EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRAS News and Nostalga: Connections #60

      Jonathan Winters recently passed away  in Montecito, CA, and it brought back memories of the ’60s when I worked as a newsreel cameraman in Los Angeles for Channel 9, KHJ-TV.  I had a special license plate on my car.  It was exactly like the one in this picture, but without the license plate holder and the words “SLO Skiers.”  This was during the days when gas station attendants filled up your tank with gas.  So many attendants would ask me what the “PP” meant.  These were the days of the 20th Century Fox TV hit “Payton Place.” Of course, I would always reply “Payton Place.”

PP License Plate

     I covered hundreds, maybe thousands of news stories and one of them was the world premiere of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” which also happened to be the grand opening of the newly built Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

     Recently while I was supervising some video mastering of “Atlas Shrugged – The Strike” at FotoKem in Burbank, I saw this picture of the premiere of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” on the wall in the lobby of the Conversions Department.  The place has lots of expensive video recorders, monitors, etc.  You don’t want to have to pay the monthly electrical bill to power this equipment, and dozens of skilled technicians inhabit this place, which is not cheap, either.

     Getting back to this picture,  I think I can recognize myself in the crowd of photographers and newsreel cameramen outside on the sidewalk. If you look very carefully, you can see the reflection of me taking this picture.  In show biz, this is a twofer.  Oh well, I’m not a comedian.

World Premier at new Cinerama Dome in Hollywood

EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRAS Fuel for the System: Connections #59

     I was never very good at English composition in Grade School.  Two reasons:  I was tall for my age and was usually assigned the last seat in the last row.  The second reason is that I was a poor speller, so I substituted simpler words to replace the words I couldn’t spell.  Gold stars were important to me .  Also, because I didn’t test well in aptitude tests I thought I was dumb.  I did have trouble speaking and reading at an early age, so much so that I made up my own language.  I remember one word in particular:  ”dum-dum” meant “water.”  Where that came from I will never know.

     After my traumatic first experience seeing a movie, and my parents taking me to a projection room to see the projector casting the beam of light with the image onto the silver screen, I fell in love with movies.  A movie theatre was a place I could escape my shyness and stare at the people on the movie screen without them staring back at me.

     All of this leads up to now.  i love writing screenplays.  I choose places and situations I know very little about to become the “world” for the characters to populate.  Research is time-consuming but I enjoy learning new things.  I have been working on my current project for 2-1/2 years.  A lot of time you might say but it has been a very busy period of my life.  My goal is to complete a first draft of this screenplay by my birthday, July 18th.

     During the past 2-1/2 years,  I’ve moved from West Los Angeles to Summerland, CA.  I have Post Produced five theatrical motion pictures.  The two highest profile films are “Atlas Shrugged Part I” and “Atlas Shrugged Part ll.”  On another film, I worked in Detroit, Michigan, because of the state’s tax incentives.  California must do a better job of  giving incentives to producers to keep production in this state.  Practically every state in the U.S.  is offering economic incentives to lure producers to shoot movies and TV shows in their home states.  Same with other countries.  The world might be an oyster but the pearl is still Hollywood.

     On another front, I have developed two screenplays with a new writer, Michael Thomas Daniel, who lived with my wife and me for four plus months while he wrote these two screenplays.  I  have begun the process of setting up these two truly amazing screenplays with A-List people in Hollywood.  But it is a difficult task because ninety-five percent of the screenplays being submitted are less than professional level, so agents and personal managers have built walls around their creative castles to protect themselves from drowning in a sea of crap.  The mission to get someone to want to read a screenplay is to convince them you have something really special, but everyone says that.  My mission remains, fueled by my steadfast belief in these two screenplays, knowing they will make wonderful films.  Stay tuned!

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EXTRA! EXTRA! PASSING Dale Robertson, Actor, Dies at 89: Connections #58

      I worked with Dale Robertson back when he formed the theatrical distribution company United Screen Arts (USA),  run by Harry Kopelan.

     One of the films The Man From Button Willow, which I recall being animated, was produced by Dale.  Another film A Swinging Summer  with Raquel Welsh doing the twist at Lake Arrowhead before she became a movie star.  And another film starred Tom Laughlin who delivered the 35mm film elements to me in his horse trailer.

     And so it goes, all things must end.  RIP

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EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRAS Meeting and Greeting in Hollywood: Connections #57

     I’m sitting in my room at the Best Western Mikado Hotel in North Hollywood, CA, writing my only story for the month of January, 2013, because I made final technical deliveries of two feature films today, “Margarine Wars” and “Atlas Shrugged Part ll.” I firmly believe that digital delivery is much more difficult than delivery was in the analogue world, much like computers was supposed to reduce paper consumption, but they didn’t. Because film makers can do more, more is expected of them. But few people have any idea how many hours it takes to create a simple visual effect. I know about this first hand because I shared office space with three very talented VFX artists who were working on Atlas Shrugged Part ll.

     The economy is coming back a little, but I along with many of my business associates, see monumental changes occurring throughout Hollywood. The problem is there are no simple answers. Personal reinvention is rampant, a good thing, and it’s my hope that the motion picture industry will become stronger.

     I become frustrated, sometimes, because there are so many gate keepers, and it’s almost – I repeat almost – impossible to present a screenplay that has the possibility to become a blockbuster, to the executives and creatives who are high enough in the food chain to be able to greenlight a project. I will talk about this from time to time in this Blog, because I am deeply involved in this time-consuming and often frustrating exercise, right now.

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EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRAS Looking Back at Some Events: Connections #56

     The year 2012 is fast coming to an end.  Many things have occurred in my world and the rest of the world, both good and bad.

     I will begin with the bad: the massacre of small children at the school in Connecticut, small children and teachers killed my a man with an assault rifle.  My wife Marcia lit a memorial candle on Christmas Eve at precisely 2 pm, following the instructions posted on FaceBook.

     The hurricane that affected so many people in so many ways on the East Coast, but maybe now the naysayers will realize there is such a thing as GLOBAL WARMING!

     My regular meeting place in Los Angeles, Juniors Deli closes today.  It will be missed by many people especially me.

     Now for the good:  I took my 6 1/2 year old grandson Dylan to see his first college football game.  USC beat Arizona, but it’s been a terrible year for USC and I feel particularly bad for Matt Barkley.  His greatness will not be diminished by such a lousy season and he will always be remembered for his committment to USC and not turning pro, and his ability on the playing field.

     I worked as Post Production Producer again on Atlas Shrugged Part ll.  It was a challenge to finish it and get it into theaters for its early October opening.

     My good friend Patrick Horton is conducting a seminar on screen writing at the Beverly Garland Hotel this Saturday and Sunday, and I plan to attend. He makes you really dive into yourself and ask lots of questions and the result seems to be, at least for me, that I tell the truth on the page about the characters and situations.  This isn’t the first time that I’ve attended his seminars, and this won’t be the last.

     I hoped to write more but my wife and I are leaving our nest to go and see the “Life of Pi” tonight.

     I wish everyone around the world a Prosperous, Peaceful, Healthy and Happy 2013.

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