Are you a film or motion media professional who lives and works in the greater Kansas City area? Do you have a business that serves the film or motion media industry? The Film Commission of Greater Kansas City's web site features a Production Guide that production companies, location scouts and others use to find people and services in the motion media industry. First listing is free! Join the Greater K.C. Film Commission for additional listings and benefits.
More on Strike.tv from co-creator Ken LaZebnik: "Strike.tv began as a charity venture during the WGA strike. A bunch of us had the idea at roughly the same time that producing our own original content, owning it and putting it on-line would be a great way to start what amounts to an alternative on-line network. So we started in. I put together a seminar last January; 400 people showed up and 60 writers said they'd put together shows. It took awhile to get it all set up, but we have about 50 original webseries that we'll be rolling out."
MOMMA encourages everyone to check-out Strike.tv
"Peace Love and Gigs" - the must have t-shirt created to promote Gig Salad is making waves. I don't know how many of those tees Mark Steiner printed but if he's not selling them - he should!
Missouri writer debuts new show on Strike.tv Ken LaZebnik wrote the screenplay for the Lionsgate film, "Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage," starring Peter O'Toole and Marcia Gay Harden, that opens across America this month.
His most recent work is "Confessional" debuting on Strike.tv, November 19. Strike.tv was born out of the writer's strike in December 2007. Ad revenue from Strike.tv goes to the Actors Fund Entertainment Assistance program.
The MOMMA board met in St. Louis yesterday to finalize the legislative agenda for 2009. Please click on the "Legislative" link, at the top of the page to see the document. MOMMA also voted to approve hiring the lobbying firm of Johnston and Associates.
Everyone wants to know how to get their work distributed. Todd Sklar didn't ask - he just hit the road. Read about it in Filmmaker or See it on-line
INgrove and YouLicense launch new music blanket licensing site - from Market Watch
Another "MOMMA" in Memphis? Tennessee organization to provide statewide voice in the legislature for film and television. - from Commercialappeal.com
Paramount to reduce film releases following Spielberg exit - from Press Trust of India
"Ben and Alex," a dramatic thriller staring Missy Crider (24, Powder, Murder One) and Nicholas Hoult (Wah-Wah, About a Boy) is preparing to roll in St. Louis in December. Visit the Myspace site for more info.
Strike Tv (www.Strike.Tv) unveils "With the Angels" a new Strike Tv series premiering, Tuesday, October 28. A special two-hour episode posts on Tuesday followed by Episode 3 on Wednesday and Episode 4 on Thursday. A new episode will post every Monday through Thursday until Christmas. There are 26 episodes in all.
A note from MOMMA: We believe that the future of all motion media is on-line. We hope you will support Strike Tv. Please share the above information with your friends and associates. Cut/Paste/Share
All eyes on Columbia, October 17-19 for the Citizen Jane Film Festival and the Ideal Woman film competition. Mark your calendars and head to Columbia, Missouri for Citizen Jane.
Actor Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, NBC's Heroes, Entourage and many other roles) will be at Lindenwood University in St. Louis on Friday, September 26 to inaugurate the University's new HD studio. At 7:00 p.m. there will be a special showing of "A Clockwork Orange." Afterwards, Mr. McDowell will talk with the audience about his films and his life. Admission for students with ID is $5.00 and admission for the general public is $10.00. For more information call the box office at 1-636-949-4433.
Missouri Filmmakers showcase Bosnian family's story
University City Commission for Access and Local Original Programming opens grant round for films about University City.
Campus MovieFest and AT&T Announce 2008-2009 World Tour
Kansas City FilmFest call for 2009 festival entries is underway. In 2008, the Filmfest KC, the oldest film festival in Kansas City, agreed to combine with the KC Filmmakers Jubilee to create a single film extravaganza called the Kansas City FilmFest.
Your hometown can be a STAR in when 
partners with Missouri Life Magazine for the "Be a Location Scout" contest. The contest begins in October. Location shots will be uploaded on the Missouri Life website. Great prizes include: True/False Film Festival passes, $100 movie theater gift certificates, NetFlix subscriptions, a deluxe 4-night stay in Branson, Missouri and much more! Watch for additional details coming in late September.
