Burlesque Legend Dusty Summers tells you how she feels about full nude

Burlesque Legend Dusty Summers is as nimble with her words as she is with her feet. She’s direct, opinionated, and seasoned with a sass decades in the making.
Interviewing Summers was one of the highlights of our documentary team’s recent trip to Las Vegas and the Burlesque Hall of Fame weekend event June 1-4. During the trip, we also visited Lacy’s Lounge, a more traditional strip club, but one that emphasizes performance over transactions.
Documentary “Do the Dance” uses the examination of a precedent-setting 1969 strip club indecency trial to tell a broader story about the limits to Free Expression. The trial over bottomless dancing (full nude) made national news when Judge Earl Warren Jr. ruled the jury needed to see the dancer ‘do the dance.’
Summers worked at the trouble-making club, the Pink Pussy Kat in Orangevale, before embarking on a career as a touring exotic dancer. At age 69, Summers is still working as Las Vegas’ only stripping magician.
Summers left the Pink Pussy Kat before -- at the urging of the club’s owner -- the performers started dancing bottomless. The fully-nude go-go performances starting a multi-year battle between the beer bar and the local authorities. Summers would later share a billing with the performer at the center of the trial Susanne Haines. Haines won Miss Nude Universe in 1972 and was the headliner.
While Haines famously fought to go fully naked, Summer didn’t want to show it all then and doesn’t now.
To find out just what the sharp-tongued Summers said you’ll have to watch the documentary.

She was one of the featured performers at the Burlesque Hall of Fame weekend. Dustin Wax, executive director of the currently expanding hall was another one of our interviews.
Our two-night stay, also took us to Lacy's is located in North Las Vegas. It bills itself as Las Vegas' only Atlanta-style (hip hop) strip club. To pull himself out of a hole, longtime Michael Jackson impersonator and dancer Craig Parks started performing in male review shows then hosting big booty events before taking on his own space connected to the historic Palomino Club. We also talked to dancers Destiny and Dream.

Pink doc kickoff planned for February

We are still working out the details but look for an official announcement soon on  February "Free Love Free Expression Film Fundraiser" for the Pink documentary. (That name might need help.)
The night will feature a screening of a preview trailer utilizing historic footage, it will also include an auction of "Free Expression" artwork, a chat with Judge Earl Warren Jr. and a burlesque performance.
We're expecting it to raise a significant amount of money towards the project. We have Feb. 21 penciled in.
The night also kickoffs crowdfunding campaign to finish funding the film and expand the market for the documentary and the feature film.
The February event and the flurry of activity after will give the documentary the proper launch it deserves and serves to elevate the entire Pink project.
The documentary uses a look back at quirky 1969 indecency trial to launch a broader conversation about the present state of free expression.
Thank you for following the journey. I'll need your help as I prepare to host this fundraiser then run a crowdfunding campaign. More on that soon.
If you'd like to get more actively involved in event planning, web design, graphic design, marketing, and publicity or any number of other areas please don't hesitate to ask.

Ed Fletcher

Team Pink Documentary Team

Perpetual F Entertainment is happy to announce the following additions to "Team Pink" in support of producing the documentary film "Do The Dance."
Director/producer: Damen Quincy Hayes
producer/editor: Brad Durante
producer: Lauren Brock

Do the Dance uses an outrageous 1969 strip club indecency trial to examine free expression in the modern era. The trial including a performance to the legendary Carol Doda of San Francisco.

Damen will lead the visual development of the film. This includes shooting interviews and live events. Damen will also assist in securing archival footage.
Brad is the lead editor and will assist in securing the finances and connections needed to make the project a success.
Lauren Brock will lead the effort to secure celebrity and other difficult interviews, help secure talent and assist in fundraising.
Ed Fletcher will continue to lead the creative effort, conduct key interviews and work towards the creative success of the overall Pink project.

