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The real deal about the Tampa indie film industry by Tampa film expert C. A. Passinault

Words and pictures by Tampa indie film expert Chris Passinault, filmmaker for Tampa film production company Dream Nine Studios

I am not a crazed film fan. I am an indie film professional. I have a backbone. I have professional opinions backed up by experience and credibility. I don't play politics. I don't kiss ass. I respect my readers enough to tell it how it is, and that's exactly what I am going to do.
This is Tampa Bay's best, and most professional, Tampa indie film blog! I am going to inform Tampa indie film professionals about what they need to know. I wouldn't have it any other way, and neither would you.

Sunday, May 18, 2008 - 9:18 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker Chris Passinault

Is Everything A Showcase Now?

I just took a break from coding the Eos MediaArts Tampa advertising agency web site and looked around the Internet. I looked at a rival Tampa Film "blog" and checked out some links to some Tampa film festival events. In my survey, I noticed something.
For some mysterious reason, everyone who offers a monthly Tampa film festival is using the term "showcase" an awful lot. Before the Tampa Film Showcase web site launched, no one used it at all. I am even seeing the phrase "for filmmakers to showcase their films" in event descriptions provided by event organizers and published in Tampa newspapers.
Coincidence? I think, and know, not. I'd have to be awfully naive to believe that.
My upcoming monthly Tampa film festival and professional networking event, the Tampa Film Showcase, has an advanced web site which is now at the top of most search engine results for anything to do with Tampa indie film. I also know for a fact that all of the film festival organizers in Florida have been on my Tampa Bay Film web site. I know these people have been on my sites, and I know that many of my ideas are being used. Flattery? Yes and no. It is a case study that many of these people cannot be trusted, although it does make me feel better knowing that they do not comprehend how to properly use my ideas, as they do not understand the mechanics of what makes them work, and the effectiveness of the stolen ideas are greatly diminished. Counterfeits are never as good as the real deal, you know.
It is amusing to see everyone scramble and react to what we are working on. I never have to react to anyone. It's too bad that I keep the really cool details and truly great ideas off of the Internet. They might think that they know what is coming and what they will be up against, but they will be wrong. By the time that they figure out the entire scope of what the Tampa Film Showcase is and what it does, it will be too late. Sure, they will try to copy what we do, but they will never have all of the pieces of the puzzle to be able to compete.
At this point, I am used to having unprofessionals and lesser-talents try to steal from me. They think that they are taking advantage of me, but that is not actually the case. They will only play, and cheat, themselves when they realize that no one will work with them in the future. Since I am aware of who they are and what they do, and they have demonstrated who they are by what they do, their greatest loss will be that I will never help them, and neither will any other professional who has anything to offer.
Just remember guys; it's never a showcase if you don't screen films and you show every crap film which is submitted (Yes, I have figured out a way to address this and will still be able to compete with the guys who show everything submitted). In the end, you only insult your audience by wasting their time, boring them, and undermine the effectiveness of your event. Some of you won't understand this until you are put out of business and move on to find some other industry to try to take advantage of.
You can't win. I can.
I talked to Tampa filmmaker Chris Woods and many other Tampa indie film professionals the other day. One question posed by Woods was interesting. He asked what I would do if the Tampa Indie film community refused to support the Tampa Film Showcase.
I laughed. That wouldn't matter. I told him a little bit of the "why".
You see, it would be a mistake to market the event toward a small group of jaded people in a Tampa indie film clique; the same clique who have been masquerading as a Tampa indie film community.
My plans go much bigger, and the scope is much broader, than that.
Besides, once they see what is going on and what they are missing, they will have no choice but to fall in line and support it. That is, if we allow them to. Why so smug? We are in the position where we really don't need their support. They will need ours.
Here's a lesson for you, aspiring indie film professionals. Always position yourself so that you can negotiate from a position of strength. Be strong and independent, and never allow yourself to be put in a position where you are dependent upon people who don't necessarily have your best interest, or the interests of the Tampa indie film industry, in mind. Those who talk help and charity often have self-serving interests in mind. Those who are the first to extend a hand in friendship and support usually have something up their sleeve. There are many who go through the motions and who front being supportive while they use the illusion of trust to size up their competition and look for ways to take them down. Trust must be earned, easy-come easy-go, nothing good comes easy, you all know the drill. We've all known such characters in our lives, and, while spotting them should be easy by now, it isn't. It always takes time to figure out the true colors and the motivation of others. Many of you who make the investment of time will find that I can be trusted, and I am truly sincere about helping other professionals and building a professional Tampa indie film community. The same can be said for my professional friends.
The professionals are getting involved. The Tampa indie film scene is going to change, and the unprofessionals are going to find themselves either out of business or on the outside looking in, impotent and ineffective. They will be put in their proper place and will be accountable for their sins against the Tampa indie film community. It's about time.

