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Catherine Rubey Blog
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Hi everyone. The producers and I are proud to announce we have attached both a director and a lead actor for Baggage and we plan to shoot in Chicago late summer/early fall. Dirk Benedict has agreed to direct and Corbin Bernsen has agreed to play the lead role of Pete, the retiring airline pilot. You’ll recall that Mr. Bernsen and Chelcie Ross, who’s been on board for some time now, worked together in the movie, Major League. We think this re-teaming will provide a well-spring of drama and humor to the film!
You’ll remember Mr. Benedict from his acting roles in the still hugely popular overseas The A-Team and Battlestar Gallactica. Mr. Benedict directed several episodes of both shows, in addition to his feature Cahoots, which he wrote as well. Cahoots was released in 2001 and premiered at several marquis film festivals, including Austin, and garnered positive reviews there and from Variety.
Mr. Benedict and I have been working on the script and discussing the project at length the past few months and I am confident he brings a wealth of industry experience and talent to the directors chair, as well as his own personal experience with issues dealt with in the film: he’s a prostate cancer survivor, a licensed pilot for many years, and has experienced first-hand the effect of divorce on a family.
Please check the website for links to updates and articles that are due to be released soon. Thanks to all of you for your support and enthusiasm this last year. Have a great weekend and we’ll have a few more announcements in the weeks to come, so stay tuned!
Catherine writes about what it’s like to raise money and produce her own script:
Money: Ahh, yes, the cornerstone of any....okay, sorry. See, you have to have a sense of humor about it all because I have been pimping my project for over a year for money. A few re-writes here and there and attaching a few other key department heads (composer and dp) but mostly, just pimping for money. And, frankly, it stinks. BUT, the good news is you do it so much that you forget you're doing it and you'll find it comes so easy after a while the money will roll in...okay, not quite, but it is essentially a numbers game and if you get in front of enough of the right people, you'll get some money and I did. I have my lowest "greenlight" amount (according to my BP) and I'm on the lookout for matching funds, but we can move forward with what we have and continue our search for additional equity and co-productions.
How I got money: I started an LLC (use your home state for the first one, then you can use DE later, but to start stay local just for logistic purposes; in Canada, use those incentives and rebates!!). I did that part myself and you can too. Then I researched PPM's and found an attorney (check your local or nearby Lawyers for the Arts programs or something a kin) who'd work for cheap who was bored with her current career track and into movies. I found another guy (from Chicago actually) who is fearless about sales and essentially trained me on business plans, pitch meetings, phone calls, etc. Then read and research all you can...then
I told EVERY SINGLE PERSON I COULD THAT I WAS MAKING A MOVIE. That's the key. Because using a PPM you canNOT solicit strangers...so all those folks on CL are gonna get busted if they make it big btw. The SEC is involved but at a distance and if you follow the very simple (believe it or not) rules and have an attorney help you, you can talk to people and people who know other people and get some meetings. Why a PPM? It's cheapest and easiest for the first project. After, you can set up your C or S corp or something similar in Canada as well.
What did I have first: An actor I met in my area, Chelcie Ross, a script that was in pretty good shape (thanks Jules for helping me get it in great shape), and two other producers I hooked up with to fill in the areas I had little or no experience: production and financing. The writing, legal, and marketing stuff, website design stuff (primitive but better than most out there) desktop publishing...I had done all of that so all those hats I wore in my career converged in this endeavor.
Wow, this got long. Sorry. It really does come down to networking, researching the trades and staying somewhat current with tech, legal and current issues, who's moving up in the world, projects, reading and watching films, DVD commentaries are always good believe it or not, etc.
Know what you know and what you don't know. Be honest but confident. Out research, hustle, and work your a$$ off. This is why producers have to LOVE your script...they're attached to it for...like..ever. It makes you a better writer to be a producer and I've learned so much.
Last Friday night, after having a cocktail with my neighbors and all the kiddies were playing, at 9 pm I took my jump drive to Kinkos and had 100 "sell sheets" made and fed exed to Cannes because a sales agent there heard about our project via one of my EP's via another producer at a to-be-named-later studio. I didn't have the addy there so I couldn't before then but I was waiting on an email back from the SA on what he needed. That came at 8:30 Friday night.
Now, no deal will be struck there, (and I know this from doing...research) and it's late in the game to get something started there, BUT the sales agent is pumped about laying the foundation for a later deal for us. For a project this size, this is a huge step forward…for later.
How did this happen? My EP knew someone, I could deliver on getting the artwork updated with the latest info and attachments, and I know enough about desktop publishing to put everything together..I googled "sell sheet" so I knew what had to be on it and the paper, etc (at 8:45 Friday night) and took it to Kinkos, printed it and got it on the way to Cannes to arrive first thing Monday for a few days before the Market closes. Moral of the story: Kinko's is DEAD on Friday nights..oh, and be on your toes at all times and don't drink too much.
P.S. This could all go south in a hurry and we could be starting over with a lead actor. BUT, I have a director who's on board and, MOST importantly I have SOME money, which validates the project beyond belief. Partial financing is a pretty good alternative to...just about everything else BUT fully financed via equity investors who don't bother us.
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