Are We Going to Like Our New World Better?

I am 38% through the book The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity. according to my Kindle. And I did say I would share, but I wonder how willing any of us are to accept what may be our new reality. According to this book, we are in a "shift from an economy based on making things to one that revolves around knowledge and creativity." We seem to want to do both, create and make.

We are having so much trouble competing in the manufacture of things but we continue to try and that makes me wonder if we have accepted our prospective new role in the world order. I don't think so, or why would we have risked so much of our nation's wealth to prop up the auto industry, which may never be competitive? Unless we can use our knowledge and creativity to figure out how to make a car that is so unique and compelling that people will be willing to pay extra to own it, we are not facing the reality that we can not be competitive doing the same as everyone else. Isn't it better and certainly more interesting to be the brains of the world rather than the labor force? Let emerging economies raise their standards of living through their own industrial revolution. Let us think up wonderful, cool new things, cure disease and poverty, lead a green revolution, you get the idea.

In the long run, we would have been better off if we had sent all the automotive workers to school to learn new skills rather than spend billions propping up a manufacturing wet dream. These thoughts are my own, fertilized by the ideas of economists much smarter than I am. I have only my own sense of what is the right direction, but it frequently seems at odds with the direction we are taking. It makes me a little uneasy. Does anyone else see that the emperor is not wearing anything?

So much for this Saturday's potluck, I'll look for a happier subject for next week.

Sharon

Don't Flip Over Dinner

In other words, Flipped was filmed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Dinner for Schmucks was filmed in LA. And The Other Guys was filmed in New York. Those are some of our choices this weekend if we are planning a movie going outing. And of course you can go see Inception, again, and again and again.

Timing of release is so important that there must be hordes of analysts at every distributing company, holding their finger to the wind, their ear to the ground and their fingers on your pulse. Wide release or limited? Where is it likely to play well and not so well based on subject and star. So many factors come in to play and so much money is spent to market these films leading up to their release. It's a bit like political campaigns; we are bombarded with political commercials and movie previews. They are packaged similarly, so you end up voting for a candidate or going to see a movie based on a snippet that may not have anything to do with the whole picture in either case.

Are we lazy, or just busy. Why do we let others woo and seduce us with bright and shiny objects that don't serve us or entertain us? Look a little further and make up your own mind.

Sharon

I Met a Producer Today

Producers don't usually walk through the door of my little shop, but he was there to see my clairvoyant about becoming his agent. See, I knew I'd get your attention. You have to stop by Boku on a Thursday night, I have the most interesting guests.

Anyway, the producer made a movie called Charlie Valentine. It's going directly to DVD, but if you Google it, you can see the trailer. It's an action flick that looks interesting, and yes, it was filmed right here.

I asked the producer why he filmed in LA, his response, "this is where all the talent is; it's so much easier, and you can go home at night. If you film somewhere else, you end up spending so much money flying people in and putting them up in a hotel, it turns out not to be worth any incentives offered." I would have kissed him, but his wife was with him.

Sharon

I Know Jerry Bruckheimer's Skating Teacher

That's as close as I have ever gotten to Jerry Bruckheimer, one of the most successful people in Hollywood. We both grew up in Michigan, and what else are you going to do there in the winter. You learn to skate.

The number of production days were up last week, over 8%. We can give Mr. Bruckheimer some of the credit for stemming the flow of lost production. As one of his execs said, "we work hard to keep shows in Los Angeles in order to help the local economy and to keep industry jobs in town". All right! Question of the day: do you want to be as successful as Bruckheimer? Shoot in California, numb nuts!

Bruckheimer's latest foray is called The Whole Truth. It's about court cases, based in NY, but filmed in LA baby. How do they make California look like New York? I lived there for 20 years, and I don't know how you make California blue sky a dirty NY gray everyday, and what do you do about garbage; just back up a garbage truck and dump it all over the street before starting to film? God bless them. You have to watch this show when it launches.

