Thank you so much to my new friend Courtney at @BlazinAZTV for including me in her new web series, BlazinAZTV. It was a fun morning reliving the Plan B story. I hadn’t had a chance to stop and realize just how much has happened since our trip. Courtney has recently  interviewed other cool chicks like Stealthmode Partners’ entrepreneur advisor, blogger, and social media guru Francine Hardaway (@hardaway) and Noshtopia blogger Stephanie (@skinnyjeans). The question is, who is going to interview COURTNEY?

BlazinAZtv.com Interviews: Stephanie Houser, CEO / www.LaunchFlix.com / @LaunchFlix

In this episode Stephanie talks about:

• Her background
• Selling her business
• Getting struck by lightning and stranded on an island
• “Plan B”
• Realizing that everything happens for a reason
• Making the best of it
• Current project
  • “In An Unbroken Chain: My Journey though the Nazi Holocaust, Henry examines the eighteen separate but crucial links in the chain of events that kept him alive and ultimately led to his freedom.  Visit 6mfor6m.org for a short film and more info.”
• Claiming her path

The film industry is growing in Arizona and what better sign then a new conference, The Scottsdale Screenwriting Conference. Ken Rotcop, the founder of Pitchmart, will be leading the two day conference in Scottsdale on May 15 and 16. You can buy discounted tickets for $150.00 before April 15 and win the chance to attend PitchMart in LA.

Ken Rotcop, former creative head of four film studios (Embassy Pictures, Hanna-Barbera, Trans-World Productions, and Cannon Films), winner of the Writer’s Guild Award and the Neil Simon Award, founder of Pitchmart (as featured on Oprah), and author of the best-selling The Perfect Pitch, will lead this new two-day Scottsdale Screenwriting Conference.  Rotcop is one of Hollywood’s most successful screenwriters and screenwriting teachers and has been conducting these sessions since 1986.  He has supervised production for such celebrated films as The Graduate, Lion in Winter, Carnal Knowledge and Charlotte’s Web.

Join us on Twitter at @AZscreenwriting or on Facebook.

This past quarter we have noticed a few more film festivals.  All of it works together to create synergy for the industry.

The AZ Film and Media Expo was put on this past January and I heard it was well attended. Also I heard that there is a new Desperado Gay and Lesbian Film Festival that started up.  Add this to the biggies locally, the Phoenix Film Festival which is celebrating it’s 10th year, The Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival which is heading into it’s 15th year, the Arizona International Film Festival, the Scottsdale International Film Festival, and the Sedona international Film Festival.

We have to work together to keep our tax incentives program alive. Right now the program will sunset in December 2010. Click here to learn more about what you can do to continue to grow our industry and our opportunities here in Arizona.

A full service repair and maintenance facility. Canyon State Auto specializes in German, Japanese and luxury vehicles. Our certified master mechanic will take excellent care of your vehicle.  Call 480-374-1760 today to receive 25% off service work over $100.00.

Last night the Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, along with several other politicians, including Sam Crump, Jim Lane, the Mayor of Scottsdale, David Lujan, who is running for Attorney General, Jim Waring, who is running for U.S. Congress, and Barbara Leff, who is running for State Treasurer, all attended a National Association of Women Business Owners Phoenix Chapter Public Policy event at Alexi’s Restaurant in downtown Phoenix.  NAWBO President Loretta Love Huff and NAWBO Public Policy Chair Lolita Prescod hosted a great event where NAWBO members got to meet with their local representatives to discuss small business issues that affect them.

The Governor told about how when she was eleven years old, she used to work for her mother, a widower who started her own dress shop.

Here’s a recent picture of the Women in Scottsdale’s Woman of the Year awards. This year’s Winner is Paula Cullison, 4th from the left, standing next to my friend, Wink Blair, who brought me as her guest. The Honorable Carolyn S. Allen is on Paula’s other side.  Wink is a founder of Women of Scottsdale, and in addition to having her own PR firm, I discovered my friend, artist, Robert Sutz is her brother-in-law.  Wink has a pretty interesting group of friends, including former Mayor of Scottsdale, Mary Manross, who is standing next to Sleep America’s Debby Gaby, 3rd and 2nd from the right.  Mary sat next to me at lunch, and I discovered we have something in common, her son is a sailor who has his own harrowing tale of rescue at sea.

Great event, great group, I will definitely think about joining.

I was flattered to be sitting on a panel with Dr. Brenda McCaffrey of White Mountain Labs and Michelle Kort of

As You Wish Pottery, moderated by my friend, Kathy Sacks, recently as part of a Phoenix TIE event.  We thought

to tape it late in the afternoon and didn’t arrange for everyone to get all miked up as we would have liked, but

here’s a few snippets mainly from me, Steph. I couldn’t take this too seriously so I amused myself and tried

out the Annotations in YouTube. I think there’s room for improvement w/ that feature, but hopefully

you will get my humor. Enjoy!

