Michael Cioni, CEO of Light Iron, was on the BuZZ a few weeks ago to let us know that he was going to have some “big news” in the very near future. Sure enough, he wasn’t kidding. Shortly thereafter, Light Iron purchased Off Hollywood and Michael moved to New York City, where he is loving life in the Big Apple and creating more post production magic.

Norman Hollyn, Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts has some very interesting things to say about directing comedic productions. It isn’t as easy and not always as funny as you think!

Michael Kammes, Director of Technology and Marketing at Key Code Media, tells us about Nexidia’s Dialogue Search and a cloud-based editing service from Forescene.

Our legal expert, Jonathan Handel, Entertainment Labor Reporter for the Hollywood Reporter takes a step back and looks at what SAG and AFTRA have scheduled on their calendars for the year. He maintains that we can predict what is going to happen with these guilds by what he sees there. Interesting concept and we tend to believe him. You can read a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter and then tune in tonight for more information!

And Jessica Sitomer, the Greenlight Coach is back with more career advice, and rest assured, it is always very good advice!

Thanks for listening to the Digital Production BuZZ and please remember to contact me with your story suggestions or thoughts about the show: BuZZ@catania.us

Independent creators need a combination of perseverance, courage, intelligence and know-how. Our guests tonight have all of those qualities and more.
Richard Symons, founded a company called Spirit Level Film in 2001. In true independent fashion, the company creates films that they want to make on their terms and in their own way. This preserves the creative vision, allows them to tell stories that are compelling and important to them, but also makes life very challenging as they are completely self-financed. Their two-film endeavor, Price of Kings, has received critical acclaim from all corners of the globe. It was not easy to produce, however, and interviewing Yassar Arafat and Shimon Peres took many months of planning. The team persevered and the results are classic documentary filmmaking at its finest. Richard joins us to talk about how it was accomplished, what he learned during the process and what he might do differently next time. Oh, and you might be the lucky person to get over $6,000 in equipment if you take a look at Apogee’s site.

Bruce Nazarian, CEO of Digital Media Consulting Group, has been a long-time friend and contributor to the BuZZ. I was speaking with him a couple of weeks ago and asked him if he would clarify his take on the continuing discussion many of us have been having about the “death” of flash, the rise of HTML 5 and how best to use H.64. He wrote a great post about what is happening to each of these in all aspects of our production and post-production lives and Larry talks to him on the show so we can more details.

There are many unsung heroes in our business, some of them are tech experts, creative gurus and consultants who are buried several levels behind the front lines and who work behind the scenes with major companies on major projects. Because they are consultants, however, we don’t often get to meet them and we certainly don’t see their names up there in the credits. Mistika post production solutions have been used recently on films such as, The Hobbit, Prometheus, and The Amazing Spiderman. Nicholas ‘Nico’ Recagno is an online stenographer, with SGO Mistika and tells us more about what it is like to provide technical support for some of those award-winning projects.

I’ve been privileged to have been involved for a very long time with the Producer’s Guild of America Diversity Committee. Each year for the last few years, the Committee announces a Call for Entries and accepts applications from people around the globe who wan to vie for a chance to be accepted into the Diversity Workshop. Deborah Calla, Chair of the Committee explains how ten lucky people are chosen each year to attend a nine-week series held at the Guild offices in Beverly Hills. Guest mentors have included such notables as Marshall Herskovitz, Damen Lindelof, Ali LeRoi, Luis Barreto, Shonda Rhimes, Mark Gordon and more. Subjects covered include story development, pitching, packaging, financing, marketing and new media in the areas of tim, television, docs and web. It is a veritable master class. We want all our BuZZ listeners to know that the 2013 Call for Entries opens on February 25th and invite you to submit yourself and your projects for consideration. If you have a project that you believe might be appropriate for a diversity workshop, act now, as you only have until April 15th to apply. You can go to http://www.pgadiversity.com for more information.

