Wellesnet Convention - Why can't I stop thinking of this?!?

[Hill Skipper]

W E L L E S N E T W E S T ! !

The Welles Fest should be at UCLA.

[Steeler1]

Jeeeeeeeeezuz! i talk to steeler about doing a once a month welles screening, he gets the fever, and next thing you know he's got a convention going.

I told you Jaime last time I saw you that I'm ready for the monthly screenings! Let's do it!

[jaime marzol]

steeler:
i'm ready to do the monthly welles screenings.

on the convention:
i would be very interested in embarking on a film convention venture. Below are some thoughts, info, musings, ideas for others to expand on.

FILM RENTAL:
$100 to $165 per title. If needed titles can't be gotten from the low budget distributor and another distributor has to be approached, $200 to $250 per title. KANE is always $250 no matter who it's rented from.

ADVERTISING:
WEB - it would be a big help if some one involved knows how to make websites, or add $1000 for website, $70 per month for maintenance. Web promotion is something that should be approached aggressively because of the relatively low cost.

FILM MAGS
The way to go. Some film mags do extra coverage that we don't pay for on this type of thing because it's news worthy; "5 Ball-Bags Meet On The Web And Start A Film Convention."

NEWSPAPER
Have no clue what newspaper advertising costs. But any city within a 6 hour radius of the location should be well advertised. If it' were in Orlando, mainly because there are 2 of us here to divide up what ever running around needs to be done, Tampa, Ft. Laud, Miami, Daytona, Pompano, West Palm Beach, all have artsy papers besides the regular newspapers. West Palm, Miami, Pompano have large populations of wealthy people, which can't hurt. I'm a commercial artist, photographer, pseudo writer, one man magazine making force, I can design all the advertising, no prob.

MERCHANDISING:
Books, Glossys, Posters, Tapes, DVDs, Collectables, Art Work. Not only Welles, but all branches of classic movie stuff.

DVD:
What Welles fan would not buy Don Q, Chimes At Midnight, or F-For Fake if he could find it.

Don Q and Chimes DVDs are region encoded. They won't play in most people's players. Legally you can make one copy of each DVD you purchase. So if 200 copies of Chimes are purchased you can make 200 copies of the DVD, encoded for the US, that you give away with the DVD purchase. It's an import, so there is no suggested retail, you charge accordingly.

BOOKS:
Lots of books on Welles are out of print. For films, if the owner of a film has one version of the film in the States, and a different version overseas, you can make copies of the overseas version and legally sell it here. It has something to do with the freedom of information act. I don't know that much about it but this can be researched, and it's possible that out of print books, under certain circumstances, can be copied and sold.

In other cases, agreement can be reached with owner of out of print book to order a quantity of the book, not bound, but copied, 3-hole punched, in loose leaf notebook, with registration # on the cover, "FOCUS ON ORSON WELLES, #017786, Printed By Special Arrangement, For Sale Only At 5-Ball-Bag's Welles Convention, 2002."

Framed Art Work: special permission can be arranged to make some quality, numbered blow-ups of frames from Welles films. I don't mean a $10 item, I mean a $200, $300 item.

GUEST SPEAKERS:
I have no idea what the ticket is for a guest speaker. People like Graver, and Schmidlin do this all the time. It's not something they do for the good of mankind, it's part of their gig. It's like booking a band. They have a rider (requirements the idiot who hired them has to meet), and you follow those instructions. I just don't know the size of the ticket. A guy like Graver is a multi purpose guest because he owns fragments of films that he brings and screens.

LAWYERS:
We will need to form a corporation, 5 Ball-Bags United, Inc., a corporate checking account, contracts drawn up, etc, etc. and once we have lawyers we will need a pistol budget to keep the layers in line.

