Capitol Indie Collective

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Season’s Greetings
From
Capitol Indie Collective
4th Quarter, 2012
Our website (http://capitolindiecollective.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4f22444acb4fef1d433e6e8c8&id=077b354abf&e=1ff6d3e163)
This is your requested update for Winter 2012! Thank you for your continued support and interest in Sacramento’s Arts!
A Letter from the Executive Director:

Dear Supporters:

As the year 2012 comes to a close, I find myself looking at the wonderful achievements of the Capitol Indie Collective, only possible through your generosity in spirit, time, and donations.

When we founded the CIC in July of 2011 and gained Fiscal Sponsorship through the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission (SMAC), we began a mission and a movement, providing education and a platform for independent artists to be inspired, practice their art form, and deliver compelling works of art, making impact with personal meaning and social relevance from several different disciplines, backgrounds, and demographics in a sustainable, stimulating and nurturing environment.

Since our inception we have had 2 Fashion Challenges, Sponsored CCD Expo, launched Media Mentoring with “Miss Representation”, scored Silent Movies with Live Indie Bands at LAUNCH, Celebrated our first Birthday with the CIC B-Day Bash, and launched the funding for 2 residencies.

With the valuable guidance of our board members, Tracy Saville, Ben Catlin, Owen T. Jones, and Tony Chopelas, we have been able to execute these programs and have a website with all volunteer help. I cannot tell you how much this means to me. It is your support that keeps the CIC going.

2013 holds much opportunity for the CIC. While we have scaled back a bit to focus on infrastructure, we will still continue the Annual Fashion Challenge as a live event and the Media Mentoring program will continue through our website. Next year we hope to bring at least ten more people to the American Film Market in an effort to educate, inspire, and gain distribution for our local film producers. We can only do that with your generosity.

We are in the process of obtaining our own 501c3 designation so we can launch membership and give Artists what they need directly. In the meantime, SMAC still sponsors us and our sister company, Cow Town Film Productions, LLC has continued their commitment to the CIC and hopes to provide us with an affordable building in 2013.

I wish you the happiest of holidays and a prosperous New Year. I look forward to connecting with you soon. My greatest hope is that I can continue to serve the Artistic Community and further Artists from all disciplines through the CIC’s mission.

If you would like to volunteer or intern with us please contact me directly. If you would like to donate or sponsor an event, artist, or the Indiewood Bus, please go through our website here. (http://capitolindiecollective.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=4f22444acb4fef1d433e6e8c8&id=257185e90c&e=1ff6d3e163)

On behalf of everyone at the CIC, I sincerely thank you for your much needed support.
Together we can be champions for the Arts.

-Christina Marie

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Happy Holidays!!
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Capitol Indie Collective
Update
Artober, 2012
Our website (http://www.capitolindiecollective.com)
This is your requested update for Fall 2012! Thank you for your continued support and interest in Sacramento’s Arts!
ARTOBER (http://artobersac.com/) is upon us-be sure to look up the great activities throughout Sacramento by visiting www.sacramento365.com. The CIC would like to see more participation in ARTOBER from Sacramento’s citizens. There are amazing things to do, see, eat, and wear. Artists and art-based communities depend on people like you and me to engage and buy or participate locally. Many of the events are free and very kid friendly. The CIC Board meets this month to plan our next year’s worth of events. If you have any areas of interest or event suggestions, please email our Executive Director, Christina Marie (cj@capitolindiecollective.com). We want to make the CIC about our patrons and members-so your input is CRITICAL to our movement.

October’s Media Mentoring…
Will be available online and begins now! Christina Maire is going to AFM (The American Film Market). She is maintaining a Tumblr Blog (http://cmfilmmaker.tumblr.com/) with text, video, and photo entries on how to navigate the Film Market and acquire distribution for your Indie Film. The content is geared towards filmmakers (both aspiring and pro) and may be of interest to those studying distribution for any product like books, paintings, sculptures…distribution of content has many similar aspects across all medias.