Oh, and Tampa Bay Acting is now, finally, fully operational. It will be addressing Tampa indie film and Tampa indie film scams relevant to actors, and will educate Tampa actors and actors from other cities on how to recognize indie film scams and high-risk, low-rent indie film projects so that they can be avoided; protecting the integrity, professional reputation, and the acting career of the actor. Anyone having a difficult time getting professional actors to audition for your so-called indie films yet? You will, and you will deserve it!

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Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 8:00 PM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker Chris Passinault

Web Site Updates And Tampa Indie Film Issues.

It's been a busy day. I completed the code and the sections of the Tampa Film Blog, and this site is now fully operational (even more so than my other blogs, Tampa Photography Blog, Tampa Photographer Blog, and the C. A. Passinault Blog). I still have a great deal to do, and will be updating all of the blogs this weekend.
Tampa Bay Acting is almost ready to go online. I will have the renewed site operational by tomorrow, and once it is fully online it will proceed with its mission. One objective that the Tampa Bay Acting site will have is to address Tampa indie film relative to actors and talent, which is a big job. It will be teaming up with Tampa Bay Film to address some serious issues with the Tampa indie film scene.
Speaking of issues, I have about had it with the Tampa indie film clique which has been masquerading as the Tampa film "community" the past few years. Changes have to be made. It is time for professionals to get involved and take charge of a very dysfunctional Tampa film scene. It will not be overnight, but my allies and I have the ability to make changes. Just today, I spent well over an hour with several key professionals who have been observing this mess and my attorney, and we have decided upon a course of action. The war against unprofessionalism and discrimination in the Tampa indie film scene has begun.
That's all I am going to post about this for now. I am not going to telegraph what is going on to those who we intend to put out of business. Also, my attorney wants me to stop doing articles about the Tampa indie film clique and naming names because she does not want that material to undermine any potential legal action which may be taken against certain parties. Yes, I do have several cases which I can pursue.
So, we take a page from the book of Independent Modeling and Tampa Bay Modeling and start publishing behavior patterns to match with the shady Tampa indie film clique.
Well, let's see what is on my agenda. Tampa Bay Acting up by tomorrow. The Eos MediaArts Tampa advertising agency web site up by Monday. The brand new Tampa Online Film Festival will be up by next Thursday, and Tampa Bay Modeling, Tampa Bay Film, Tampa Photography Blog, and Tampa Photographer Blog will have code refreshes late next week.
Ah, yes, and here is an announcement from Tampa indie filmmaker Rick Danford. I may have to adjust my schedule for this event. This should prove to be a fun time.

Enigma Films and Hocus Focus Productions will be working together to bring you a night of indie filmmaking goodness. The Ladies of the Night Double Feature will be held on Saturday, June 7, at USF (4202 E. Fowler Ave., Hall BEH103) at 6 p.m. There you will get to be the first to get a sneak peek at Enigma Films’ newest short film Alarum and Hocus Focus Productions’ latest feature film Savaged. Special celebrity guests such as genre legend Debbie Rochon and local talent such as actress/model Krista Grotte and actor Joel Wynkoop will be in attendance. Many other surprises will be in store and the event is FREE to the public. Yes, I said FREE.

Prior to the start of Alarum we will be running a trailer block of upcoming indie films to show the crowd what they can expect in the near future. If you have an upcoming film and would like us to screen your trailer at the event, we’d love to help you out. Just visit the official MySpace site and drop us a line.

