FROM OUR BLOG

richarditskovich

My First Blog on the Entertainment Industry

Posted at 5:03 pm , 21 Jan 2010 by richarditskovich [1 Comment]

I have to be honest this whole “blog” thing is new to me. I’m not even sure what I should write about. Recently a good friend of mine Joe asked me to write a monthly “blog” about the entertainment industry whatever that means. I have been working in the entertainment industry for about 3 years now. It’s been in more ways than one a roller coaster, physically, emotionally, mentally, and truth is I love each and every moment, and I am blessed and happy to be doing this for a living. I don’t want to get into the projects I have worked on, I don’t want to name drop etc. You can always imdb me to see what I have done. I am here to give you a guided tour and inside look at what goes on in the entertainment business.

The section of the business I work in is television and film. I am currently working on “The Wanda Sykes Show” a new late night comedy show that airs in place of MAD TV every Saturday on Fox at 11:00pm.

I have worked on a few major motion pictures, as well as music videos, commercials, award shows, and independent films.

I started out loving films, watching old movies with my mother was a routine thing in my home. Eventually I would start to write spoken word poetry, which eventually grew into writing screenplays etc.

I chose to go to a small film school in Los Angeles, where I learned to write and direct. 

Upon graduating I landed a job with a MTV show, the rest was history.

I won’t lie and say it has been easy; it’s been very hard. I was not born into the industry so I made a way. Of course I had the help and guidance of many different people most important was the support of my wife.

I know I have along road ahead of me, there will be fun moments, exciting moments, hard moments, but the truth is I live for this business and I love it. I am excited to grow with the business and make a life long living here in Hollywood.

Next month I will give you a more inside look at what I do. I am always open to questions. Please feel free to e-mail me at richarditskovich@yahoo.com

Hope to hear from you-

Richie

Hemdee Kiwanuka

Heiti Needs Help

Posted at 10:12 pm , 20 Jan 2010 by Hemdee Kiwanuka Tags: , , ,
[No Comments]

A powerful aftershock struck Haiti on Wednesday, shaking buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets only eight days after the country’s capital was devastated by a major…

The quake began as a slow vibration and then intensified into side-to-side shaking that lasted about eight seconds in Haiti’s capital. Some in Port-au-Prince said the far stronger Jan. 12 quake seemed to last for 30 seconds.

Last week’s magnitude-7 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to the European Union. A massive international aid effort has been struggling with logistical problems, and many Haitians are still desperate for food and water.

The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.

The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in the next 30 days, but it only had 16 million meals in the pipeline.

As you can see there is so much that still needs to be done, so please give what you can. One or two dollars can go a long way. Just log onto www.myshowbizsite.com and donate what you can.

Hemdee Kiwanuka

Lets Help The World

Posted at 9:59 am , by Hemdee Kiwanuka Tags: , , , , , ,
[No Comments]

To whom it may concern,

On the behalf of Woman At Work International, a non-profit organization that spreads awareness about critical issues that are surrounding our nation today such as HIV/AIDS, Natural Disasters, Child abuse, the Disabled and War victims.

On May 31st and June 1st 2010 Women At Work International together with Network Show Biz, No-End Entertainment & TI Entertainment will be hosting a charity concert at the Greek Theater Los Angeles and Arco Arena Sacramento to raise One Million US Dollars in support of Wyclef Jean‘s Yele Haiti and Woman At Work International’s mission to help those in need.

Woman At Work organization have already received tremendous support from performing artists such as Hip Hop singer Wyclef Jean, R&B Singer Jay Sean , Jamaican Super Star Beenie Man and many more by donating their time to participate in our charitable cause. We would appreciate any financial support that you can contribute to these organizations’s mission of building the Village of Hope School for Woman in Uganda, Haiti’s earthquake victims, Los Angeles Food Bank & Sacramento Food Bank.

We will be inviting local businesses, women’s organizations and families to participate in the event. Some suggested forms of donation other than money would be to pay for the artist’s flights, accommodation or per diem during their stay in Los Angeles and Sacramento would be greatly appreciated.