Tonight’s show has been pre-recorded because Larry Jordan is on his way to London to speak at the BVE. We are looking forward to hearing how the trip went and what new information he will be gathering while he is there. Visit this link to see the list of seminars the Larry will be conducting from 26-28 February, 2013, at the BVE in London!

Please remember to write to me at BuZZ@Catania.us with story suggestions and thoughts on what you’ve heard on our show and thanks for listening!

Listen to the audio: Export_Story_E-mail
I just figured out another reason why I dislike receiving email marketing and cookie-cutter newsletters that are nothing more than aggregated third-party material.

In the days prior to the internet and email.. excuse me, what?… yes, I was around then! Anyway, in the days prior to the internet and email, I would get what is now called, somewhat disdainfully, snail mail or a fax.

For those of you born in the latest generation, a fax machine is an incredibly brilliant machine that moves the data through the mysterious universes – kind of cool, no? It takes a letter from one person, who puts it into a machine that spins it around the world into a machine at the other end where the recipient picks it up and reads it! What a concept!

Anyway, all this stuff could and would sit in a very neat pile on my very neat desk until I could get to it. Some of it was actually very attractively designed and quite interesting.

During those golden days of advertising and PR, I could very quickly take those letters, postcards or brochures and make a pile for “action items” or “hold for later,” or even better, “toss!”

On the shopping (as in mall) side of my life, I would get in my car or go for a walk and window shop or run errands, enjoying the fresh air and social aspects of a wonderland of businesses (now called quite unattractively, “brick and mortar”) competing for my attention with visually stunning displays; things that smelled good, or tasted good, or sounded amazing. I could wander through the maze all while crossing off items on my must see/buy/do list. And my parking was free for three hours! (More if I took in a movie with popcorn and a coke.)

It was fun and could be scheduled at my convenience before or after work hours. Weekends were especially pleasant, as I could amble with girlfriends, boyfriend, or family and make a day of it, trying out new experiences, removing my brain from work and expanding my horizons.

But, I interrupt this reverie to bring myself back to the present. Thud! I am at my desk surrounded by computer equipment and radio waves; laptops, towers, hard drives, thumb drives, and more hard drives, cell phones and internet phones. My email in-box has replaced the US Post Office as a means of delivery of sales pitches, communiques and the occasional love letter. This is supposed to be easier and fun, this “paperless” world we now live in, fun?

But it is not fun. This email witch is a demanding, uh…demanding…uh, well, I don’t want to curse here so we’ll leave it at demanding B-word. She wants attention 24/7 and if I don’t attend to her needs , she screams at me with 1,000’s of communiques marked with the dreaded, bolded UNREAD highlight. She is like a nagging spoiled brat who doesn’t stop asking for something until she gets it…Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom. Mom….and then, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom!!!!!

I can’t possibly even come close to reading all these missives, but I have to because in the middle of all the junk there might really be something important. So I am trapped for hours each day in email hell.

I can’t just throw everything into the archives, because the search function does not always allow me to find what I need.

I am a slave to 1’s and 0’s and publicists who don’t discriminate when they send out releases. It is just easier to send out to the whole list rather than think carefully about who is most appropriate. I especially love it when I get a pitch from someone who says, “please publish this in your paper.” I produce a radio show! And I write for internet publications. I would ask what they are thinking, but they are not thinking, they are just throwing the spaghetti on the wall and waiting for something to stick.

Well, I’m not one strand in a huge 2-pound box of spaghetti. I am unique. Don’t box me in. I’m your gourmet kind of gal. A true confection to be handled delicately and only once in a while and then, only when most appropriate. Savor the relationship. Treat it with tact, dignity and be delicate with it, and you will reap great rewords.

OK, there, I’ve said it. Now I’m going to get into the car and visit my local mall before it goes out of business.

Bye for now and until next time, my advice to you is to get out there and enjoy life.

Have a conversation with someone wonderful!