We also have limited space but would love to have a couple of vendors set up shop to sell some indie film merchandise. There is no charge for the table space ,so if you are interested, drop us a line as well.

Hopefully those of you in the area can make it out and be a part of the fun. You can also help us out by spreading the word.

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Sunday, March 2, 2008 - 9:00 AM - Tampa Indie Film Log for Filmmaker Chris Passinault

The Future Starts Now!

Welcome to my first post on the Tampa Film Blog! My official C. A. Passinault Blog and the new Tampa Photography Blog have been really successful, so it was about time that I got this one up and running. I took some things that were developed for the Tampa Photography Blog and have adapted them for this blog.
As I am still in coding, my computers are being used to update web sites, and I have an hour or so of break time to write this entry. I am not using my main computer to write this, as they are busy updating and transferring online files. I am using my Palm TX PDA with a pocket keyboard at a desk near downtown Tampa, where the traffic is bad due to the Gasparilla arts festival. After I am finished writing this, I will simply fold my keyboard up, place it in its slip case, and put it in my suit pocket. I will also put my PDA in its armored case and slide it in my other pocket. No one knows that I have basically a computer in my pocket. God, I love being able to write wherever I am.
I would also like to formally announce that I will be posting as my professional name, C. A. Passinault, and not Chris Passinault, as I'm known on the Tampa photography blog. It was decided that I'd be know as Chris in the world of photography because I work closely with my photography services clients. Here, I can be more formal and more distant. My professional pen name, C. A. Passinault, is how I will post here. There are other reasons for this that I cannot go into here, and no, I am not a coward and I am not hiding behind different aliases. I'm no coward, and the proof is in the fact that I will tell it how it is and call them as I see them, unlike other bloggers who try to turn this into a popularity contest by kissing the ass of those who they feel will benefit their careers. Not that I am risking much, however, as there are few in the Tampa indie film scene who I have a negative opinion about who are in any position to benefit my career. They are useless to me, and to most others.
The Tampa Film Blog is a part of my Tampa Bay Film web site, which is just over a year old now and has been more successful than I ever dreamed. It has run a self-serving Tampa online film festival / competition, which was run by a couple of no-talent filmmakers, out of business. It has become the largest online film festival in Florida and the professional voice of indie film for indie film in Tampa Bay and the rest of Florida. Tampa Bay Film is also working on a monthly film festival with my event planning / stage production company Eventi Events. This upcoming monthly film festival, which is actually a lot more than a film festival, as it will include genuine professional networking, will help to change the Tampa Bay market and will facilitate the formation of a real professional Tampa indie film community. When will it debut? As of now, I can't give a target date, as I am concentrating on other things, but it could be sometime in late 2008 or early 2009. The professional monthly film festival and networking event is called the Tampa Film Showcase, and what I really want is to time it so it will pull out the red carpet from beneath the feet of a certain overblown annual film festival. Yes, my monthly film festival event series is designed to compete with the big annual film festivals, and it will give them all a run for their money. For feature indie films, I have a larger annual film festival in the works, too. More is coming on the annual Tampa film festival, soon. For now, I have to update the Tampa Film Showcase site with some new information later today.
Ah, where to begin? I suppose that I will tell you all that I hate being unnecessarily tactful and polite when I have opinions to share. I find such false respect to be, well, fake. Will I tread softly? No. I would do you all a disservice if I were to hold back. I intend to tell you how it is, and I can because I am writing from a position of strength. Most of those who would be offended are insignificant in the Tampa indie film scene, which I will not label a community, as presently no professional Tampa indie film community exists. I am here to tell you today that there really isn't much of a professional, or legitimate, Tampa indie film community. What we have today is a small, biased Tampa indie film clique masquerading as an indie film community, and they get away with their games because they are presently the only game in town. This is going to change. One of my goals is to help establish a legitimate, professional Tampa indie film community, and we are well on our way to making changes which will benefit all filmmakers.
Why aren't filmmakers benefitting now? Because the people in the Tampa indie film clique are insincere. They claim that they want to help other filmmakers, but the facts are that they are only out for themselves. The charity only goes as far as buttering up aspiring filmmakers so that they can sell them film workshops and indie filmmaking classes. Sure, if they do not see you as a threat or as a serious competitor, they will humor you and take your money. If they see you as a potential competitor, however, they will take your money and then try to blackball you with slanderous rumors and by ganging up on you.
The Tampa indie film clique, who is now trying to do some film workshop filmmaking class scheme, is once again promoting collaborative projects. Here we go again. Didn't that fail with the indie horror film short "The Quiet Place"?
I'll tell you what happened there. I helped them out as a photographer so that they could have professional production stills, and did it as a courtesy at no charge. I didn't do anything wrong, behaved as a professional, and kept my opinions to myself when I saw the mistakes that were made on set. What did I get in return?

