D E C E M B E R   2 1 ,   2 0 0 6

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2007
I waited a while to post an update because there were "things in the works" that I didn't want to discuss publicly until I had the assurance to do so (i.e. had a contract signed). But now I can share the news that last week I signed an option agreement with two producers to make Dial 9 to Get Out. These brave souls are Meta Valentic and Gregory Lemkin. I've known Meta for several years (we met at a party - mingling can be lucrative!) and Meta has known Gregory for a while too. Both are very excited about making this picture - which is, I think, one of the two important qualities that a producer should have. (The other being the ability to raise money, of course.) With their suggestions, I rewrote the script and improved it greatly. (This is why I haven't been able to start any new scripts, as hoped - it's taken a while to perfect the one for Dial 9.) I'm optimistic about the future of this project in 2007. Naturally I will post updates as they come. Right now the goal is to start raising money and try to attach a "name" actor or two to the film. This is not going to be a multi-million-dollar deal, but it's also not going to be shot on a shoestring like Claustrophobia/Serial Slayer was.

Otherwise, though 2006 was definitely filled with highlights for me - the Getty Images win, first and foremost, but also some fun vacations and a happy home life - I can't wait to move on. Unfortunately my former sales agent Michael Taverna of MonteCristo International (aka MonteCristo Entertainment) is still refusing to pay me the money he owes me from his Claustrophobia/Serial Slayer sales, so I have officially begun IFTA arbitration against him. (I don't know how long this will take or if there's any guarantee that I'll get my money. But it's better to try than to not try.) I'm eager to put this ugly situation behind me. Once again, a warning to all filmmakers out there to stay away from Michael Taverna and MonteCristo. It's a lousy situation, one I wouldn't wish upon anybody. If nothing else, at least I can use the power of the Internet to spread the bad word about this guy and his shady business practices.

On a lighter note, I wish you all a very Happy New Year and I hope 2007 treats you well.

O C T O B E R   9 ,   2 0 0 6

BACK FROM BOZEMAN
I just got back yesterday from my three-day appearance at HATCHfest in Bozeman, Montana, which prides itself as being not a film festival but an "audiovisual arts festival" (fair enough, as they had competitions and shows involving fashion, music and design) aimed at having industry professionals mentor and inspire students. But I was there for the film aspect of it, invited as a guest by Getty Images and rather arbitrarily put on the cinematography panel. I guess the festival committee was not sure where else I would fit in, as they knew me primarily as the Getty short film winner and not as a director of two features. So at first I felt very much in over my head, sharing the panel with, among other luminaries, Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter, etc.) and Kevin Smith's DP of choice, David Klein. But they were nice guys, and while they deservedly got the lion's share of questions on the panel, I still got to speak from a director's point of view and was apparently appreciated by the young and enthusiastic crowd. In fact, I believe our panel had the largest audience of any in the festival, so I was proud to be a part of that. All in all, HATCH is a great idea and a great time. I hope it continues to grow and thrive. I'd much rather people went to HATCH than to, say, Sundance.

I now plan to start work on the Poisoned Apple script even as Dial 9 to Get Out sits eternally on the edge of moving forward. (Latest update on that: I'm waiting for a specific meeting to be scheduled with a potential producer who has money.) Meanwhile, I am experiencing the dark side of the independent film world right now, as I prepare to take legal action against my former foreign sales agents MonteCristo Entertainment (now called MonteCristo International), who owe me thousands of dollars from their sales of Claustrophobia/Serial Slayer to the UK and to other countries. (And by the way, they are now claiming that they didn't sell the film to Russia or Ukraine, a year after claiming that they did. So my apologies to any readers in the CIS who can't find the film.) I can't predict the outcome of this matter, but I can at least tell other producers who might be Googling the company's name to stay far away from MonteCristo CEO Michael Taverna (aka Michele Taverna) and whatever film enterprise he represents. I'm not the only person who is having problems getting my money from him. And unfortunately this is not uncommon in this business.