Actors from "The Horde Desolation" peer around the corner of a building if Fair Grove, MO as members of the crew from True Indie Films take care of their appointed chores. From left to right are: Kenny Kalinowski, Dale Gehris, Bobby Woosley, co-director Josh Jones and Candice Tucker. The film wrapped in mid-August. Congratulations to Fair Grove for being a film-friendly community!
Film Commission of Greater Kansas City debuts new site and newsletter. Check it out here
Classic muscle cars, lights and cameras witnessed late at night in the Murfin's Market parking lot, Ozark, are enough clues to draw suspicion from passersby. A commercial? A movie?
Ozark is doubling as a small Indiana town, used as the backdrop for film crews depicting the heartland of America in an independent movie based on memories of a weekend in the life of an 18 year-old in the summer of 1984. Writer, producer and director Jim Cardenas said more than 15 characters, cast and crew have been filming scenes in two Ozark locations, Murfin's and Third Street for "One Bright Mile," a teen drama based loosely on his life. "Ozark had some great locations for the story," Cardenas said. "The community's been great. (Murfin's) is perfect. I mean, the place is perfect for 1984." Cardenas is a former Nashville studio musician that recently moved to Branson. He said the area is welcoming for independent movie making. "The Springfield area has a large independent film community," Cardenas said. "It was easy finding the people I needed for the project." "One Bright Mile" follows a present-day, middle-aged Jim Cantrell as he suffers through a mid-life crisis in a trip back to Indiana for his father's funeral. While there, Jimmy C. reconnects with his high school best friend and begins to recall high school memories, Cardenas said. Jimmy C.'s memories focus around cruising Broadway, a one-mile strip better known as the B-Way, in his heavily admired 1972 Buick GSX convertible. The movie follows the teen drama on a hot summer weekend while approaching adulthood, Cardenas said. Half of the strip is in an urban area of one community while the second half travels through a higher-class town, Cardenas said, the true backdrop from his life. "While I was a musician I would travel with different bands and I would tell these stories from when I was teenager," Cardenas said. "Everyone would say that I needed to write a book. So, I put all the stories from a three-to-four year period in high school of a group of teens who didn't want to grow up into one weekend. I've been working on the project from start to finish, from my mind to a script, for about 15 years." B.J. Hursh, a Drury University senior who plays Jimmy C., said the movie is a new experience. "I've mostly done theater," Hursh said. "This is my first foray into film. The nuts and bolts of acting is still the same in pursuing the character's emotions and thought process." After finishing filming in Ozark this week, Cardenas said he plans to film in two more locations in Springfield before finishing outside filming in September. He also plans to release the film in many different independent film festivals and hopefully in theaters. "It all depends," Cardenas said. "You go out and ask for a lot and be happy when you only get a little."
Cinema St. Louis presents St. Louis Filmmaker's Showcase
MOMMA intern, Sarah Ginsburg, is expanding and updating the Missouri Production guide. If you are a new business in the motion media industry or you have an existing business and want to update your information, please send an e-mail with the name of your business, contact info including address, phone, fax and e-mail, along with key words for all primary services provided, i.e., grip, writer, producer, etc. to info@mommaonline.com
MOMMA is in RETREAT! Members of MOMMA committees will converge on Rocheport, Missouri on Monday, July 7 at the Yateshouse B&B. Committees will talk about MOMMA goals and develop action plans based on the needs assessments conducted around the state in 2006 and 2007.
Missouri Film Commission Weekly Wrap-up
An open letter from Pirate Pictures (any links have been inserted by MOMMA and not the author)
An open letter regarding the IMDB
My name is Wyatt Weed. I am the writer/director of a St. Louis produced feature film entitled "Shadowland". I work with a local production company, Pirate Pictures.
Now you know who I am - and that I take full responsibility for my own words and opinions expressed here in this letter - an action that has been sorely lacking when it comes to the IMDB.
As you all know, the Internet Movie Data Base is an online reference for the worldwide filmmaking community. It features career listings for all types of media professionals, and lists a variety of credits in most media.
The IMDB is exciting. You get your name out there and people can reference you. It can be a useful tool. It can also be harmful to independent filmmakers to a degree that you simply cannot appreciate until you have been through it.