1. Complete lack of cooperation.

I was set up to fail. I talked to the director several times over the two day filming so I would have opportunities to photograph the scenes as they were being filmed. He told me yes, but ignored me once the filming was underway. I had to use every trick in my book as a professional photographer to do my job, as the lighting on the sets was flawed and downright horrible, and since I was not in the loop I had to take pictures when I could get them. My hard work paid off, and the photographs came out better than the film footage did!

2. A filmmaker stole one of my ideas.

In between takes on the second day, I was talking to one of my filmmaker friends about online films and online film festivals. I told him that I was working on an online film festival. Within earshot, another filmmaker, who I will refer to as the bipedal land-roving Guppy, was quietly listening to our conversation.
To my surprise, a few months later as I was about to launch Tampa Bay Film and its online film festival, Guppy announced his own online film festival and an online film competition. Several people, including a self-important indie film blogger by the name of Lisa, then proceeded to imply or blatantly accuse me of stealing the idea from Guppy! We all know the rest. The truth came out, everyone found out that it was originally my idea, and Tampa Bay Film's online film festival went on to put the opposing online film festival out of business. In this case, the good guy, which was me, won.
Guppy and his Tampa indie film clique openly slander me to this day, trying to tell others that I am insane and such, but they know what the real deal is. They are afraid of me because I am an indie film professional who knows more about the business than they do, and they are terrified of competing with me. They will reap what they have sown. I will either make them professionally insignificant or will outright put them out of business, and they will deserve it.

3. I was slandered.

Once they saw my photographs, and the quality of those photographs made their film footage look bad in comparison, they knew that their attempt to make me fail failed miserably. They proceeded to slander me by making up terrible rumors.
I had no idea that the rumors were going around in the indie film clique until several months after the indie film, The Quiet Place, debuted (I remember the debut getting mixed reviews and watching everyone blame each other and fight, thinking that I was glad that I emerged unscathed. Boy, was I mistaken). I was debating online on a public message board with Guppy, and he lost his temper with me when he kept losing the debate and avoided answering the questions. He threw it in my face. At first, I didn't have any idea what he was talking about, and it was only when one of my filmmaker friends filled me in did I find out. So, they set me up to fail, and when that failed they resorted to spreading lies about me? How professional of them!
I should have billed them.

