1. I’ve been in Hollywood for almost four
months now and have yet to make any money
in the TV/movie industry. My golf game is,
however, much improved. I’m finding out
that many people in the industry play golf
on a regular basis. I’ve been getting a lot of
invitations to play and so far I’ve accepted
every invitation. I’ve golfed with producers,
directors, writers, actors and more. Golfing
has allowed me the opportunity to make a
multitude of TV/movie industry contacts. Now
I just need to utilize all these great contacts
so that I can make some money to pay for all
this golfing.
I received a call from the person I met with
a few weeks ago at Pat Sajak’s production
company. He wanted to tell me that he was
very excited about two of the concepts I
pitched him and to let me know that next
week he would personally show Pat Sajak all
the presentation materials I left with him. He
really likes both “What’s in Ned’s Head?” and
“Spellitopia” and he seemed hopeful that Pat
might be interested in one or both.
“What’s in Ned’s Head?” is based on a chil-
dren’s game. I’m fortunate to be acting as TV/
movie agent for the owners of the game. The
game has been winning all sorts of awards
lately and I’m hoping all that positive energy
transfers over into what I’m trying to do here
in Hollywood.
“Spellitopia” is an educational children’s con-
cept that I invented and licensed to Tribune
Media Services. Together with Tribune Media
Services and a partner, I own the trademark,
website, and have some unique educational
concepts that could easily be incorporated
into a TV show.
Speaking of “educational,” I met with some-
one at the TV animation department of a
major studio last week and he told me that
the fact that the concepts I was pitching were
“educational” was a negative. He explained
that educational shows and movies are not
big money-makers and that I would be better
off not mentioning the “educational” aspects
of my ideas. It wasn’t that they were being
indifferent about the educational potential …
they were truly being negative about it. I left
there a little depressed as I pondered all the
kids out there watching this company’s pro-
gramming after hearing what I heard.
//www.talesfromthescripts.com
THE NEW IPA BOARD IS HERE!
THE NEW IPA BOARD IS HERE!
On July 1 the
Illinois Production
Alliance elected its
new slate of direc-
tors for 2004-2005.
Eileen Willenborg, executive director of
SAG/AFTRA Chicago takes over from Mark
Egmon as president. The rest of the execu-
tive board slate includes: 1st V.P.: Mark
Egmon/AICP Midwest; 2nd V.P.: Sharon
King/Sharon King Casting; Secretary:
Wayne Kubacki/Essanay Studios; Treasurer:
Bob Hudgins/Independent Feature Project
(IFP). //www.illinoisproduction.org
CROWLEY’S EXCELLENT
SUMMER. Elizabeth Crowley has had
a great summer. In early June, Sears
Craftsman was awarded two gold Aurora
Awards for a documentary Crowley wrote,
produced and directed, titled “The Urban
Youth Racing School: Where Dreams Make
Anything Possible.” The project, a 20 min-
ute piece documenting Philadelphia’s free
Urban Youth Racing School, gave Crowley
the opportunity to work with real people
– something she enjoys. “One ten year old
kid told me how the program had taught
him about respect for others and honor
– stuff I didn’t even know about at that age,”
she says. The Urban Youth Racing School
is a is a non -profit organization formed to
give low income and minority children, ages
8-18, a chance to enhance their education
and life skills by exposing them to careers
in the automotive and motor sports indus-
tries. On the tail of that success, Crowley
found herself directing a four-minute video
for Sears featuring carpenter Ty Pennington
(“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”,
“Trading Spaces”). Pennington was in
town at the grand opening of a new Sears
Grand store at Gurnee Mills and Crowley
was enlisted to create the video for Sears’
internal use. Crowley said Pennington was
very down-to-earth, even when “about 400
kids” were crowding around to watch the
fixer-upper hunk conduct demonstrations.
Crowley can be reached at 773-296-2100.
TECH TIPS.
Schumacher Camera’s
website has launched
an online section called
“Tech Tips,” featuring
some of the great tech-
knowledge shared in
the pages of SCREEN.
Check it out! //www.
schumachercamera.com
VAGABOND
ROUNDTABLE.
Vagabond Audio’s work
for ESPN became the
sound heard round-the-
world when controversial
remarks by Larry Byrd
were rebroadcast again
… and again … and again … In “Two on
Two” a round table of NBA players past and
present including Byrd, Magic Johnson,
Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James speak
about legendary rivalries in the NBA. “We
were doing the mix, the clean-up of the
multiple camera dialogue, making a good
linear mix,” says Vagabond’s sound design-
er/engineer Drew Weir. When Byrd was
queried by ESPN host Jim Gray about white
players in the NBA, Byrd’s answer became
such a hot topic it was replayed for days.
“The next day, Joe Malecki, [the editor for
the project] said ‘Go get the paper! You’re
not going to believe it! It’s on the front
page!’” says Weir. “Now we’re known for
‘Get Your Controversy Heard!’”
//www.vagabondaudio.com
SCREEN MAGAZINE 27
by J U L I E M Y N AT T
L to R Elizabeth Crowley, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s
Ty Pennington & Steve Dragin