa Bay and elsewhere. These underground film festivals will be promoted on TampaFilmFestivals.Com, a Tampa Bay Film site, and will be covered on Tampa Bay Film, on Tampa Film Review, another Tampa Bay Film site, as well as other relevant Tampa Bay Film sites. Regarding covering Tampa film festivals and other events in 2010, *there are currently no plans to do so, although everything, such as marketing material, is in place, and is ready to be utilized. Like most of my current Tampa indie film plans, I really have no desire to go out of my way to help others in the Tampa indie film scene right now. I will be focusing on supporting my efforts, for now. Helping others will come later, when I will be helping others who are worthy of that help (the list right now is so short that I don't want to bother). My first film festival, The Reverence film festival, will be held in the fall of 2011, and will feature my Reverence* short film. This, of course, will lead up to the debut of the Tampa Film Showcase in January 2012. In early 2013, the annual Iris Film Festival (tentative name for now) will debut, leading to the longest ongoing Tampa indie film support event production line in history; each year, there will be 12 Tampa Film Showcase film festival and networking events, serving as the backbone of what we do, 1 annual film festival which will set new benchmarks, the Reverence film festival each fall, and the Tampa Film Conference each spring. That’s 14 film festivals and 1 indie film event per year, not counting the other film festival properties and underground film festivals. Those underground film festivals will have the most bang for the buck, with the influence and effectiveness of a large film festival, but at very little cost. The 14 conventional film festivals (although Reverence is more of a hybrid) will be open to the public, but the underground film festivals will mostly be private events, and invitation-only (do you think that the current Tampa indie film scene can support all of this- or even deserves it? Not at all. This is why the Tampa indie film scene has to be expanded, now filmmakers need to be brought in, and the first Tampa film community has to be established). Determination is the name of the game. I’m going to see this revolution in independent film through. Regardless of what a vocal (and insignificant, not to mention ineffective) minority thinks, I believe that history will validate what I am doing, as well as the effectiveness of the cool new ideas which I will introduce to independent film as a whole. The current environment in Tampa indie film is the perfect opportunity. As I see it, I don’t have any competition. There are some good films being made here, but their marketing is weak, and the way that they are being done is too conventional, and not very cost-effective. It’s too easy to become lost in the crowd. I am not at all confident that the efforts of current Tampa filmmakers will achieve much success, do much to put Tampa indie film on the map, or to make Tampa indie film a leader in independent film. Don’t look at me, either. Although I will be a big part of putting Tampa indie film on the map (and this enormous investment into indie film support infrastructure that I have done with Tampa Bay Film is just the first step on a road which has not been traveled before), I won’t be able to do it alone. There will be new filmmakers coming into the scene, some of which have not even begun to make films; talented people who are currently unknown. The market has to be expanded, and this new generation of revolutionary filmmakers will do this, with my support and help, although my films are going to be something special, too. I’m working on films right now which have not been done before, and some of them are being produced in ways that haven’t been tried before (Twisted Puppet Show and The Adventures Of DJ Wiz Kid among them). I hope that these cool film projects and concepts will inspire others to do the same, to expand the market so that Tampa indie film will not only be put on the map, but become a leader in the independent film industry. Additionally, I expect the first Tampa Film Community to be established by 2012, so we don't have that much longer. It's going to take time, but eventually all of this will happen. I am well vested into indie film. It’s a major part of my future. It may not seem apparent now, but I have a plan, and that plan is moving along nicely. Five years from now, some of that plan will become more obvious. For now, however, enjoy the Tampa Bay Film site and watch films on the online film festival. I do. Ah, yes, and some more things. Effective immediately, I will no longer refer any more actors and talent to anyone in the Tampa indie film clique, or anyone connected to the Tampa indie film clique. Harmony Oswald, who was the lead in The Quiet Place (2006), and Sarah Bray, who was the lead in Spaventare (2009), were both referred directly from me, as they are my clients and my friends. For some reason, that fact was never disclosed, or recognized, by those who were constantly trying to attack my credibility and slander me. The top Florida actors, models, and talent are in my circle, and since I will now ignore most of the current players in the Tampa indie film scene, so will they. I do believe that everyone is aware of my affiliations and alliances, but they simply don't admit it. It doesn't matter, however, as we all know what the_truth is. No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose. I do know one thing: I do not discriminate, and am not the villain that these people attempt to portray me as. I would never do to these people what they did to me, and I wouldn’t wish what I’ve experienced on anyone. I was sincere with them, and I succeed with everything that I did to help out (such as referring the best actors to their films). I now know exactly what happened the past few years, too, and know who the source of the rumors was. I will say this: I regret ever introducing myself to any of these people in late 2005. I would have been better off without become acquainted with any of them. Well, since I haven't disclosed any of my critical plans or ideas, I suppose that I could pretend now that it never happened. I obviously still don't know them. I'll simply do my own thing, and let them sabotage themselves. By the time that I am ready to proceed, most of them will have removed themselves from the Tampa indie film scene. The ones who remain, I will simply ignore, and they will be on the outside looking in. When the first Tampa film community is finally established, these disgraces to art and entertainment have no business participating, and I will discourage them from doing so by ignoring them. They are insignificant, irrelevant, and ineffective. They had their chance and failed. It's now time for a change. Know this: I will not be going after these people, and will not go out of my way to undermine them. They do this quite well on their own, with their lack of talent and integrity. They sabotage themselves. If they continue to slander me, however, I will take aggressive legal action against them. If any of them attempt any (additional) crimes against me, then I will press charges (these people are really stupid by sending me threats. I have everything documented, and this will serve as evidence if I need it). STAY AWAY FROM ME! I’m going to ignore you, and have confidence that you will end your careers on your own. I deleted several of my "friends" on Myspace today, and set my account setting to private. If you were deleted, it wasn't in error. Goodbye! PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, January 14, 2010 - 4:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film, Indie Film Projects, and Film Festivals On Hiatus This will be the last post from me on the Tampa Film Blog for quite some time (except for the one above and others for announcements). I am needed elsewhere, but it will all work out for Tampa Bay Film when I’m done. Earlier this week, I ordered the Tampa Bay Film sites and all my indie film projects to be placed on standby, phase 2. What this means it that, for the most part, very little updates will be done to the Tampa Bay Film sites. Also, my indie film projects and film festivals will also be placed on standby. At the earliest, it will be summer 2010 before I’m in the position to resume these projects. This means that there will not be a Reverence film festival this year, and because the Reverence film festival leads into the debut of the Tampa Film Showcase, that there will not be a Tampa Film Showcase in 2011. What will I get done late this year, after the summer? A lot of updates to the Tampa Bay Film sites, several underground film festivals, such as the Halloween Drive-In and the Tampa Bay Film Review, and a short indie film or two. In 2011, I’ll be in the position to proceed as was originally intended for 2010, so apply the original scheduled for 2010 to 2011 to get an idea of what is planned. Displace that timeline one year. Why so long? I need resources and infrastructure in place, and not the type of resources and infrastructure that I’ve completed in the past six or seven years. I need lots of cash, consistent cashflow, and operational assets. The way that my overall business plan is set up, my service companies support my long-term investments. Right now, with the economy and everything else, those service companies need a bit more attention. Do I have anything to say about all of this to the people who have been waiting for this? No. Not at all. The Tampa Bay Film sites and my marketing infrastructure are in place, and they are operational. They are not going anywhere, and I fully plan to utilize them as their full capacity soon. Additionally, while I had the intentions of helping current Tampa indie filmmakers and the current Tampa film scene, I am no longer inspired to do so. Too many have failed the test, and they do not deserve my help. Basically put, I’m about to become very, how can I say it, but to put a point on it, inaccessible. I’m not going to have the time for them, communication shall become minimal, and I have better things to do. As the slogan for the Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival goes, “You are not invited”. If any Tampa filmmaker needs my help and support, I’m going to suggest that they impress the hell out of me, and that they prove that they are sincere. So far, all that I’ve seen, and experienced, in the Tampa indie film scene have been a bunch of amateurs to lie, cheat, steal, slander, backstab, and conduct themselves as amateurs. If they perceive you to be competition, they will gang up on you and attempt to destroy your credibility. They will accuse you of unethical conduct, and of doing crimes, while they themselves behave that way. They tried this with me, and I stood up for myself and fought back. I’ve defeated these people, and have put them in their place. The fight won, I’m moving on. What will I do to them now? Nothing. I will allow them to sabotage themselves, as they are their own worst enemy, and will simply proceed with my plans without their participation. They can remain on the outside, in the cold, looking in. It’s their proper place- and it is where they put themselves. If I choose to communicate with them, I will be doing them a favor. If I choose to help them, I am doing them a favor. I fail to see how any of these people can benefit my efforts, or benefit the advancement of independent film in Tampa Bay. Tentatively, I expect to debut the Tampa Film Showcase in January 2012. The main reason for the delay is that I need support infrastructure in place to keep it going each and every month, consistently. I don’t want it to become another Tampa Film Review, where the film festival is not consistent, or effective. It needs to be set up, and executed, right, and the correct way takes time. To be brief, I don’t answer to anyone but myself, and to my people. I could care less who is upset about our adjusted course of action. I’m going to do my sites, my film festivals, and my indie film projects for myself, and for my business interests. If anyone out there wishes to compete with me with indie films, or anything else, I wish you luck. The reason that some people chose to slander me, and to attack me, is that they know something better when they see it. They were afraid of competing against me, and tried to deal with it in pathetic, unethical way. I now know how they really are. They blew it, and they woke up a sleeping giant. I’m going to make their nightmare come true. I’m going to take their market from them, and I’ll do it by competing against them ethically, and professionally. Unlike them, I don’t do anything unethical, unprofessional, or illiegal. Oh, and for those who choose to continue slandering me and doing illegal things against me, I intend to legally address them. I’m going to start suing if they fail to cease and desist, starting now. That’s the future, though. For now, I’m working on other things. What will I do with Tampa Bay Film in the next six months? Very little. 1. The online film festival will be monitored and maintained. 2. Scripts for my first short indie films will be written, and those films will begin production late this year. The Reverence film festival cannot be done in 2011 without some of my short films, and I need a few short indie films to show at the Tampa Film Showcase. 3. Some underground film festivals will be done late this year, and several Tampa indie films will be reviewed, like it or not. That’s it for now. I’m signing out. It’s time to take a nap. In closing, I would like to say that I have a lot invested into the future of Tampa indie film, and that I would not have set up such support infrastructure if I did not have an agenda. With me, it’s never a question of “if”, but rather “when”, and once it starts, it will change everything. I’m in no hurry right now, however, and eventually, I’ll get around to addressing Tampa indie film and setting the standard, as well as putting some unethical amateurs out of business. Enjoy what you have while you can! PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - 9:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Taking A Holiday, And The Outcast Indie Film I’m exhausted. I finished up the marathon site coding for Tampa Bay Film that I’ve been wrapped up in the last 12 weeks over the weekend, and I’m simply disconnecting myself to recharge. I’ve been sleeping away entire days, and I’ve needed it. The next week and a half, leading up to Christmas, it a perfect time for a holiday- of sorts. I’m a workahloc by nature, and I’ll probably be back at work later today (although you could count this Tampa Film Blog entry as work). Just not here. I’ll get back to Tampa Bay Film and its array of web sites before the end of the year, for sure, but only because some odds and ends need to be done. Tampa Bay Film itself has been gutted of content, with the reviews moved to Tampa Film Review and other content moved to the relevant Tampa Bay Film site. All eight sites are now up and running, but the irony is that, after giving birth to so many annex sites, Tampa Bay Film itself is a bit anemic, and it is the weakest of the lot. So, what needs to be done by the end of the year / beginning of next? 1. Tampa Bay Film needs more content (at least two days worth of work). 2. The “services” sections of all eight sites need to be brought up to spec. These are marketing platforms as well as resources, after all. This should take a day to do. 3. At least 20 new films need to be added to the online film festival, and content needs to be adjusted (although the goal of trying to get as many films on there is no longer a priority. If there are too many films playing, you risk the online film festival becoming too cluttered, and there are diminishing returns. Additionally, it’s beginning to be more difficult monitoring the film festival and keeping tabs on what films are working, and which ones are not. I think that between 100-200 films online is a good balance, for now. This, of course, brings up questions regarding the future of the online film festival, and upcoming generations / upgraded version where the user can add films themselves; too many films can make it too much like Youtube, and with good films being lost in the clutter, it could make the online film festival rather pointless as a promotional and marketing platform for indie films. Would thousands of indie films online be a good thing, necessarily, if you cannot find what you are looking for? I am looking at the options now, and will make a decision regarding direction in the new year. I think that organization is going to be key. If we can fine tune the organization of the online film selection, the film festival growth and effectiveness will not be much of an issue anymore. The “channels” system is the proper course, I am convinced, nut lot more needs to be done with it for the film festival to maintain its balance). This will take at least two days of work. 4. Some new reviews have to be written. So, does the Tampa indie film scene really need Hollywood to come here, “save us”, and maker the Tampa Bay area, and Florida, for that matter, Hollywood East? No. What the Tampa indie film scene needs is for Tampa filmmakers to make innovative, great films, and to form a community where we make Tampa Hollywood East on our own. Attracting Hollywood here is a bit like attracting competition with deep pockets. In my opinion (an educated opinion from a professional who has a great deal of experience in business, and with changing industries with better ideas and business practices), Hollywood coming to Tampa and using the Tampa Bay area as a location for their productions would kill Tampa indie film; it would be the worst thing for independent film in Tampa Bay. Sure, it would be good for businesses which would cater to big productions (and no, they would not necessarily hire local talent to help, either. A few years ago, when The Punisher filmed here in Tampa, they trucked in their crew from outside of the area. Did they cast local actors? No. The only local acting “roles” available were for extras, and, as an actor, I can say that those no-talent gigs were not worth it, especially at $70.00 a day), and would bring in money to our economy, but it would starve, and discourage, independent film. Remember that the next time that the film commission or a large film festival wants you to help them promote Tampa Bay as a location for motion pictures. Do they really have your best interest in mind? Within this in mind, I’m taking a break. I need to do more work in my home industries, and make more money to support what is coming. I also need to finish a book, a novel, and some more web sites. Although the Tampa Bay Film sites will be updated from time to time, the standby status begins now, and will last for at least six months. So, what of the indie films and the film festivals? That all depends upon how well by business endeavors work out in a fractured, but healing, economy. If it takes all of my time and energy to make the kind of money that I am going to need for all of this, then it will lead to delays (hey, if I have to spend all of my time in the next two years making money, making films, writing, and DJ’ing, so be it. The other projects can wait. With my projects, it’s never a question of “if”, but rather “when”. Things will get done, at least in the next five years). The cool thing, is, that I’ll accomplish quite a bit in 2010. Expect, at the very least, at least a couple indie films- some good, innovative indie films. Expect a lot more, too. Well, I was going to end the post, now, but I have a few extra minutes. I need to post about something else that has been on my mind. A week ago, I had a weird dream, which was about my first stageplay from 1992. That stageplay was “The Outcast”. The Outcast was a stageplay about church, a youth group, religion, and hypocrisy. It proved to be popular with churches, who wanted to do stageplays of The Outcast. Well, I could allow a bunch of church people to turn my script into a typical church skit, so I figured that it would be good for me to get involved with the first stage production. By then, it was 1993, and I was taking theater, writing, and music courses in college. In 1993, I was not completely satisfied with the script for The Outcast, since I did not have a computer and originally wrote in a notebook. It would have been fine, but I had to have a woman from our local church type it up on her computer, and in the process, she made some changes which I was not happy