The play itself, which Pickett wrote last year, is scheduled to open April 19 at the Ruskin Group Theater in Santa Monica, California. Actress-producer Amelia Mulkey is the director and she officially begins casting the middle of February.

While nothing is set in stone, Pickett is working on a live Web cast of one of the shows with Chuck Banner, head of Bob Banner Prods., under his Legendary Pictures Co. (His father, Bob Banner, was the famed producer of such TV shows as Candid Camera and The Carol Burnett Show.)

“The Sideways fan base is colossal on an international level,” says Pickett. “This is a unique way to reach that fan base. For instance, anyone, for a modest fee — say, $5 — can watch a live Web cast of the play anywhere in the world. Wine bars, as with sports bars and boxing matches, would pay a premium to hold it. Never been done before. I don’t think it would work with, say, Waiting for Godot at the Guthrie, but Sideways? Whole other ballgame.”

There is a model for such a Web cast. Comedian Lewis C.K. recently did a show that wasn’t live, but rather an edited Web cast. He promoted it, built a special Web site that directed viewers to PayPal to spend $5 and he made a small fortune in 48 hours by cutting out all the middlemen.

Sideways will be Web cast with a dozen remote controlled cameras mounted in the theater. They will be fed to a trailer outside the theater just as a network covers a sporting event. There will be a special Web site built to handle the traffic.

“We’ll promote it on all fronts, using a PR firm and whoever funds the live Web stream,” explains the writer. “We’re in talks with a very big entertainment entity, and wineries will sponsor given weeks. Plus the special live stream Web site will have advertising by the sponsoring wineries. This has never been done before with a play like this. If we pull it off, you’ll be able to see a live, professionally shot and edited performance of the play anywhere in the world — China, South America, wherever. It will also be available as an edited download.”

Viewers will, however, have to supply their own Pinot Noir.

Meanwhile read my review of Vertical, Pickett’s sequel to Sideways.

- by Kirk Honeycutt

A Hot Date
The callback is like a first date after you’ve met someone out at a bar. The casting director has decided that your opening lines were worth a more intimate meeting, so now you just have do enough to kick the relationship off. Be a hot date. Take some chances, don’t be afraid to stand out. Whatever they’re casting you for, be it a major motion picture, a television gig or a regional commercial, they want someone to pop. Be memorable.

A Confident Attitude
If you don’t book, you could be getting evicted. You know this; make sure the casting director doesn’t. Put your focus on the work and not on the stakes, no matter what they might be. This, of course, is much easier said than done, but it has to be pulled off. Remember that you need them contemplating not only the positives of booking you, but the negatives of passing. To accomplish that, you’ll need mastery over your scene study and your nerves.

The Frank Sinatra Component
Ah, Frankie, the Chairman of the Board. We could all use a little of his essence. That’s what you need. You need to be able to roll with anything they throw at you. Things run a little late, stay cool. They ask you to come in a little early, be cool. Whatever they ask, stay cool. If you’re English accent sucks and they ask you to try it, don’t make an issue, just try to fail with a little swagger and humor. Make sure they know that you’re a pro, one that you can handle anything they throw at you. This is an unbelievably valuable thing to have on set. Set is a place where even the tiniest idiosyncrasies can turn toxic and blow up morale, making versatile and easy going talent an essential component to a smooth shoot. Show them you’re the one who can handle the cold days, the rainy days and the drunken director days. Stay Cool.

Take those three arrows and put them in your actor’s arsenal. Use them as weapons against the tyranny of unemployment and frustration. Good luck out there.

“A filmmaker will say, ‘We’re doing the movie all digital. It will be a lot cheaper.’ Well maybe with a digital camera it will be cheaper. But unless you know how you’re doing post, what the finish going to be and what the release platforms will be — there are multiple kinds of releases these days — you really put yourself in serious financial risk.”

Those “fixes” that suddenly arise when switching among different media can add time, which means greater interest charges on a producer’s loan, he points out.

The other big development is the rapidly changing nature of the camera equipment itself. “Digital cameras turnover every six months,” says Burum. “Rental houses must put out the money to buy this new equipment, which makes it very difficult to make a profit.

“In the commercial business, clients want new and different. And camera manufacturers are always keen to sell a new piece of this or that, something you have to get. So a post-production house or rental house in the commercial business is asked to buy that equipment even though it makes no difference at all in the final product. It’s only the perception that it’s hot.”

