Republic Studios 75th Anniversary Celebration

Saturday, September 25th Republic Pictures will be 75 yrs. old and the Neighborhood Council of Studio City among others is throwing a party at CBS Radford Studios (formerly Republic Studios backlot).

Details are here at the website.

Admission is free.

Jonny Quest: The Documentary Pt. 2 H-B Becomes an Empire

Continuing our screening of this fantastic look behind-the-scenes at one of my favorite television programs of all time.  In this episode we learn the foundations of the Hanna Barbera cartoon empire that paved the way for the creation of JONNY QUEST.




Stay tuned.

Jonny Quest: The Documentary

There are a lot of amazing things on the internet wedged between the layers of ... well, you know Sturgeon's law and all that.

I happened upon this home made documentary on the origins of one of my all-time favorite television shows  JONNY QUEST.  Made with a degree of scholarship and affection for the series, the mediamaker used readily available Mac tools and a lot of effort to create something you should see.   In fact, I'm pleased he used those simple tools because as he states in a later chapter - the restrictions often led to unique solutions.




The entire film is broken down into 27 chapters - each one a glimpse into the creative process and history of television cartoons as we know them today.  I'm going to post them a chapter at a time - one a day - for the month.  Please feel free to share these videos and come back every day around this time to get the  next chapter.

Buh-Bye Blockbuster!

LA Times Company Town is reporting that Blockbuster is preparing for a mid-September bankruptcy. 

"Executives from Blockbuster and its senior debt holders last week held meetings with the six major movie studios to discuss their intention to enter a “pre-planned” bankruptcy in mid-September, said several people familiar with the situation who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of ongoing talks.

Blockbuster is hoping to use its time in Chapter 11 to restructure a crippling debt load of nearly $1 billion and escape leases on 500 or more of it 3,425 stores in the U.S. Maintaining the support of Hollywood's film studios during the process will be critical so that Blockbuster can continue to rely upon an uninterrupted supply of new DVDs.

Blockbuster has lost a total of $1.1 billion since the beginning of 2008 and has been severely hamstrung in efforts to grow its business due to interest payments on $920 million in debt. Earlier this month the company announced that most of its debt holders had agreed to a forbearance on interest payments until Sept. 30, during which time it would attempt a recapitalization."

Not exactly sure what to say about this except that it's an end to an era.

No Explanation Required: MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED

From the director of NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD, Mark Hartley,  comes this ode to the frenetic filmmaking in the Philippines!

Uncut.
Unleashed.
UNBELIEVABLE!

"Machete Maidens Unleashed is a profile of exploitation film set in the steamy jungles of the Philippines, where enterprising filmmakers, specializing in garbage, could go and make the most of their movie dollar in a setting where you didn’t have to deal with unions and regulations. The result was a boom of coked-out action and horror movies that tossed aside all notions of human decency and catered to low-lifes everywhere."

Here is where the NSFW trailer resides.

Enjoy (you low-lifes)

Retro Poster Design Tutorial

Tim Shrumm sent me a link from Adam Levermore on How to Design a Retro Sci Fi Poster.

This is excellent, step-by-step instruction on creating your own pulpy comic and mag covers.

Get out there and fire up your Photoshop!

Free VFX

Here.

I Require Help: Pulp-Minded Interns Needed

I have been completely overwhelmed by a TON of work lately as well as several personal dilemmas. What has come to light is that there is more work in the Pulp 2.0 pipeline than I can effectively handle on my lonesome so I am placing the call out to the great internets for some interns.

I have a lot of writing and producing that I've put off as I have launched this venture, and now is the time to get some help so I can get back to that part of the business.

Below are the qualifications for being a Pulp 2.0 intern, some hints as to what we have coming up and what you can expect to get out of the experience:

Specifically, I am looking for two interns - one to handle the graphic design grunt work so I can focus on acquisitions and the promotions,  then do followup design polishes, and a Marketing intern to handle those sorts of duties - sending press releases, review copies, etc...

Both would come in twice / three times a week in the afternoons to work for approximately 3 hrs.  Ideally, from 2pm to 5pm, but I'm flexible.  Also ideally, the interns wouldn't be in the office at the same time so I could be completely available.  The duration of the internship would be approximately three months.

For either position I need LA area students who desire to create something cool that will actually be published and distributed. That means coming in, being serious about achieving results, asking questions when you need help, and yet being able to figure things out if necessary.  It means wanting to add value to the final product yet still meet deadlines.  I share space in a busy office that can provide a lot of distractions so being focused is a requirement.



Graphic Design Interns:

Must be Mac computer literate and familiar with Photoshop, InDesign, and basic functions.  The graphic design intern will be tasked with duties such as:

• Research - finding photos, fonts, layout ideas for print design, Scanning.
• Photoshop work - photo reformatting.  Basic design for print and web.  Cover layout. 
• InDesign - basic book / text layout. 
• Archiving files
• Prepping files for printing - uploading. 
• Web email blast design. 
• Web banner and icon design.
• Other design. 

