Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Film Roundtable - 2 hours of Yada Yadah Yahdah

After over 40 comments on my twitter, FB and IRL (In Real Life) I needed to move my reply to my blog because the micro blog replies were too long.

First Props to Van and Matt for putting in the NH filmmaker round table.

Second we can meet at a place that we can buy drinks or food and not have to let the state fund our meeting and that means we wont get kicked out. Even though "Alcohol is the lubricant in the Film industry" we dont have to meet at a bar.

So here are my notes and suggestions on what I like about Filmmaker socials, and maybe a roundtable is not a social.
Money talk is needed but it cant be the centerpiece. Its tough because a vocal few kept talking about it and others even helped to discuss the topic with answers so it may have looked like thats what the group wanted.
There is money in the state and good projects will find money. I have raised money for projects and had other projects I loved never raise a red cent. Thats an easy way to find out if you have a good project and if people trust you to do what you say you are going to do.
Filmmakers can make films without money and that's actually the point behind the 48 Hour Project which is a big event for the NH filmmaking community. So many things were missed last night about some of the projects people are working on and want to work on.
The Media Makers meetings are setup really well. You have 3 minutes to say who you are and what you are working on. Put a clock on it and go around the room. And the best thing any filmmaker can learn about money is a elevator pitch so that's under 1 minute. I vote that next time we go around the room and get 1 minute to say whatever we want. Then after all that open up the floor to whatever people want to discuss.
And in the fashion of good old Chuck Barris TV put a gong up so anyone can stop the current conversation and we can move on.

BTW put the gong on the opposite side of the room from me if you disagree. put it next to me if you dont :-)

3 comments:

biscotti dana said...

Good idea, moving the discussion here.

I like the gong, but think it should go dead center in the room. That way ANYONE can access it easily...and no one can hide from doing so.

The one-minute elevator pitch is a good idea. I also like the three minutes that you mention the Media Makers offer. Maybe we could split the diff with two minutes per person. Oh, wait - that's 100 minutes right there, isn't it? Okay: one-minute elevator pitch it is!

And I love the idea of having it at a venue where we can stay as late as we want. And where we can get a drink and a bite to eat, if we feel so compelled.

Thanks, Marc, for keeping the discussion going! And kudos to Matt & Van for getting us together last night!!!

Anonymous said...

Good... good... let's keep going with this.

There's a part of this we still need to factor in - it was clear last night that not only did folks want the opportunity to talk about their current projects, they also wanted feedback. So, we need to find a way to have those short 1-2 minute pitches WITH some follow-up time to comment, otherwise, we're just going around the room saying what we're doing and not really providing any reaction - and, to me, that's only half of a good idea.

So, therein lies the time issue. How do we structure this so we can have our pitches, some feedback, AND not have it turn into a four-hour marathon?

Marc said...

With a location that we can stay in for more than a couple hours, people can break into social groups and talk for 2-3 hours afterwards if needed.
Its then out of your hands and you have facilitated the initial conversation which is great. I hear too many comments about film cliques within the state and I think most of that is because there needs to be more time or more events period without limitations.