Negotiation and its perspectives...

Angelo Vicente is an up and coming indie producer. He’s done a slew of indie films and music videos and is currently in the process of co-opening his own production company here in Puerto Rico. He tells me that he’s had to negotiate everything from the name of his company to the scripts he and his partner decide to do. Given the fact that I want to work in the film business as well, I thought it would be prudent to interview someone who’s had experience in this area.

1.  Give an example of how you separate the people from the problem in the negotiations that you take part in for your business.

I believe in the ability of most people to use logic. Following on this, one can present the problem in a very straightforward manner; using an almost algebraic formula. It could be interpreted, as “this is what we need, what can we do to achieve it?” If the situation is presented clearly, the probabilities of it being understood rise exponentially.

For example, a client wants to know more about our services. What does the client need? Who is the client? What better tactics can we use to inform the client; a presentation or a video link?

2.  How does separating the people from the problem affect the outcome of the deals?

Presenting a problem with a clear focus can result in a sober observation of what is going on, instead of the situation falling victim to spur-of-the-moment decisions. Overall, it leads to making better decisions.

3.  Give an example of how you use objective criteria to get what you want in your negotiations.

Every time there is a presentation on a possible client, everything you say must be backed either by information or your professional experience. This way, there is a validation on what is delivered.

4.  How did using objective criteria affect the outcome of the deals you make?

It usually leads to positive deals themselves, since the information you present is substantiated with facts. This is very important in business.

5.  Give an example of how you work toward mutual benefit in your business.

In our field, for example, a budget might be adjusted to reflect the realities of a smaller client. This leads to more business for us at a price they can afford, so quality is never sacrificed, and neither is our business.

7. Has there ever been a time where you lost a negotiation or felt like you would’ve done better to get a better end result?

Yes, these situations always happen. They happen less as you realize what your own preparations have to be like.

9.  What is the constant factor in your negotiations?

Empathy with the client is very important. If you do not understand your customer, selling your service/product will be more unlikely. Also, an emphasis on quality is a must: you must be proud of what you are offering.

10. What is your advice for people just as yourself, who are starting in the business and are pretty much at the reins of their own dream businesses?

 Always do your best, and never  “half-ass” it. My advice would be to treat it with respect. Everything else will flow from there.

The Decline of 3D or the Death of Movies

The Hollywood Reporter has done an interview with DreamWorks Animation top dog Jeffrey Katzenberg about the “alarming dip in 3D grosses at the domestic box office this summer.” This dip apparently started with Disney’s current overseas hit: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Katzenberg says: “For the first time, a majority of the audience opted to see a studio 3D pic in 2D. It happened again a week later with DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 2.”

To tell you the truth, my fellow readers, this isn’t news to me or to anyone. 3D has been one of the affecting factors to the slow death of the movies. It has been stuffed down our eyes, throats and noses ever since that little movie called Avatar came into our lives. The world was presented with a "new" way of making loads and loads of money. The fact of the matter is that these top Hollywood studio heads are digging and digging and digging for every and any excuse to get money from the consumer. How, you may ask? By stimulating their most obvious senses. Romantic comedies are not even the top grossing movies anymore. All wee see are action movies in 3D. Adventure movies in 3D. Cartoon movies in 3D. Everything is in 3D. That way, putting the consumer in a position where they’re not caring about being exploited in the most, both direct and indirect ways to get a buck out of them (us).

What’s even funnier about this subject is that Pirates was actually a successful film, both domestically and internationally. Only it grossed more money internationally in the 3D aspect than it did domestically in 2D. And it was still successful.

“The audience has spoken, and they have spoken loudly.” That the studios don’t want to listen and keep filling their heads with nonsense about 3D being all the rage now a days, therefore they must juice it until there’s nothing more to juice? Well, that’s something that even a 5 year-old can tell you.

The truth of the matter is that the majority of these studios don’t even listen to what their audience is asking for. Therefore they will continue to blame ‘the end of the movies as we know it’ on 3D. When, in fact, one of the main reasons that the movie industry is in its deathbed is the overuse of 3D.

Image courtesy of: http://jotaperealini.blogspot.com/2010/12/kung-fu-panda-2-el-ano-de-la.html

"Priority Piracy Watch List"

I was reading my weekly The Hollywood Reporter newsletter and I found this article on piracy and the US Congress's support of the industry. As a normal person, who doesn’t have a job one would recur to piracy thinking that it’s no big deal. As an industry professional one can only be disgusted at the fact that people really don’t understand the severity of the act of piracy.