Any other skills such as Flash, text conversion (ID File to EPub), or HTML are greatly desired, but not required. I need someone who can bring a strong sense of design and professionalism to even the most menial of tasks.

Marketing Interns:

The Marketing intern must also be Mac literate as well as familiar with internet services like Google docs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and so on.  If you have your own laptop you'd prefer to use then that's okay too. You really need to be detail oriented and be able to multi-task.

• Research: List building - press, customers, industry, authors.
• Website updates - Wordpress, YouTube and Facebook.
• Writing first draft outlines for press releases
• Filing
• Updating spreadsheets - schedules,  receivables, Title materials checklists
• Email correspondence
• Mail / shipping
• Live event preparation - orders, etc... 
• Phone

In neither case will you be doing any personal work. You won't have to do my laundry, fetch my coffee or any crap like that.  I want you focused on assisting me to build this publishing outfit. I'm a big boy and I can get my own coffee.  I'm not a 'yeller', but I do know what I and my readers like (or don't) and will reject work that is just 'phoned in.'



What you get out of this as a Pulp 2.0 Intern:

• School credit. I will sign off on any necessary paperwork for your school. 
• Experience with a company that is expanding into ebooks, comics, and other media that I'm not allowed to talk about yet. 
• An excellent portfolio of work after you've finished your internship. 
• A letter of recommendation from me. 
• Networking opportunities with some of my colleagues in Publishing, TV, Movies and Comics. 
• Feedback/ Instruction:  I share space with graphic designers and other creatives. You will have the opportunity to show your portfolio / resume' of work to working professionals who can assist you in positioning yourself well in a very tough job market. 
• Promotion - you'll be mentioned on our website, Facebook page and in the occasional Tweet.
• You'll receive a copy of any book you work on. Graphic design interns will receive a credit for text layout on the book's publisher's page / indicia. 

Understand : This is not a paid position. This is an Internship. 
 

I am now accepting resume's (within the body of the email) and links to online portfolios.  Please email to:  newpulpmedia (at) gmail dot com.  No Facebook messages or tweets please unless it's to retweet or share this posting.  

Conversation Starters for Those Indie Film Parties

If you've spent any time in the film or media business then you're on several lists for parties celebrating someone's indie film  or web series success (the film or web series actually got made instead of being talked to death). If you're new to the game, and a devout pulp mediamaker then you'll want to have a few conversation starters for when you make the rounds to shake hands.

I like to call my conversation starters, 'grenades.'

You throw one of these bon mots into a crowd of film glitterati  (indie or studio) and you are guaranteed to elicit some sort of conversation / argument / debate that is sure to leave your victims knowing who you are and what you stand for...

• The success of your film and whether or not you get fully paid is directly proportional to the size of the budget. The bigger the budget the more likely you aren't going to get paid what you are due from your distributor. 
• Filmmakers should give up trying to screen their films theatrically, but instead use the internet to actually have a financial success instead of a noble financial failure.  After all, there are more computer screens in the world than theater screens. 

• Critical reviews and press have very little bearing on whether or not a film is picked up by a distributor. There are far more critical darlings out there who don't have distribution than there are films which were picked up because of a review. 

• Most indie filmmakers are more concerned about their reviews (thus stroking their ego)  and getting laid than they are building a business that allows them to entertain people for a living. 

• Government funding for films and filmmakers should be dependent upon the financial success of the filmmakers and their films.  In this regard the government should also loan the funding, and not grant the funding. 

• You can't make a cohesive movie without understanding who makes up the audience for the movie. 

• Using Trajan as your movie's poster font means you are a pretentious wanker who's more concerned about looking important than communicating to your audience what your movie's about. 

• I hate (insert name of indie film actor or actress)... or  I hate (insert film type here i.e. "Mumblecore")

• I have no problem with product placement in my movie if it helps it get made and seen. 

So there you have some of the grenades I use to light the conversation fuse (or cull the herd - depends on the situation).  Can you think of some others?  Add them to the comments. 

Remember, take no prisoners...

Warren Ellis, I Know How You Feel...

"Any show that isn’t a soap opera “about relationships” gets put in one of those “weird” places where people who are less interested in crying and hugging go for a story -- cable and satellite channels, or slotted in just before midnight and just after some programme about cocks, or(aha!) on iPlayer. Which is where Paul Cornell’s rather good medical-horror Pulse gets to live or die. Since it was onBBC3, a channel only eight people in the UK can receive; the viewership it needs to get a full-series pick-up has to come from iPlayer. That’s where the audience is – and it’s where television is going to be."

(from his Wired column)

Oh There You Are!

I'm sorry, Blog.

I forgot you were over here. My work schedule has kept me real busy.  I've been having meetings, writing copy,  making notes on a movie and fulfilling my role as a publisher of pulp goodness.

But these are all excuses, and I hate excuses.

I'll do better I promise....

Bill