4. A photographer tried to rip me off twice.

On the set of the Quiet Place, I ran into an aspiring photographer who was a recent graduate of a photography school, International Academy of Art and Design here in Tampa. He would be one of many photographers who would steal ideas from me and try to learn the photography business by studying my articles.
I should teach at IADT. I would get paid to teach the aspiring photographers, and it is obvious that their present instructors are not getting the job done. Hey IADT, how about courses in business ethics and professionalism? If IADT can't teach them about the photography business and how to take good pictures, where their so-called graduates have to resort to learning from other photographers, they shouldn't be in business at all. No respect from me.
Then again, maybe the photographer was one of their short-bus students. He does seem kind of slow compared to the general population.
So begins a long line of unprofessional leeches that collaborating with the indie film production cursed me with. Over half of the bastards involved are unprofessional pretenders who cannot be trusted at all.
My problems with Mr. professional IADT graduate photographer began shortly after the film wrapped production.
The aspiring photographer in question tried to move in on one of my client prospects after a Tampa Film Network meeting where several people referred the aspiring model to me and she made her way to through the crowd. I was talking to her and the aspiring photographer came over and eavesdropped on us. He then interrupted and used some of my information (which he had overheard) to springboard an introduction to her. He gave her a card, but later, when we met privately for a photography session consultation, she told me that she was not impressed with his unprofessional conduct, and that was one of many reasons that she discarded his card and she contacted me. Another reason that she did so was that he was a terrible photographer who had a portfolio of low quality photographs.
Who do you think that she booked? Who do you think made money?
It wasn't over with this guy, however. My affliction continued when he stole one of my online marketing ads and changed it around to promote his photography business. I found it because it still contained tracer code from my original ad, although he neutered the effectiveness of the ad because he couldn't figure out the mechanics behind it. That's when my attorney got involved. Maybe IADT should have taught him that stealing from others is wrong.
Oh, how I regret collaborating with those idiots on the Quiet Place. Well, at least I know who I can't trust, now, and I figured it out before I gave away any of my great ideas.

5. I was supposedly thrown off the set, which never happened.

This came as a complete surprise to me. Supposedly, I was kicked off of the set of the Quiet Place. The director took me aside and told me to leave because of my unprofessional conduct. Well, that's the way the slander goes.
It never happened.
I didn't do anything wrong. I worked my ass off to do a good job and succeeded despite the total lack of cooperation.
They didn't succeed in setting me up to fail, as they underestimated my abilities and experience as a professional photographer. My production stills turned out way better than the way that the film footage looked, and when it came out my good work made theirs look bad. It backfired!
That's when they shrugged and began spreading malicious lies and rumors about me. I didn't know about it until Guppy threw it in my face months later. I remember having to leave early one day on set because I was working night and day and had to go home to get sleep, and it is obvious that they used my early departure as "proof" that I had been kicked off the set. What makes me mad is that is was not easy going to a film set and working all day doing photography in hostile conditions after working all night.
My sacrifice was not appreciated. No one cared. My hard work and sacrifice was repaid by slander and discrimination.
I should have charged them. Even then, it would not have been worth it. This is what I have come to expect from the Tampa indie film clique.

I certainly hope that everyone reading this will heed the account of my horrible experience with the Tampa indie film clique and avoid working with them. If you don't believe me, go ahead and get involved with these unprofessional, self-serving fakes. You'll find out the hard way.
Oh, yes, and if Guppy or the others in the Tampa indie film clique wish to make a legal matter of what I am writing about, go ahead and try to sue me. I have proof that everything that I am writing about is true, and you can't back up any of the slander that you are spreading about me. Not only will you lose when I sue you back, but I will be sure to publicize the legal action and make your unprofessionalism known to all of the world. I have more web sites, more web traffic, more readers, and a louder voice than all of you combined. Real professionals also respect me and listen to what I have to say. You all messed up, and some of you may end up paying with your "careers".
The unprofessionalism of the Tampa indie film clique has inspired me. It has inspired me to assist genuine professionals with forming the first Tampa indie film community. We need a professional film community here in Tampa, and we are going to get it.
Well, everyone except for the Tampa indie film clique. This small group of insecure amateur hobbyists will find themselves on the outside, weeping as they are forced to watch it all happen, and grow, without them.
It's what they deserve.

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UPDATED 07/03/08

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The views and the opinions shared on this blog are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Dream Nine Studios, the companies of Passinault.Com, the Passinault Entertainment Group, or Passinault Industries LLC. Presented as-is, with no guarantees expressed or implied. Informational use only. Tampa indie film expert Chris Passinault is not legally liable for the content on this web site blog, and use of any content waives him from liability. Anyone using the content on this site or attempting anything described on this site assumes all legal and civil liability. Please be familiar with with your local laws before using this site. Information on the Tampa Film Blog is not to be taken as legal advice or advice which may be covered under any licensed or regulated profession. Opinions expressed on this web site are those of the individual contributor and may not be shared by other contributors, models, actors, talent, production professionals, photographers, or businesses who may be involved with this web site or our online community.
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