The battle has been constant, from ad campaigns, to conferences that condemn it and now, a group called the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus (IAPC) has decided to release a “priority piracy watch list”. And on top of that being backed up by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) saying, “it will help raise awareness of creative content that it is stolen and illegally distributed through some of the world’s most notorious marketplaces.”

The fact of the matter is that “Theft of American movies, television shows, and other creative content in these countries and around the world costs tens of billions of dollars and jeopardizes the livelihoods of more than 2.4 million stagehands, makeup artists, actors, costume and set designers, truck drivers, architects, directors, accountants, and others who make up America’s creative community,” Greg Frazier, MPAA’s Executive Vice President an Chief Policy Officer, said in a statement.”

Ever since Napster came on in the late 90s the amount of illegal downloading has become the new way of theft. Striking not only digital creative content, but also, identity theft, credit card fraud, among others.

Frazier continues, “As more and more people watch and enjoy creative works online, America and its partners abroad NEED to increase domestic and international efforts to protect those works from theft.”

Illegal downloading is one of the main reasons why studio heads have gone forward with highly expensive marketing campaigns, ridiculous amounts of product placement, and basically juicing the movies they make with merchandise that sometimes can border on ridiculous.

Now the US Congress comes into play with this initiative to try and create awareness with basically the entire world, so that this digital epidemic comes to a close.

I’m a professional of this industry. I know the hard work that goes into it. I love my job. But people only see the end product, they don’t see the work –hard work, that goes into making a movie, or an album, or a TV show, specially TV that happens weekly. The public has no idea. It’s hard for us, to give so much of ourselves to provide them with a quality end product, for these pirates to steal it.

Let’s hope that this initiative takes momentum and creates conscience among us.

The Beauty of Failing is What Comes Next

J.K. Rowling is one the best writers in the world. The size of her fortune would have you believe that she’s written hundreds of books. Her fans certainly WISH she did. But no, she has only written eight books in all (Harry Potter series and The Tales of Beetle the Bard). 2007 was the year when she published the last book in the series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last movie in the Potter franchise hits theaters this summer. It’s not a secret to anyone who lives in civilization the amount of success that Jo has achieved with one BIG idea back in 1990. But before all of that success Jo, as her fans call her, went through situations one after the other. The death of her mother, marriage and then divorce, chronic depression, poverty near being homeless… In all a very hard life. Jo talks about the “benefits of failure” in her speech. She talks about how hitting rock-bottom in different times in her life (all leading up to the publishing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) helped her delve deeper into her stories and the world that she created in the series. In her failures she found clarity. In her failures she found the will to keep going towards what she most wanted, which was to be a writer. A lot of press would say that her story is one of fairytales; the things she overcame would’ve done with another person’s life what it didn’t do with hers. She kept going strong, not just for herself, but also for her daughter, her sister, and the memory of her mother, who never knew that Jo had started writing incessantly about six months before she passed away.

Her story is one I greatly appreciate because we all go through trying times. We all go through things that challenge our faith not only in God but faith in ourselves. It leads us to question ourselves even in moments where we know what we want. Fear of failure does that to a human being. You can be the most confident person in the world, everyone has insecurities. The difference is that a confident person sees that as a challenge and keeps going. Jo tells us to embrace that failure and make something positive of it. She did. That’s what she encouraged the Graduating Class of 2008 from Harvard University in the Commencement Speech.

She’s inspiring to me because I’m not what you would call the most confident person in the world. For all you knew through my writing in this blog, is that I’m a very confident person. But I’m not. I’m 26 years old and I live with my parents. In an island that doesn’t give many opportunities to people that specifically want to work in the arts; unless they know you, the road becomes an uphill battle. One remembers stories of people like Jo, who in the midst of her depression turned it into something that the entire world would support wholeheartedly. She is a definite role model. It’s not a coincidence that my Deathly Hallows copy is sitting right beside me in this very moment. This series represents a struggle, not necessarily between good and evil, but a struggle with yourself to do what is right for yourself, to not be selfish with yourself. To find the truth in things that matter. It’s the best story I have ever read in my short life… and for that I thank her. 

For more information on how she has contributed to causes related to MS and fighting poverty, think of the happiest thought or memory you can think of and then say Expecto Patronus!

Image courtesy of: http://ideagirlconsulting.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-1-new-trailer-teaser-director-david-yates-novel-jk-rowling-screenplay-steve-kloves-daniel-radcliffe-rupert-grint-emma-watson/ 

Puerto Rico Film Commission?

