Yesterday after a fabulous keynote at the Hawai’i Writers Conference, I picked up a copy of Mitch Albom’s new book “Have a Little Faith.” He and I have a lot in common. We both worked closely with our Rabbis, have both founded non profits, and both worked with a guy named Henry. His Henry is now a preacher, a former drug dealer and convict who is trying to rebuild his church in Michigan; my Henry, an 88 year old Holocaust Survivor and author of An Unbroken Chain, our charity, 6M for 6M is about raising six million dollars to make a film about his life story and raise awareness for acceptance at the same people by merely asking for $1 per person.

Yesterday after a fabulous keynote, I picked up a copy of Mitch Albom’s new book “Have a Little Faith.” I had him sign it for Henry Oertelt, “Mazel Tov on your 3rd honorary doctorate and An Unbroken Chain, Mitch Albom.” Dr. Oertelt will be getting his degree from St. Olaf in Minnesota on October 15.

Mitch and I actually have a lot in common. We both work closely with our Rabbis, have both founded non profits, and both worked with a guy named Henry. His Henry is now a preacher, a former drug dealer and convict who is trying to rebuild his church in Michigan; my Henry, an 88 year old Holocaust Survivor and author of An Unbroken Chain, our charity, 6M for 6M is about raising six million dollars to make a film about his life story and raise awareness for acceptance at the same people by merely asking for $1 per person.

I am fortunate enough to be attending the Hawai’i Writers Conference at the Sheraton Waikiki from September 3-8 for this Labor day weekend. I was visiting my sister and my 15 month old niece, when we learned about the 17 year old event. They are expecting around one thousand attendees. Auntie has to go bye bye for a few, girlfriend. (Hopefully no permanent damage done?)

I will be covering several events including:
Opening Ceremonies – “Voices of Hawai’i”
Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie) “Have a little Faith”
The IDEApreneur wrokshop with Sam Horm and John Carter
All about Publishing: The Arc of a Successful Book
5 Things you should know about Hollywood
An evening with Oscar Winners Michael Arndt and Robert Moresco (Crash, LIttle Miss Sunshine, Million Dollar Baby)

and looking forward to meeting (& tweeting) everyone there.

This is the photo I wanted them to run: a picture of Dr. Corey Samuels (left) associate producer, (and grandaughter of Holocaust Survivor Dr. Henry Oertelt) and Stephanie Houser, CEO launch flix. They went with a shot of the book cover.. Come on, guys we’re trying to bring in the big donations!

Anyway, here’s a portion of Angela Gonsalves cover story, and we will post in its entity as soon as possible.

Launch flix, a Phoenix-based production company, is kicking off a $6 million fundraising campaign to develop a feature film based on a Holocaust survivor’s experiences in Nazi concentration camps.

Called “Six Million for Six Million,” the campaign’s goal is to cover the cost of film production and advertising to tell the story of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holo­caust, said Stephanie Houser, CEO of launch flix.

The film chronicles the life of 88-year-old Henry Oertelt, author of “An Unbroken Chain: My Journey through the Nazi Holo­caust.” In his book, Oertelt highlights 18 links in the chain of events that kept him alive long enough to be freed. In Hebrew, the number 18, or “chai,” signifies life and luck.

One of the links was his optimism, which kept him moving forward. In his book, Oertelt said he saw many others perish because they gave up hope.

Visit 6mfor6m.org for more info!

Last night we saw a screening of the movie, The Cove. While the movie had a few messages, the main takeaway is that there is an annual slaughter of 23K dolphins in Taiji, Japan. That’s where they capture and sell dolphins to marine parks all over the world. They kill and sell the rest of them as food, sometimes misleadingly marked as whale meat.

The movie shows that dolphins are deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures in the open ocean. But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling — and the consequences are so dangerous to human health — they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.

If you are in Phoenix, the film will play starting Friday August 7 for at least a week, depending on the demand. Please consider taking a group to see this film, and then, Tweet, become a fan on Facebook, and protest this inconceivable event before they strike again this September when the dolphins migration patterns lead them to this horrific fate.

(pictured: Stephanie’s initial meeting with Henry and his wife Inge about a year ago.)

So a year after my initial conversation with now 88 year old Dr. Henry Oertelt, Holocaust Speaker and Author of An Unbroken Chain, My Journey through the Nazi Holocaust, I find myself getting ready to publicly launch a national fundraising campaign with a new non profit partner for this project. Yes, very exciting development and there’s much more! You can read more details on our film blog. Did you ever see the film, A Mighty Wind? “Wha happened?”

I guess what happened is this project found me at the right time and place in my life. If you had told me a few years ago I’d be producing a feature film that took place during the Holocaust, I would have thought you were crazy. Now, I’m the crazy one.

