Tuesday, July 1, 2014

"Recalculating": Adventures at Film-Com

This past month, I had the opportunity to attend Film-Com, a "packaging, financing, and distribution market" in Nashville. Industry professionals included financiers, producers, writers, and attorneys. Film-Com wasn't a film festival, but it drew many film and TV people, particularly those looking for their shows or movies to be picked up for distribution.

My friend Amy McCorkle was there with her documentary Letters to Daniel. Due to good luck and timing, we scored a private meeting with a producer who asked me to send a copy of one of my books. I hope he enjoys it, but I'm also well aware that in Hollywood it's very difficult if not impossible to sell or option a screenplay or a book. If authors think it takes persistence to get published, it takes a lot more to deal with the machinations of Hollywood.

If I'm lucky enough to hear any good news, of course I'll share it. :-)

We arrived in Nashville on Tuesday, with our meeting with the producer Wednesday at 7 AM. Needless to say, I didn't want to oversleep and so got no sleep. We drove from Franklin, TN to Nashville via the interstate and a GPS that kept insisting I turn down a road we hadn't even arrived at yet. Needless to say, "Recalculating" was a term I heard more than I wanted to. On our last day, when we were headed to Titan Stadium, I gave Amy a print out of Google Maps and said, "We're using this." Unlike the GPS, we had no problem reaching our destination. Go figure.

Oh, yeah, that 7 AM meeting? We made it to the downtown hotel at 6:30 AM, and he was waiting in the lobby. I'm glad we didn't make him wait.

Wednesday was also a day for panels. Amy and I attended "How to Launch Scripted Television Concepts,"
"Documentaries - Financing and Distribution," "Features - Financing, Packaging, and Distribution," and "Genre Picture Funding," the last one focusing primarily on horror films.

Being a horror writer turned out to be an advantage and I met a few people who seemed to like that I wrote macabre. When I mentioned being old school (influenced by Hitchcock, Serling, etc.), they knew who I was talking about.

I enjoyed Film-Com. It was well-organized and the volunteers rocked. Not to mention, I love Nashville. If the chance arises to attend Film-Com next year, you'd better believe I'm going.

But this time, I'll be staying in a hotel downtown. :-)

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