The Puerto Rico Film Commission is the most important entity dedicated to “promoting the development of all the elements that comprise the audiovisual industry”. Its highest achievement to date is offering one of the highest tax incentives offered by any film commission.

The PRFC was created by act of law in 1999 primarily to develop the arts and sciences of the film industry on the island. Their primary incentive is a 40% tax credit on payments to PR residents and 20% tax credit on non-resident talent. These incentives are also offered to off-island producers who may want to carry out their shoots in Puerto Rico.

Their service is pretty basic, as well as any other city Film Commission. They act as a liaison, helping investors, studios, and production companies and independent producers find all the services needed to film their projects in Puerto Rico.

They also offer a “phone book” of all the people that make up the industry in the island. Pre Pro has all the numbers you’re looking for when you are a producer in Puerto Rico. Not only possible assistants, camera crews, lighting technicians, but food services, transportation services, laundry services, among others.

All of this information is great for international producers and/or if you happen to have $50,000 and give them exclusivity, just to get them to hear you out. For local filmmakers is very difficult to acquire that quantity of money and getting them to help you out with the distribution of the film. I know this sounds a bit unorthodox given the fact that I live here, and, of course, my business would be located here. But, I know this from former experience, one of the islands’ own directors, famous for his educational style of filmmaking has been through a very difficult run to produce the movie. He resorted to a very odd strategy of funding.

He came up with the idea of through selling tickets for the premiere getting the money. You don’t need me to tell you that the movie hasn’t even begun pre-production. The reason why he resorted to this odd strategy is because he simply didn’t have the money to finance it.

And to me, that is the biggest problem with the Commission. They filter too many of the projects that get to their desks and subsequently cut the wings of the rest. In other words, if you don’t have either enough money, or a good story (to their eyes) to tell, you won’t get help at all.

As an aspiring filmmaker one gets disheartened by this circumstance, it’s very difficult to get support from the government for us locals, and is why the industry in the island is suffering. The arts are not being developed or nourished by either the government or the Commission.

I didn’t want to make this post “controversial” for lack of a better word, but, the situations have been so many in which it’s been very hard to get funding, that I just couldn’t stand here and say nothing about it. Yes, it has great tax cuts, but that’s about it. I think they can do better than that to help improve the chances for us commoners to get our stories out there.

I truly hope other hopefuls don’t get the terrible luck that we have, and hopefully do whatever you can to get your stories out there for people to admire.

Project and Team Management

I don’t know if I’ve told you that I’m currently completing my Master’s degree at Full Sail University in Florida. If I haven’t sorry, and well, now you know. The point of the rambling is that I’m taking what I consider to be one of the hardest classes I have ever taken: Project and Team Management. This is the class where they teach you to start caring about other people beside yourself all the time. This is where you learn to remember that you’re not only working for your success, but for the ones that compound your team. To me is like, well, I couldn’t care less about what would happen to me, I can take care of myself, but if you don’t do something that has to be done for group grading, that small part that was assigned to you in the first team meeting suddenly feels like it weighs 100,00 tons. This class is perfect for that. You find yourself in a very professional setting, with audio chats, blog posts, chapter readings, etcetera. It teaches you about the importance of working in team. About relying not solely on your talents and skills but in others as well.

This class has been particularly hard for me because, while I have learned a great deal about myself as a future and potential leader of my own company, I have learned to take care of others and still operate a successful company/business.

Leadership is something that some people are born with. They just have this innate ability to lead others and influence them in many different ways. But leadership is also something that can be developed. As I have progressed in the degree, I have taken a few classes that have taught me to be a leader, like last month in Executive Leadership. One of the books assigned to the class was “Developing the Leader Within You” by John C. Maxwell. And he says in his book just that. You may not have been born a natural leader, but you can be developed into a great one.

I talk about this because the industry where we are submerging ourselves into can make and/or break you into pieces. And if you don’t have clear idea of the type of leader and team and project manager that you are, you won’t make it past the next week (at most). This is probably one the hardest career there is. It’s a constant competition and you must always know that you are dealing with other people’s money. Having a clear and big picture of the project that you are working on (managing/leading) is key to deliver a final product that would be acceptable to your clients.

As far as advice, that’s the best advice I can give you… for now. I’m sure that as my career develops, you will be hearing from me more frequently. Feel free to comment on this post! Happy Sunday!