We need some help! We’re looking for a professional female voice talent. We are talking to two casting people, and going to start to look to attach actors. We are steadily building a list of crew who will be open to traveling to Romania or Bulgeria for the estimated 6 week shoot. We need some PR friends help get the word of our new campaign out for our August 14 launch to press. And most importantly, we need to get the funds together.

If you want to do a little mitzvah yourself, you can refer anyone who fits the bill listed in previous para, share the campaign with your network, donate, or volunteer. Send me an email or if you haven’t already, sign up for our email blast which will share details before the launch.

Thank you for all your support over the past year. You are truly mesches, my friends. Good people! I especially want to thank a group of people who have helped us get to this point – the links of OUR UNBROKEN CHAIN. Two organizations remain off this list, as we plan to make a major partnership announcement later this month. You know who you are and thank you!

Dr. and Mrs. Henry Oertelt
Samuels family
Oertelt family
Silverman family
Dr. Corey Samuels (associate producer)
Ken Leshin (editor)
Jonathan Levine (design)
Louise Jordan (design)
Gene Gassle (editor, music)
Aly Saxe (PR)
Lerner Publishing
Jill Ormond (Attorney)
Gerry Kramer (CPA)
Lonnie Elfbaum (music)
Marc Parmet (music)
Dee Harris (advisor)
Brian Davis (advisor)
Ray Baxter (advisor)
Paul Pflug (advisor)
Barry Schreiber (photos)
and last but not least,
Hayden Houser (Director of Photography)
If I have missed anyone else, let me know.

Scott Kirsner’s book, Friends, Fans and Followers, is a must read for any filmmaker, distributor, or person in the film industry, or for that matter, anyone in PR, marketing, advertising who wants to market a product in the New World of distribution. The two big challenges this book aims to address are: how do you build a fan base online, and how can that fan base support your career?

Scott has been at the heart of the industry and provides many recent examples of successful campaigns. We are in the middle of writing a business plan for a film project and found it completely changed our entire strategy.

From Steal this Film to the most popular video on YouTube (Evolution of Dance), Scott helps us understand why these efforts worked and reached millions. In the Internet age, consumers with little time to focus and several windows open on their computer screen only give us a few seconds before deciding whether or not to invest their attention with us longer. If they do stop to watch or read about our project, hopefully in its entirety, its then up to us to ask for help – a donation, a review, or a mention.

Another key is that you have to be present in the online community that you are promoting your content in.

He interviews 30 visionaries in film, music and publishing who have had real success online in finding their audience and continuing to, for the most part, make a living at something they love.

Finally he lists a number of online tools – websites, etc. that was enormously helpful for us as we look to plan a film and book launch in the next half of 2009. We are feeling a lot more confident having had the opportunity to read Scott’s book before cementing our strategy. You can go to this page for the first 35pp of the book.Congratulations, Scott on a great resource.

We loved this film! It was a fresh, entertaining flick that we would see again. Enjoy the video interviews of Director Nick Jasenovec and Writer/Actor Charlene Yi (Knocked Up.)

First of all, I wanted to blog from the fundraising workshop but there was no wireless Internet access. Second of all, I don’t know if I could have, even if I wanted to. The sessions were so jam packed with rich information that between recording the speakers and taking notes, we were in overload by the end of the day. Here, I try to give some nuggets from the sessions.

Through out the day, we wondered how the experts would address piracy. We know someone who claims they can download anything (any movie) online. Some people seemed to be on the defensive about this topic, and others seemed really naïve – “piracy only happens with stars.” That isn’t true. However the conclusion might be that if there is a low cost online model, even an opportunity to donate to the filmmaker after viewing a good story, most viewers would rather contribute or watch ad content than steal.

The first speaker, James Stern (pictured), the CEO of End Game Entertainment, was excellent. Full text at IndieWire.com.

• In 2-3 years the masses will be streaming movies.
• There were 9293 submissions to Sundance (218 were selected) and 3 were released
• High Def. Version 7 is a new way to see movies and he thinks people, like families will pay as much as $50.00 to access this and show a new film at home to a group in the future.
His three rules are
1. Make smarter movies
2. Respect the money as you do the talent
3. Before rolling cameras, think market

• He spoke of the App Store Effect, as David Pogue of the New York Times coined it. This is the phenomenon where iPhone applications developers are seeing success by giving applications away for free or simply charging a dollar. The numbers are staggering: iPhone/iPod Touch fans downloaded 1 billion apps within 9 months.
• Stars are really important to financing.
• Short form is at a premium. There may be something to dividing up a movie into small parts so viewers can watch on their cell phones etc.

The next session was a panel called The World as We know it: is it over? Moderated by Anne Thompson, (Thompson on Hollywood.)
Some takeaways:
• Landmark Theaters are one of few chains letting filmmakers have a VOD option when their film is showing at the theater.

• They spoke of combining festivals and non-traditional means of distribution to make money.