with at all. Despite the flaws of my modified work, the churches all wanted to do my play. Anyway, when I was in college in 1993, I decided to begin working on a second stageplay, and romantic comedy titled “Purple Passion”. I still did not have a computer, however, so I spent a lot of time in the computer room of the college writing. There were some actresses in my theater course, too, who I made friends with. Both actresses were extremely experienced in acting, casting, and just about everything. They taught me a lot, especially about acting. There was another girl named Carmen in my theater class, too, who was really, really cute. We got on well. Dr. Sylvano would be up front, telling us about the Rose theater, and about how theaters were built, and Carmen and I would be curled up in the back reading my latest story, or the latest version of the Purple Passion script. She’d giggle, Dr. Sylvano would stop and ask me a question about what he had been discussing, I’d give him some off-the-wall B.S. answer because I was too much into what I was working on, and flirting with Carmen. My two actress friends would turn around and glare at me, and Carmen and I would just do our thing. Afterwards, the questions would come. My actress friends would get on my case for not taking the class seriously enough, and ask me why I’d have to make Carmen giggle and disrupt the class. Dr. Sylvano would ask me why I was failing the class, and that’s when I would show him what I was working on. He was teaching about theater, which was great, but here I was actually doing it. He understood, but reminded me that my grades sucked. He also read and reviewed Purple Passion for me, and in his notes, he noted that they characters were a lot like me, not taking school seriously, and dating a lot. Carmen was into what I was doing, as my script was entertaining her, and causing her to giggle (If I could go back, I’d take her to that play that she asked me to take her to. I really liked Carmen. I was just too focused on my projects to take advantage of the opportunities which presented themselves ). So were my actresses. One of them sat with me one day in the computer lab working on Purple Passion, and I took a while to print her out some things. So, we sat there, and she told me that I was a genius. I got a lot of that. It’s just too bad that I found school to be boring. The people, however, were not, and I made a lot of friends. Well, when I wasn’t off writing. Sigh. Carmen. Whatever happened to her? We went off together one day to take some test, and we were chatting up a storm. I lamented that we had to take the test. She turned toward me, tilted her hear, smiled, and winked. “At least we’re doing it together.” I couldn’t argue with that. Still, I missed out. I was too busy to really do much of anything with her. I liked her, though, and I’m sure that she felt the same. Still, I don’t remember the last time that I saw Carmen. She wasn’t forgettable, either. She was there one day, and we just went our separate ways soon after. Anyway, my actress friends and I got together to work on my Outcast stageplay. A church wanted to do the play, and I met with the youth group director. We decided to go ahead and work together and do the play. I need the help of my girls, however. So, my theater girls showed up for a youth group meeting. We had meetings, set up some auditions, and many in the congregation of the church pledged their support. All was going well. My first audition was in March of 1993. The girls conducted the auditions with me, and they taught me how to cast. There was just one problem. The few youth group teens who showed up to audition for roles couldn’t act. One or two of them just were not able to fill the cast. Aimee, one of the theater girls, turned to me. She told me that, unless there were other kids with acting talent, that they might have to fill some of the roles themselves. . There were other problems, too. During one of the youth group meetings, some of the church teens asked how long I had been a Christian. Being upfront and honest with them, I told them that I was not a Christian. I’m real. In retrospect, this could have been why our first audition was so lukewarm. This could have also been the reason why much of the congregation who had pledged their support simply did not show up. Word got around that non-Christians were heading up a church project. Our suspicions were confirmed soon after that audition, too, as the youth pastor told me that there was concern that I was not a Christian, and the pastor of the church told him that we could no longer do the play. So, I broke the news to the girls. We weren’t happy, but the project was canned. We pulled out, but not before I walked up to the pastor after a service and chewed him out about the fiasco. Not that the play would have been that good to begin with, as most of those kids were awful actors. We would have had to bring in professional actors, and I’m sure that the church would not have been thrilled about worldly people invading their domain. To this day, I don’t like that church, or many churches, for that matter. I did have to go back there in 1995 when my brother got married there (the pastor was nowhere to be found, thank God). Also, in 2001, I had dinner at a Pizza restaurant next door to the church with model Melissa Maxim and my senior DJ Marlon Brown. We tried to order beer with our pizza, and the server told us that they couldn’t sell beer due to their proximity to the church. We were not happy about that at all. Well, enough of that trip down memory lane. Now, I’m trying to keep an open mind when it comes to church, and not allow the fake-ass people who I’ve encountered in church in the past to poison my attitude and inspire me to write it off altogether. I will remain open to the possibilities, although I seem to be more of a Christian than those who claim to be. I’m a good person, and that’s good enough for me, and to the people who know me. I’m also going to redo the Outcast, with a new story. I have a lot to write about, and a lot of experience to inspire me. The Outcast will be the church project which churches wouldn’t dare attempt, but it needs to be said. This will be for the young people who go to church and end up disillusioned, religion and hypocrites be damned. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, December 4, 2009 - 8:20 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film And Film Festival Status On the subject of Tampa film festivals, especially ones which actually do have the best interests of Tampa indie film in mind (like mine), and don't sell out Tampa filmmakers to outside competition and tax dollars, I have some information. My conventional film festivals are less than a year away, but the first Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival is coming in late January 2010. The Halloween Drive-In underground film festival which was aborted at the last minute just over a month ago would have been the first, but that was not meant to be (thanks, people- you know who you are!). With a maximum of three people who could attend due to limited seating, it proved to be vulnerable to any cancellations. The film festival did not happen due to a couple of last-minute cancellations, and was not my fault. I had everything together, and ready to go. I even spent a good amount of money prepping for it (I first cancelled it, and then it was back on due to the urging of some people who were involved, and then it was off hours before it was supposed to happen because they cancelled). The Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival, on the other hand, can accommodate quite a few people, and can even approach the audience of small film festivals such as the first coffeehouse film reviews. It's invitation only, however, and not open to the public; I'll probably have no more than a dozen or so people at the one in late January. I'm looking forward to the first Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival, and it will be the first of many. Now, with the Halloween Drive-In, we may attempt it again next Halloween (maybe sooner... I just got off the phone with a friend, who was not involved with the initial abortion, who suggested that we try this month), although it conflicts with some plans that I made a few months back. It's not because we will be doing the Reverence film festival (which is my first film festival event, and will demonstrate the possibilities of the film festival format when you're creative, and professionals are involved with the planning, and the execution), but rather because the one in 2010 was supposed to be an expanded version, with a new format. I really want to do the film festival in a car concept at least once, though, so I may push back the expanded, revamped version another year. Damn, it's another year where I can't publish certain ideas, or write about them. You will all just have to wait, and you can thank the people who ruined it this year for that (I certainly have no issue accepting responsibility when things don't pan out as planned, but in this case, it is not my fault). Well, at least I can do more with it next year... I'll have more gear to work with. Keep in mind, too, that I will NOT do an expanded and revamped version of the Halloween Drive-In without first doing the initial film festival in a car version (I am determined to prove that it is a good idea, and that it will be excellent once it is done.). You can check out the official web sites for all of my underground film festivals, and my conventional film festival events, at TampaFilmFestivals.Com, which is one of the eight Tampa Bay Film sites. Look for that domain name-branding a lot in the next year. With Tampa Bay Film, the final four sites should, should, should be up this weekend. So they will be, it's back to work on them. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, December 4, 2009 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Two Announcements Posted Although I am NOT a fan of the Gasparilla International Film Festival, and I do not believe that they have the best interests of Tampa indie film in mind (I also don't approve of them being intertwined with the Tampa film commission, which stinks of self-serving politics), I'll post whatever is sent to me in our announcement section, and let my readers make up their minds for themselves (before you do, though, scroll down and read my *"Save Tampa indie film: Keep Tampa indie film independent."* statement. I'd post it again, but I don't want to possibly spam search engines and look like a black hatter by reposting the same thing over and over again). Check out the announcements by going to our Tampa Film Announcements section. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, December 3, 2009 - 8:48 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film Sites Almost Done Hopefully? Try building and launching four web sites at once. Despite some ingenious ideas putting together these web sites, saving time without taking shortcuts or skimping, it's still a huge project (The first of the four, Tampa Film Review, should be online sometime tomorrow morning). I'm almost done, however, although content writing and headaches (literally) have been slowing me down the past few days. When I take breaks, I play video games, and, lately, I've needed breaks from my breaks (although the headaches have not been caused by my beloved video games, I'm sure of. 16 Bit classic Desert Strike and arcade classic Gyruss are easy on the eyes- you might as well look them up, Tampa filmmakers, because none of you know video games like I do. Gyruss is a real adrenaline rush, and I can spend hours on Desert Strike, too, on my original PSP 1000 series, although Desert Strike has some flaws in the play balance). I really need to get this done by this weekend because I've been waiting since summer to start a massive modeling industry project (some may argue that I've been waiting since 2003, but I'm finally ready to proceed. The cash boost will make many things happen, and start the revolution). After all the Tampa Bay Film sites are online and optimized, they need to be placed on standby (for at least six months, although I will be doing some work on them and posting a few reviews), and then it's off to modeling land for me to work on those projects, as well as a few others. I will be working on Tampa Bay Modeling and Independent Modeling, which don't really need much done to them. I need to finish Florida Modeling Career, which will take at least a week. I also need to build, and launch, Advanced Model, before the month is out. Other projects? Some won't take more than a day or two of work. My C. A. Passinault site needs to be brought up to speed, and my main blog moved there from Frontier Society (Right now, it's on Myspace, of all places). I have to put together a marketing web site for a business client, and two new photography marketing sites for my photography business. I also need to get my Tampa advertising agency web site up, and it's almost done. Oh, and I'm going to start a video game blog on my Tampa video games site. Mucho fun. I really should explain something here, right now, although some of it has little to do with indie film. I've been amusing myself lately reading posts on a message board that I used to post on (so has my attorney). A jerk once blamed me for the shortcomings of others. Well, I will say that I am guilty of taking a long time to get certain things done. It's not a lack of ability, however, but rather that I have a ton of things going on. It's possible to have too many good ideas (and, no, I'm not posting them here until I am in the position to use them). It's plainly obvious that it's time to start getting some things done. The things that I have done, and I've done a lot over the years, have been very successful. I'm now ready to do far more. The next decade, things will really be impressive, and naysayers such as this Christian idiot will be eating all of their words. There are seven careers that I will be focusing on in the short term. The first is indie filmmaking (like you all couldn't guess with the hard work and resources going into Tampa Bay Film!). Second is the modeling industry (I have a major modeling book deal, you know, unlike so-called no-talent writers like Christian who have to self-publish their "books" and sell them to themselves so that they can claim that they sold some). Third, of course, is writing. Fourth is photography. Fifth is my DJ and music career. Sixth is advertising. Seventh, too, is video game development. How can one person, regardless of how educated and talented they are, do all of this at once? Well, something that I learned the hard way during my Fraternity days in college was delegation. I see it like this: 1. Cash Flow - My service companies increase cash flow. My photography, and later, my event planning and advertising companies will become critical support pillars. If it were not for photography, I'd have starved long ago 2. Recruitment - I need talented, professional people to help me with these projects. Luckily, I seem to already attract the best people, so this won't be an issue. 3. Delegation - I'm a polymath with an IQ of 200 and the equivalent of several doctorates of knowledge and experience, but I'm not God. I'm not omnipresent, and I'm far from perfect. I am a human being, with some limitations (Just a few, though. I'd love to be able to learn all the languages in the world, but this isn't possible, as I have no talent for it. I'm very good at english, however). Obviously, the only way that any of this will be possible is if I delegate. I'll be building things, setting them up, get them going, and after they are operational, will staff them, manage them from the top, and move on to other things (this means that the Tampa Film Showcase, once established, will have its own staff which will run it. After it is up and running, I may not even get to attend all of the time, because I will be working on other things). Well, the first step is the lynchpin, and that won't be an issue anymore in a few short weeks. After that, things will take off, and things will start getting done at a geometric pace. Me, myself, I can't wait to do what I'm about to do to both the modeling and the photography industries. My modeling sites are positioned perfectly right now with the search engines (where Tampa Bay Film should be in mid 2010), and everything is now ready. I'm ready to proceed. I can't wait any longer, and the cool thing is that I no longer have to. In regards to haters like Christian, I'm about to seriously school them without having to abandon my careers and teach like they do. I'll be teaching from example, by default from doing things, and everyone will be scrambling to keep up. It's quite poetic, I assure you. New standards, and benchmarks, in entertainment and business begin here in Tampa. There is literally no limit to how far this can go. The future us about to become the present, and the past will become the foundation of great things. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, November 28, 2009 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault The Long Wait Hopefully, by Monday, November 30, I'll finally have all eight Tampa Bay Film sites up-to-spec, and will be in the position to be able to put the Tampa Bay Film sites on standby, which was announced a while back. What should have taken me a week has taken me much longer. I'll be focusing on my photography business, and the Tampa modeling industry, for a while after I put the Tampa Bay Film sites on standby. Although I will be doing routine maintenance on the sites, much of the work that I will do will be for the online film festival, with small updates such as adding films to the playlist, and maintaining the playlist. I will also invest time into SEO efforts for the Tampa Bay Films sites (if you plant seeds, you add fertilizer and water after they sprout, and then sit back and wait for the fruit). Expect the posts on this blog to slow down a lot, too. I'll probably get back to Tampa indie film on the Tampa Bay Film sites in the spring of 2010. I will be shooting my first short indie film in February 2010, the *Reverence* short film in April 2010. Reverence may end up being one the of best horror films ever made in Florida, although it is primarily a psychological creeper piece, and even though it is a short film, it should blow large Tampa films such as Experiment 7, 100 Tears, and others out of the water. It needs to be great by default, since it "somehow" ties into a film festival. With a budget of under $1,000.00, and with minimal equipment, cast, and crew, Reverence should open some eyes to what is possible when it comes to making indie films in Tampa. Cast, crew, and equipment? Reverence will have a cast of 4, a crew of 3, and will use minimal equipment, such as a single DV camera (and I am building my own steadycam mount, crane, and boom for less than $100.00, with parts from the hardware store). It will be a case where talent more than makes up for a small production; the seven of us working with my script (which is awesome, and should prove to be controversial), and getting it shot in a weekend. Under $1,000.00? Surprise: Reverence may end up costing less than $500.00 to make, and if we pull it off like I expect to, it will make most of those large, bloated feature films look like poor investments, which is one of the points that I intend to make! I also expect post for Reverence to take a while, because we may have to loop the dialogue in a few ADR sessions. I have other film projects in the works for 2010. I will also start filming my *Frontier View* online "television" series, as my DJ Frontier alter-ego, in the spring of 2010. I won't have my cybersuit completely operational by then, so I'll simply fake it and use the equipment that I have (with lots of money coming in from my photography business, which should be setting records by January, I should have the suit done by the summer of 2010. This cybersuit technology will define a large part of my life for, perhaps, the rest of my life, and it ties in directly with my DJ career, and my career as an entertainment polymath). Oh, and I will be working on a lot of new DJ releases in 2010, too, as well as re-releasing much of my back catalog as digital MP3 releases in the spring of 2010. Also, all of my DJ production sessions will be videotaped, with the production of the DJ projects and Frontier View crossing a lot. Keep in mind that the Tampa Bay Film sites will not be receiving a lot of articles and content for most of the first half