In return for your generosity, the organizing companies Network Show Biz, No-End Entertainment and TI Entertainment will include you or your company in all of the promotional materials for the concerts. Promotional efforts will include radio and television ads, flyers and T-Shirts to be sold prior to and during the concerts.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and learn about our mission and goals. We hope you will consider making a donation. If you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to contact us via email at hemdee@networkshowbiz.com hemdee31@yahoo.com twistediceent@gmail.com or visit our websites at www.networkshowbiz.com www.womanatworkintl.org

Sincerely,

Hemdee Kiwanuka
VP Of Finances
Network Show Biz LLC.

Joseph Gissy

MyShowbizSite and the New Year

Posted at 5:10 pm , 19 Jan 2010 by Joseph Gissy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
[No Comments]

It’s funny that I am going to talk about our company and the New Year while we are heading into the last few weeks of January.  While this past year had been a crazy year for us but a great year for us as a company this New Year has many things to offer not only us here at MyShowbizSite, but our members as well.

Today we will be having our staff meeting that will go over our goals for what we want to offer our members.  Some of the topics we will be discussing will include our contests that we are kicking off right in February for best headshots, best monologues, best hosting reel, and best music video.  We are also going to kick off a bunch of fun videos that we will be shooting in and around Hollywood showing different events that we go to, as well as events we will send our members to. 

We also did some auditions for hosts for our site.  We will be sending our new hosts who are members out to various award shows, premiers and parties throughout this next year to gain extra experience in the entertainment industry as hosts to cover these events.  We hope through this valuable experience they will help build their own demo and hosting reels and book higher paying jobs from them.

We are also making our breakdown section 100% free during our pilot season promotional period for all members of MyShowbizSite.  We know that during this season many actors and actresses are spending way too much money updating headshots, buying stamps and envelopes, and sending all their information to casting directors, agents, and more to book jobs during this time of year.  If your profile is on other acting sites that you have to pay subscriptions for or pay per breakdown you will be paying a lot of money during this time of year as well so we wanted to help lighten that burden by letting you submit yourself for free on our site.

Lastly we here at MyShowbizSite are very please to support Sam Jones III in his new show Blue Mountain State!  He has gone through a fight in the industry and is fighting through it to a whole new level.  Blue Mountain State received amazing reviews and is one of the funniest shows I have personally seen on TV in a long time.  We will be interviewing Sam a little later as well as other casts members of the show so make sure you stay tuned in for those interviews.  One last time Congratulations Sam in your success in your new show!

We hope everyone is ready for this year because we are!  We have a lot more to talk about in our meeting but we know that with what I just announced above we know that you our members will enjoy our site and we hope you get the most out of 2010 for your entertainment careers.  Stay tuned for more and more great benefits from MyShowbizSite.com

Giovanni Cuarez

Blog from Sunset Gower Studios 01/14/2010

Posted at 4:50 am , 15 Jan 2010 by Giovanni Cuarez Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
[No Comments]

Now that you’ve written a screenplay or teleplay, how do you get it to the right person or Production Company?

The most immediate and bold answer would be “get it in there any way you can legally.” The most recent and highly publicized example is the YouTube phenomenon, 4-minute short film by Fede Alvarez. It was said that Mr. Alvarez made the short film for about $300, uploaded to YouTube on a Thursday, was viewed over a million times, and got a $30M Hollywood deal from Ghost House (Sam Raimi’s company) by Monday.

Is this scenario a fluke? Considering how many videos are uploaded to YouTube on a daily basis, you do the math. If you’re curious to see how a 4-minute short video can attract that much attention and command a $30M deal, search for Fede Alvarez (Ataque de Panico) and see an example of what it takes to attract the attention of Hollywood. Now you ask, “I can’t make a short film. I don’t have an agent and don’t know anyone in showbiz. All I have is a screenplay/teleplay on paper, what do I do next?” (NOTE: If you only have 1 completed screenplay/teleplay, the odds will be strongly against you.) Here is 1 strategy to consider. Again, there are a multitude of strategies, but here it goes.