S E P T E M B E R   4 ,   2 0 0 6

A SMALL UPDATE IS BETTER THAN NO UPDATE
This is just a brief note to say that my short film The Closest Thing to Time Travel has been short-listed once again, this time for an online one-minute film competition called Filminute. There are some really interesting shorts there. You should watch as many as you have the time for. If you feel like voting for mine, I welcome it, but I'm not so crazed about winning this competition as I was in winning the Getty Images one earlier this year. (In fact, I'm not quite sure that the Filminute winner receives any actual prizes.) I'm surprised that I'm still getting so much mileage out of this short film of mine. Getty Images is even planning to send me to yet another function: this time it's something called HATCHfest, a film and arts festival in Bozeman, Montana(!) in early October. Apparently I am going to be a panel speaker. That's always fun.

Otherwise, no film news, but I worked out the entire story for the tentatively-titled Poisoned Apple and now have to simply overcome my own laziness and begin typing out the screenplay for it. This may have to wait until after HATCHfest, as in a couple of weeks I'm leaving town, going briefly to New Jersey with my wife Miki, and then off to Spain. (If you live in Madrid, please drop me a line. I'd like to meet new friends while I'm there.) I go to Bozeman pretty much right after I get back from Spain, so it's going to be a jet-setty time. My only regret is that Miki won't be joining me for most of it.

J U L Y   2 0 ,   2 0 0 6

CHECKING IN
A couple of weeks ago, my ex-girlfriend called me out of the blue to complain that I was being lazy for not having updated this page since May. Well, the truth is, I don't have any real news to share. I have a few irons in a few fires, but so far nothing substantial to report. No new sales for Claustrophobia/Serial Slayer. No developments for Dial 9 to Get Out yet - though I can say for certain that I am trying harder to get it off the ground than ever before, and may even have a producer soon. We'll see. Meanwhile, I am still committed to shooting a zero-budget film in 2007 if Dial 9 to Get Out goes nowhere. An idea that I've had in my head for a long while, originally called Poisoned Apple (I even bought the domain name for this years ago, though I relinquished it soon after, due to massive amounts of spam that the previous owner of the domain racked up for herself), is finally starting to gel into a cohesive story. So I'm excited about that and can start writing the script once I decide on an ending. It's about a woman who can read minds, and that's all I'll say about it for now. I am also still developing this low-budget commercial that I'm supposed to direct. These things move slowly sometimes. And I'm even doing some web design right now, revamping a few rather popular sites for some friends. I had turned my back on web design a while ago, but these friends of mine are also programmers, so I can happily focus on the art without having to worry about doing any coding. (These days a lot of people want their web designers to be programmers too, which is one of the reasons I am no longer into web design.)

In other news, I bought a new iMac which I love, I'm taking a Spanish class, Miki and I are coming up on our one-year anniversary as a married couple, and last but not least, I had a blast throughout May and June with the various celebrations following my Getty Images win. I got to go to Chicago to present my film and talk about the competition, and also attended two highly enjoyable social events in Los Angeles, all courtesy of Getty Images. Next time they put up a short film competition, I suggest all of you fellow independent filmmakers to enter it, if you know what's good for you.

M A Y   2 2 ,   2 0 0 6

I WON!
Good news: My short film The Closest Thing to Time Travel won Grand Prize in the Getty Images competition "The Next Big Idea" (see below entry for more details). If you're one of the people who watched the film and voted for it while the competition was running, I am very grateful for your help and support. You helped me win the $10,000 prize as well as a trip to New York (where they premiered the film at a special event filled with hundreds of drunken revelers). I am not sure whether this win will open any doors for me; I've always understood that this competition, fun though it may have been, was not about kick-starting a struggling filmmaker's career so much as it was a marketing campaign aimed at promoting Getty Images' impressive film library. But if all I get out of it is the ten grand and the New York trip, that's good enough for me. Time, however, will tell if anything more comes of it. In any event, I'm quite happy about this nice little victory. (If you haven't seen the film, you can watch it here on this very site.)