The next big change that Burum and his colleagues are looking forward to is an 8K camera.

“Within next two to five years we’ll have an 8K camera like 70mm,” he says. “The only question is where will the money for research and development come from? We should have had it 15 years ago.”

- by Kirk Honeycutt

Genset or an electric generator is an immense utility on a set in the case of power failure.

Understanding Electricity

Once you understand how units of electricity are interrelated, it would be extremely easy for you to determine the answers to these questions. In very simple terms, electricity is the flow of electrons through a metal wire. It can be compared with the flow of water in a hose.

• The pressure with which the water flows through the pipe is comparable to the amount of pressure with which the electricity flows in a metal wire. This pressure is termed voltage or volts and is represented by the symbol V.
• The rate at which the water comes out of the hose is measured by what is known as the flow rate. In terms of electricity flow, this is measured as current and is represented by the symbol capital I.
• The pipe or the metal wire through which water/electricity flows faces some resistance due to the gauge of the pipe or metal wire. The resistance faced by the flow of electricity is measured in ohms and is represented by the symbol R.

Now that you understand a few basic things about electricity, you will know what factors will affect the output of an electric generator. If the pressure or the voltage is increased, the output will also increase. If the flow rate is increased or if the resistance is decreased by taking appropriate actions, the output will also increase.

It is all about Power

Now here is fun part: You are increasing the output but you need to use that output wisely to ensure your work is completed. Suppose you manage to increase the output of the hose pipe by increasing the pressure, hiking up the flow rate or decreasing the resistance (by using a larger gauged pipe). You still need to use it appropriately to ensure the work gets done. For instance, if you are using the hose to clean your car, then pressure, flow rate and resistance all combined will determine how fast your car can be washed. Keeping in mind the analogy of water, the amount of work done with electricity is termed electrical power (P) and is measured in watts.

Understanding Generators

When someone orders a generator, he is usually are asked by the person taking the order how many kW (Kilowatts or 1,000 watts) of power do you need or what is the ampere power you are looking at. You may not have a proper response if you do not know the amount of electricity you will be consuming. So here it goes.

1. Prepare a list of electrical devices you will be powering using the generator(s).
2. Each device has a label that mentions its wattage. Write it down.
3. In case the label mentions the requirements in volts and amps, you can calculate the wattage simply by multiplying both (P=VI or power = voltage x electricity flow). Yes, you have to return to pre-algebra.
4. Add the required wattage and you have mathematically calculated your power requirement per hour.

In simple terms, if you hire a 10kW generator, you can power devices that consume not more than 10,000 watts of power per hour.
In case the output of the generator is asked in amperes (amp or A), here is how you can proceed.

• Generators usually have outputs in 120V or 240V. Most large appliances need 240V so most likely this will be the generator for you.
• Ask for the ampere of the generator.
• For determining the total wattage output, simply multiply the voltage with the amperes. For instance, a 240V generator producing 20 amps would generate electricity enough to power of 4800 watts or 4.8kW.

Final Note

If you are sure that you will not be powering any device which requires 240V of supply, ordering a 120V generator would be sufficient.

While this all paints a rather grim outlook on what has previously been looked at as a mostly glamorous business, there is hope Hollywood is heading in the right direction. In what is clearly a win-win situation, many movies are now shot digitally, which is a much greener option than shooting on film. The materials used to both produce and process film are extremely damaging to the environment so shooting digitally is not only more cost effective but much better for dear mother earth.

Some tactics that are now being used by equipment rental companies to stay eco-friendly include:

1. Water carts for refilling reusable water bottles at set

2. Filtered water spouts for refilling reusable water bottles

3. Clearly labeled recycling bins

4. Composting bins for food scraps and compostable cutlery

5. Biodiesel-ready electricity generators

6. Biodiesel-ready truck engines

7. LED light bulbs that considerably reduce energy consumption

These methods have been used on major films such as Tropic Thunder, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Unstoppable.

The first big budget movie to really market itself as going completely green was the 2010 Gary Marshall rom-com Valentine’s Day. In an interview with the Mother Nature Network executive producer Diana Pokorny said, “It’s not only about making a difference now; it’s about creating technologies and methods that will continue to be improved upon for the next movie, and so on.”