of next year, because much of what will be written will have a hold on publication until the time is right, especially since I will be doing filmmaking work almost on a daily basis. I'll be working on films starting in February, and all of my indie films will be the most documented productions in Tampa Bay history, but none of that material will be published until well after the films are released. My short films will not be released until the fall of 2010, and when they are, they will be exclusively released at my array of film festival events and on my online film festival (I may allow a select few to see them early, to help build buzz). I have no short-term plans to sell any of my short films; They will be my portfolio, which I will need to land investors. I'll start making money as a filmmaker when I start doing the best Tampa feature films, and I have serious resources, equipment, and investors to do those. Estimated time for that? 2014. What if the Myan calendar is correct, and the world ends in 2012? Oh, well. At least I'll have some of the best short films and best film festivals in the history of Tampa to immortalize myself with. See how the master plan is coming together? Great things take time to happen, but they eventually happen. By 2012, both CFB and TFF, which, in my opinion, are bad for Tampa indie film, will be history; retired and out of business (The TFR is already history, a noted failure as a film festival. TFF is already obsolete because of Tampa Bay Film, and CFB is on life support now, in my opinion, and they are exactly at a place where they deserve to be). By 2015, the Tampa indie film scene will be a lot different than it is now. I will be one of the top indie filmmakers, and will be a leader in the film scene. We'll finally have a professional Tampa film community, too, and some parties, such as the Tampa film commission, will be forced to respect us and the films that are being done in Tampa by Tampa filmmakers (this is not the case now, in my opinion). Ah, and about the film festivals: The Reverence film festival (fall 2010), and the debut of the Tampa Film Showcase (January 2011), are still on schedule. I'll also be doing several underground film festivals throughout 2010. That's it for now. It's back to working on the last four Tampa Bay Film sites. In closing, my friends (and stalkers), remember this: SAVE TAMPA INDIE FILM! PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 9:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Victimized By The Tampa Film Scene? We Need To Talk! Surprise! I have a few free minutes. Whatever shall I write about? Actually, peeps, a moment of your time. It’s time for me to drop some knowledge, ask a few questions (well, an inquiry that certain people are afraid that I’ll ask), and fill some of you in about a cool thing that I just did. Last night, I spent three hours designing the new Mark 2 Tampa Bay Film flyers. I have the master sheet printed and ready to run. I’m printing up 400 of them, ready to deploy, shortly (not bad for a $10.00 print job). I’m rather proud of the flyers, but I can’t show them directly here for security reasons. I may capture them in a photo or two, however, although, like some other things that I intentionally do, those photos won’t show all the details. Sometimes, as models have taught me with their tales of torturing guys who try to hit on them (once, Melissa and I went to a club, and she told me to watch how she worked. She rather enjoyed shooting down every guy who hit on her. It was a game that she liked to play. Stunning woman!), it’s better to tease and drive anticipation. Don’t worry, though... I’m sure that they can be tracked down offline, especially with the high circulation. Oh, and I also used Independent Modeling underground marketing tech to cut my printing costs by 75%, enabling me to do four times the printing volume for the dollar. I do things smart like that. Ah, and my design work is exceptional, too, as always (this is why I get paid for doing such work, although pay is a byproduct of things that I take great pride in doing). I’m rather proud of the MK 2's (they are so good, in fact, that I will be using them long after I get my high quality Tampa Bay Film business cards, which will be printed on 14 PT, UV coated glossy stock using a 4/4 color process. Oh, yes!). Like everything that I do, I take my time and get it right. This is a reason that it is hard to compete with me once I actually get around to doing something. I’m good, and I know it. Alrighty. I had to cut down on the copy, but here is the original copy that I based the flyers on (I spent a lot of time composing in Wordperfect and compositing the design in Photoshop). Enjoy: Tampa Bay Film The Voice Of Tampa Indie Film Admit Everyone - All of the time, and everywhere. Relevant for indie film and indie filmmakers. The best source of information for what’s really going on in indie film. The top resource for Tampa indie film. The future of independent film in Tampa Bay, and the foundation for the first professional Tampa film community, begins at Tampa Bay Film. We are dedicated to helping make Tampa filmmaking a leader in the indie film industry. How does Tampa Bay Film benefit the filmmakers, and the fans, of independent film? It starts with our network of eight web sites; the sites which make up Tampa Bay Film. We are free. Our sites are available free of charge, with no obligation to buy anything from us, our affiliates, our advertisers, or our sponsors. Additionally, consider our motives. We are sincere about advancing Tampa indie film, and independent filmmaking as a whole. We really do want to help make Tampa Bay filmmaking a leader in independent film. We also don’t cheerlead and hype anything. We don’t mindlessly promote thing which are not worth promoting. We’ll tell you how it is, and what we really think.. Also, consider our other seven sites, which make up the Tampa Bay Film online site network. For the benefit of indie film, we offer the following. The Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival (OFF). TampaOnlineFilmFestival .Com The best way for any Tampa filmmaker to promote their films. Available 24/7, our online film festival has been running constantly since it opened on January 11, 2007. Free of charge to submit films, or to watch them. The most effective Tampa film festival, with much higher “attendance” and viewing numbers than all Tampa film festivals combined! It’s everywhere and always open. Watch what you want to, and skip what you don’t, from the comfort of wherever you happen to be. Our online film festival is now in its second generation, and it’s been a tremendous success, with the next three generations now in development. Select “Films” from the menu. Tampa Film Blog TampaFilmBlog.Com The most relevant blog for Tampa indie film, and a blog for the professional opinions, information, and the leadership which the Tampa indie film scene needs. Read. Post. Debate. Discuss. Promote. It’s up to you. The Tampa Film Blog is where Tampa filmmakers, and their audiences, unite! Select “Tampa Film Blog” from the menu. Tampa Bay Film Reviews TampaFilmReview.Com A review site reviewing Tampa indie film. We tell you what we think, and how it really is. It’s up to you to use our information to evaluate what we review, and to decide if it’s worth investing in. Your time and your money is too important to waste. Select “Reviews” from the menu. Tampa Film Showcase TampaFilmShowcase.Com Our upcoming monthly film festival and professional networking event series for the Tampa indie film industry. Select “Film Festival” from the menu. Tampa Film Festivals TampaFilmFestivals.Com The official marketing web site for Tampa Bay Film film festivals, and the resource covering other Tampa film festivals. Select “Film Festivals” from the menu. Tampa Film Conference TampaFilmConference.Com An upcoming Tampa Bay Film event series for Tampa filmmakers. Select “Conference” from the menu. Tampa Film Community TampaFilmCommunity.Com A web site for the upcoming Tampa film community. Select “Community” from the menu. Cool copy, eh? I love being a writer, too. Ok, I have to get ready to run to another location to code the Tampa Bay Film sites. Now, I have to ask a question. I purposely put it at the end of this post because I know that the people who would reply to this question spend the time to read everything that I write. As you all know, I haven’t exactly been treated professionally, and fairly, by some people in the Tampa indie film scene. I didn’t start anything with the people who decided, for one reason or another, that they didn’t like me. They started with me. I kept my mouth shut, and helped out, and was rewarded with slander, discrimination, and threats made against me. When this came to light, I started asking questions. They didn’t give me answers. I invited them to debate. They tried to attack my credibility by falsely accusing me of criminal acts, trying to deflect the issues and sidetracking the course of inquiry. These people are hardly professionals. It seems that there are a few insecure amateurs in a Tampa film clique who have been masquerading as a “film community”. It’s funny, though. The things that I have been wrongly accused of are the exact same things that these people are guilty of. It’s not my imagination, either. I have proof. I even had admissions by some of the jerks, in writing, that my observations about what was going on was absolutely correct (I suppose that they thought that I couldn’t do anything about it if they admitted it. Wrong. These people really are idiots, and they have made a lot of mistakes.) Hell, I’m not the one stalking people, sending people death threats, threatening to assault people (I’ve had threats of assault and other crimes against me from several people in the Tampa indie film scene), slandering people, photoshopping the heads of people onto pictures of naked people, dot-comming the names of people (I have this issue with cybersquatters, too, with several of my properties, so this is nothing new outside of the film scene), and sending unprofessional messages full of profanity and threats. I have been the victim of all of this, and these people have the nerve to claim that I’m the bad guy in this situation. Well, I guess if being better is bad, then I’m at least guilty of that. I am a law abiding citizen. I am a professional who stands up for my rights, and the rights of others. I will continue to do that. Unlike their other victims who were discouraged and rolled over, I didn’t. I’m addressing it. These people are insecure, unethical, unprofessional cowards who are afraid of someone better coming along and stealing their thunder. So, they gang up on the real professionals and try to destroy their credibility (A thought: If you get along with these people, shouldn't you feel insulted because they don't see you as competition?). They try to bully them out of the Tampa film scene. Still, shouldn’t these feeble-minded morons have done their homework before committing crimes against me? It was a mistake. I am a good person, and a talented professional. I don’t put up with any B.S., either. I stand up for myself, and the rights of others, and fight back within legal and ethical means. I’m good at that, too. Oh, and speaking of victims, I’m sure that there are a lot out there who have had similar dealings with these characters. I’ve already talked about this with a few of you, and owning the dominant web sites in Tampa indie film make my sites, and this blog, the perfect rallying point for seeking out other victims. I have the most popular Tampa indie film web sites. Everything that I write is easy to find via search, and I’m not difficult to get a hold of. Please contact me and let me know your story. I’m listening to everything, and I’m documenting everything. My attorney would like to talk to you, too. These unethical, unprofessional people will be held accountable for their crimes. They are responsible for everything that they say and do. Law-abiding professionals, like myself and other victims of these crimes, do not deserve to have to go through what we’ve been through. Any one want to make this a legal issue? Do you really want to try to win that way? Let me tell you that you won’t; you’ll lose badly, and you’ll look like a jackass for partaking in frivolous legal activities. I think that the smart ones will settle for simply trying to compete with what I will be bringing to the market, and I really wish them luck with that. I’m good at competing against people, too, and many who oppose my business interests will find themselves out of business. Did you notice that I’ve been investing a lot into Tampa indie film? Hmmmm... Whatever could I be planning? Perhaps those who oppose me should stop and re-think what they are doing, and quit while they think that they are ahead. Let’s compete. Let’s at least attempt to respect each other, and try to keep the lines of communication open (part of the problem is a situation of ongoing misunderstandings caused by poor communication, and I’m certainly not the one who is communicating poorly. I am most certainly, however, misunderstood, and it doesn’t have to be that way). We can play nice. If not, however, I’m ready for that, too. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Monday, November 16, 2009 - 8:28 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Film Press Releases Posted In Announcements We've posted three press releases, relayed by Dan Brienza from the Tampa Film Network, in our Tampa Film Announcements section. Check it out. We also updated four of the eight Tampa Bay Films yesterday, bringing them up-to-spec, but some of you already know that. We're busy with the other four right now, so we don't have time to keep writing about it (that, and finishing up client orders). It's back to work. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - 7:53 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault End Of The Week I've done some updates, but I went to a cookout on Sunday after teaching kids how to make kites out of paper, tape, and fishing line (one of them called the kite a ghetto kite, which is funny, although they fly well, and they are practically free), and caught some sort of virus. Yesterday, I had the symptoms of a severe cold. If I had a cold, I burned it out of me this morning with onions, garlic, orange juice, and lots of sleep sweating under covers with the air off. Either my immune system is strong, or it worked, because I feel fine, now. I'm just going to take it easy for a few days, and don't really want to be around anyone until I am sure that I am not sick, and won't infect anyone. I return to coding tomorrow, and should be able to refresh all of the Tampa Bay Film sites by Sunday night. After that, it's back to model land. Many of my models also seem to get sick a lot, but it's because they are always out and about, and don't get their rest. The funny thing is that I went into the medicine cabinet yesterday, and noticed that my almost-full package of Nyquil pills expired last year, so I couldn't use them. I seldom get sick. No more cookouts for me (unless they are small, or family). I have to go. I have to call two models back to set up some consultations for modeling portfolio shoots. I won't set up any meeting before Friday, though, because I don't like being around people if I am contagious. Oh, yes, and about my film schedule. I'm now in pre-production for two short films. Filming starts in January 2010. 2010 is going to be an interesting year! PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, November 6, 2009 - 7:24 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Still Working On All Eight Tampa Bay Film Sites The Tampa Bay Film sites are still in process. We're cleaning up old files, and are finishing up the thumbnail array on Tampa Bay Film. This array will be transplanted to all eight of the Tampa Bay Film sites. Hoping to finish up by this weekend so we can put the sites on standby for a few months (this was announced weeks ago, but it's taken all of this time to position the sites). Finishing up includes adding the TFR reviews to be published on the Tampa Film Review Tampa Film Review site. Also, expect more films to be added to the online film festival later this month (there is a cool new music video on the main section now). This is a lot of work, and there is still a lot of work to be done. We have over 21 hours set aside for this work this weekend, and it will take this much, at the very least, to launch the other four Tampa Bay Film sites, and to upgrade / update the original four. This work has to be done to ready the sites for where they need to be by Spring 2010. For related news, check out the Tampa DJ Blog. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, October 31, 2009 - 9:12 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Old Tampa Bay Film Site Removed The original Tampa Bay Film site, the infamous green and yellow "BBS" (a funny description coined by me) second-phase site design (two versions ago; still green in color, but losing the frame-like DHTML layout), on the Tampa Hub account has been removed. This was the original web site location for Tampa Bay Film when it launched almost three years ago, and it was retired today. The original online film festival has been retired. Other resource sites on TampaHub.Com have been dismantled this morning, two days early. The only thing left on Tampa Hub is an index file, which is a web site directory. This will be changed to a new index shortly to eventually remove the site from the search engines; the mission of the old Tampa Hub site now complete. It will be decommissioned shortly. Tampa Bay Film is now only available at TampaBayFilm.Com. Old links to Tampa Bay Film, such as the links on a certain message board, will no longer work! The reviews on Tampa Bay Film will be moved to Tampa Film Review as soon as that is completely up, and the old locations will be replaced by a page linking to the new url address. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, October 31, 2009 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Hub To Be Dismantled It's time to cleanup, and take out the garbage. TampaHub.Com, which was the original hosting domain of Tampa Bay Modeling and Tampa Bay Film, is going to be dismantled. Older versions of Tampa Bay Film and other sites still exist on the old directories, and it is causing a duplicate content issue. Tampa Bay Modeling has more than enough new content to offset this issue, but not Tampa Bay Film. Tampa Bay Film will be receiving a lot of new content soon, but this is not nearly as critical as deleting the old site files. Phase one, the deletion of the old site files, will be complete on Monday, November 2, 2009. The index file of Tampa Hub will be changed to remove it from the search engines. I am also removing all links to it on my web sites (this will take a while). When it expires next summer (July 20, 2010), it will be inert, and useless to cybersquatters. Another anchor, preventing search engine superiority, cut away. As you can see, I'm taking this search engine issue very seriously. Let this be a lesson to us all: When you build something, take the time to do it right. Some parts of Tampa Bay Film are a mess, because I didn't do some things right. I'm good, but I'm not perfect. This is being corrected. Oh, and effective immediately, all films added to the online film festival will have updated message board links to a message board index on Tampa Film Community, a Tampa Bay Film site. Obviously, this directory and index does not exist at the moment, but it will by Monday. The Tampa Bay Film message board on Tampa Film Community is roughly a year away, but the infrastructure will be in place to support it this weekend. The Tampa Bay Film message board will become the best message board for Tampa indie film, and should effectively put our competition, who are trying to cover Tampa indie film and spread propaganda, out of business altogether. By next year, a rival indie film blog will be out of business, as they will not be able to compete in any way (our articles, reviews, and photography blows them away, anyway). In 2011, we hope to inspire a certain web site to stop trying to cover Tampa indie film, as we will become the single most relevant source of all things Tampa indie film. May they all go out of business, forgotten relics of the past. Then there are certain film festivals, which do not have the best interests of Tampa filmmakers in mind. Think that the recession has caused them to lose money? Just wait. We're going to take their sponsors away with an array of superior film festivals which are much more cost-effective to support. They will either adapt to the market which we will inspire, or they will go out of business. Either way, it's good news for Tampa indie film. Tampa filmmakers, remember: We are the only ones fighting for you, and fighting for your rights; we are being straight-up with you, and are not lying to you like so many others are, and have been. Which brings us to: SAVE TAMPA INDIE FILM! Keep Tampa Indie Film Independent. (Sigh). It's been almost a month since we declared that the Tampa Bay Film sites are be on standby (it's busier now than ever). It's kind of hard to instantly stop, and avoid tripping all over yourself, when you have a lot of momentum built up. In another week, perhaps we can begin the transition to standby (with a 80% reduction in updates for the Tampa Bay Film sites until early 2010). We're almost done with all of this work (please refer to the post on October 5). I have to run, and work on content. It will be good to be able to take a break from all of this and work on other things, BUT the sites have to be in position before we can put them in standby, because they have to be ready to resume in a few months. If this work is not done, they won't be ready then, and we'll be playing catch up for another year. We don't have time for that. The hard work will be done now, the sites will go on standby (with a few updates here and there), and then we will be ready to hit the ground running early in 2010, with aggressive coverage of Tampa indie film, and lots of work done; we will have the resources in place then to support the updates and coverage. Well, I have to get this done. It's costing me (more) money the longer that it takes. