while you were away

Okay, sure,
I was away, not you.

But, nonetheless, we missed each other, didn't we?

Two pieces of news:

Well, I'm sure there's more, but

1:
We have an architect, finally. Chris Chalmers has joined the crew. This is super exciting, one, because this issue is finally resolved, and two, because Chris has a reputation amongst his peers as one of the best digital artists in the field.
He's creating a fly-through and a set of digital blueprints for the theater.

We're a little overbudget now, as even with a substantial break on his usual fee, this will cost more than planned.
But the budget was designed with a fair amount of wiggle room.
And recently I've been squirming under the weight of this issue more than wiggling, so...

2:
Today we're moving our SF offices from SOMA to the Richmond District.


For over four years, 23E Studios' parents, Green Door Studios and The Museum of Viral Memory, have been located in a warehouse space in beautiful downtown San Francisco. But now our entertainment empire, including the 23E Studios offices, will be found in a new suite of rooms in the distant West of SF. With Disembody moving ahead at full steam this move was rather inconvenient, and was the reason we disappeared for so long from the blog, but all in all will lead to a better production and happier atmosphere in which to work.
Never underestimate happiness.


So, that's it for today, we have movers arriving in less than an hour and need to finish packing up the office.
We're back and all is well. We're moving along just a bit behind schedule and a touch overbudget - it finally feels like a real film!

Firday I Hunt for an Architect

In the never-ending search for an architect, I have sent out an email to the CCA MArch program in hopes that I can find a student with the skills (all of them) and time (none of them) necessary to get the drawings and 3D work done so that we can fundraise in December and January.
Airason, as you know, doesn't have time.
And my LA contact didn't pan out.
A random email two years ago provided me with Ted, that was about as faboo a working relationship and skilled find as one could ever desire. So, maybe I'll get lucky again.

In less frustrating news, Chadwick knows an art film distribution company in Minneapolis that may be interested in Disembody. So that's another potential distribution/investment source. I can't believe that raising money and finding a distributor is ending up to be the easiest part of this projetc. And finding someone to do frickin' basic renderings is what's killing me.

Sheesh.

quick update

I have a lead on another architect. Friend of a friend. Naturally. That's the best way to live.
May fly (or bus) down to LA next week if he's interested in participating and available. I need to make the fly-thru and elevations my number one priority so that I can really get to fundraising.

Also, emailed a friend who is a brill glass worker. He's interested in making the bottles for the three signature scents that will accompany Disembody. I'll try and meet him next week to follow-up on that.

I created a resume and account at imdb last night. Still waiting for it to post. But once I have a url I'll put it up here.
And I'll make an entry for Disembody as a film in pre-production, which we are.

Also got the Hollywood Reporter paperwork, so we should be listed there as being in pre-production within a few weeks.

Soon I'll be posting a conversation I'm having with Marcella, one of my fine cinematographers, best friends, and biggest inspirations. OMG, and, I totally didn't think of this until now, the woman ramming her spinal cord through the back of my skull in the 23E Studios logo!
Logo designed by the wonderful Alex Lukas, btw.
Anyway, we've been discussing one of the meanings Disembody has for me in a series of emails. And I'd like to bring that discussion into the public sphere.
(By which I mean, this blog which exists in the public sphere and is read by a handful of people besides myself at this stage.)
But I'd love to get everyone's feedback on this idea of collaboration, so I'll set it up as a discussion thread where as many folks can contribute as want.

Every blog entry loves a picture, so that's my cousin Tim heading up this post.

well my stars and garters

Thats' a nice phrase don't you think?

Anyway, yesterday I got great feedback about the revised proposal I'm writing for fundraising. Now I just need to find time to write it.
As well, Erin made an intial home page for me to look at. And, of course, it's brill.
I also sent out an email to everyone involved asking for bios etc. The website is going to serve as the first line of promotion, because...

Damn it, getting elevations and fly-throughs and the like made is hard. Airason wasn't able to find anyone who could help at CCA. And he's not got time himself.
So I'm pursuing another lead in LA now.

I have a review in school in 6 days, and then again two weeks after that. So, the next three weeks will be a real challenge to find time for generating content and creating the PR book, but those are my priorities. I want to go into December with a site and book for PR. And then I want to put together a press release to send out.