Some of the green elements used on the set included hybrid and clean diesel vehicles, biodegradable plates and utensils at craft services, reusable sets and refillable stainless steel water bottles.

Now the California Film Commission even has a Green Resource Guide that provides contact information for eco-friendly businesses dealing in catering, wardrobe, set design, office supplies and more. It looks like there’s enough information and resources available that becoming eco-friendly should be a no-brainer for movie studios in the near future.

“There are a lot of things wrong with our environment, so to go green seemed to me to be a very good thing,” said director Gary Marshall. “It’s not that big an effort. If we could do it, others can do it.”

- Scott Sonne

As a sop to industry execs who want to be back home by Tuesday, festival programmers heavily frontload the schedule so most of the acquisition titles screen in the first three or four days. Thus deals were closed as early as last Friday when Magnolia Pictures bought Lauren Greenfield’s documentary The Queen of Versailles, for a price was in the mid-six figures. This despite a lawsuit by the subject of the film, Florida time-share mogul David Siegel, against the festival for calling it a “riches to rags story.” It should be added Siegel hasn’t seen the film and apparently forgot the line comes from something he himself said in the doc! The movie, which reminds viewers of the worst excesses of reality TV, premiered on opening night at Sundance.

Sony Pictures Classics then acquired North American rights to Malik Bendjelloul’s documentary Searching For Sugar Man, about an obscure rock singer who became a surprise star in South Africa, for a reported sale price in the mid-six figures.

CBS Films picked up U.S. rights to Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s drama The Words starring Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana in the early morning hours Sunday. That deal was closed with a $2 million minimum guarantee and a $1.5 million P&A commitment and a potential fall theatrical release. Upstart LD Distribution followed with the acquisition
of the thriller Black Rock from director and star Katie Aselton for a little more than $1 million.

Benh Zeitlin’s feature debut, the dark drama Beasts of the Southern Wild, has been juggling multiple suitors since its premiere Friday. The Reporter’s Todd McCarthy called the film “a poster child for everything American independent cinema aspires to be but so seldom is.” Here’s his review.

Insiders say that deal will take time as Fox Searchlight, The Weinstein Co., Sony Pictures Classics, River Road Entertainment, Oscilloscope and Focus Features are all circling the film.

Arbitrage, a thriller starring Richard Gere and Tim Roth, has several suitors as well after a positively received first screening on Saturday. A screening in L.A. was set for Monday.

There were some casualties at the festival as well. Veteran indie film exec and San Francisco Film Society’s newly appointed executive director Bingham Ray died Monday after he was hospitalized in Salt Lake City following a reported stroke.

And 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan was rushed to the hospital after he fell unconscious at a Festival dinner.

Meanwhile, Park City police officers broke up a party thrown by the William Morris Endeavor talent agency early Sunday morning. Too crowded. Which is pretty much the way Main Street and all the parties are on opening weekend when young people jam the ski resort town, not to see films but to drink mightily and hope to catch sight of Paris Hilton.

- Kirk Honeycutt

Digital storage, be it on hard drives, DVDs or solid-state memory, simply isn’t on a par for anything close to the 100-plus-year lifespan of film. Formats become obsolete in a matter of years and the life of digital media is woefully short.

To which the country’s top film preservationist, Robert A. Harris, who has restored everything from Lawrence of Arabia and The Godfather movies to the Hitchcock classics Rear Window and Vertigo, can only add “Amen!”

“Bottom line, that report is the best thing that’s happened [in film preservation) in years,” he says. “Because it’s coming from the Academy, it will get people to wake up, listen and, hopefully, understand.

“If you shoot on data, things get squirrely. You can lose data through corruption the same day! Data is not as robust as film. If you have a viable film negative, you put in vault and forget about it. You can’t do that with data. It’s like a salt-water fish tank or a puppy — you’ve got to be there and take care of it. I can see companies starting up now that will guarantee to take care of your film elements — like perpetual care in a family grave.”

The same technology that makes it so much cheaper and easier to make movies also underlies the lack of guaranteed long-term access to it. Not only are the film communities still ignorant of the fragility of digital files, many of those sectors lack the financial resources to attack the problem.

Beyond the movie business, what frightens Harris is that the history of this country is no longer being recorded on film.

“We have the ability to take a negative from the 1890s and print it,” he says. “Ever try to retrieve data from a 3 1/2-inch floppy? We have the history of this country, recorded on photographs, going back to the 1820 to about 1995. And that’s the end of it. ”

At a lecture last month he asked a college crowd how many had taken slides, photos or videos of major family events in the last 20 years. Most hands went up.