I don't know where the Midnight Marquee Convention was held, but that might be a big part of it's failure. Location and maybe advertising. Florida is a cultural corpse. Perfect place for such a thing. Classic film fans are everywhere but classic film events in Florida, nothing. When Cinema Vortex (the film club I inherited) was in Miami, one sentence in the weekly calander of the art paper, "cinema vortex, screening orson welles The Trial, at The Bar Space, Sunday 9:00pm", that would bring 40 to 50 people to the screening.

July 4th Weekend Cinevent will have it's next film convention. Maybe those interested can meet at cinevent, spy on their operation, get contact info from vendors, discuss our operation.

[Steeler1]

Sounds like you're the man with the plan Jaime. We'll restart the Cinema Vortex screenings here in Central Florida and start to network. I'll will start distributing info to film students for the viewings.

Your problem Jaime has been that you are extremely ambious! Here's a project that should be a true challenge!

I'm with you all the way.
Mike

[R Kadin]

July 4th and thereabouts I am usually in Myrtle Beach, SC - which is much closer to FL than where I am here in Iglooville. Also, I know people who do websites for a living, some of whom might be gracious enough to assist in that department. Add to that one or two friends in the marketing biz and who knows? Granted, these are all Canadian contacts, but it won't harm anything to ask. Plus, depending on my tax situation this year, my own available resources could be helpful to the cause. Finally, if it's possible to end-run some of the international import and U.S. rights issues by streaming anything through Canada, that's another task I'd be happy to assume.

[jaime marzol]

steeler said:
Your problem Jaime has been that you are extremely ambious! Here's a project that should be a true challenge!

ah, i hate the thought of starting small. i don't mean for the monthly screenings. i mean for a convention. start out with a big bang, shoot the full load, go for the gusto, like bugsy seigle, and look what happened to him.

5 years from now, funded by convention money, i'm holed up in my hollywood mansion watching my screen test.

the bosses from wellesnet back east are angry because the convention cost 9 million, not one million as i first told them, and i've been running around with starlets. the contract was put out on me.

jimmy the weasle fratiano is outside my window with a rifle & scope.

[Rick Schmidlin]

Hi,
I just got back from Europe and just saw your posts for a convention.One idea might be to be a sidebar to Cinecom, which draws major movie buffs like Maltin and others to it day by day event. This would mean Welles screenings, lectures and events tied in with a large group of cinefiles and in lovely downtown Hollywood, and other great things for you to do. Below is the information on this years event. You would then mix with the best and be able to really discuss with the experts on cinema. This brings out cinefiles in there 80's and many who knew or met Welles.

Cinecon 38 Film Announcements

The Society for Cinephiles will present the 38th annual Cinecon classic film
festival and memorabilia show in Hollywood over Labor Day Weekend, August 29 through
September 2, 2002. Cinecon 38 promises to offer an outstanding five day program of
unusual films, exciting celebrity guests and one of the best movie memorabilia marts
in the nation.
Among the films scheduled to be screened in the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the
restored Grauman's Egyptian on Hollywood Boulevard are:

"The Idle Rich" (M-G-M, 1929), a rare William C. de Mille talkie starring Bessie
Love and Conrad Nagle

"God's Country and the Woman" (Warner Bros., 1937) Warner Bros. first 3-strip
Technicolor feature starring Beverly Roberts and George Brent.

"The Last Card" (Metro, 1921) A tense crime melodrama based on a "Saturday Evening
Post" story starring May Allison and directed by Bayard Veiller

"The Cocktail Hour" (Columbia, 1933) A frothy precode romance directed by Victor
Schertzinger starring Bebe Daniels and Randolph Scott.

"Pennington's Choice" (Quality-Metro, 1915) starring Francis X. Bushman and
Beverly Bayne at their peak.

"Half Shot at Sunrise" (Radio, 1930) Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey cavorting with
Dorothy Lee in the A. E. F. New Print from the original camera negative

"Under Cover of Night" (M-G-M, 1936) Pathe serial director George B. Seitz and
writer Bertram Millhauser reteam in this melodrama starring Edmund Lowe.

