Back from NY. Man, I needed that.
------------
We're nearing completion on Carissa, one of the movies I've been producing. The whole thing is and has been a thorough learning experience from the start - of course at this stage in my career almost everything is a learning experience, but this project is especially different than anything I've worked on before.
The film is a character-centered documentary short, but in a sense it falls into the politically/socially-oriented filmmaking vein because of the issues - teen homelessness, teen prostitution and the failures of the American juvenile justice system - it touches upon. From a financing standpoint, it's the first project I've taken on where the money has mostly come through public grants and nonprofit partnerships rather than private equity or pre-sales.
More than that, it's been a different experience as there's been as much work to be done on the awareness and involvement campaign around the concerns Carissa represents as on the production itself. The obvious recent model of that being successfully accomplished is An Inconvenient Truth (the director of that film is also Executive Producing Carissa)- as public recognition of the issues of global warming increased, awareness of the film increased and vice-versa. And realistically we're more focused on raising the profile of human trafficking of children in America, juvenile hall inadequacies, etc. since that's the ultimate goal of the film and frankly it's easier for people in most parts of the country to become involved in those areas than it is for them to access ANY documentary short.
Still, the way things are shaking out, it looks like this strange little side project I took on may end up having a higher profile than just about everything else I'm working on. . .
------------
We're nearing completion on Carissa, one of the movies I've been producing. The whole thing is and has been a thorough learning experience from the start - of course at this stage in my career almost everything is a learning experience, but this project is especially different than anything I've worked on before.
The film is a character-centered documentary short, but in a sense it falls into the politically/socially-oriented filmmaking vein because of the issues - teen homelessness, teen prostitution and the failures of the American juvenile justice system - it touches upon. From a financing standpoint, it's the first project I've taken on where the money has mostly come through public grants and nonprofit partnerships rather than private equity or pre-sales.
More than that, it's been a different experience as there's been as much work to be done on the awareness and involvement campaign around the concerns Carissa represents as on the production itself. The obvious recent model of that being successfully accomplished is An Inconvenient Truth (the director of that film is also Executive Producing Carissa)- as public recognition of the issues of global warming increased, awareness of the film increased and vice-versa. And realistically we're more focused on raising the profile of human trafficking of children in America, juvenile hall inadequacies, etc. since that's the ultimate goal of the film and frankly it's easier for people in most parts of the country to become involved in those areas than it is for them to access ANY documentary short.
Still, the way things are shaking out, it looks like this strange little side project I took on may end up having a higher profile than just about everything else I'm working on. . .
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
Best of luck to you and your guys as you head for the white light on this one, too.
Random brush: I ate sushi at a table next to D.G. at Sundance '06 at the place next to the Holiday Village; my friends and I couldn't get into the screening of An Inconvenient Truth next door.
Is like what happened in World War II in Germany: it can't happen again, unless it happens in a country the CNN doesn't care about. What you don't see doesn't exist, and if it takes place on a movie screen you can forget about as long as the film has an end.
I think the merit lies in the fact that your work is harder than it seems.