There's another reason to support this show. Maura Tierney has joined the cast. You may not recognize her name, but you will know her face and be pleased to watch her perform. Maura is a new breast cancer survivor. Proof positive that breast cancer can strike anyone, even the beautiful and the young. Through Susan G. Komen's efforts, the government has lowered the recommended age for a mammogram to age 40. When you see beautiful Maura, you'll under stand why.

Sharon

Milkin Has a Handle on the Numbers

I remember Mike Milkin from his Drexel Burnham days. He was one of those shooting stars on Wall Street that shot straight up and came crashing down in prison. Known as the Junk Bond King, he liberated a lot of capital, but he neglected to follow some of the rules and ended up serving 2 years. After beating prostate cancer by fiddling with his testosterone levels, he rehabilitated him self in a large way. (That doesn't sound quite right, does it?)

One of the things Milken created was a think tank right here in Santa Monica that studies many things; the objective, to make this world a better place.

Last month the Milken Institute issued a report entitled Film Flight about the disastrous fall out from California's loss of film production to other states and countries. According to Milkin, since 1997, the high point for California film production, up to 2008, we have lost 36,000 film jobs and $2.4 billion in wages. His report doesn't have job numbers for this industry from 2009 - 2010. So heaven knows what it is now since the recession/depression hit and more production has left.

The report may be accessed at: www.milkininstitute.org/pdf/filmflight_execsum.pdf. It offers suggestions to the people running this state of what could be done to make California more competitive. The basic piece of advice is to extend the tax incentives permanently and to broaden their application. We don't have to offer the moon to these producers, a small star will keep them here. maybe a pastrami sandwich. Ask them! What will it take?

Sharon

Sort of Lackluster at the Box Office

Respectable but slightly wimpy ticket sales this last weekend. For the third week in a row, Inception, partially filmed in LA led sales. People are going back a second and third time. Did they not get it the first time? Let's give our sweetie pie Steve Carell some love this week. I don't know what Dinner for Schmucks is about, I'm afraid to read up on it, but the previews look like vintage Carell and it was all filmed in LA.

I have to give Steve-O some of the credit for the fact that most of his work is filmed in LA. I'm sure he is big enough to call the location shots. In the case of Schmucks, however, tax credits were received from the state to the tune of about $6 million in savings, and that must have cemented the deal.

The 3-D sequel Cats and Dogs as well as Charlie St. Cloud were filmed in Vancouver. They showed very anemic sales. Nah nah na nah na. (Is that how you spell a razberry?)

Sharon

HBO

Home Box Office (HBO) is another cable channel to which I don't subscribe. So I never caught the Sex and the City or the Soprano's bug. I related to both from a distance because I lived in Manhattan, and even knew a few mafioso types when I lived in Brooklyn. But after spending some time researching where HBO films their series and miniseries, I realized I have missed a lot of quality TV viewing. Plus there are no commercials, which means uninterrupted viewing and more creative freedom because of the lack of sponsors to please.

HBO started out as a cable company in Manhattan in the 60's. Now look at them. They never leave an Emmy Show empty handed. I was expecting to see most of their production back east or overseas, but was pleasantly surprised to find that not to be the case. The California tax incentives are not available to TV producers, even when they are making full length features; hopefully that will be corrected in the future.

In the meantime, True Blood, perhaps HBO's most popular show, and another vampire saga, is filmed primarily in California, even though, as everyone knows, Louisiana is the usual home for those pointy toothed creatures. In fact, the story is based in Louisiana, and some of the opening shots are from a plantation located there. But guess what, HBO built a replica of the plantation in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Bon Temps graveyard and Sookies house are there too.

Big Love is another big HBO hit, and I was sure they must be filming in Utah, because it's about a polygamous family. Nope. Right here in Santa Clarita and at a bunch of other California locations. I haven't seen this show either, but I have seen the little boy who plays one of the characters. Actually he is twins and he shares the role with his brother. They were in my store the other day with their mother. They were quite the handful, but cute.

There is a new series that HBO is working on called Luck. It is filmed at the Santa Anita Racetrack and stars Dustin Hoffman. There's another called Tilda starring Ellen Page which is filming here too.

If anyone has a favorite HBO show they would like me to research, I'd be glad to give it the made in California test. So far, HBO is on my good list.

Sharon