“Well, if you don’t touch the stuff, it’s gone,” he told the audience. “They looked at me like I had three heads. I don’t know of any permanence as far as digital data is concerned. It’s bad — and people don’t understand how bad it is.”

- Kirk Honeycutt

This Siren Comes in Peace
The name Starbucks was adapted by its founders from the novel Moby Dick, whereas the Siren was adapted from Greek mythology. This half-fish and half-woman, according to the mythology, made a habit of luring sailors with her alluring songs and seductive beauty before leading them to their doom. However, in the context of Starbucks, the Siren just represents the company’s products (coffee) irresistible and seductive qualities. The original logo was surrounded by two concentric rings having the texts Starbucks, Coffee, Tea, and Spices in between them.

Precise Changes
Since the inception of the company, the logo has undergone numerous alterations, keeping pace with the changing times, expanding footprint, and rebranding exercises. In 1987, when the ownership of Starbucks changed hands, the logo was cleaned up a little to be more acceptable throughout the world. In the original logo, the Siren was baring her breasts, while the new picture had her chest covered but with her seducing free flowing hair made pretty obvious. The visibility of the belly button was retained in both the logos. The biggest change was in the color theme. The original had coffee brown color whereas the new one had the present green colored theme that we are familiar with. The text tea and spices were done away with.

The Tail Gets the Eraser
The logo was changed a third time in 1992 wherein the image was enhanced a little to provide a more close-up shot of the Siren. Her belly button was no longer visible and her twin tails were shown very obscurely.

Belly Button is Back
The fourth change was made in 2008, however, this time it was limited to only one product. Customer’s ordering Pike Place Roast Blend were served their brew in a glass having the logo very similar to the original one. The coffee theme made a comeback, the belly button of the Siren was visible, and so were her twin tails. If a customer was offended by this, they could put the napkin over the picture while they drank it or order something else. The text however was changed to Starbucks Fresh Roasted Coffee. This change was part of a marketing campaign which would inform its loyal customers, and any others, that the company has been “Roasting coffee since 1971. The best cup then. The best cup now.”

The Most Recent Changes
Very recently, in January 2011 to be precise, a new and more subtle logo was unveiled by the company. The major or apparent changes were:

• The concentric circles were done away with completely.
• Any text was completely eradicated from the logo.
• The navel is invisible.
• Softer facial features are included.
• Twin tails were toned down to make room for a more prominent face.

Possible Reasons, Symbolic or Otherwise
Of late, the company, apart from coffee, also offers numerous breakfast items to its customers. People in the morning do not want to be hit with a picture that is sharp and dramatic. Softness is the resolute theme if they want to sell more products in the morning after people just woke up. Moreover, the main aim behind this rebranding exercise in all probability is to change the perception of its customers. Reports also suggest that the company might diversify into themed bars and lounges. Thus, the word coffee needs to be done away with or at least not emphasized as much.

How can you make this happen? How can you build a pipeline to the top in a world that seems like an experiment in controlled chaos? It’s easy; you just have to play a little chess.

Chess is a highly cerebral and strategic game that no one plays any more. It’s taken a backseat to online gaming sensations like Farmville, which require the I.Q of a three year old and the attention span of Bart Simpson. Despite the dip in popularity, the lessons garnered from a chess board are applicable to an abundance of real live situations; all it takes is you being able to recognize them.

Afraid that you can’t? Don’t sweat it, that’s why we’re here. We’re going to show you how the On-Set chess game works, and how you can check-mate the industry.

Production Assistants /Pawns
Unless you are somebody’s son or daughter, this is where you start. P.A.’s are just like Pawns in that they’re the most expendable pieces of a production. Like Pawns on the chess board, P.A.’s move first, and if any are mistakes made by them, they die first too. It’s a job that while sometimes thankless, is vital to a smooth running set.

P.A.’s have to remember that there is opportunity in your unimportance. Whatever you can add to a production is gravy, because absolutely nothing is expected from you outside mind numbingly simple tasks.