Understand a few things about the IMDB: It is fueled, primarily, by people listing their own credits and posting their own information, much like Wikipedia. The information is accurate to the degree that the individual has the information correct. In other words, whereas the IMDB can be useful, it isn't always 100% accurate, but that seems to be lost on most. I constantly hear people quoting chapter and verse from the IMDB, because if it's listed there, it must be true, but we all know, or should know, that this is not always the case.
To that point, there are so many factors that come into play when you make a feature film, it is mind-boggling. With a low budget independent feature, the risk is two-fold, because you are often taking on numerous responsibilities that would otherwise be handled by experts in marketing and distribution, things that are readily available on the studio level. You are constantly trying to balance your media coverage against your festival appearances, get buyers to look at your movie, hoping that the media will turn you into the next Blair Witch or Juno.
Given that, if you decide to list a movie on the IMDB that isn't yours, you run the risk of upsetting any schedule or organized attack plan that the filmmakers may have assembled. They may have wanted to launch a media assault on all fronts, premiere a website, press information, and an exhaustive, well documented IMDB listing all at once. A listing that is created by someone other than the filmmakers can be a time-wasting nuisance, and even a financial disaster.
Imagine this: I uncover personal information about you. It is timely and delicate - the date you will propose to your girlfriend, the condition of your family member who has cancer, the amount you owe on your mortgage and what you intend to sell your house for, the amount of credit card debt that you carry, etc. Then I post it for all the world to see, out of context and inaccurate to boot.
It could screw a few things up for you, couldn't it? Wouldn't that be frustrating? And let's say there wasn't anything you could do about it!!
That may seem an extreme example, but it is accurate, and it will put it into terms most of you can understand. That is where things are at with the IMDB. They take the information from anyone, and they are slow to correct it. They also sometimes refuse to correct it.
Hey, if it ain't broke, why fix it, right? Well, in my opinion, it is broken, and I personally think it needs to be fixed.
My specific complaint is that someone took it upon themselves to list our feature, Shadowland, on the IMDB prematurely. We weren't even done shooting at the time. Here is the list of damages done so far:
1. If you list a film that isn't yours, the release date is often wrong. Distributors look at an IMDB listing and if the film seems out of date because someone listed their own estimated year and date of completion instead of waiting for the ACTUAL completion date to be listed by the FILMMAKERS, they wonder why the film has been sitting on the shelf for so long when in actuality it may not even be completed. On our last feature, Guardian of the Realm, someone prematurely listed the film as completed in 2004. It was actually completed and released in 2006. We are constantly asked why it sat so long when in actuality, it didn't. This has hurt our overseas sales.
2. Crew members are left out, and feel slighted. One unauthorized individual cannot know the entire cast list and credits. Once a handful of individuals were listed for our feature, everyone else wondered where their name was, or why they weren't listed accurately. Some were offended and challenged us to list them at a point where we were far to busy with production to deal with the problem. People felt that we didn't care about their credit.
3. It makes us look cheap and unprofessional. The initial Shadowland listing had about 6 or 8 names total, half of them extras who had given themselves character names and inaccurate descriptions that WE THE FILMMAKERS NEVER INTENDED THEM TO HAVE. Well over 100 people worked on Shadowland, and the results are impressive. When just 6 or 8 get listed and half of them are trumped-up, it looks like we are idiots here in St. Louis, turning out another backyard epic.
4. It hurts our chances for distribution and getting into bigger film festivals. The latest and most recent insult is that someone posted on IMDB PRO that our release date is July 20th. That is the date for our local St. Louis Filmmakers SHOWCASE screening, not our release date. Big difference. Now distributors who can't read between the lines of IMDB accuracy will wonder why we are shopping a film that has already been released, or not approach us because we already have a release date listed. Also, Shadowland has been submitted to several film festivals, including Toronto and Shriekfest. They will check IMDB PRO and possibly reject us because we are already "in release" or because they won't screen a film that is in release or has previously been in another festival, even though the Showcase is not technically a recognized International Film Festival. Cinema St. Louis and Pirate Pictures are promoting the screening date. If you want to help, please do, but don't list a release date on the IMBD!! It isn't your job - we didn't hire you to do this!
Remembering the Cowtown Ballroom - Read more about Joe Heyen's documentary (now we all know your secrets Joe)! See article
says "Thank you!" to the Missouri Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (MACVB) for their support of the Missouri Film Office's MISSOURI MEET-UP in conjunction with Locations Trade Show.