Strategy Number 1: Do some research by going to Blockbuster or your local Video Rental store and look for movies that are a similar genre to your screenplay. Make a list of all the Production Companies that made those movies and all the Distribution Companies that distributed those movies. Now you have a target list. Now email or mail (snail mail) a well constructed synopsis of your screenplay to the companies on your target list. Well constructed meaning, just a concise premise of your story and leave the ending as a question mark so it will encourage the producer/distributor to want to either pick up the phone or request the full length screenplay ASAP. Note that a high percentage won’t respond at all, and the ones that do respond may ask you to sign a release form (Hold Harmless Agreement that Protects the Production/Distribution Company from liability).

This strategy can be applied for teleplays as well. However, you would research the TV section of Blockbuster or your local Video Rental Store. In addition, you can also research IMDB Pro or purchase a Hollywood Creative Directory. Note that it is more challenging to get a new teleplay on air, because the majority of TV Production Companies have “House Keeping/Development/Output” deals with networks and are often contractually obligated to create projects in-house. In addition, TV shows have Show-Runners that will want to put his/her name as the creator or co-creator of your TV show. It is often recommended that a writer become a staff writer on an establish show first, then work his/her way up the ranks to ultimately introduce his/her own TV concept or teleplay.

Now you say “what you described above sounds good, but I’m better at pitching my project in person.” First off, it’s very challenging to get in front of an executive to have him/her listen to your pitch. Secondly, it is strongly recommended that you have more than 1 story idea to pitch, preferably 10. Here is the most common response at a typical pitch session, “That sounds great, what else do you have? (Silence from you)…Well great. Thank you for your time and we’ll keep you posted.” The main reason you want to have more than 1 idea is because it demonstrates to the executive that you can crank out ideas at will and have the discipline to write completed screenplays/teleplays in a short amount of time. In addition, the executive may only like 1 out of 10 ideas you pitch. It’s better to show up at a gun fight with 10 bullets instead of 1.

On my last note of encouragement, just know that if you never give up, you’ll eventually succeed. If your screenplay/teleplay is truly that good, someone will make it. “The definition of a True Champion is when you believe in yourself when all others don’t.” — Sugar Ray Robinson

Joseph Gissy

How About Some Contest To Kick Off The New Year?

Posted at 8:08 am , 29 Dec 2009 by Joseph Gissy Tags: , , , ,
[No Comments]

This is the time of the year that many of us in the entertainment industry make our New Year’s resolutions and think that this next year we will do something with our careers.  This next year we will make this the year for us.  So I was thinking we should get some contest going for the website moving into the New Year.  Of course what better way to do this than to allow all of our members gain some extra cash in their pockets!  Lets kick it off with 4 different contest and award $500 to each winner of each contest.  I will work with our programming team to get a headshot picture contest, monologue contest, hosting contest, and music video contest up online in early January. 

We will be putting together a panel of judges and we will have more prizes as well for the other entrants and runners up.  Stay tuned for this because I know all of you will want to jump on this.  Of course, I will make this completely free for all to join the contest!

Joseph Gissy

Free Headshot Day A Success!

Posted at 7:51 pm , 08 Nov 2009 by Joseph Gissy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
[1 Comment]

If you missed out on the Free Headshot Day we just did here at MyShowbizSite.com then well…You Really Missed Out!

We have a couple more testimonials to go but if you see the videos of our happy members who did attend you will see that they were more than satisfied with their results and can’t wait to do it again.  It was great meeting so many of our members yesterday and more importantly just talking with them about the entertainment industry and our company in general.  The more I talked with our members the more I realize that it must remain our mission to keep on helping out all entertainers work on their craft.  Whether its offering more free headshot days, allowing them to come in and get on camera or whatever else we can come up with for our members we must help them out.

Stay tuned for our next events and keep posting your videos.  We are still looking for people to best represent our site and company whether its through Hosting, Various Print Publications, or Just representing at our events, we want to show off our Members to the world so stay tuned and keep posting!

Joseph Gissy

Free Headshots Filled up in Just 5 Minutes! Should we have another?