You prove yourself as a P.A. by knocking out all your tasks while finding those sometimes impossible ways to affect your production. When your opportunity comes, make an impact. Suggest a location, fix the copier, do whatever you can do to make something go smoother. In chess, a pawn making a strong move is especially crippling because you can’t game plan for it. Pawns are just supposed to die. Your biggest assets as a P.A. are guile and work ethic. Try to not be short on either.

Successful P.A.’s end up becoming…

Production Coordinators / Knights
Knights are the middle management of the chess board. Better than the pawns, but either answering to, or on par with everyone else. This seems to also be the plight of the Production Coordinator. You run the P.A.’s and organize a large portion of the production but that’s where it ends. You still answer to the Production Manager and really to anyone else that matters. If the equipment is not rented, the right crew not hired, or if paperwork isn’t on point, you’ll start to feel like a P.A. again real soon.

Just as a Knight is one of the rare pieces with access to every square of the chess board, the P.C. interacts with almost every area of production. That’s nice because this is officially the first position where relationships matter. In order to move past this point, it really, really helps to have someone in your corner.

Your goal is to become ol’ reliable, the person with the 99.9 percent success rate. Producers and UPM’s want to know that if you’re on the job, there’s nothing to worry about. And they want you to do all of this while maintaining a good attitude about it. There’s a motherly aspect to this position that rewards those who seem happy about taking care of everyone else’s needs. To stand out as a P.C. you kinda need to have that.

Successful P.C.’s end up becoming…

Unit Production Managers / Rooks
Rooks are tricky. They have complete latitude on a chess board but only in one direction. UPM’s are the same, you basically have a hand in all non-creative aspects of the project. You should be getting equipment at a good price, setting cost effective shooting schedules, and making crew hires. Your boss is now a Line Producer, but at this point it’s probably more of a collaborative effort rather than you being someone’s whipping boy.

When a game of chess starts getting down to the nitty gritty, Rooks start moving all over the place, up down, left, right, trying to create advantages. They become the hustlers of the Chess Board. If you’re going to be a rock star UPM, that’s exactly what you should be to, a hustler. The production game should be second nature to you now. A good UPM should be calling in favors, strong-arming those who need it, and dealing with crew concerns all at once.

Now winning matters. Just as good Rook play can win you a chess match, a good UPM can make a production. You want to be seasoned by this point. Seasoned enough to be able to sniff out the BS and create some of your own. You’re pretty high up, and you’re almost in the really big game. But you gotta wow folks. You need to make some moves that raise eyebrows in a positive way. This is probably where you need to start schmoozing a little.

Successful U.P.M.’s end up becoming…

Line Producers / Queens
Now we’re talking. This is the start of the big time. Despite the fact that a chess game isn’t about the Queen, she sure has a lot of say on its outcome. She can’t win it or lose it -only the King can do that- but she can certainly make it realistically impossible for either to take place. The Line Producer is essentially a master of all things below-the-line, meaning that if it’s not totally creative, he runs it.

As a Line Producer you are essentially a set boss. Everyone will see you and respect you in lieu of the King showing up. You’re working hand in hand with the director now, and he’s telling you everything that could possibly be screwing with his vision. Please have patience.
Queens kill, protect, bait, and destroy. It’s incredibly hard to win a chess game without a good one. Same with Line Producers, for a production to win, you have to have an overly competent Line Producer.

Experience is paramount with Line Producers. There are so many variables that take place on set that it really helps to have seen them all by this point. You need to be able to deal with overbearing directors, expedite post production, and hit any curveballs thrown to you by a crew that will look to you as a never ending answer well. Good Luck with that, but if you’ve made it this far you’ve probably already got it down.

Good Line Producers eventually become…

Kings.

2) Just want to let you know that I think that it’s really admirable that you let grade school kids do all of your screenwriting.

3) My film school gave me the Michael Bay Award for my short film entitled Shit Blowing Up In Slow Motion While Hot Chicks Watch. Thanks for the inspiration, bro.

4) Can you get me Megan Fox’s autograph?

5) I got three words for you: Pearl. Harbor. 2.

6) Scorsese and De Niro. Spike Lee and Denzel. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Michael Bay and Optimus Prime. Makes sense.

7) When Spielberg called and said he wanted to work with you, did you think that you were being Punk’d?

8) It’s really an honor to meet you, Mr. Ratner. I loved all of the Rush Hour Movies.

9) Do you have a special mantle where you keep all of your Golden Raspberry statues?

10) My childhood called – it wants its memories of The Transformers back.