September’s Media Mentoring…
is avaiable online as a video on our site. We have the AMAZING Tom Shadyac (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001723/) interview with the Tower Of Youth provided by William Bronston, MD. Please visit our site to watch how a bicycle accident dramatically shifted his filmmaking from Ace Ventura to Documentaries that are changing the world.

CCD Expo…
was cancelled this year due to the founder, Peter Oakes, battling Cancer. The CIC is supporting Peter through his journey by making him the first resident in Film making. (http://capitolindiecollective.com/residencies.html) Peter is making a Documentary, Stage 4: A Real Pain in the Neck. We are raising $25,000 to help him with finishing funds and distribution. To stay up to date, please find Peter on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/StageIV) .

First Place -For details see our site (http://www.capitolindiecollective.com) August was a busy month!

August 2nd: We BEGAN the SF&MF Presents: The CIC Fashion Challenge! 6pm at the Crest Theatre on K Street.

August 15th: The 13th Annual Sacramento Film and Music Festival Began with the CIC Fashion Challenge and evening of local filmmakers!

August 2012 we began funding our residency programs in two areas of art: Film and Music. Please see the website for application guidelines.

To see our August sponsors and participants in the CIC Fashion Challenge, please see our website- www.capitolindiecollective.com

Events last July included:
A model gets painted into the floor! July 11th: CIC Birthday Bash featuring: DJ Ted Hicks, Clemon Charles and OPUS, Thomas Ramey, Sterling Running Stream Phillips, Annette Humphries, and more! Andy Warhol Theme with a best dressed to the theme contest! This year we wanted to begin funding the INDIEWOOD Bus: a delivery mechanism for Arts and Sciences to Sacramento’s desperate schools. Thank you for celebrating with us while contributing to a better education for our children!

July 23rd-28th: LAUNCH: The Capitol Indie Collective Presented: A unique night of Film and Music on the 24th. Silent Movies scored by live bands featuring Gentleman Surfer, DD Walker, and Ross Hammond.

The CIC’s mission is to give Independents more independence! Thank you for subscribing. This is our second newsletter of events. You have recieved this email because you have expressed interest, in the past, in the Capitol Indie Collective or other endeavors led by Christina Marie. We are in Beta-testing. If you would like to unsubscribe, please see below. It is our goal to connect with you in a fun and engaging way. If you have suggestions on how to better connect with you, please email us.

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Capitol Indie Collective at LAUNCH!
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Interview with Tom Shadyac-September's Media Mentoring

Your Capitol Indie Update for July

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Capitol Indie Collective
July Events
July, 2012
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Happy 4th of July! The CIC’s mission is to give Independents more
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July 11th: CIC Birthday Bash featuring: DJ Ted Hicks, Clemon Charles
and OPUS, Thomas Ramey, Sterling Running Stream Phillips, Annette
Humphries, and more! Andy Warhol Theme with a best dressed to the
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July 23rd-28th: LAUNCH: The Capitol Indie Collective Presents: A
unique night of Film and Music on the 24th. Silent Movies scored by
live bands featuring Gentleman Surfer, DD Walker, and Ross Hammond.
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July Media Mentoring: Media Mentoring will be on July 24th at Bows and
Arrows to celebrate collaborration. See how collaborration can help
your art business! Tickets for Media Mentoring this month are not
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Capitol Indie Collective at LAUNCH!
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Capitol Indie Collective
7485 Rush River Drive Ste 710-231
Sacramento, CA 95831 

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My Film Family (By CJ)

As I think about the I (heart) Film Mixer in Placerville, CA, all I can think about is how for several years now, I have been developing a wonderful, wacky, somewhat dysfunctional, NorCal Film family.  I have a ton of love for my film family and can’t wait for the “reunion” every year.  It will be fabulous to see Gary Davis again!  He’s yet another one of NorCal’s brothers that has HUGE screen credits!  Read all about the latest here: http://www.mtdemocrat.com/features/legendary-stuntman-flips-over-job/

How To Get Distribution Without Misrepresentation.

