Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Tale of Pink AFM pitch earns local press



My employer The Sacramento Bee graciously allowed me to write about my experience pitching "Pink" at American Film Market in November. So far the feedback has been outstanding. It's a great boost to the effort. Now I need to capitalize in this good press and keep pressing. Here is the top of the story and a link to the full story which I would really encourage you to enjoy.

The film-pitch session – the one in which I’m one of 10 pre-selected participants – has began and I’m not there.
I’m in the bathroom frantically trying to free my new pink tie from the coffee stain it just acquired. I consider taking it off, but that would ruin my plan to brand myself as the guy pitching “Pink” by wearing a pink tie each of my four days at the American Film Market.
“Pink” is a dramatic comedy based on Sacramento’s 1969 “bottomless” stripper trial, which made national news when Judge Earl Warren Jr. temporarily moved proceedings to a strip club so jurors could fairly determine whether the nude dancing violated community standards.


Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/movies-news-reviews/article8218959.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/movies-news-reviews/article8218959.html



Friday, January 23, 2015

Slipping Backstage to get The Dude my Script


Ed Fletcher with a look-a-like The Dude at the Jeff Bridges concert. 
It’s the morning after but I still buzzing from my clandestine operation to get Jeff Bridges a copy of script “Pink.”
Bridges, who despite many great roles will always remembered as “The Dude” from the Big Lebowski, has been on my short list to play Sheriff Misterly from the beginning. When I saw he was coming to Sacramento to play music with his band I took it as a sign. After a fair amount of waffling, there I was watching the show strategizing how I’m going to get backstage.
When the show ended I caught a moment when one of  guys guarding the door to backstage left his post and walked right back. The second wave of security wasn’t interested in doing his job so I walked past him.
When bridges who played a great set and a four song encore with his bandmates finished posing for a picture with some legitimate VIPs, I went in. I told him he seemed like a guy who believes in signs and that I took it as a sign that he was here to play and told him I wanted to give him my script.
By that point security was on to me, but Bridges said I was “Ok” and let me pitch him the movie as he walked to his dressing room. I gave a copy of the script to his guy and was on my way.
It was a beautiful end to a good week for Pink, my feature script about Sacramento’s 1969 “bottomless” stripper trial.
I was extremely happy with the turnout and energy of the Jan. 14 screening of my short film Goldie and others I hosted. It was good experience for myself as a film producer, good for the local film community and good for a local business.
With that behind me I decided it was time to refocus and prioritize my energy. I found that I’d been spending far too much time doing social media and not enough time doing. While there is a real potential upside of a large social media following, at times it feels a lot like a never ending online game. Social media is important but action is more important.
On the action front in recent days, I had my first meeting with an investment club, reached out to a new Hollywood friend and finally move my office out of my bedroom and into my spareroom.
The investment club isn’t ready to move yet and the overture has yet to bear fruit.
Each of those actions seemed at one point worthy of a blog post, but now seem overshadowed by “The Dude.”
I have no idea what will become of my move to get Bridges, but I’m happy fear didn’t prevent me from taking an affirmative step in response to the universe bringing Bridges to my town at the exact time my script was ready for him.
Go team Pink.





Highlights of January screening short film "Goldie" and more from Ed Fletcher on Vimeo.




Screenwriter Ed Fletcher Talks About His Dramatic Comedy "Pink" from Ed Fletcher on Vimeo.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Google is now monitoring this room

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Crowdfunding Campaign on for LGBT-friendly short film



It's with great humility that earlier this week I launched a crowdfunding campaign to support marketing and distribution of my LGBT-friendly short film Goldie 48 hour film. The short was shot and edited for the Sacramento International Film Festival 48-hour competition where it won "audience choice." Director Matthew Gilliam lovingly reedited it, then Brandon Oreno scored it and now we want your help submitting it to film festivals and marketing it's digital release.

I'll be honest, I agonized over whether the campaign would flop. We're wired to be afraid to ask for money, but rather than being governed by fear I choose to trust in the law of abundance. As author Keith Ferrazzi suggests in his book "Never Eat Alone"rather than thinking of support as something one uses up, think of it as something that grows as you earn it by doing good work and supporting others. 



My primary goal remains moving my feature length script Pink forward, but I think supporting, marketing and attending festivals in support of Pink will set me on the path. Pink is based on Sacramento 1969 "bottomless" stripper trial. 

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Ed Fletcher podcast guest, talks comedy, film and more.


I'm a guest on Johnny Flores' Sacramento-based Serious Talk. Seriously. podcast about people doing things. We talk about everything from growing up in Orangevale, to life in the South, to Access Sacramento and comedy. Of course we also talk about my film projects.

http://www.stspodcast.com/2015/01/episode-39-ed-fletcher



Friday, January 9, 2015

Learning to produce(r) on the job

I'm all about supporting the Sacramento film community so I was happy to offer a guest blog post to our friends at California Film Foundation. I'm also an active member of the Capitol Film Arts Alliance. Here a preview of the CFF post:
There was a time in the not too distant past where I would have been happy to sell my screenplay “Pink” for a reasonable price and crossed my fingers in hopes the studio would actually make the movie.Those days are now gone. After attending American Film Market in Santa Monica this November, I’m convinced that I want to be part of the critical decision making process that takes the script and transforms it into living breathing art. Who directs, who stars and the budget are just a handful of the decisions that can turn a good script into a shitty movie or turn a great script into a timeless work of art. Read the full post. 

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Sick for Kevin Jonas twitter power

Kevin Jonas (right) talks twitter with Ian Ziering and
Johnny Damon on NBC's Celerity Apprentice 
I’m not ready to check myself into a facility quite yet, but I’m showing early signs of social media addiction.
Checking my facebook and twitter are the first and last things I do with my day. Seeing new “likes” to my facebook movie page brings me more joy than reasonable. I have five twitter accounts.
I may be lapsing towards the excess, but its not like playing “Angry Birds” or “Candy Crush” there is an end game in play, even if there is no end to the social media game.
In this age, a large social media following is power. That power was a major subject line of the first episode of Celebrity Apprentice. While both project managers pushed their team to take full advantage of social media to drive attendance to their charity pie sale, the other celebrities rightly feared that even their combined energies were no match for Kevin Jonas’ 4.7 million twitter followers.
I’m a long long way from 4.7 million, but I play to employ social media to organically grow a following for my film “Pink.” Most cited example of a twitter feed being harnessed successfully launch a movie was the 2014 “Dear White People.”
Each new follow puts me one step closer.
With that in mindset, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to not let to consume too much of my creative energy.
In the near future, I hope and expect “Team Pink” to grow and much of the social media heavy lifting will fall to others but in the mean time it's important to for me as the screenwriter/creative lead to keep my focus on the big picture and creating content worthy of attention.
Its all well and good to ask people to follow you, but if you don’t know where you’re leading them, we’re all lost.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Dance Step of Death

Zombie Comedy

Dance Step of Death 

Some people are content to watch bad things happen in their neighborhood. Not these guys. Armed with good intentions, they spend after work hours fighting crime, corruption and suffering. But this investigation my turn out be more than they bargained for. They'll need some fancy footwork to survive.




Zombie comedy "Dance Step of Death" from Ed Fletcher on Vimeo.

"Dance Step of Death" premiered at the Sacramento Film and Music Festival in 2012. After a good run on the Amazon Marketplace, if was launched for free on Vimeo Jan. 1, 2015.