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, October 30, 2009 - 8:34 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Prepping I'm going over Tampa Bay Film notes scrawled on my yellow notepad while a music video on my online film festival plays in the background. I thought that I had the section layout for the latter four sites down (thank God that they are all online with enough content to get the ball rolling), but evidently not. It should take me an hour to map those sections out, and another few hours to put the sites together. Content will take the most time to do. Expect them online by the end of the weekend. This Tampa Film Blog will have a thumbnail image array shortly. I'm also tweaking the tops and the bottoms of the menus. Once the other Tampa Bay Film sites are up, I will have time to organize the hundreds of pages of content here. There are a lot of sections in the current Tampa Bay Film sites starving for content, and I'm going to be writing a lot in the next few days. Just not here on this blog. Oh... ahem... regarding one of my stalkers jeering me and stating that I announce things and then offer up nothing but excuses when I don't do them. I suppose that you are referring to the Halloween Drive-In. The invitation list was tiny, with only four of us slated to "attend", myself included (that means that I was depending upon three people, and at least two of them would have had to participate). The underground film festival was supposed to be a fun diversion, and was to make a point. I did all my prep, and it was all ready to go. I held up my end. What happened the weekend of the 25th was beyond my control. This said, I'll probably get around to doing this in the next few weeks. It doesn't have to be Halloween to have my Halloween Drive-In, and just doing this alone would qualify it for the most creative, and the smallest, film festival in Tampa Bay history. So, what is the point of the Halloween Drive-In? To demonstrate that you don't have to put a lot of money into a film festival to have a good one. What's the point of underground film festivals? Bang for the buck. They can be just as effective as the large film festivals, and you can afford to have lots and lots of them. To me, underground film festivals are viral film festival lead-ins for my larger film festival properties. There is a definite purpose for them, as will be demonstrated. Regarding film festivals, and films, and everything else going on, remember that I don't answer to anyone- especially snibbling "anonymous" stalkers who are obviously jealous of me. I do have a responsibility to my business partners and anyone out there investing time and money into my projects, but when things such as film festivals have not debuted, there is no obligation to explain myself. I'm on my own clock, and they'll get done when I am ready. When they happen, and they will, they will change everything. I would not make claims that I could not make good on. Also keep in mind that I have a lot going on. Most people have few good ideas and have only one or two things going. I get great ideas faster than I can utilize them, and have hundreds of things going. Obviously, the way to start getting things done is to establish a hierarchy of support resources, and to delegate. This is being implemented, and like a snowball rolling downhill and gaining mass and momentum, more will get done at a faster rate as time goes on. I think that the real issue going on is that I am smart enough not to post my great ideas so that those jealous people out there cannot steal them. Too bad. You have to earn success. So.... make big, expensive films the old fashioned way, like everyone else does them. Write rushed scripts. Do the same boring things that everyone else does. I don't care (and, I really don't see anything going on in indie film right now to get excited about, which is my main motivation to innovate). What I am working on, and what I will bring to the Tampa indie film market, is important. It will not only change Tampa indie film, but indie film period. Wait and see. Everyone who is not in the loop will simply have to be patient, and see what happens when I'm ready to unveil it. At the moment, I am concentrating on positioning my Tampa Bay Film web sites. What I will be doing this weekend will become critical for what will be going on by the summer of 2010, although a few in the Tampa indie film scene will notice what is going on my early 2010. It's too bad that they cannot stop what is going to happen, and even if they could, they shouldn't. It's in their own best interest, and in the interest of putting Tampa indie film on the map, to allow this to take shape. After all, if all of the best innovations and advancements in independent film are happening in Tampa Bay, will it be possible to discount and disregard the Tampa indie film scene? The Tampa indie film scene, and the upcoming Tampa indie film community, have the potential to be the leaders, and the innovators, in independent film in the United States... and perhaps the world. I can see this, and so should you. Now, if you excuse me, I have work to do. Jokers can laugh, but I intend to have the last laugh. Also, you have to consider the source when it comes to any opinion, and considering who my detractors are and their noted failures, I simply do not take them seriously at all. It is said that the definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. I submit that the others have had their shot, and the Tampa indie film scene has not improved. They try to copy what other indie filmmakers do, and do the same boring B.S. over and over again. They've had their shot. Now, I get to make a difference. It's just going to take time. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, October 30, 2009 - 8:10 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Updating Tampa Bay Film Sites I left my notes at home last night, so instead of coding some of the fringe Tampa Bay Film sites and upgrading them to Super Raptor Class sites, I worked on Tampa Bay Film, Tampa Film Showcase, and this Tampa Film Blog (The Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival does not need any updates right now, as it' been caught up. Additionally, its thumbnail array is different than the other Tampa Bay Film sites, as they lead to featured films playing on the online film festival). Tomorrow, I'll be working a lot on Tampa Film Review, Tampa Film Festivals, Tampa Film Conference, and Tampa Film Community. I should have everything caught up, with full upgrades and updates, by Sunday, November 1. After that, I return to model land to catch up there, and will be finishing up legal paperwork next week. Tampa Bay Film and the Tampa Bay Film sites will not see a lot of updates after this week, and I'll return to that work in full force in a few months. I have some updates to the online film festival scheduled, however, as well as another large addition of films in a few weeks. I'll also add a post to the Tampa Film Blog every now and then; if any of the sites are updated, a post on the Tampa Film Blog will note it for easy reference (I will be having the first Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival in December, and that coverage will be posted on Tampa Bay Film. I will also be posting the TFR reviews on the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site in November.). Tampa Casting, Tampa Bay Acting, and Independent Acting will see a lot of updates in the coming weeks, too, as we add more content and build these sites into great audition references and sources of Tampa and Florida auditions. Tampa Bay Acting will also be assisting Tampa Bay Film with educating actors on how to evaluate filmmakers and indie film projects, and how to avoid them if they are not worth it (also note that we will not be attacking anyone. The resources use behavioral pattern recognition, as was pioneered by the modeling scam analysis databases of Tampa Bay Modeling and Independent Modeling. Top Tampa indie film scams? Casting scams, and film festival scams. More on that, later). In January, when my first indie films are in the can, I will be doing behind-the-scenes (er... Behind-the-screens, LOL) features and will be doumenting everything, but there will be a strict blackout on all my film projects until fall 2010. I'll be writing and working, but not posting anything about it. By the fall, I should have a nice backlog of features to publish at my convenience. Additionally, all of my films will have bonus features such as running cast and crew commentary (I also have a cool screening format for my directors cuts). My films will probably be the only films on the online film festival with these features enabled (yes, you will be able to access running commentary on all of my indie films playing on the online film festival if you wish, and I figured out how to do it). The main ways to see my films will be on the online film festival, and at film festivals, such as my Tampa film festival properties. My indie film production schedule? My first solo film, friendship, in January 2010. *Reverence* in March. The Point in May (The Point is one of my worst-kept secrets, with the story available for review on the Internet for many years now. It's a good story, and will become a great script once I add some scenes and adjust the format. If you want to see a sample one of my stories for a short indie film, The Point is a good story to read- and a hint for what is coming; I wrote the story back in 2001, and reading it now, I'm not sure if the first person narrative works as well as it should, as characters seldom describe things like that when they tell a story, but it's good. As far as my other scripts, forget it- they are secret. The script for the Reverence short film is even better!), Things That Go Bump (a very, very creepy, weird little film. Almost as weird as Twisted Puppet Show, a premise for a short film which I am turning into a screenplay- some filmmakers are going to just LOVE that one, because the rumor is that it parodies them) in July. Composure (this will NOT be the same script as the original. I changed the story, and it's even better, now. Some of the really cool ideas that I had with the original Composure will be used in another short romantic film. The new Composure is still a romance film.) in the fall. Also, one more short indie film if I have time to get to it (I'd like to do a prequel to my future sci-fi/ horror/ fantasy feature film Realms; a short film which would set up the future film nicely. It is a film about vampires, which is usually a Tampa indie film cliche, but mine will be a fresh take on the genre. Realms will be a sophisticated vampire feature with complex characters, motivation, and philosophy. I am a firm believer of strong scripts and complex characters). I will also begin production of the first season of Frontier View, my online "television" series, in April. The rest of my time next year will be spent doing photoshoots with models and actors (the main way that I make money), covering Tampa indie film, and setting up film festivals. There will be a blackout of my film projects until the Reverence Film Festival (TampaFilmFestivals.Com) in the fall of 2010, but I will give a select few people screenings of the films. Chris Woods may be one of the privileged few. The Reverence short film will have to be done for the Reverence Film Festival, of course, but I also intend to screen Things That Go Bump, as it is also a horror film which will go nicely with Reverence, which is more of a psychological creeper with the look, and the components, of a horror film. Reverence will be twisted, too, and I expect for it to be controversial. Some may end up calling it a disturbing film which crosses the line. Oh, and The Point would be a good one to screen at the film festival, too, as it is a good ghost story. At any rate, all of my short indie films will be made available on the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival, and they will all come with features, such as running commentary. friendship, Reverence, and Things That Go Bump will be playing on the online film festival the day after their premiers at the Reverence Film Festival. Grrrrrr..... I just read the story, and I don't know if I can shoot The Point in May (or even if I want to make a film out of it, now). It'll be too warm then. In the story, it is a cold night. I may have to wait until late 2010 to shoot it, and if I do, it would miss the film festival. I'll try to get some footage to use earlier in 2010, when it is cold. Then again, maybe I'll scratch it and do another film, instead, especially since the story was written for another Tampa indie film era, and besides that, lots of people already know the story. I'll let you know what I decide soon. Oooh..... I think that my writing partner Rachel Eaglin wrote a script for a short film. Her feature film script for Inducing Manic was really good, too. I'll have to talk to her about it, and see what she has. Then again, I could always go out and redo The Quiet Place (keep the premise, but with a new story, characters, and title), or do a film in the Universe of Creeping Death and Bleed (Just kidding, Woods). One other thing. Production entities. All of my films will be published under my Dream Nine Studios label, but I am creating a small indie film production company to produce the films. I already have the film company named, but cannot announce it, yet. There may, in fact, be several different indie film production companies working under Dream Nine Studios within the next five years. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 9:03 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault This Just In.... Breaking news: I was just emailed some numbers from my team of Tampa Bay Film analysts, and those numbers look good. Everything is proceeding according to plan, and the Tampa indie film scene is conditioned for what is to come. Ahem... more like tenderized. This makes me happy, especially since, like, five people will always hate me for doing the right thing (actually, it's six, but the sixth person is outside of the country, so they are hardly a part of the equation). Phase one is complete, and it only took just over two years to accomplish. Pave the way with war, and conquer with peace, indeed. It's the_truth. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Thursday, October 29, 2009 - 8:26 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Future Tense I can almost tell the story, and I can see it published with the dust-repellent paper of the near future (homage to Back To The Future Part 2 ,and Grays Sports Almanac, McFly!). The rise and fall, rise and fall, and the rise and triumph of Tampa indie film: 2000-2015. I'm going to write this book. I know of a great documentary filmmaker who is considering making a documentary about it, too; perhaps they can base it off of my book. Since we are two-thirds through that timeline, the story is still being written, but I have a lot of hope for the future. I feel that we are at the end of of the second fall, and that the way is now paved for progress to be made. The last third of the story is my time to make a difference. In all things, we have cycles of ups and downs, but eventually things change enough to break the cycle. We are at the dawn of a new era. The next year or two should be some of the most exciting times in the history of Tampa indie film! Oh, and phase one of my contribution should be completed this week. The foundation for the future of Tampa indie film, Tampa Bay Film, has finally become fully operational. I will no longer have to wait to build something on that foundation, and Tampa filmmakers will benefit, also. That online film festival of mine will become more important than ever in 2010, too. Predictions? In 2015, there will be at least six major indie filmmakers, and dozens more who are smaller, making the Tampa indie film scene one of the top in the United States, and perhaps the best in Florida. We will also have a thriving Tampa indie film community for the first time, which would have been established by 2012. Oh, and large Tampa film festivals and the Tampa film commission will not only respect Tampa indie film, but they will support it, too, as well as help to promote it. So, who will the big six be? I'm betting that I'll be one of them. Also, Tampa film festivals will support, and promote, Tampa indie film because I will own all of the good ones. Additionally, Tampa indie filmmakers will be calling the shots in the Tampa indie film scene. Those will be great times, but we must begin to work now, together, to make that happen. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Sunday, October 25, 2009 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Big Changes For Tampa Bay Film Grrrrrr..... Tampa Bay Film is a mess. No wonder I've been having SEO issues. Proper SEO optimization was never done, as much of the site content is old.... late 2006 and early 2007 old. When it was launched, a great amount of work on the new site was done to the online film festival, and not on the core site content. It was also launched in a subdirectory of TampaHub.Com, which put it in an SEO hole (this can be fixed with work, as Tampa Bay Modeling was also in that same hole. It was moved under TampaBayModeling.Com, an SEO optimization overhaul was done, and the result was total search engine domination at the present time; it took about six months for the transition. Tampa Bay Film was also moved out from Tampa Hub, under TampaBayFilm.Com, but the content remained the same, and it did not receive an overhaul. It has good SEO performance, but does not dominate like it needs to; it is nowhere near as potent as Tampa Bay Modeling is. This will change in the next year). With four times the resources going into Tampa Bay Film as in Tampa Bay Modeling, and an SEO overhaul now in process, expect the Tampa Bay Film sites to be in their proper place in the search engines by the summer of 2010 (just in time for the start of a revolution in Tampa indie film!). The Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival was moved to its own domain name a year ago, and received new content and a SEO overhaul. It worked. The online film festival ranks very high with the search engines. Very soon, there will be a total of eight fully-operational Tampa Bay Film sites, and they will all boost each other. Out of all 50+ of my sites, they will all have the best search engine performance. As far as anyone searching for anything Tampa indie film related next summer, Tampa Bay Film will actually be everything as far as Tampa indie film is concerned. The voice of Tampa indie film will be absolute and dominant, and let's just say that we will own the Tampa film festival market, too, with both search engine results and actual film festivals. It will be as it should be. The market will belong to those who have the best interests in Tampa indie film in mind, and Tampa filmmakers will finally be supported. I've been editing much of the content of Tampa Bay Film. I've been editing pictures and am now finishing up with the new Tampa Bay Film image thumbnail array. This is a mandatory component of all of the Tampa Bay Film sites (with the exception of the online film festival, which is up to spec now), and the reason that all the Super Raptor Class sites for the Tampa Bay Film sites are not online is because work on this array has been holding back the site launches. With that work done, expect all eight of the Tampa Bay Film sites to, at least, be at minimal operational capability by the end of the month (er.... this would be the end of next week, by the way.). This minimal operational capability will be what is needed for our SEO plans, and the sites will not have to be updated much in the next few months for the process to work. After this week, I will finally take that break from the Tampa Bay Film sites, let the Internet do its thing, and return to my modeling industry and photography marketing projects (I'm going to need the money coming in). I'll return to Tampa Bay Film work sometime early next year, when the site array is in the proper position in the search engines. After this week, all that it will take is sitting back, and giving it time, while I do work elsewhere. Regarding the "war" against the "Tampa indie film clique", it is over. We've been having a cold war in the Tampa indie film scene lately, and it is time to move on. I've been removing attacks against some Tampa indie filmmakers, such as the Guzzos, and have been editing much of the content on Tampa Bay Film. The original TFR review had Guzzo-slamming content removed this morning (which was 40% of the content!), and it will be obvious once the review is moved with the other reviews to the new Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site (right now, the old review is up, but it will change). The attacks, and stating the obvious, will cease, as we all need to move on and focus on more constructive things. Expect my Tampa indie film scene bashing and harsh criticism to end, too. I'm over it. I don't hate these people, and I have forgiven them for slandering me, as well as other issues. They are not going anywhere, and neither am I, and, in time, I am confident that we will, at the very least, find a way to coexist and respect each other (although we will probably never be friends, and that's fine with me. It is what it is). So, what's next? More of a positive spin with Tampa Bay Film, and positioning the Tampa Bay Film sites to support what is coming to the Tampa indie film scene (top search engine placement is only a small part of the master plan). I will also be shooting my first solo indie film in January 2010, which is a few weeks away. I now have all the equipment that I need, and my schedule is being adjusted to support this work. With indie film production work and preparation for my first Tampa film festivals in 2010, as well as my photography and modeling work, I won't have time to be fighting, or spending a lot of time criticizing, anyone. By spring 2010, I will have two short indie films under my belt (they will be done, but will not be revealed until the Reverence Film Festival in the fall). Starting in the spring, in between short films, I will be shooting the first season of my Frontier View online "television" series with much of the same equipment. Frontier View will debut in the fall of 2010, with a new episode released regularly. The series will focus on my life as DJ Frontier, and my many adventures. Naturally, because I will be shooting footage for the series on a daily basis, it's going to make my social life, and my business life, complicated. I'll be walking around with releases on me at all times (and, no, everyone that I talk to, or work with, will not be obligated to participate. You can opt out if you wish). Am I talking about a reality series? No, not at all. I hate reality television, and find it to be boring (I also hate pretentious awards shows like the Academy Awards, the Emmy's, etc, as I find them to be shallow and stupid). This is very different. I have something more interesting in mind. Frontier View, in many ways, will be revolutionary. I am even planning on incorporating some ideas from my 1993 television series, Futura. I'm also far from a boring person, with the knowledge of several doctorates and more experience with a variety of things than most, so it will be interesting. That, and my idea for a new kind of indie film. More on that, later. I cannot disclose much at this time because much of this is a secret (there is much, much more to Frontier View than I can reveal right now. There will be some really cool things done with the series, and some cool ideas done that have never been done before in indie film, or on television). I do hope to have at least six short indie films, and the first season of my series, done by the end of 2010, and at least another six short indie films, and another season of Frontier View, done by the end of 2011 (Episodes of Frontier View will be screened at my Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival on a regular basis, as well as be available for free online. All of my short films will be screened there, too, as well as be available on my online film festival). In 2012, I intend to be in position to tackle feature indie films with the best filmmaking equipment available (Ah, the RED camera, and 24p HD footage!). I am going to become one of the best, and most innovative, independent filmmakers in Florida, as well as one of the best known. This is why I am investing so much into Tampa indie film, film festivals, and the Tampa Bay Film sites. What will benefit me and my career will benefit all filmmakers. I will be doing a lot of things differently than most filmmakers, too, and hopefully, this will inspire them. I have a lot of great ideas, and I will be proving those ideas as I go. Tampa indie film will become a force to be reckoned with, and this will be a result of the efforts of all Tampa filmmakers, and not just me. Ahem. Back to the "war", and some of the content which will soon be removed from the Internet. Was I wrong with any of my opinions? I would have to say no. But, I did not use good tact, either, so slamming these people was not productive. Neither was stating the obvious. I am hardly worthy of being judge and jury regarding the Tampa indie film scene, and just because I have the ability to address certain issues does not mean that doing so is an appropriate, or productive, course of action. If anyone is doing anything wrong in the Tampa indie film scene, it's best to let them reap what they sow. I could never do to them what they do to themselves (some of these people are burning a lot of bridges, and people, as they try to succeed at any cost; you know that their careers cannot last), and what they do will catch up to them. I'm now going to get some things done, and let my work speak for itself. Tampa Bay Film will be doing a lot next year, and so will I. It's time for a change. I'm particularly excited about the resources that we are investing in to support coverage of the Tampa indie film scene. Our coverage of Tampa film festivals and Tampa film events will be second to none (and not just ours, although ours will benefit from this capability in every way as we give ourselves great press coverage). The coverage and reviews that we have already done should be considered beta tests, and the full rollout will be in 2010. 2010 will be the operational era of Tampa Bay Film and our coverage of Tampa indie film, and it is needed for what we will be introducing, and enabling, in the market. Tampa Bay Film will finally be getting its own message board next year, too, which all eight Tampa Bay Film sites will tie into. The message board will be on the Tampa Film Community Tampa Bay Film site, and will be the most comprehensive message board on Tampa indie film. I'm going to need at least four moderators, as the board will be huge. Tampa Film Community will also be receiving advanced professional networking features, which will interconnect with the Tampa indie film message board! All of these new features will become important after the first Tampa Bay Film film festivals debut, and especially after the Tampa Film Showcase starts its run. In other news, it doesn't look like my Halloween Drive-In underground film festival will be happening tonight (I bought a ton of stuff for it a few days ago, too). It's fine, as I have other things to do now. I get to that when I can; perhaps in November. Better late than not at all, especially since I may have plans for an expanded Halloween Drive-In underground film festival next year. Also, we will be having our first Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival in a few weeks, too, which will be covered on Tampa Bay Film. Which will be first? At the present time, I really can't say. I can only say that my plate is full right now, but I'm also hungry, so it will work out just fine. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, October 24, 2009 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault A Change Of Heart? Perhaps. I've been doing a lot of research into the history of the Tampa indie film scene in the last week, specifically about The Tampa Film Review. I may have to change some of those old reviews. It seems that, when reviewing them, I reviewed them as film festivals, and not for what they were. They were public film screenings with feedback, and no film was turned away. The CFR / TFR was for all films, the best and the worst. Everyone who attended seemed to accept this, except for me. I no longer feel that the TFR was a failure. It was what it was. For what it was, too, some of the details are commendable, as well as respectable. For what is was, the TFR succeeded. It has a solid five year run, and as someone who attended a lot of TFR events, I had fun at most of them. My earlier reviews are a bit... harsh. I need to edit them, and add more content. As they are being reviewed as film festivals, don't expect the scores to change much, but keep in mind that I will not be harping so much on crappy films being shown and it not going anywhere. The TFR was what it was, and it didn't have to go anywhere. It was free, showed all the films which were submitted to it, and it was fun. My Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series won't be a TFR 2, and is actually a different kind of event (The Tampa Film Showcase is what I wished that the TFR would have become, but things are what they are, not necessarily what they could be.). Sadly, I don't think that there will ever be another TFR. Don't look at me, either, because I'm going to be doing sophisticated film festival. The TFR, in some ways, wasn't really a film festival. It was a free film screening event, and there is nothing wrong with that. Additionally, I am having a change of heart regarding my perception about how the Tampa film scene is, and was. Many of the issues that I had with some people were born of a series of misconceptions and misunderstandings. We really don't need to keep this going. There is no point to it. I'm not going anywhere, and neither are the others. We are all going to have to, at the very least, try to respect each other and get along. Although I have no desire to be friends with some of these people, I will try to respect them. I really don't hate anyone. Regardless of who like and dislikes who, we can get along. Paul Guzzo and Pete Guzzo are not bad people. They are certainly not perfect, but neither am I. I do think that they are good filmmakers. I also think that their work with the TFR should be commended, and not condemned. Just because we do not see eye to eye does not mean that we should not try to understand, and respect, each other. That's all that I ask, and it's all that I want. There was a great war over the years in the Tampa indie film scene. Waging war, in a business sense, is what I do, and I do it well. I do not desire it, however. This has become an entrenched, ongoing cold war of mistrust and misunderstanding, and I do not believe that such a war is good for the growth of the Tampa film scene and the eventual formation of a Tampa indie film community. Sure, I've been wronged, but am I the only one? Certainly not. We're all to blame, and we've all been victims in our life, too. It's what we do in response to what happens which actually matters, because that it something that we can control. I was wrong to fight back in the way that I did, as it only made things worse. We can stick up for ourselves and do the right thing without fighting people. I really don't want to be perceived as the person who goes around bad-mouthing others, because that's not who I am. We can all go about our business, and work towards a better Tampa film scene. That's all that I want, and I am sure that's what everyone else wants, too. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, October 23, 2009 - 9:15 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Preparing For The Weekend I did some tests today with the DVD player in my car for the Halloween Drive-In underground film festival on Sunday. I bought nine movies for the festival yesterday. Everything checks out, and we are ready. There are just a few notes, however. I'm not 100% sure that we will have our underground film festival on time, because of its small size. Also, I've been having trouble getting in touch with everyone. Despite this, I'll know for sure tomorrow. My friend Sarah was sick last weekend, and if she is still sick, or anyone is sick, we may have to postpone it. There will be four to five of us in a small car for an extended period of time; if one person is sick, we are all going to get sick. Thus, there are health concerns. Additionally, because of the tiny attendance defined by the constraints of a car, if a single person cannot make it, it's going to dramatically effect the outcome. If it turns out to be just me and a model watching movies in a car, it's more like parking or a date, and that's not what the Halloween Drive-In is supposed to be. If it is postponed, we might have it weeks, or even months, after Halloween. Ah, but the picture and sound quality sure is nice from the Sony FX-820. It's better than going to the cinema, is ways, and a whole lot more comfortable (cars, after all, are designed for people to be seated in them for an extended time over a wide variety of traveling conditions. Car seating will beat out cinema seating every time). Also, it turns out that I didn't have any mounting issues with the DVD player. As long as the car is level, or the nose is low, the DVD player sits nicely on top of the dash. It's just ironic that this simpler, "easy" underground film festival is tougher to pull off than the upcoming Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival. The Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival is more flexible, with attendance roughly equivalent to the attendance enjoyed by the first Coffeehouse Film Review monthly film festivals (CFR, which became the TFR, or The Tampa Film Review). With higher attendance numbers and more space, the success of the underground film festival does not hinge on every single person showing up. If I have to postpone the Halloween Drive-In, I'll at least get everything right. If I don't do this on Sunday, I will be spending Sunday and Monday converting my old DJ Wiz Kid and DJ Frontier Cassette Program Releases to MP3 programs (yes, there are data drops with the old computers, but I am digging listening to them while I work despite the occasional glitch from the conversion on the old machines. I can't release them that way, but I can listen to them. I just have to keep them from getting out and circulating, because they can never be "official" releases. Some of them need editing for content, too. My programs are good, even the first ones), and will be preparing my studio for the return of models and actors. Ann just called, and asked if I was attending the screening at 11PM tonight for the indie film Burial At Sea, which has been renamed to "something" island, I think (I can't recall what the name was changed to, and Adrian should have sent me a press release). I told Chris Woods a few days ago that it would be amusing if they had named it Death Island, and we were laughing about that. For the record, it is not named Death Island (this I am sure of). Death Island is a Danford / Savini film in the works. Regarding tonight's premier, I can't make it. Too bad. Ann told me that she might not make it, either, because she is acting in a Tampa indie film tomorrow for another 48 hour film competition. I did, however, make some suggestions to her regarding her spy outfit that she was putting together. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Total Of Six TFR Reviews By End Of November It's back to Ybor City for more pictures soon (I have to shoot two CFR review covers, as well as get pictures of The Cuban Club for the upcoming review of Halloween Horror Picture Show 2006. These will be daylight pictures and sunset/ evening pictures, much like I did for Halloween Horror Picture Show 2008). It was decided this morning to do an additional two TFR reviews, which will complete a complete set of reviews covering all five years of the TFR, and a comprehensive historical reference. The last two reviews will be retro reviews, and will review the first two years of The Tampa Film Review, when it was known as the Coffeehouse Film Review, or CFR. At first, we were going to retro-apply the TFR branding to the CFR reviews, but since we will be retro-reviewing them, we have to write the reviews as if they were done then, with no knowledge of the future (the reviews will be written as if I was there, and with no knowledge of future developments or references to what will happen). This will allow the readers to accurately follow the progress of the film festival series over the years. Officially, now, there will be six TFR / CFR reviews. Here they are, along with their current status (All six reviews will be online on the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site by November, 2009. The covers will be doubled for the CFR 2004 and CFR 2005 reviews. The will read "TFR" in the click images so they will match the others, but will change to "CFR" alternates in the review articles. Clever, heh? I get to eat have my cake and eat it too, with the best of both worlds). *The unauthorized review of the CFR 2004: To be published in November 2009 on the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site. The unauthorized review of the CFR 2005: To be published in November 2009 on the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site. The unauthorized review of the TFR 2006 - 2007: First published in early 2008. Will be enhanced, with content added, and then will be moved to the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site. The unauthorized review of the TFR 2008: First published in December 2008. Will be enhanced, with content added, and then will be moved to the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site. The unauthorized review of the TFR 2009: To be published in October 2009 on the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site. The unauthorized guide and review of the TFR 2004-2009: To be published in November 2009 on the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site. The guide will be an overall review of the entire series, with lots of historical information. It will eventually become a full guide for every single TFR / CFR film festival event, with film program listings and references to reviews of those films. The guide will also serve as a main review hub, referencing every CFR / TFR review on the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site. Oh, and there will be a lot of bonus history explored on the site, which will enhance the back story for the TFR and the Tampa indie film scene. All of these anecdotes are relevant to the TFR in some way. This is going to be a huge guide, obviously. Expect the initial publication of the unauthorized guide to the TFR 2004-2009 to be huge, and I expect it to take several days of writing, referencing a huge notebook of notes and research. The initial publication should exceed 40 pages, and once expanded to a full guide with reference links of reviews, it could grow to over 100 pages by next year. If anyone looks for information on the history of the TFR, they will certainly not miss any of this; it will be the top results of any searched. It will become the historical reference, and the authority, on The Tampa Film Review. I do know one thing. Researching all of this history has not been easy. I know another thing, too. When I start deploying my film festivals, I am going to be very, very serious about documenting them. My Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series* will be the most documented, and most covered, film festival series in Tampa indie film history. