Stro

[Greg]

Two Things. First Happy Validation Day. Today I await word from Portland. I have little hope for this festival since festivals don't usually pick anybody on the Validation Day. But I think the reason the festivals don't tell you immediately that they don't want you is in case one of the films selected for the festival withdraws, the festival still has a few people on the bench to choose from. For instance, the Orlando Festival which starts next week was still trying to get people to send in their films last week. It was a long list of films, too.

Second BloodSweatHoney is the name of the Producers Representation company that contacted me about representing Stro. Think of a Produer's Rep as an agent for the film. BSH is two guys, one of whom was the basis for "The Dude" in the Big Lebowski. Well, that's what the website claims. I spoke to the other guy. He's the one who lost my email. He's the one who claimed to have seen the films. The Analytic data at that time pointed to the contrary.

We had our phone meeting yesterday. He answered my questions. I felt better about the relationship. Although I was still leery about paying a retainer. He sent me some contracts to look at to get an idea of how the money flowed. From our discussion, it seemed that even if the money flowed, it would not be flowing towards me. I still felt it was worth the shot.

Upon discussion with tQ after the meeting, she was less than thrilled by my information, I decided to investigate Producer Reps in general and my BSH in particular, a little more. Fortunately, I found some websites and podcasts on just that subject. One, Indie Film Hustle, did not speak highly of Producer Reps but they were a necessary evil, especially if you were new.

The guest on the podcast was a Producer Rep, positioned as one of the better Producer Reps. The Producer Rep made the mistake of saying you could ask him if you had questions about a Producer Rep. I have internet. I can Google. I found this Producer Rep and asked him about the BSH Producer Rep. It turns out the Indie Film Hustle Producer Rep worked with the BSH Producer Rep. Indie Hustle mentioned that BSH guy lied, abused customers, and stole from him. Ooopsy. Good think I checked.

But the Indie Film Hustle guy did mention he would take a look at Stro and see if it warranted Representation. It could be the case of one guy lying about another guy to get his own retainer (I have learned that retainers are pretty common practice at this point) or he could be telling the truth. Time will tell.

I think of the Film Industry as a circle. People who actually work in the film business are in the circle. I was in the circle for a long time as a propmaker. But I ventured from the circle as i started to make my own films. I'm pretty close to getting back in with Stro. Being in eight (and counting) festivals is a good indicator. I think the Producer's Reps are just inside the circle, barely. They make movies, but they are still putting out podcast because they aren't firmly in the circle.

But there is a whole industry outside of the circle that promises to get you inside the circle in exchange for money. The outside of the circle industry doesn't really care if you get into the circle, they just want their money. The outside of the circle industry is huge full of acting classes and weeklong filmmaker workshops and film festivals.