While you are right, film is dear to my heart, I also realize that it is a Business first and foremost.

And so I spend a lot of time in the business community because that is where the support for filmmakers is lacking. Still, it is understandable. Right now, there is not the infrastructure needed to support the filmmakers here. The majority of them will produce projects with their own funds or manage to gather some investors. Once completed, those projects do manage to play festivals but the majority do not produce income. Whereas with theater, a play is produced and the audience pays to see it, so you have a creative production and a consumer.

Movies have a longer lifespan than a theater production and also can be exported all over the world. The audience for a particular movie may not be here. It also doesn't matter about how long ago a production was produced, it still has the potential to generate income. Every year MGM plays "The Wizard of Oz" which was produced in 1939. And every year, it makes money for them.

I am working on building the infrastructure and getting together with the necessary people in the business community, so the movies produced here will not just be recognized as an industry, but also give back to the community in terms of jobs created and income from productions.

There is a ton of filmmakers producing content, so there is not a lack of that. There is very little ties to the business community here. I've been working recently with i-open and the civic forums have been very helpful. I have a Friday morning meeting with Nan McIntyre of Shorebank enterprises. That is a great organization that has a mission of strengthening the community. There are other such organizations here that are looking for ways to build this economy.  Given the large number of people in an industry like this, we could create a few thousand jobs every year. A lot of the people here are volunteering long long hours on movie and TV projects.

A vibrant movie community here will spur a large number of jobs and create excitement that this region needs.

I also recieved help from CAAO this week. I shot a scene of my TV series at their offices and William Holdipp was helpful in some budget advice as well.  I'm still crunching the income projections though.

While I would like to do more of the creative things, I think someone here has to work on building that infrastructure. I've sacrificed a lot of time I could have spent working on my TV series and other projects, but I think its worth it. There's a lot of helpful people out there like REALNEO.

I am happy to hear about the Roundtable at the City Club.

While we do need to keep the critical mass going with productions, we also need to focus on building the structure here. Hollywood has been called a dream factory and that is what movies are about.  There are many different types of dreams. And there is an audience out there for every film project produced here.  Honestly people have different taste and personalities, so you won't get all of them working together. All of Hollywood doesn't work together. It's just the nature of the beast.

Yet, in the early days of Hollywood, they recognized the need to do things that would benefit them all.  We are like Hollywood here (circa 1920's). If we ever want to get to that stage of making income for all of us, we do need to focus on the things that will benefit us all.

We have the potential here to build a Industry that will impact this region artistically and financially if we build that much needed tie with the business community and those who will fund not just a movie or TV project,  but fund the beginning of the movie industry here. 

Sincerely,

Alex P. Michaels

Building the Knight Movie Studio Incubator

http://prelude2cinema.pbwiki.com

Excellent start. Keep thinking about this and adding names. Are there any current or likely investors in town? Who are the film makers? Who are the educators and mentors? Who is the film industy in NEO? Everyone must all be at the table!

At the top, there are several Gund family members (George and his wife, and Catherine, at least) who are very into film, so they are the most logical major outside champions. I will be happy to contact them when we have a clear vision and collaboration together. Who else is there at this level with a strong interest in some aspect of film? What about animation? Multimedia? Think big and industry.

In setting big, fast goals, what could people interested in film - the industry and related fields - do by this May to further the industry here - I think we should have a Spring arts month this May and include film and film industry awareness? And then what can be done for Ingenuity, in July?