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Tampa Bay Film And Film Festival Status - Tampa Bay Film, Indie Film Projects, and Film Festivals
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 make 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 my 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 couldn't 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,
a 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.
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UPDATED 01/03/11
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