Plus I need to get us listed in Variety.

last night I was all cleaned up for a scholarship dinner at CCA. I met the donor who funds my scholarship and she was magnificent. I had attended because I need practice schmoozing. And Christin made schmoozing seem like hanging out with a great new friend. I am getting pix from the photog who was there later today and will post them when I can.

I told Christin all about the project and she really seemed to like it. That was incredibly gratifying.
Plus she's an artist herself, and her work sounds very much up my alley. We had many tastes in common, which was nice.

Catch up

No the pictures aren't relevant. But a blog with pictures is more enticing, isn't it?

Okay, so we migrated to linux. That took longer than anticipated. Plus we were thrown out of our offices by our hateful landlord. It's temporary, 4-6 weeks they claim. But it's insanely disruptive to get 24 hours notice before being put on the street. Since they bought the building a few years ago they've done nothing but lie and scheme and sabotage tenants at every opportunity. I really never have encountered humans as scummy as these folks. Weird, because it's not impersonal. The landlord comes over to the building and treats people like shit. He seems to really hate having people in his buildings.
Anyway, sorry, we've been incredibly disrupted by this, so we're a touch angry. We've had to move a video studio, a recording studio, a photo studio, our offices and all of our computers for designing databases and websites and other things we do. Our creative world and our professional world were both put on the street until December or January.

Anyway, now we need to catch you up on Disembody.

Janet, our lawyer, is working on the contracts. The hitch there right now is that Susan, the gallerist, isn't able to discuss the gallery's end of the deal until December. So, we're moving ahead with a 1/50th of the gross for every $1000 invested. Essentially we're gambling that she'll go for the offer we made her. This whole project is a gamble on human interactions, and ultimately that's the point of it anyway: making art together, there is no single artist creating Disembody, it is a collaborative work between many people. (We would argue, and will in a later post, that all art is collaborative, but that aspect of the business is hidden away for mythological and commercial reasons)

We can't think of a better way to make art than by working with a slew of amazing people; finding ways to involve everyone so that an entire roomful of people feel exhilarated about what they've made together.

Yosh, our perfumist, is thinking about a scent for the architectural models. Something popcorny and sweet. We're very excited. Each architectural model will be a working theater in scale. It will play the film. And it will smell like a theater. So faboo.

As well, we'll be introducing two new scents at the concession stand of the actual theater:
Vime for Men, Disembody
Vime for Women, Disembody
Each will be available in a limited edition of, umm, we're not sure how many, somewhere between 13 and 23, we suspect.
They will be captured in handmade bottles. We're pursuing a friend of The MVM to make the bottles. If he can do it, they will be fabulous. If not, we'll find someone else and they will be fabulous.

Time for another picture.


Oh, and more good news, we have a producer. David Lockhart is onboard. We'll finalize something in a week when he gets into SF from LA, but for now it looks very good. We met David on a film we produced. He's not just a producer, but as you'll see if you visit his website, he's also an actor. So we produced him a few years ago and now he may be producing The MVM film for us. He's outgoing, aggressive and charismatic, all characteristics necessary for a producer. He's also connected in LA, another important characteristic.
And he's a rock n' roller. Yup, he sings in a band called The Stereo Blasters. C'mon, you gotta be a little excited about a producer who is in a classic rock band, right?
David is the one in the bottom right-hand corner.


What else? Oh, it looks like Kam can't do the architectural drawings. But a friend from CCA, Airason Heard, is looking at the proposal and may do it for us. Airason is pretty amazing. He's a tech and theory geek with an amazing vision for integrating the human and technological into buildings. With luck we'll be able to post a few of his drawings for the project in the coming weeks.

Once we have Airason's drawings, we'll be getting a brochure printed at our fave printer A. Maciel Printing. It will be bound at Pettingell Bookbindery. We are thinking a small edition of 7 or 8, so that we have something tangible to give investors right out of the gate. The book itself will be a work of art with bios of the folks involved, plans for the project, early behind-the-scenes footage, ephemera from the project thus far, etc.
Marcella Faustini and Elise Irving will be designing the brochure with us.

Finally, I have an incredibly exciting lead on what might be some serious funding accompanied by a distribution deal. Yeah, I mean, it's just hearsay at this point, so I'm not going to say more, but it's going to be so super exciting if we get a chance to pitch these people. It's actually incredibly exciting just knowing that opportunities like this are already appearing. Our spirits are high today.
And atop that, one of our LA contacts has a few investors ready to talk to us when we are down in Tinseltown come December.
So, all is coming along well.