“Roni does a superb job – she devotes many hours to researching, viewing, reading reviews, and selecting the best of hundreds of films to find those that meet our high standards before presentation to our Screening Committee for final approval.  Her leadership in and dedication to the Film Festival are unmatched.”
Jerry Mittleman, Executive Director, Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival

Roni Zee is in the role of artistic director for the third year now. She has been working with the Phoenix Jewish Film Festival since 2004. The organization has merged with the Sun Lakes Jewish Film Festival to become the Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival in order to grow, have the ability to promote and reach more people as one strong valley-wide organization.  There are about 27 board members and a handful of volunteers that make the festival happen.

The 2010 Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival is fast approaching with the opening gala on Feb. 20 running through March 4. Films will be shown at the Camelview in Scottsdale as well as the Harkins Chandler Crossroads.

Roni is no stranger to the entertainment industry. She was a successful make up artist based in the San Fransciso area for more than twelve years. Her “breaking into the industry” story happened when she and her family lived in Kansas City. After raising her family for several years, Roni was ready for a new challenge. She knew of a professional make up person in the area and called him to ask if she could apprentice for him. He was very rude initially. Roni told her husband when he got home from work that evening. Mr. Zee called him back and must have made a very strong case, because Roni soon started working with the man.  When Roni relocated to the Bay Area, she approached KTVU and offered to do someone’s makeup for free. That led to her first commercial.  She was in the Union originally and eventually became a free lance artist. Her favorite project was “Over Easy with Hugh Downs.” Roni worked on that PBS show for 3 years, and met people from all walks of life in that position.

Roni is very proud that this year there is a selection of high caliber films. We have two Arizona premiers, and several area premiers which was a goal,” she says.  The process begins in February, when the selection committee starts to research what’s available on the Internet and make a list of films they want to review.  Roni even reads international press to keep the festival on the cutting edge.  She says sometimes a film she is interested in will be released before the timing of the Phoenix festival, which happened recently with Waltzing with Bashir. “It’s extremely disappointing when that happens.”  Roni also vows not to show any films that you could already get on Netflix or Blockbuster to keep the festival choices fresh and exciting.  She wants to share these films outside the Jewish community and extends a warm invitation to anyone who is interested in great cultural independent films.

We asked her about her favorite snack as a movie buff.
“Red Vines, red licorice!”   she smiles.
Roni’s definitely earned some Red Vines this year. Check out the schedule, attend a flick, and be to let Roni know your feedback on this year’s festival.

NAWBO association welcomes you to join the Phoenix chapter.

Last night I went to a Phoenix Film Society screening of The FlyBoys, produced by Dark Coast Pictures. One of the producers, Arizona local Dan Urness was there for a Q&A after the film with the Arizona Republic’s Bill Goodykoontz. He was also the film’s stunt coordinator.

The film is about two twelve year olds who end up in a mobster’s airplane during a scam. I was impressed and happily surprised by the quality of the story and the film overall. Dan told us they tried to stay true to a realistic storyline as opposed to a “Home Alone” type silly escapade, and they did a great job. The story was terrific. I was really shocked by some of the events at the end of the film which included airplanes, parachuting, and free falling. No wonder they needed a stunt coordinator!

In the Q&A we learned that the budget of the film was only $2,000,000.00; low by Hollywood standards of course; and that the film’s challenges were running out of marketing dollars and being usurped by a film with the same name. The producers ultimately decided to delay the film’s launch so they could avoid confusion in the market. Someone in the audience had mentioned they tried to look up the film and found the other which was made in 2006.

One of their marketing challenges is that there are a number of reviews from 2008 when the film got out to film festivals, etc. The producers need to re-launch the film to keep it fresh. I would recommend encouraging supporters to post new reviews to all the usual suspects, i.e. Rotten Tomatoes, Flixter, etc.

The film has a great visual web site, although other bloggers and writers will understand when I complain about the press section: there was no easy way to find a text synapsis, photographs or embed video. Also, I didn’t see a Facebook or Twitter logo or links – in this day and age, I’m not sure how an indie film can survive without giving their supporters the extra step and tools they need and want to help promote for them.

At any rate, go see this film in Arizona at the SuperStition Harkins on Feb. 26 and then Facebook, MySpace and Tweet  the flick with your friends so it can get the national release it deserves.

We are in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show to see the latest and greatest – and talk to companies about launching, PR, visual marketing, digital media, etc.