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 6:17 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film Will NOT Promote, Or Support, B.S. Anyone want to get a bad sunburn? Some of the things that we are seeing are simply outrageous! This is sad. A certain large film festival which we respect more than the others is now selling indie film workshops for several hundred dollars and is having pseudo-film festivals during the year which are not even film festivals. In our opinion, none of this is worth it. It would be like looking at the schedule at local cinemas, picking out films and film showing times which fit your idea of a theme, calling the cinemas and offer the use of your film festival name to pimp what they are showing, and then "packaging" them as a film festival. The film festival and other events are spread out over several venues and several days. Participants have to pay $25.00 for a few movies at different locations, and they are movies that aren't even indie films. They are "B" or "C" list movies, movies that we haven't heard of, which we may buy as a budget DVD at Walmart for $5, but wouldn't pay full price to see in any cinema. Oh, and paying over $100.00 for an all-access pass for exclusive "parties" and the film showings is hardly worth it, either. The loose organization, hack-job package, and everything scattered to the four corners of Tampa Bay is not only lame, but it is BORING. The Tampa Film Review may have had issues, but at least it was worth attending, especially when compared to these overpriced turkeys, put together as a sloppy attempt to make money. There is nothing wrong with making money, but at least give us something worth paying for! These so called "packages" seem to be afterthoughts put together to capitalize on things that are already going on on their own, anyway. The free, outdoor sunset "film festivals" showing mainstream movies at a single location are a much better deal! If you pay for this stuff thinking that you are a "V.I.P.", or that you are on the inside track of a "cool" film festival, then you are an idiot! Hey, are the suckers eligible for a mileage discount for all of the driving that they have to do? Will their insurance company drop their auto insurance if they were to find out about all of the frivolous driving that they are doing? At least the Gasparilla International Film Festival, which, in our opinion, is another overpriced large film festival, is smart enough to have their film festival at a single venue next year. We're thinking that it is due to lack of money to secure venues, but still, by default, it makes their film festival better. A certain other large film festival, which used to be the savior of large Tampa film festivals, seems to be jumping the shark, and losing their identify as they sell out to be just like the others. So sad! Tampa indie film does NOT need this crap! Shame on anyone who mindlessly helps them promote it, too. You help to sell out Tampa indie film! Tampa Bay Film is smart. We also have integrity, and will not compromise just because it is a slow time for indie film news and the economy is bad. We will not be announcing this crap, or helping to promote it. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Two More TFR Reviews On The Way I am now writing the two latest unauthorized reviews for The Tampa Film Review, and monthly film festival series that ended its long five year run in January 2009. First up will be the unauthorized review of The Tampa Film Review 2009, which will cover the single TFR film festival event in January 2009 (this is known to be the best of the TFR's, so it should receive the highest score, although there will be some criticism concerning the lack of support of the people who never bothered to attend, but showed up at the last one). The 2009 TFR review will be up this month on the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site, a Tampa Bay Film site optimized for Tampa indie film reviews and coverage. In November, another review of the TFR will be published. This is a review, a guide, and a historical reference for the entire Tampa Film Review series, and will cover its five year run from 2004-2009. In 2010, there is the possibility that there could be two more reviews for The Tampa Film Review, covering the two years that it was known as the Coffeehouse Film Review. The unauthorized review for TFR 2004 and TFR 2005 could be in the works, and if I decide to write, and publish them, the TFR 2004-2009 guide / summary review will be updated to reference them. I feel that this film festival series must be documented, and the official history of the TFR, both good and bad, will be documented on Tampa Bay Film. I am fully expecting more profanity-filled hate mail from TFR organizer Paul Guzzo, but he should know that it is not my intention to bash the TFR, or Paul and his brother. I am going to be fair, objective, and unbiased. It may not, however, seem like it, because there was a lot wrong with the TFR, despite the positive spin a few people gave it. While it had a good, long run, which is respectable, and they did not turn away anyone's film, which could be seen as commendable, I have some mixed feelings about the TFR. I have some strong opinions, too, as both a professional event planner, and someone who is sincere about supporting Tampa indie film. As an amateur indie film club, the TFR succeeded. As far as advancing Tampa indie film and establishing a Tampa indie film community, however, in my opinion, it failed miserably. Another issue that I have is how quickly Pete and Paul jumped on the board of a large film festival which, in my opinion, did not have the best interests of Tampa indie film in mind (ignorance or hypocrisy, I don't really know, but either one really hinges on whether my opinion is fact or not, doesn't it?). For two brothers who promoted themselves as improving Tampa indie film, the results, as well as the history, which will be documented, expose more questions than answers. It's a mess of politics and contradiction, in my opinion. We don't need another TFR. The Tampa indie film scene does not need any more hack jobs and amateur film clubs. We need a professional monthly film festival! We need professional standards, and some progress. Five years was a good run, but what if they only came full circle? Spinning your wheels, and making the same mistakes over and over again, is NOT progress. Oh, and despite all this, and my opinions, I do think that Pete and Paul are good filmmakers. Go Go Guzzo Bros! PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Sunday, October 18, 2009 - 8:30 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Some Thoughts About Film Festivals And Work I took a break from Tampa Bay Modeling today. It's Tampa Bay Modeling's birthday, after all. There is a lot of work going on right now, and it is obvious that much of it will not be up today (I spent hours yesterday working on a "bad job" section where I made fun of bad modeling jobs and scams. It became obvious that I would have to rewrite the modeling job ads so that the authors would not perceive that I was directly attacking them, which is a no-no with the site. Scam and bad business patterns should be exposed, yes, but specifically targeting and attacking people, no. I may be stating the obvious, but some of those people are bad people, and provoking them to come after me is not something that I am inclined to do). The site has seen tremendous progress lately, however. Oh, and happy fifth anniversary, Tampa Bay Modeling. I'll get the press campaign going by next week, Monday the 26th. That gives me a few more days to get things rolling, such as the modeling job section and the core modeling job board on Independent Modeling. Today, however, I'm giving Tampa Bay Modeling a rest, and will take some time to finish up on Tampa Bay Film. Although I won't be updating the site a lot for the next few months, there will be some material added. I also need to get the other Tampa Bay Film sites up, which will require some picture editing to be done today. The sites have to be completely up so that the search engines have time to index them before the busy work next year. I have to move all the Tampa Bay Film reviews to Tampa Film Review, and that will require for that site to be completely up. I also have to get Tampa Film Festivals completely up, and upgrade the Tampa Film Showcase site. With my first underground film festival next week, and another rolling out in less than two months, Tampa Film Festivals needs to be online as a full web site. Ironically, each film festival site will not be a section on Tampa Film Festivals, although they will exist in a subdirectory under TampaFilmFestivals.Com (kind of like Tampa Bay Film used to be a directory under TampaHub.Com. For example, the Reverence Film Festival would be TampaFilmFestivals.Com/reverencefilmfestival/index.html, with links to it from the main Tampa Film Festivals site directories. This way, each film festival promotes the others, as they will all use the Tampa Film Festivals for branding, marketing, and operating purposes. When people go to the Tampa Film Festivals site which every film festival will brand, they will see the other film festival sites, too. Brilliant, and it enhances the effectiveness of all the film festival properties). There will actually be complete, uniquely designed, self-contained web sites on Tampa Film Festivals, exactly as if they were independent web sites with their own domain names. Each site will be different, and each will link back to Tampa Film Festivals and the other Tampa Bay Film sites. I sure hope that certain people in the Tampa filmmaking scene are reading this, and are learning that I really know what I am doing. My companies will be producing a lot of different film festivals, and they will all tie into each other one way or another. We will have more Tampa film festivals than all of the other Tampa film festivals, combined. We will seize, and control, the Tampa film festival market, as it will be in the best interest of Tampa indie filmmaking. My backbone film festival property, the Tampa Film Showcase monthly film festival and professional networking event series, will be a small, but aggressive monthly film festival. The Tampa Film Showcase will be more advanced than even the largest Florida film festivals, and although it will be smaller, it will be scrappy,and more effective; the film festival series has more than enough teeth to take on large film festivals such as the Gasparilla International Film Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival. The Tampa Film Showcase will be relevant for Tampa filmmaking, and it will be more fun, and more interesting, than other film festivals. Our programming will be more creative, too, as I will take a page from the magazine publishing world and program the festival by the quarter. If your film is selected to play, expect to wait a couple of months for it to be in that program (I will be programming two events ahead, to give us lead time. There will be none of the hack jobs and last minute curve balls that made The Tampa Film Review so chaotic. This is going to be a professional film festival series which will set new standards for film festivals). The Tampa Film Showcase will also have a selection process. I will not bore the audience with badly-made films (although we will support those other films in ways that I cannot go into right now, for those who want to see them). We will only show well-made indie films worthy of the "showcase" description, and we will not have to compromise, or skimp on our film standards, because we will have plenty to choose from. There is a lot more, too, but I can't go into it right now. I may not even be able to tell-all a year after the Tampa Film Showcase debuts. Some things will remain trade secrets. Eventi Stage, my stage production company which split from my event planning company (and which is waiting for me to build them a web site, since Eventi Events has the original site, and Eventi Stage is now a separate company. I had to split the company because licensing, usage, and production requirements were so different that they were not compatible) I should be able to make them a new Diana Class site before the year is out!), will become a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization. Eventi Stage will be producing, and working, all of our film festival properties. Although they are non-profit productions, I do see film festivals as a professional business, and we will run them aggressively and professionally. They are non-profit ventures with the goal of supporting, promoting, and growing Tampa indie filmmaking. You all really have no idea of what is coming, and what all of this will do to the Tampa indie film market. It's going to be like a swarm of smarter, smaller, more effective, and more cost-effective film festivals. It's going to be very hard for large, bloated film festivals to contend with what we will be doing. Hell, even the tiny low-budget underground film festivals will be better, and more effective, than a lot of so-called film festivals. Take the Tampa Bay Film Review, for example. This underground film festival will be a series of private events, but will outdo The Tampa Film Review monthly film festival in every way possible. It will even have features that will give the large Tampa film festivals a reason to get on the ball. One slogan of the underground film festival is "We'll remind you that the TFR really sucked", as the tiny event will be everything that the defunct TFR (The Tampa Film Review) was supposed to be, and more. Another slogan, which I love, is "You are not invited". I love it, especially after someone told me that it was "dickish". Oh, ironically, it seems that I have quite a few readers on her, because I am beginning to see others tinker with the idea of underground film festivals. Since they were my idea, shouldn't I get royalties? So, I am in the mood to finish editing pictures, and to get some of those site up to where they need to be. Oh, and a thought. I just read some of my film festival reviews. Is it me, or do I tend to get off topic a lot? I'll have to do something about that. Next year, we will be covering Tampa film festivals and Tampa indie film on a level which has not been seen before, and I'd rather stay on topic. I will have to figure out a way to cover the films as well as the film festival. It looks like my film festival adventures will become team efforts, as it will be too much for me to do alone. Expect more people to join me in our agenda (it's not like I don't have them already. I'll just have to give them things to do). PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, October 17, 2009 - 7:43 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Film Festivals........ I've been on the phone setting up the Halloween Drive-In underground film festival for next week. We have plenty of indie films to watch, too. I just have some power supply issues and mounting issues to work out (Maybe I'll just rip the films to a memory stick and watch them on a smaller screen, which will solve both issues, but give the people in the back seat a less-than-spectacular view). I may be running my car a little, too (kind of like the time that I spent an hour in a parking lot a few months ago editing headshots while my car ran. I was under deadline). One rule: everyone has to be healthy. The last time that I caught the flu was in 1999 (knock on wood) when this model and I spent the day driving around, doing errands. She was sick, and got me sick. I still remember how sick that I got. I was on anti-virals, and was so sick, that I couldn't even play Waverace 64 from bed. I spent all week in bed; thank God that the timing was such that it coincided with the start of my vacation with the bank. I spent my vacation sick. Regarding the Halloween Drive-In, I need to bring several cameras. We are going to have some awesome coverage, even exceeding that of my past film festival coverage. Location? This underground film festival is on four wheels, so we can travel around, and that's what we will be doing, but I am planning on keeping most of it in south Tampa. I am also making the time to have the first Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival before the year is out. Maybe in December. I already have a spot at a nice house in Valrico. Looks like I need to obtain some more indie films. Oh, and there are developments with the conventional film festival front. I'm on track for the Reverence film festival, a horror and exploitation film festival, in the fall of 2010. This will be my first conventional film festival, and it will be unlike any film festival ever done before. I believe that I have also found my venue for the *Tampa Film Showcase* monthly film festival and professional networking event series, scheduled to debut in January 2011, and then run every month. The venue is almost 5,000 square feet, and the fire code is rated at up to 500 people (I can see Paul now... "Fire code? What's a fire code? Is it some'thin ta do with the fire alarm?". No, Paul, it doesn't, but real event planners know what it is, and plan with such details in mind. It's time for the professionals to show you how it is done. I've been a professional event planner for far longer than I have been a photographer, or anything else, except for writing, and it is going to become obvious when my first film festivals debut). The location is perfect, too, and it's not in crime-infested Ybor! Ah, more news. The Tampa Film Showcase, although it is a monthly film festival, will be better than the largest annual film festivals, consistently, and every single month. It is also going to be run like a business, with attention to detail and professional standards. We are serious about creating, and maintaining, an effective, and fun, film festival series. What are the corporate sponsors of those large film festivals going to do when we demonstrate that our monthly film festival is more cost-effective, and a better investment, than those bloated, large annual film festivals? This is going to become interesting, especially when my Tampa film festivals will do what the large film festivals don't: Support, and expand, Tampa indie filmmaking. