(Reposted from February 25, 2001)
As you may know, 2010 was a tough year personally for both Joe and me. The demands of the year - in time, emotions and money - made it difficult to fully pursue our filmmaking goals. We did manage to add another project – a comedy called MegaBalls to our library of feature film projects in development.
At the end of the year we added another member to our support group, Allan Scholnick, who is based in LA. Allan has been in the film industry for many years and is talking up a storm attracting some interest in Love of a Lifetime. Thanks to Allan the project’s revenue projections are being researched by Overture Films . Hopefully, the next step will be them asking for the screenplay.
After the bitter cold of the NY winter, Joe and I decided we needed – no, deserved - a break so we headed to southern Florida. The primary goal was to relax while seeing what we could do to make movies. The weather was Florida-perfect: Clear blue skies, balmy breezes and comfortably warm, which was a big and welcome change from the snow and ice of gray New York. We visited many friends and some of Joe’s family, ate well and way too much. We drove over 700 miles in 8 days, between Miami and Jupiter – and all points in between. We re-visited locations and looked at new ones.
We visited Ellen Jacoby, the casting director who attached to Lifetime early on. It’s been far too long since our last visit and this was our first to her new office in the recently renovated Eden Roc Hotel on Miami’s North Beach.
The big challenge was getting through traffic on Collins Avenue because of the Yacht show about to open. 1000’s of ships were moored in the river – we’re told the cumulative value was $1 billion!
We were inspired, and developed two funding plans. First, create bright colored bean-bags imprinted with “Movie seeking cash captains” and tossing them at/into every yacht, Bentley, Rolls or other high-end toy. Second, make up t-shirts with our company logo, and on the back print “Why put your money into a hole in the water when you can put it in our movie?” and wear them around the yacht show…..We bought lottery tickets and made two trips to the Hard Rock Casino. The bean bags are beginning to look like a good idea.
Ellen’s impressive industry experience - such as casting the USA TV show Burn Notice, – with her many local contacts will prove invaluable when we get into production. Ellen’s trusty sidekick, Skippy, may look sweet, but inside he’s all animal and after some tough negotiations, we agreed to find him a role. Ellen graciously bought us lunch and gave us a tour of new her offices and the hotel. We found it to be the perfect location for Hot Properties. Those of you who have not read it, Hot Properties is set during a film festival, primarily in/around a glamorous hotel. Ellen also gave us some good suggestions on avenues to pursue regarding possible financing. We walked away energized – but Ellen has a way of doing that to everyone she works with. Ellen requested to read our ‘library’ in – all the projects that will, or could, shoot in Florida in addition to Lifetime.
Next stop: Jupiter. We traveled north to just have lunch with a mutual friend, an actor and would-be filmmaker….but at one point it seemed that we would be getting a chance-meeting with Burt Reynolds through that friend. It didn’t happen. Disappointed…we move on.
We met with Noelle Stevenson, the new film commissioner of Fort Lauderdale. For years we had been dealing with Commissioner Elizabeth Wentworth and the Broward Film Alliance. Elizabeth was very helpful – she introduced us to Ellen, and also helped us in pre-scouting locations. Once we had those locations we revised Lifetime and the story became much richer. Elizabeth had written a great letter that we include in our venture plan, extolling the screenplay and declaring her support. But there was an overhaul of the office structure, and now it has a new name and a new commissioner, Noelle. We found her to be just as upbeat and supportive as her predecessor and we look forward to working with her. Noelle also requested to read the library, and offered to supply a letter for our venture plan.
We also met with very successful businessman and friend who will begin spreading some buzz to gain interest [hopefully] from private investors. Our creative energy sparked and we made some revisions to two scripts.
So, in the coming days, we’ll send out copies of the library – projects that could or would shoot in Florida; Hot Properties, Love of a Lifetime, Conjurer, and MegaBalls (though we still feel this was better for NYC). And we’ll return to one screenplay we shelved for a while, to revised it (an easy job) for the area, and find a better title for it. We’ll mail the library to Ellen and Noelle, and get Noelle’s feedback on the venture plan, and update the plan with her letter of support.
Oroloro is a Florida-registered LLC, and along with these contacts and our library of projects, we are slowly moving in a very positive direction. Looking ahead, there may be a trip to Los Angeles and/or Florida again in April. We’re also looking into attending the Sarasota Film Festival this spring.
In the next few weeks we’ll pre-scout NYC locations for MegaBalls and possibly create a mock-poster for it. We appreciate the faith and support of everyone on our team as we keep pushing forward
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