Posted at 5:52 am , 28 Oct 2009 by Joseph Gissy [No Comments]

Wow everyone responded really really fast to our Free Headshots offer.  We booked up in just 5 minutes!  Like I mentioned in a previous blog, we are trying new and innovative things here at MyShowbizSite to help give YOU the entertainers tools and resources to work with.  Even though we will not shoot these headshots for another week and a half, we will start looking into a second Free Headshot day for our members.  We  are still playing around with the Free Demo Reel day, but lets see how this Free Headshot day goes first and then we can go from there. 

I am sorry for those of you who didn’t make the first list, but I have created a waiting list and if there are any cancelations, then you may still have a chance to get in.

Stay tuned and I will keep everyone posted.

Joseph Gissy

Back from the Showbiz Expo

Posted at 4:55 pm , 18 Oct 2009 by Joseph Gissy Tags: , , , , , , ,
[No Comments]

So I attended the LA Showbiz Expo yesterday and talked with a lot of great people, met new people that are joining our site as of yesterday, and gave away a bunch of coupons for our “Free Headshot Day” that we are about to announce where and when we are giving the Headshots away.  The Showbiz Expo was interesting to say the least because you get to network with other business’s that cater towards the entertainment industry and you meet with a lot of interesting people that are trying to break into the industry, or just take their career to the next level.

As I talked with many of the people there I noticed that almost all of them were looking for something different that would take them to that next level or that would break them into the industry with a splash.  As you look around and see that people are being discovered from internet sites such as MySpace, YouTube, and Face book for pretty much making a silly video in their back yard it gets you to think, maybe the traditional way of doing things isn’t the only way of doing things anymore?

That is why I was pleasantly pleased at the fact that our company is breaking that mold and giving people a chance to do things that are nontraditional and out of the ordinary.  I can go over all the benefits of our site, our community, resources and so on, but mainly as you will see over and over again from us we will continue to break the mold to help YOU the entertainer out so you can take your career to the next level.  What other company out there would offer a FREE community, or even a “Free Headshot Day”?  The concept of giving people services and things for free in the entertainment industry is very taboo and rarely practiced.  Many companies want to take as much money from the poor entertainer who is already struggling in an industry that everyone wants to be in but just doesn’t understand how. 

Hopefully after many of you talked with us here at MyShowbizSite we gave you some insight as to how to enhance your careers, but also think outside of the box and get yourself noticed better than you would any other way.  I am looking forward to our “Free Headshot Day” along with all the other events we are planning for our members coming up and I hope everyone is as well.

Giovanni Cuarez

Blog from Sunset Gower Studios

Posted at 3:47 am , 16 Oct 2009 by Giovanni Cuarez Tags: , , , , ,
[No Comments]

I’m sure the economy and everything else in life are prevalent in our mind. Some people are fairing well, while others are not.

In the show-business, it seems that the studios are leaning again toward bigger block-busters or “tent-pole” releases. The reason for that is because audiences traditionally respond better to films with “eye-candy” or films that are special effects driven. In addition, human interest genres have a tendency to depress people rather than provide the escapism that people seek out during times of depression. Let’s face it, people go to the movies to forget about their woes and escape for at least an hour and half to two hours.

In addition to tent-pole films, studios are also green-lighting a lot of “remakes.” The reason for this is because those remakes already have a built-in audience or market. In this current economy, it is difficult to justify spending money on unproven concepts, ideas, etc. Of course, independent filmmakers will always make independent films. However, those types of films typically do not have accessible story-lines or are not marketable for the mainstream audience.

Then there is the internet or webisodes that are becoming more and more popular. They are easy to make and very cheap to make. The only negative is that content providers have yet to find the formula on how to make money at it. Advertisers are still not willing to pay high dollars for “youtube” style programming.

So is there a lesson to this story, or in this case, this blog? The only suggestion that comes to mind is keep striving for innovation and uniqueness. Wow us with your new stories and take us on a journey. Make us laugh with funny things that we’ve never thought of. Get us intoxicated with your creation and keep us begging for more. If you can do that, then your career in show-business is truly attainable.

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