The Joy of Finding a Job in the Entertainment Industry

We all know that the economy and the times that we are living in today are probably the worst in history. The level of unemployment in the entertainment industry is very high, and getting in one of the hardest tasks there could be. Gael Chandler in her “Joy of Film Editing” blog gives us new crop of editors a few pointers on how to prepares ourselves for breaking in the business. She states, “There is no one way to break in. No set path.” And she proceeds by offering us to follow her “Ten Steps to Breaking into Editing (or any job in the film industry)”.

She asks us to “survey the landscape” to find out the direction we want to go on”. Whether working in “Hollywood, NY, a corporation, the government, a TV network, visual effects, etcetera. Its important to know what we want to do, and if we don’t know, she recommends us to “take a PA job or any job so you can be on the set or in post or pre production to get as close as possible to the action and see how things operate.” Make sure you do your job well, always clarify your doubts and questions, network and finally “Figure out your direction.”

Training is important once you know where you are headed. So, “get trained”. Going to film school is a good option to getting ready for the job that you’re looking for. “Sign up for professional film classes, read books”, etcetera. Its important that if you want to work in movies, that you “learn film terms and concepts, the DI, and how to finish on film.”

“Networking” is the most important part of any career. So, its important to make sure that you get your network ready for your ‘job hunting’ experience. Gael says, “Throughout your career this is necessary. Keep a file of people you’ve worked with and contact them regularly when you’re out of work. You never know when they may have heard of something and you’re the last person they talked to” and proceed with the contact.

“Discovering the typical career path for your desired job” is something that most of us don’t even know how to do. “There are many side paths that help you get there too including sound editing and visual effects work (very useful as a picture editor).

Now a days in Hollywood being part of a union is as important as keeping your contacts in touch with you. So we must “find out about unions”. “In Hollywood, to work on major films in editorial, you need to be in IATSE 700 (the Editor’s Guild for LA & NY) or at TV stations in NABET.” Having said that, “Los Angeles is not a completely union town, so there’s lots of non-union work; people freely go between the two as there’s not enough union work to sustain”.

Experience speaks louder than the theory you may know or the pay you may have gained. So, “take any job on your path as long as it fits your personal ethics” (e.g. pornography or, on the opposite end of the scale, certain religious organizations may not be palatable.) so we must get experience (make our own films, work on others’ films. Whether we get paid or not, doesn’t matter. What does matter is the experience. If we were to find ourselves in LA, she recommends “going to AFI (American Film Institute) where the student and adult filmmakers in their various programs need people (no pay).”

As a part of our networking, we must also “talk to people who are doing what we want to do to learn how they got in”. Since we are entry-level filmmakers, we are not threats to their jobs. This means that people are actually happy to help others in maybe the same positions they once were, “as it isn’t an easy industry to enter or keep afloat in”. She encourages us to find a mentor, if possible.

It’s important to maintain our skills on the set, fresh at all times. So “check crew and internship postings”. On college bulletin boards, magazines (Variety, The Hollywood Reporter), as well as craigslist and other online sources. She encourages us to check out her “Resources” page on her website.

“Youth is in our favor”, my fellow film buffs! Its known in Hollywood that youth is very much treasured. The industry “trusts youth to know where things are at – YouTube, computer skills, etc.” Its important to “show that you’re willing to put in the hours to learn and that you have respect for all those filmmakers who went before you.”

We’re all different; therefore our “journeys will be different”. She encourages us to cherish our journey. We shouldn’t allow anyone to discourage us from our goals or the paths that interest us. She says that we may loose our sense of self or take a wrong step or path but learn from it. “Dealing with pain, can be a great source of growth, creativity, and humanity.”

In line with cherishing our journey and not loosing ourselves, we must always “be able to clearly state what you want and what you can do”. Gael says, “Get your visions and creations out there. Believe in yourself. I have to say I have heard this before, but don’t remember from where I heard it from: “there are no set path for filmmakers.” “She knows someone who got his first film job because he had been a life boy scout. And another young filmmaker who interned on a TV show and because she loved and had studied Latin in addition to film, she ended up coaching a well-known actor in Latin.”

I think these are very important tips to follow specially coming from someone who’s been in the business for as long as she has. Gael Chandler is a film editor and has written two books on editing “Cut by Cut: Editing your Film or Video, (December 2004), details the editing process from dailies to tube, screen, DVD, or Web. My second book, Film Editing Great Cut Every Filmmaker and Movie Lover Must Know, (October 2009), demystifies the types of cuts editors make and how these cuts advance the story and affect the audience.”

http://www.joyoffilmediting.com/

http://www.joyoffilmediting.com/?page_id=2

http://www.joyoffilmediting.com/?page_id=245