What's Lorie Up To?

Obviously, I am so behind in posting here. Same old, same old. Still refining business plan for Lost In Sunshine and still parenting my two-year-old.

But, here are some updates:

Have realized I can't do Lost In Sunshine justice as its sole producer while also parenting the aforementioned two-year-old. Jentri and I are now seeking two additional producers to bring Lost In Sunshine to fruition. We're talking with friends in Texas and Minnesota about referrals and prospective partners to move forward with.

To wit, we're looking for a Line Producing maven who'll be on top of all things technical, mechanical, line-producer-y including not only pre-production and the shoot, but post production supervision, distribution deliverables, and website support. Someone who's psyched about our plans to build community around our project and embrace a budding indie distribution paradigm that involves a lot of DIY and nurturing a website.

The other partner we're seeking is someone who likes the "business side" like me. Someone with integrity and gumption who's confident and enthusiastic about soliciting investors and attaching talent. Someone who wants to market and distribute this movie with me and successfully monetize it to pay its investors back, with a return, as well as pay us, its producers!

You producers out there know that this is ambitious. Producers get paid LAST. Isn't that ironic? Without us, would there be a movie? Maybe so, maybe not. But, we're afflicted with this passion for the process, aren't we? Anyway, I still have this dream of getting paid to do what I love so much. I'll get there. I don't need lottery money earnings, just money to put toward my family's expenses. Oh, and toward a personal chef, too. ha ha

Another thing I've finally figured out is a positioning strategy for the story/movie. What will be our "hook?" What will distinguish our movie from all the other well-executed, art house, road trip, ensemble character study movies in the marketplace? We've decided to embrace the spirituality, New Age, metaphysical elements of our story and characters. That's been a big A HA for me. A lot of follow-on dominoes fall into place, based on that decision. Which gets me that much closer to finally completing the business plan.

Oh, if you haven't found/read it already, Jon Reiss has written some great case study stuff for Filmmaker Magazine on his DIY theatrical release of his doc, Bomb It! I really appreciated him posting his estimated and actualized budget(s). Check it out.

Applied to the Sundance Creative Producing Fellowship, the Tribeca All Access Program, and the LA FilmFest/Film Independent's Fast Track Program. I know we weren't selected for Tribeca (but, Kat was! Yay for Kat!), and I haven't heard anything from the other two, yet.

Sigh.

One side of me feels like the kid who nobody wants to pick for their Dodgeball team. The other side of me feels like if we were meant to benefit from being in one of the above programs, we'd be selected. If we're not selected, our path lies outside of them.

I'd still like to be picked, though. Wah.

Okay, what else? Oh the IFP Minnesota's annual Producers Conference in April in Minneapolis is hosting Peter Broderick as one of its panelists this year. I'm super-psyched. I think I'm a groupie of his. On his bulletin, he posted news about a movie called The Age of Stupid, which I was excited to find. I admire what/how they've done with their website strategy and release plan(s) for the film.

I LOVE blogs. All these cool, creative, inspiring people share the insides of their brains in writing, and I get to crib ideas and motivation from all of them!

Okay, haven't seen my husband all day, so off I go.

I know I'm not as consistent with posting here as I'd like. But, I'm going to keep showing up, consistently or not, so I hope you'll keep checking in with me. As my daughter gets older, I imagine I'll be able to return to the productivity level I used to work at. :)

Thanks for reading.