Aside from that, I finished up my little job with Disney and am hoping to find some new things to busy up the rest of my year. There may be another foreign sale for Claustrophobia/Serial Slayer soon, but it's too early to tell. I've also been toying around with the idea of writing a script for an ultra-ultra-low-budget film that I can make with my own savings in 2007, in case Dial 9 to Get Out fails to find any investors before then. Finally, I might possibly direct a low-budget TV commercial, which would be a first for me!

A P R I L   5 ,   2 0 0 6

WATCH MY NEW SHORT FILM - AND VOTE FOR IT!
I'm very excited to tell you that I made a new short film, which you can watch right now, for free, online. It's called The Closest Thing to Time Travel and it's but a mere 60 seconds in length. As reported in the update below, it's my entry in a Getty Images stock footage competition called "The Next Big Idea." Now that it's up for public voting, I need you to watch my new film and vote for it. If I win, I get $10,000! So I need all the votes I can legally get. Please click here to watch my film. (Getty Images does make you register on their site to watch the films and vote, but it takes no time to sign up, and it's free.) If you have the time, I encourage you to watch all of the final films. There's a lot of creativity on display. But I really think mine's the best, so I'd appreciate your vote. Voting ends April 21 so if you want to help me out, do not delay! Thanks.

More good news to share: Claustrophobia was released in the UK on March 20. It's on DVD under its new title Serial Slayer. If you're in Britain, you can now see my film, so hunt it down! I know it's available at amazon.co.uk and play.com as well as many other video rental and sales sites. I don't know which "brick & mortar" shops it's in. I suppose if your local shop doesn't carry it, you can just tell them to order the film from Film 2000, its UK distributor.

F E B R U A R Y   1 ,   2 0 0 6

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR
Since I missed an update on January 1, let me wish you "Gung Hay Fat Choy" - or however you want to spell the traditional Chinese New Year greeting. It's now the Year of the Dog, and as I'm a dog according to the Chinese zodiac, let's hope that means good luck. I realize it's been a while since I updated you on film developments. Frankly, up until January there wasn't much to report. And there were some other things I couldn't talk about until now. Namely the big news with Claustrophobia/Serial Slayer, which is that I have now finished my yearlong representation deal with foreign sales agents MonteCristo Entertainment, and have decided to sign with new foreign sales agents, a Colorado-based outfit called Inferno Film. If any of you have an active interest in knowing why I am not continuing with MonteCristo, you may contact me via email for a more detailed report. For now, I will simply say that I'm grateful they managed to sell my film to a few new territories, and I wish them the best. (Speaking of which, this film will be released on DVD in the UK on March 20, 2006.) Please note that Integration Entertainment continues to rep this film domestically. Still hoping for a US cable release, but I'm a small fish in a big pond as far as that arena is concerned.

Aside from that, although there is no current news regarding my feature film endeavors (i.e. Dial 9 to Get Out), recently I was short-listed in a Getty Images competition called The Next Big Idea. Out of 240 initial pitches for short films that consist of at least 50% stock footage from the Getty Images library, I made the top 30 - which means now I get to actually make my short. It will only be sixty seconds in length, but I'm still excited to be making another movie and working with some old friends again. I do believe the final films will be open to public judging in mid-March, so expect a link to it and me urging you to vote for my entry. If I win, I'll get $10,000 - which could go a long way towards funding Dial 9. By the way, it's highly likely that Claustrophobia/Serial Slayer will finally be profitable this year, which is a real accomplishment in the independent film world, so if you've been toying with the idea of getting involved in independent film, please contact me if you'd like to know more.

This past January was a terrific month for me. My wife Miki and I bought a new car and adopted a cat, I got a short-term consulting job with Disney of all places, and I'm excited about making the Getty Images finals. It's either all downhill from here, or else January is merely a good start to a great year. Let's hope for the latter, shall we?

Copyright © Mark Tapio Kines 2008