"The Silver Horde" (Goldwyn, 1920) A tale of salmon fishing in the great northwest
directed by Frank Lloyd

This year's host hotel will be the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel located next to
the new Hollywood and Highland entertainment complex at 1755 North Highland Avenue.
It's a closer walk to the Egyptian and the brand new facility should real plus for
the Cinephiles.
For further information, write: Cinecon 38, 3405 Glendale Boulevard, # 251, Los
Angeles, California 90039.
For hotel reservations call the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel/Marriott
reservation lines at 1-800-HOTELS-1 or 1-323-856-1200. Remember to ask for Cinecon
rates.
Celebrity appearances and announced film titles have been confirmed but are
subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances.

[jaime marzol]

.......

no one responded with, "wow, lets go for it!" to my convention ideas, but cinecom sounds interesting.

how was europe?

[Rick Schmidlin]

Paris and Denmark where great. In Coppenhagen I presented "GREED" and it went really cooooooooooooool.

[jaime marzol]

..............

super. sounds like a great vacation/work type of thing. and speaking to a bunch of film fans, sounds like fun.

did they use projectors and film, or those video projectors?

i've been thinking of getting a video projector but everywhere i go to see one, it's never plugged in and operating, which makes me suspicious.

i'll pay my dough, get it home, the quality will suck. i'll take it back, tell the girl behind the counter it sucks, and she'll laugh, "oh, you wanted a good quality picture, mr marzol, but you purchased the $2,500 suckola-tron? to get a good quality picture you need the $25,000 entry grade model."

has any one seen the quality of a projection tv that is priced under $3,000?

.............

[jaime marzol]

...........

questions for rick, or anybody who has any experience with this:

when you reconstructed GREED i read that you used a motorised platform to move the pictures while you filmed them. i haven't sat and analyzed the craftsmanship of the reconstruction yet, i've just watched it as a whole, and it's marvelous, but will be looking at it differently in the next few days because i'm wrestling with same problem now.

i'm taping some stills in macro focus because the pictures are small. i have a sturdy bogen tripod, that is not the problem. in macro focus 'any' camera move looks like an earthquake, so i'm moving the pictures manually instead of the camera. that leaves a lot to be desired. i'm thinking of getting an owi robotic arm 007, seems to be the most popular one. and it comes with software to program the movements.. do you have experience with this? is this how you made the moving platform to move your pics? or will i have to use something smoother than robotic arm.

what really screws me up is that i can't find a robotic arm used and assembled. it's an educational thing that tells me i will learn so much while assembling it. arrrrghhh! i don't want a learning experience assembling a robotic arm, i just want to use one already put together.

once i buy it, and the software, and take 5 days or 2 weeks to put it together, it would suck to find out the arm is not smooth enough.

right now i'm using the hand method for moving the pics, and the method of editing out the really bad shakes, but this sucks.

with a robotic arm i can program the movements at whatever speed the arm operates smoothest at, but i wonder if the robotic's arm smothest speed is good enough to move pics being photopgraphed in macro focus. i went to 3 places today to look at arms, but all they had to show me was pictures in an order catalogue.

any one have any experience with this, and can save me from a learningful experience assembling a robotic arm?

thanks in advance.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

Well, jaime dear, here is the respond you want:


WOW, LET'S GO FOR IT!


Bye Now!

[jaime marzol]

..........

ok, now fork over the cash.

[Rick Schmidlin]

I used a motion control system that was designed by the edit house with a Digi Beta tape stock.A robotic arm will work fine a lot of people use em these daze. I wish I could help more but I used the same system the History Channel uses on most of thier stuff and it cost about 250.00 an hour and each still took abot ten minutes, with set up still, set program of movement and shoot. Oh by the way the motion control operator was also a helicopter pilot who took me up after production. Same idea with a swivel stick control. Go figure.

[jaime marzol]

'''''''''''''''''''''

thank you. the robotic arm sounds like the way for me to go.

now if i could only find a disgruntled student who has already assembled one but doesn't want it any more.