One of our questions last Thursday that I wanted to delve into more was, “How do we as Filmmakers get a distribution without ‘misrepresentation’?”   That really is the burning question for me, because as we all know, filmmakers have to eat.

It’s all good and well to identify the problem of misrepresentation and under representation in government (like Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s documentary, Miss Representation, does) but it’s another thing all together to solve that problem.  It is a very far reaching, complex issue.  As with most issues int he United States, it comes down to money and personal responsibility.  www.missrepresentation.org has plenty of solutions and steps to take if you are a citizen, but few alternatives for indie filmmakers.

Well along the lines of, “You can’t be what you can’t see”,  Indies have few examples to draw from.  Many of us lament, “I have to make this garbage until I can make my REAL project.”  So here are some suggestions from Cow Town Film Productions for you to get distribution without all of the boobs, drugs, blood, and guts.

1.  Find a better script!  Actually take some time to develop character and dialog.  That way you don’t have to rely on shocking things like wardrobe accidents, snorting lines on screen, and chopping heads off.

2.  Find a better setting.  Every idea has been done in Hollywood, so set the story in Indiewood!  IE:  the snakes on a plane…snakes on a train…snakes on a boat route.  What would happen if Zombies were found on Mars??  Remember Hollywood likes more of the same…only different.  That’s why we get so many crappy spinoffs!

3.  Maybe stop listening to everyone around you and get OUTSIDE the bubble!  Why do you HAVE to make a horror flick?  Distributors want to sell repeat Movie Theater tickets and ancillary sales.  Make a movie that has those two opportunities built in.  ie: family movies that involve toys.  See: Toy Story.

4.  Baby steps.  Slow and steady wins the race.  So old Hollywood is still rejecting your female-lead character script.  We can’t all write “Bridesmaids” in an answer to “The Hangover”.  Iron Man had Pepper Pots.  While it was a bit of a Misrepresentation, I walked away from that film thinking, “With out her, Iron Man would be NOTHING.”  Why not check your Male dominated scripts and see where you can change the characters to females in non-traditional roles?  One of my newest friends makes custom motorcycles-yep she’s a GIRL.  Why not change the hammy sidekick to a hammy best girlfriend that the lead never has sex with??  Take a page from The Incredibles:  E, the fashion designer that makes the Supers outfits is short, wears glasses, and secludes herself; yet the supers crumble at her feet!  She has the most bravado and gusto out of all the characters in the movie!

5.  Remember:  you can do subtle things to correct misrepresentation in scripts.  Just think to yourself, “…does she really have to wear a skimpy outfit to be a action star?”  Maybe you CAN cast a young man in a secretarial role.   Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see the lead male who happens to be 65 in real life actually paired with a woman in her late fifties or early sixties as well?  I don’t know about you, but I hate watching Bruce Willis making out with women 1/3 his age!

6. And lastly-yet this should really be first off- HIRE A WOMAN.  See: SUCKERPUNCH.  I met the team that made that little bit of vomit.  They apologized profusely because it was a flop.  (I wonder what they would have said if it was a smash hit??)  They told me that they failed miserably at creating a product geared towards the modern 16-24 year old female.  (duh..!) They wanted to boost the box office which had lagged due to the XBox Factor (phenomenon where boys just want to play video games at home).  They figured if they just put more females plugged into product that was still male-marketed, that they would get the ladies there. They thought if they made the movie more like a video game, that they could get the boys back in the theater when their girlfriends begged them to go see a ‘chick flick’.  REALLY?  When I asked them how many people on the producing team were women, their faces fell.  I thought to myself, “Are they really that disconnected to think that middle aged men have a clue when it comes to the modern teen-aged girl?”  Maybe I should have referred them to #3 in this blog.

Let’s keep the conversation going! Jennifer suggests we all make stories that we know.  Do you know a strong woman in your life? My grandmother used to tell me stories that would curl your hair! 

I do have more suggestions, but I’d like to hear what filmmakers are getting back from the distributors and investors.  Please share with us your stories of rejection on a script.  Let’s see how we can help each other get that golden ring on this crazy carousel of film making with out painting the ponies red.