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, October 17, 2009 - 8:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault I'll Be Back I'm up to my neck in modeling land work right now. Tampa Bay Modeling has been receiving large updates the past week. I'm sitting here coding and writing, listening to Party Zone 2 (one of my *DJ Frontier* releases from 1994), and I took a moment to look at Tampa Bay Film. Ugh..... I stopped in the middle of a large web site code refresh where new pictures were going to be added, and the thumbnail array was going to be updated (and I have to update that before I can add a thumbnail array to the Tampa Film Blog and launch the other Tampa Bay Film sites, because they will all be using that updated thumbnail array, which will link to the picture portfolio on Tampa Bay Film). That will have to wait if I am going to be doing media interviews next week, as I have a lot of work to do. Tampa Bay Film is on standby at the moment with all of this other work going on, but I am going to have to refresh the site code, update the thumbnail array, get the other Tampa Bay Film sites launched as Super Raptor class sites, and do a TON of content updates in the next few weeks. Content, content... I have to update the main sections, go through Tampa Bay Film and make sure that all the content is current, and then write, write, write. So, what am I planning on adding? I'm going to finish the Tampa film scams database, because there is a lot of shady stuff going on in Tampa indie film. I am also going to be doing a lot of content additions to Tampa Bay Acting, so professional actors can be educated, and warned about, Tampa indie film. Quite a few so-called Tampa indie filmmakers (the no, or low, talent ones and the ones who are unethical and unprofessional) are going to find themselves cut off from professional actors, and they are going to have a difficult time finding anyone willing to help them with what they are trying to pass off as films. I seem to have a lot of strong connections with professional actors, and I've referred some good ones as leads for a few Tampa indie film projects over the years. Going back to Tampa Bay Film content, I am working on the Unauthorized review for TFR 2009 (the one Tampa Film Review event that they managed to have back in January), TFR 2004-2009, a review of 99, a review of 100 Tears, a review of Actress Apocalypse (a very underrated film. I think that it is brilliant), a review of The Pledge, a review of The Web Of Darkness, a review of Experiment 7 (should I review the screener, or wait until it is actually released? I'd like to give the editor a chance to polish it, so I may hold off on a review until I obtain an official release copy.), Filthy, Brainjacked, Bleed, The Quiet Place (wait until you read the behind-the-scenes expose on that film!), Spaventare, and more reviews. There are going to be a lot of reviews, and Tampa Bay Film will become the best source of information for Tampa indie films, and anything about Tampa indie film. Oh, yes, I am also considering reviewing mainstream movies, so my readers can get an idea of what my tastes are. They can also use those reviews as a reference to gauge the quality of Tampa indie films. I watch the 80's movie License To Drive the other morning, and was thinking that it would be fun to review, especially with some serious continuity issues with Heather Graham in the Volkswagen. I watched the 1962 James Bond classic Dr. No this morning, and I think that it was a good film. I am considering publishing these reviews on Tampa Bay Film, but since I am working on an international online film festival, I may have some other options soon. Stay tuned. I have to go. I'll be back. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 8:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Indie Film Announcements Updated The Tampa Film Blog Announcements section has been updated. Check it out. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 9:38 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film Updated You have to check out this ultra cool music video that I have spotlit on the main page of the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival. I love this stuff! I added the video just now, and have not yet added it to the official playlist (my GEN 2 Online Film Festival rulebook states that all films have to have thumbnails before they are added, which require screen grabs on good frames and photoshop work. I don't have time to do that at the moment, but the video was too cool to resist), so you have to go to the front page to watch it. Oh, and I refreshed the Tampa Bay Film site this morning, upgrading it to a Super Raptor class site. I still have to redo the thumbnail image array, and do some serious content management (I had no idea that some directories of the site were screwed up until I started going through it). Some of the site directories are a mess. This extra work, of course, will delay more content to this blog until at least tomorrow. Have a great day! PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - 9:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film Sites Updated By the time that I wind these sites down to a standby mode, the short eight week standby period will be over. Yes, the Tampa Bay Film sites will not see many content updates in the next eight weeks after today's update. No, I will not refrain from all updates, and will update as needed; it's just that major, aggressive promotion of the sites has been delayed until January 2010 (my best guess as to when regular updates can be resumed). Oh, and, yes, I will be updating the Tampa Film Blog with news and Tampa indie film posts which are sent in to us. My posts, however, will be the ones that will be scarce. Sometimes I wonder why I announce a standby, when the facts are that the sites will be updated, and that the situation is actually a slowdown. I will be busy elsewhere, but I will have updates done to the Tampa Bay Film sites when they are needed. The menus on the Tampa Film Blog and the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival have been adjusted, and the web site directories have been completely refreshed. Tampa Bay Film is about to be upgraded to a Super Raptor class web site. The other five Tampa Bay Film sites which have not yet been converted to Super Raptors will see those upgrades in the next few weeks. It will be interesting to see if anyone perceives a drop in actual content updates to the web sites when so much work is still being done. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Monday, October 5, 2009 - 3:40 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film Sites Placed On Standby Effective immediately, all of the Tampa Bay Film sites have been placed on standby, with few content updates in the immediate future. Of the minor work that will be done, expect that work to be applied to setting up the "un launched" Tampa Bay Film sites with Super Raptor class formats and getting core content up. 95% of my web site and Internet work will be needed... elsewhere. At least for the rest of the year. I really have no choice in the matter, and had to come to terms with some ongoing issues. Additionally, my P.R. people have asked me to refrain from posting too much on my assorted blogs, so expect those updates to be far less frequent, and far less lengthy. I'll post when I can, but with my photography business taking up a lot of my time, and more than one book project which have to be done soon, my time will be limited. This said, Tampa Bay Film is still the voice of Tampa indie film, and the Tampa Bay Film sites will be the dominant Tampa indie film web sites. They already are dominant, and will continue to increase their lead in 2010. We are just taking a break, and will be back sometime in 2010. We have some very ambitious Tampa indie film projects, such as covering Tampa indie film news and producing a series of powerful film festivals. We simply want to take the time to set all of this up correctly, and to ensure that we have the resources that we will need to do regular and consistent work, work which will set new standards with quality. To set benchmarks and to revolutionize Tampa indie film is going to take quite the set up, and that's what we will be doing. Do you want me to start something that I will unable to finish, or do some cool film festival and not be able to keep it going consistently? The Tampa Film Showcase, for example, will be the "backbone" of all of the Tampa Bay Film film festival properties, and there are certain standards that we will have to maintain on a monthly basis. This will take steady resources, and I'm not hacking this together, nor will I put us in a position that we will have to scrounge around for things that we will need to keep it going. I am not doing another Tampa Film Review. If we can't do it better than the TFR each and every month, and the filmmaking scene does not benefit, then it will not be worth doing. I am an innovator. I am a professional. I'm not a "me too" person. I set my own standards, and sometimes, this takes work and time to set up properly. Patience, people, patience. It will happen, in due time. For now, I've been instructed to fix the menus on the existing Tampa Bay Film Super Raptor class sites, convert Tampa Bay Film to a Super Raptor class site, refresh the pictures (thumbnail array) on Tampa Bay Film (mandatory because most of the other Tampa Bay Film sites will be using the Tampa Bay Film thumbnail array, and they will all link back to the portfolio on the main Tampa Bay Film site), and to get the other sites completely up by next month. This will take all of the little time that I will have left. Other developments: The Halloween Drive-In underground film festival has been cancelled for this year (thank you for getting back to me, "you know who"), and the debut of the Tampa Bay Film Review underground film festival has been delayed until February 2010. Also, I wanted to film my first short indie film, friendship, in late November. That has now been rescheduled for January, 2010, a delay of more than eight weeks (The shooting schedule of Reverence and the other shorts should remain unaffected). I know, it seems that I am Mr. delay, delay, delay, and I'll never get certain ambitions done because I am sidetracked by too many other things going on, but this will eventually get done. I promise. I've been doing indie film for close to 16 years now (we were shooting short films in Tampa on 3/4 inch video tape back in 1993, and back then the Tampa indie film scene was populated by an entirely different group; a group, ironically, which I was popular with- maybe that's because most of them knew what they were doing, and weren't neurotic or insecure), and was initially trained to do film production work in 1993. For my films, I've been waiting to do my first "solo" indie film project for ten years now. A few more months won't matter much. Once I get started, however, I'll really get going. My indie films are going to change the face of Tampa indie film forever. Wait and see. For now, the house lights come up, and the curtain lowers. You can hear the noise of construction happening backstage. Come back later. I promise that there will be a show well worth experiencing. Oh, and if anyone out there has something to post, send it in. I'll post it when I can. It's just that I will not be able to write too much to post. Everyone else can continue to use the Tampa Film Blog. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Saturday, October 3, 2009 - 8:15 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival Upgraded At 8:00 AM this morning, just 15 minutes ago, the popular Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival upgraded to a Super Raptor class site, doubling its main menu. Another 17 indie films were added, too, bringing the film count to 92! A word of caution: The menus have been shuffled around. You need to watch what you click. Since there are now two Super Raptor class sites up (this and the online film festival), the menus are once again going to change, perhaps as early as tomorrow; the menu order needs to be finalized before any more Super Raptor class sites are deployed. The final configuration? Site navigation on the left, and jumps to other Tampa Bay Film sites on the right. It will be much less confusing than they are now (the reason for the present configuration is because it took its lead from the current Tampa Bay Film menu). Tampa Bay Film will see a Super Raptor upgrade tomorrow, and our menus may change, too, by tomorrow morning. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, October 2, 2009 - 8:45 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault The Tampa Bay Film Ecosystem Wow... I have so much going on that I generate my own news (kind of like large buildings generate their own weather, or large expanses of concrete in dense cities change weather patterns... Yes, I have a strong science background, too)! With all of the Tampa Bay Film sites, I have more than enough news going on to report on, even if there was nothing else going on in the Tampa indie film scene. I have my own self-contained ecosystem at my disposal. The news that I have going on with Tampa Bay Film is often more significant, and more important, than other Tampa indie film news, too. Ah, lots do to tonight; I'm not pulling any punches with my continued efforts. I will be upgrading the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival tonight, converting it to a new Super Raptor site like this one (This will not take nearly as much work as was done to the Tampa Film Blog, either, ironically enough). With the upgrades, keep in mind that the current main menus will see changes! With the online film festival, the OFF Blog button will be changed to an Updates button, and it will be moved to the new menu on the right. The Online Film Festival Blog, however, will not be changed. I will not be renaming it to updates or anything like that, especially since I like interjecting opinions and personality into the posts. I will also be changing out the featured film thumbnail bar at the top of the online film festival, as well as adding archived films to the playlist. Speaking of changes, the core Tampa Bay Film site will see a code refresh this month, too. I will be upgrading it to a Super Raptor, and will be changing out the thumbnail image array at the top of the pages. See the blank thumbnail bar at the top of the Tampa Film Blog? This will change. All of the new thumbnails added to Tampa Bay Film will be added to all of the other Tampa Bay Film sites, except for the online film festival bar. All of these parallel thumbnails will link back to the picture portfolio on Tampa Bay Film. See, you guys though that I didn't think things out. I'm always thinking. I'm always working. I believe in something, and have the ability to make things happen. I have the ability to inspire change. That said, it is time to get to work. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, October 2, 2009 - 7:39 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Love, Love, Love The Reaction! Oh, the emails are flying back and forth today! The Passinault hate groups are in crisis mode, and are having a breakdown. I'm so sorry that I upgraded this web site, and created a super blog that will prove to be impossible to compete against. Actually, I'm not. Remember that I am fighting for the rights of legitimate Tampa filmmakers and the future of Tampa indie filmmaking. The resources that I am pouring into my support of Tampa indie film are record-breaking, for me. Just wait until you see the results of all of this in the next few months. I'm looking at the archives right now, and have to delete the larger pictures to fit the new site format. Fortunately, most of my pictures are compatible. I also want to reshuffle some of the archives so that the search engines can see them. Some of the SEO efforts going into the new modeling mail bags will be applied to this blog for SEO archiving. This will maximize the effectiveness of the massive amounts of content that give the Tampa Film Blog a pronounced advantage. Keep in mind, also, that the Tampa Film Blog is not necessarily my soapbox. It is no longer mine alone. It is for all Tampa filmmakers. Here, at the Tampa Film Blog, is where Tampa filmmakers unite! I’m looking at our stats, and I am pleased. The Tampa Film Blog is the most widely-read online publication, let alone blog, about Tampa indie film. It was already the case with the old Tampa Film Blog, and this new one really takes us to the next level. We’re not a freebie blogger account. We are not a brainless wordpress blog, especially since wordpress and web 2.0 freebie blogs, in my opinion, give a voice to the common man, and are tools for the technically inept. Who wants to read the opinions of those who are not qualified to cover Tampa indie film? We don’t need cheerleaders who hype everything. We need professionals. We need leaders, leaders who are not mindless sheep, and who think for themselves. We need Tampa filmmakers with professional, qualified opinions. I’m going to spend another long night working on the Tampa Film Blog tonight. I am thinking about converting the old archives and completing the main sections. As soon as I am done here, I will give the Tampa Film Blog a short break to settle, and busy myself upgrading the other seven Tampa Bay Film sites to new Super Raptors. Once completed, All eight Tampa Bay Film sites will, essentially, make one huge, powerful super site, as well as remain effective stand-alone web sites for Tampa indie film. This groundwork is needed for what is coming. We are going to save Tampa indie film. We are going to keep Tampa indie film independent. Those who sell us out, and who conspire to take advantage Tampa filmmakers, are going to find it impossible to compete. They will be put out of business. Well, I have to go. The series premier of Stargate Universe is premiering tonight at 9PM EST on Sci Fi. See, I, too, can grasp for straws and report on things that have absolutely nothing to do with Tampa indie film. Also, at least I am not regurgitating information from an article in this morning’s TBT. What fine journalistic skills bloggers have when they feebly try to compete with the Tampa Film Blog! The revolution has begun, and it is ongoing. It’s going to take effort and time, but we have what it takes to change the Tampa indie film scene for the better. That’s the best news, yet, for Tampa indie filmmakers. Now, where is my PS3? Little Big Planet awaits. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Friday, October 2, 2009 - 8:40 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault A New Start, And A New Format, For The Tampa Film Blog It is a new era for the Tampa Film Blog. The old Tampa Film Blog is now archived, and this is the beginning of a new chapter. I have added a few of the latest Tampa Film Blog posts, but the rest will stay in the archive. I also will not be adjusting the archives of the archive (if that makes any sense), but will leave the old Tampa Film Blog site content active for research purposes. This new Tampa Film Blog has a lot to offer. As for myself, I intend to get away from stating the obvious, as Tampa filmmakers should be smart enough to see things as they really are, and work together to improve the Tampa indie film scene. Also, when I state the obvious, it comes of as negative, and some in the Tampa indie film scene may think that I am attacking them (or, in a few cases, that I set up this Tampa Film Blog and the Tampa Bay Film sites to slam others, which is NOT the case at all). This said, I will attempt to refrain from sharing any negative opinions about Tampa film festivals, indie films, filmmakers, and other blog writers, although I will continue to review them. Rest assured that my reviews will be fair, and objective. What if I get out of line? Well, now there are checks and balances in place. You see, the Tampa Film Blog is no longer my own to do with as I please. It is a blog for all Tampa filmmakers, and anyone, with something to say about indie film and indie filmmaking. I will no longer be the only one posting on this blog (although, since I will be using it, I will post on it a lot). If I post something that you disagree with, you certainly have the option to submit a blog post of your own disagreeing with what my post said. The new Tampa Film Blog is for everyone, and it will be a healthy forum of expression, promotion, and debate. I look forward to the debates that will rage on here. The Tampa Film Blog will become an online gathering spot for the exchange of ideas and opinions. This will be a great way to help the Tampa indie film scene. Of course, we won't allow anonymous authors. There is too much of that on other web sites, and things get out of hand when people attack each other anonymously. This is also not a message board. It is a film blog, and is completely moderated. All posts will be read and reviewed before posting. I do not believe in censorship, although there will be certain types of posts that we will not post. If you want to debate, even with me, go ahead and debate. Just refrain from personal attacks and credibility attacks. If you are debating with someone, stick to the topic and don't make it a personal attack. This is not a school playground. We are adults, and professionals in the indie film industry, and we can debate without going below the belt. I will be pretty open with who will be able to post here. If Joe Davison or Paul Guzzo wanted to post here disagreeing with me, or debating with me, they are more than welcome to. Just keep the profanity out of your e-mails (you don't need it to get your point across, and our readers would rather not see it), don't make any slanderous allegations, and don't make any violent threats like Joe has in the past. Keep it civil, professional, and mature. If debating, stay on-topic. I'd rather not be accused of being a psycho and a liar, especially when it is not true, and the people doing the accusing are the only ones who are behaving that way. That's all that I will say on that subject, as what was in the past shall remain there, much like a lot of the older posts on the Tampa Film Blog will remain in the original Tampa Film Blog archives (and that content stays; I am not editing it or removing it). See, we can get along, after all! When anyone posts on the Tampa