• The new consumer habit of consuming film is still emerging.
• There’s an opportunity for indie filmmakers to cast bigger stars now as less projects are being made.
• Most indie distributors are going out of business.
• If you do get financing and distribution, they think you have a “lottery ticket.”
• There will be more of a drought in six months to a year for films.
• They think critics are going away, and it’s not a good thing. Online reviews don’t tend to result in bigger numbers at the theater, but traditional reviews do.
• Regarding piracy, the lag time between theatrical windows needs to go away.
• The movie business needs a low cost online model.
• Consider doing VOD while at a film festival. For example you could offer 1,000 free streams and consider that 1,000 virtual seats in addition to the seats at the festival.
• Laura Bickford (Che) said there’s still lots of money wanting to invest.
• You can’t finance a movie without soft money, that is the money back from tax incentives.
• When you get a Foreign sales company involved, they can give you low, medium and high estimates but no meaningful pre-sales.
• Ask yourself, who is my audience, what is their reach and how much money do I expect from them?

The next session was a packaging workshop where local filmmakers pitched their projects and we all learned from the feedback.
• The first film pitched was called See you on the Dark Side. One of the writers from The L Word was involved.
• The second film was called Learning Uncle Vernon. They mentioned the issues with casting underage actors, especially if there’s some time between making your choice and shooting since kids grow so fast. They also discussed ways to eliminate issues like trying to find an older actor who looks young, or better yet, rewriting the part for an older person.
The next session included case studies like Anvil, Good Dick and Bomb It.
• They shared ideas like include a live component with your screening, like Anvil’s band played after the movie in some cases.
• There’s a new book coming out called The Complete Guide To Film Distribution in the Digital Era by John Reiss (Bomb It) that will be out 9/15.
• I’ll try to get hold of a copy and review it.
• They discussed planning a college tour for your film.

• It was suggested that in a negotiation with distributors, filmmakers say we’re not interested in a royalty deal for distribution. We want a fee deal, you get 25% expenses back, and we get the rest.
• Deal with DVD distribution. Get access to materials they create with foreign deals you don’t get it
• If you are vested in promoting it will help the distributor sell more units.
• You can watermark DVDs with personal names at colleges to combat piracy.
• Pirating is flattery said one.
• There was a recent article on piracy and bit torrenting in FilmMaker Magazine.

The last panel was on digital distribution. The moderator, Scott Kirsner has a book out called Friends, Fans and Followers, which I plan to review very soon. You can also follow him on his blog.

• Movie titles are more important than ever, so your title comes up in online searches.
• Another piracy comment was that piracy happens to movies with big stars, it’s a sign of flattery for indies.

In the new film Public Enemies, Mann examines the man whose criminal exploits captivated a nation besieged by financial hardship and ready to celebrate a mythic figure who robbed the banks that had impoverished them and outsmarted the authorities who had failed to remedy their hard times, who inspired the first nationwide war on crime, who led a band of accomplished armed robbers on a cascade of dazzling heists and improbable breakouts, and whose dashing manner and charisma entranced not only a special woman but an entire country: legendary Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger.

The film’s web site is pretty cool, lots of pictures, info on the long list of filmmakers, the book which the film is based on, etc. I got to talk to one of the actors in what looks like one of this summer’s big flix.

Randy Ryan tells me the movie is about the formation of the FBI. He played the role of Julius Rice, one of the FBI Gang Members. “After a lot of auditions, I am just really, really lucky that I was chosen for a part on this film,” he says. The best part of the set was most of the ensemble’s actors were usually people who took leading roles, but “we were all there playing smaller parts to serve the story.”

Randy Ryan was born and raised in rural Tennessee then joined the Army halfway through his senior year of high school. After an honorable discharge, he attended North Carolina State University and left halfway through his senior year of college to attend the Circle in the Square Professional Workshop in New York City.

Randy’s first critical attention came from his unique comedic turn in the Off Broadway hit, Joe Fearless at the Atlantic Theatre Company which is owned by David Mamet and William Macy. It had several successful runs.

His first lead role was in the dramatic feature, The Forgotten, which captured Best Feature Film at the Sedona Film Festival. He tells me the film won awards at other festivals as well.

After winning the role of Wayne, the sympathetic southern father-to-be in the final episode of Sex & the City, Randy was described by producer Michael Patrick King as “one of those guys selling Christmas trees who fell off the truck.” Randy told me he got to go to all the final wrap parties for the series, too. How cool.

He will married actress Erin Raftery in January 2009 in rural Connecticut. They live in Santa Monica with their dog, Wrigley.

What’s next? Randy is the lead in Amanda, an indie film due out later this year. Also, rumor has it that Randy will be starring in a new pilot. We’ll have to wait and see. Public Enemies opens tonight in Westwood at the LA Film Festival and will be in theaters July 1.