Film Blog, they need to identify themselves. We need to know who you are before posting your material. One their first post is added, the person is added to our Author section. Their post will be published on the main Tampa Film Blog page, and will have its own web page in our site database. Their post can be referenced either by going to the Blog Posts section, navigating from post to post using the “Previous Blog Post” and the “Next Blog Post” links (all blog posts will be arranged in chronological order. There is an Author link in all posts which will enable you to return to the Author’s main index to continue reading posts only from the Author if you wish), by going to the Author section, or referenced by subject. Of course, we will also be adding a shorter list of blog index links to the main page of the Tampa Film Blog. You may have noticed a lot of links and navigation menu buttons that lead to other Tampa Bay Film sites, too. That’s not a problem, because you can easily navigate back to the Tampa Film Blog from any of those sites. With the expanded menus, the Tampa Bay Film sites become, essentially, a huge super site composed of individual stand-alone web sites. For now, I am working on adding new content to the Tampa Film Blog. For the time being, I will be keeping some of the more recent posts on the main page. Once properly indexed, of course, they will drop off, replaced by a short text menu linking to each post individually. I have no current plans to import older blog posts into the new Tampa Film Blog directories than the ones presently on this page. As of now, the Tampa Film Blog is the top Tampa indie film blog. We have more content, more readers, more influence, and now, more indie film-relevant features, than any other Tampa blog. Do you want to settle for some biased, poorly-designed Word press formatted blog, or do you want a blog with more readers, which is a professionally designed web site, and where you can contribute if you wish. The era of amateurs is over. We are not going to say that our Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival is not really a film festival, and nit pick, when it really is a film festival (and a great one at that. Our online film festival is more effective, and has more traffic, than all of the Tampa film festival events combined!). Our lead will dramatically increase in the rest of 2009 and throughout 2010. I have news, too. Great news. I now have all of the equipment that I need to begin my filmmaking career. I will be shooting a short film on November 29, 2009. This film, tentatively titled friendship, will put my equipment, and my skills, to the test. I will be using minimal equipment, such as a standard-definition Canon FS 100/ 200 DV camera (it's no HD camera, but it will do the job. Chris Woods once used a standard-definition DV camera to create his Bleed feature film, and I can point out countless more films that were filmed with such cameras. The Canon FS 100 / 200 is a single CCD camera, and although standard-definition cameras used in filmmaking should, ideally, have 3 CCD's, I've tested this camera and it is satisfactory for indie filmmaking. Indeed, with this camera going for $300.00, and the rest of the gear going for another $400.00, I will be making a series of excellent short films for a grand total of less than $700.00 in equipment. Indie filmmaking, and making good films, no longer has to be expensive. Don't laugh at my set-up, either. I know what I am doing. Back when I first got into digital photography, I was able to outshoot photographers who were using expensive cameras by using a consumer digital camera. The same will go with indie filmmaking, and after I build a portfolio of short films, I will be able to get investors for professional equipment. I will eventually be doing larger budget, feature indie films). The production will be small, too, with a crew of two (I will be the director and the director of photography. An assistant will help out with things such as the boom), and a cast of two. Friendship will be my first solo film (I’ve worked on films in just about every crew and cast role since 1993), and will start my indie film portfolio and prove that good films can be done with small teams and budgets. Chris Woods demonstrated this, also, earlier this year with his short film Spaventare. With a crew of three, and a cast of two, Chris Woods created a film which could very well be the best short film in the history of Tampa indie film. Chris Woods is also one of the few Tampa filmmakers who can do just about anything in the film production process. He is, in my opinion, the best editor in the Tampa Bay film market. He also is able to do professional-level work as a director of photography, director, writer, and just about anything else. Many Tampa filmmakers are not nearly as talented, or skilled, and have to surround themselves with talented people in order to produce indie films half as good as the ones that Chris Woods does. My first indie film, friendship, is about a man who is emotionally devastated. I discussed the story of friendship with Chris Woods, and he didn’t care that much about the premise, although I did tell him something that eased his concerns. I told him that the cardinal rule of conflict driving the plot does not necessarily mean that it has to be action. The conflict can be within the character, and if the audience relates to the character, and what they are going through, the film works. How else do you explain great films such as The Notebook? Of course, any character-driven film is going to need one hell of an exposition (set up) in the first few minutes. Otherwise, the premise will fail, and the film won’t be that good. Chris Woods was much more excited about my second planned short film, scheduled for early 2010. That film will be Reverence, and I have the screenplay pretty far along (it will not be the bloated monster that the original Reverence feature film script was at 120 dialogue-filled pages, which would have made a planned two hour film a three hour film). The Reverence short film will have a 20 to 30 page script, and will not run longer than 30 minutes. Reverence will have a cast of four, and a crew of three; another film, possibly a great film, done with minimal cast and crew. I told Chris Woods the story, and he really liked it. He thought that it was good. Now, it will be good, but it all depends upon the production and the execution of the script. There are more short films in the works, too. I plan on doing my short film, The Point, which is also a published, award-winning story written by myself that you can read online. If you read my story, The Point, which the short film will be derived from, you will easily be able to see how it will translate well to a great, highly effective short film done with few resources. I will also be dusting off my script for a short film titled Composure, which is a romantic drama. I have another short film script, too, which is a secret project about survival (I can’t say anything about it right now, but it is going to be excellent!). I have a dramatic short film script coming along, too, titled She wants to be a reporter. There’s more, too, but nothing that I am at liberty to disclose For now, it’s back to work. I need to get this Tampa Film Blog up to spec. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 9:17 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film Sites Set For Upgrade I am working on the menu layouts for all eight Tampa Bay Film sites for the imminent Super Raptor upgrades. This new format will, essentially, make all eight sites one "super site", or meta-site. The menu system will interconnect between all of the sites for seamless navigation between them, with small contextual differences tailored for the specialized content of each site. I have completed planning for Tampa Bay Film, the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival, and the Tampa Film Showcase site. I'll have the other five mapped out tonight. The first Tampa Bay Film site to be upgraded to the Super Raptor format will be this Tampa Film Blog. I will be reorganizing the content, reducing the size of some image files via Dreamweaver to fit the new layout, and will be adding some interesting features. The Tampa Film Blog will launch a dedicated section specifically for Tampa indie film news, too. We are working toward implementing the Tampa Film Blog upgrade as early as tomorrow, bringing it online by October 1, 2009. The Tampa Bay Film sites will also deploy over 350 support web sites (we've never put so many resources into a web campaign in our 10 year + history of web work. Over five times the effort which goes into supporting our modeling sites are being done with Tampa Bay Film, which is a record. Obviously, we are very, very serious about having an advantage in the Tampa indie film market. Indie filmmaking is my future, and the advantages that I enjoy, I want to make available to benefit other filmmakers and the Tampa indie film scene). This process has already begun, and the results will be obvious by next year, just in time to pave the way for deployment and operation of our first film festival events. Between the many underground film festivals and the array of conventional film festival events, Tampa Bay Film film festivals will greatly outnumber all of the other Tampa film festivals, combined, which will ensure market superiority. I fully expect to hear allegations of monopolistic business practices in 2010, although this will not be the case. We are determined to support, and promote, Tampa filmmakers and Tampa indie film, since no one else, including certain large Tampa film festivals, are doing it. Expect a dramatic shakeup in the Tampa indie film market in the coming years. We are planning on putting a certain large Tampa film festival out of business, too (and it's not Sunscreen, a large film festival which is actually cool). Let's keep the fake charity, the hollow promises of supporting local filmmaking, and the pretense down in Sarasota. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 9:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Reviewing Tampa Film Festivals With my Tampa film festival reviews on Tampa Bay Film being moved to the Tampa Bay Film Tampa Film Review site, I'm gearing up for the aggressive coverage of Tampa film festivals in 2010. I will attend Tampa film festivals with teams from Tampa Bay Film (and if I cannot attend, I will certainly delegate), with on-camera interviews much like Scream @ The Wall has done (what happened to them?), film festival photography, a reviewer watching and reviewing the films, and a full write up and review of the film festival. I intend to build the most complete directory for Tampa film festivals and the Tampa indie film scene ever done, and am currently interviewing a lot of people who have been to various film festivals and doing a lot of research (Nolan's Crazed Fanboy site had proved to be very useful for that historical research, as his site seems to be the only media source which has documented the Tampa indie film scene in the past decade. I am thankful for the resource, and God bless him). With that research, I will be reviewing all of the notable Tampa film festivals, including the Saints and Sinners film festivals, and the missing Halloween Horror Picture Shows. I have a lot of work to do, especially when cataloguing every Tampa Film Review film festival (although there should be 60 of them, I figure that the total is somewhere between 50 and 60, which is very respectable). The Tampa Film Review guide will list each TFR film festival and the films, and will link to the full film festival reviews on Crazed Fanboy. That's nothing. Wait until you see the extensive coverage of all of my film festivals and underground film festivals. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Monday, September 28, 2009 - 7:41 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Happy With Our Progress It takes time to build something great, something that will make a difference, and something that will last. Has anyone checked the search engines lately? I just did, and I am very happy with what I have found. The results also help explain the record-setting levels of web site traffic to the array of Tampa Bay Film sites. By the time I get around to making my indie films, my online marketing and promotional assets will be unstoppable. They already dominate over the efforts of competitors, and new sites such as Tampa Film Community, Tampa Film Festivals, and Tampa Film Conference are already being indexed by the search engines. My efforts have only just begun, too. Obviously, I am not stopping. I am expanding work into my Tampa Bay Film sites. I just obtained approval from my senior staff to invest a lot more time and money into these efforts, too. I think that I have proven that I am determined, and that we will eventually succeed with our plans. The economy is working in our favor, too, weakening competitors while we increase our efforts, and this is possible because we operate leaner. We are smarter. Right now, I am busy working on my Tampa Bay Modeling site, which is the top modeling resource in Tampa and Florida; those who want to see a glimpse of the future only have to look at my other sites, which set standards and have the best web traffic in their fields. I accomplish this, too, without having to spend any money with advertisers. Content is king, and thousands upon thousands read, and learn from, the content on my sites. Once Tampa Bay Modeling is upgraded in preparation for its 5 year anniversary on October 18 (Tampa Bay Film will celebrate 3 years in January 2010, so it is two years behind Tampa Bay Modeling; this is why Tampa Bay Modeling is an indicator of the future, and a conservative one at that once you factor in the much greater competition in the modeling industry, and the fact that we have many times the resources put into Tampa Bay Film. The Tampa Bay Film sites are going to be HUGE, and are already the dominant voice of Tampa indie film. I'm actually quite good at investing in the future, as I have a very detailed, and educated, plan. I also have the experience and the skills to pull it off), we will be upgrading the Tampa Bay Film sites to Super Raptors in October. Once that is done, I will be taking November and December to finish my Frontier 4 novel, as it is about six weeks from being completed. I started Frontier 4 in 1989, so it's been in the works for a while; I am now on my seventh, and final, draft. After Frontier 4, I will be prepping for the sequel, which is also close to being finished (the treatment, and the story, is done), and then will be working on a non-fiction book, Advanced Model. Advanced Model will turn the modeling industry upside down, and will prove to be extremely controversial, as well as revolutionary; I have been proving, and testing, many of the ideas and concepts in that book for the past eight years. Ironically, I have a book deal for Advanced Model, but not for Frontier 4. In 2010, with a science fiction novel and a modeling industry book under my belt, I will be spending a lot of time on various literary projects, including short stories (check out my short stories *The Point* , which will become one of my short films very soon, and Born Beautiful, which is a two-story series about a model and her modeling career. Born Beautiful, as well as more modeling fiction, will be featured in my Advanced Model book), short film screenplays (I have many short films to make in the next two years. I also wrote a screenplay for a feature film with the help of my friend, writer Rachel Eaglin. This was the screenplay for the original Reverence Feature Film, which will not be produced, and has little in common with my upcoming Reverence short film), and other projects. Obviously, something will have to give with all of this writing and filmmaking going on, so once I get my web sites to where I need them to be, updates will be slower. My blogs will also see far fewer updates, as I will not have much time to write books online when I have more serious writing to do. Ah.... more stories and novels. I really am looking forward to writing a new Brandon Gangs novel. Brandon Gangs was my first novel, written in 1984 as The Adventures Of The Riverview Gang (silly title, I know, and so was the story. I finished it, however). I worked on a reboot in the early 1990's, rebranding it Brandon Gangs. That draft was very popular with my test readers, so I will take most of that story and update it with lots of new stuff. Additionally, I want to rework City Scene, my first published story series, and will probably be rebranding that property. City Scene was, and is, about underground street racing, something that my brother knows more about at this point than I do. Oh, and I may also be working on a Frontier 4 spinoff, set in the world of 2020 (an alternate 2020, as it is now clear that the actual 2020 will not be as advanced as the one that I have created). I've spent many years building a believable, detailed world and technology for Frontier 4, so I intend to get the most mileage out of all that background material. It is really ironic. Some bloggers are fans of books and film. I'm more of a professional critic than a fan, and a big advantage that I have is that I actually create as well as review and cover. PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - RESPOND TO THIS POST - NEXT BLOG POST PREVIOUS BLOG POST - BLOG POSTS - AUTHOR - POST TO BLOG - NEXT BLOG POST Sunday, September 20, 2009 - 9:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker C. A. Passinault Tampa Bay Film Upgrades, HHPS 2009, and Reviewing Tampa Indie Film These are exciting times. Remarkable, even. Let us begin. Tampa Bay Film Upgrades I’ve been going over site code this weekend, and have decided to begin building an enhanced version of my tried-and-true, proven Raptor 3 site designs. All eight of the Tampa Bay Film sites (including this Tampa Film Blog) will be converted into new Super Raptors. I need to make the most of my web site layout real estate. The normal Raptor 3 has an eight button menu on the left, and ads on the right. I used to have third-party ads on the right, but decided to part ways with the advertising program due to meager payouts. With the traffic that I was giving their advertisers, they were grossly underpaying (also, on my modeling sites, I kept getting complaints that ads for modeling scams were showing up on the sites). So, I put my own ads on there, and began turning my resource sites into online marketing platforms for my photography and professional services companies. Tampa Bay Modeling and Tampa Bay Acting will remain, for now, Raptor 3 formats (I already have a lot to do in the next few weeks for Tampa Bay Modeling because their five year anniversary as a modeling industry-changing top modeling resource site is in October). The Tampa Bay Film sites, on the other hand, are a completely different story. These sites are exploding in size, and the Raptor 3 design is not enough to handle all the menu options and site cross-linking. Super Raptors have a dual menu layout. At first glance, they look like a Raptor 3, but have double menus. What used to be ads on the right will be replaced my a menu system which has an identical design to the menu system on the left. The result will be twice the menu capacity, from 8 menu options to 16, and 7 of those menu buttons will lead to the other Tampa Bay Film sites, which in turn link back from their Super Raptor menus, making one massive super site made up of the eight Tampa Bay Film sites. When done, my readers can seamlessly navigate among the eight sites in the Tampa Bay Film network just as if it were one site. This will make Tampa Bay Film and the array of Tampa Bay Film sites in the network the largest independent film resource in Florida. The Super Raptor format will lend itself well to sites like the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival, too, with the dual menus giving it a balanced, movie theater look. The evolution is complete, for now. There’s more, too. I’m not going to stop advertising my services on my Tampa Bay Film sites. What used to be on my ads will be converted to menu items. I will have a photography section selling photography services directly from each web site, much like Tampa Bay Modeling and Tampa Bay Acting is doing, and will have a services section selling event planning, design, web design, and advertising services (I am licensed for all of this, and own the top Tampa companies offering these services). My online real estate will b