Naked celebrity selfies suggests time right for free expression documentary

The Pink Pussy Kat in Orangevale went to court over the right to dance fully nude.

In many ways, a documentary was the logical step.
From the moment I pulled the fading stack of newspaper clips on Sacramento's Pink Pussy Kat trial I knew I wanted to tell the story somehow.
I'd brushed aside earlier consideration of doing a documentary, preferring to keep my eye on the prize: a major release feature film.
I'm not saying my initial mission was wrong, but it's time to pivot. This is a story that's ripe for the telling. Big stars like Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian West and Emily Ratajkowski are making news by sharing their naked bodies in the name of free expression.
Hey, Emily, Kim and Miley here is a more meaningful way to address the issue of free expression.
Here are some of the questions our documentary will tackle:
Was the push to go full nude at strip clubs in the late 1960' about free expression or exploitation?
How have our social more changed since the flower power movement?
How is it that Sacramento has all but eradicated strip clubs, yet they're all over Portland?
With our the acquisition of KCRA's coverage of the trial, for the first time we're able to see and hear the players first hand. It's 20 minutes of some pretty amazing footage: including some of Carol Doda dancing during the trial.

The question before my cohorts is whether to go after a modest prize of a 20-minute documentary or to develop the plan for an hour-long version that could land on HBO or Showtime?
Secondary question: How do we get Emily, Kim or Miley involved?

Don't miss future developments sign up for the Perpetual F mailing list . See out other project at Perpetualf.com 

Fashion short film happy detour from feature project

In my perfect world, I'd be an idea man.
I'd dream up applications, inventions,  movies and a team of engineers, scientists, planners and artisans would execute the plan.
The closest I ever came was when I mused about putting our female high school principal's head on playboy spread's body and a classmate brilliantly executed that idea in an era before photoshop. (But I digress. )
The point is I get a lot of ideas.
And with my "you can't do that filter" set to "off," I tell myself I can do a lot of things.
Time and money define my limits.
New to this world of "yes, you can" my natural tendency is to flit. Start a script, begin a project, plan a revolution.
(But) Success isn't the number of ideas you hatch, it's the number that survives.
It's dogged determination (and positive encouragement) that have got me this far with my film project and script "Pink."
But at the same time bring an evolved artist means knowing how to juggle. Using other parts of the brain is helpful. So is thinking about another work. Sometimes a short project is just the distraction that shakes the mind into seeing the evasive solution to your original story.
So it was with that I launched "le chapeau genial."
You can hardly tell by looking at me, but I've never been into fashion.
Several years ago, I left a film mixer determined to come up with a viable idea for "Fashion on Film," an exhibit of films created through the California Film Foundation for Sacramento Fashion Week.
I can't remember exactly how the idea hit me, but I remember it being clear. Based on a story my dad Joseph Fletcher told me, the script wrote itself.
Then it sat for multiple years.
As this year's "Fashion on Film" approached, I had plenty of reason to let it go, again.  I'm in the middle of a rewrite. I couldn't find fashion partner. We got a late start. We had no budget, couldn't get key prop, the location fell through and snowstorm came rolling in.
But there were plenty of good reasons to do it.
Fashion week would/will provide another opportunity to seek support for the feature film.
On a more personal level, it would provide an opportunity to do something suitable for my two school age nieces to see -- something I can't say about earlier projects.  It would also feel good to do it for my dad. He's a storyteller. Sometimes a long and meandering storyteller. I'm listening, Pop.
Several times in the one-week preproduction, I thought "well this is when we quit." I'm not sure if director DQ Hayes thought the same thing. But he didn't say it. And I didn't say it. And we just kept putting our head down and finding solutions.
A storm Friday dropped heavy rain in the valley and snow in the mountains. But by 8:30 a.m. Saturday I-80 was clear and our caravan of parents and crew arrived in Soda Springs without incident.
The shoot went great and we even had some time for sledding afterward.
Le chapeau génial is expected to screen Feb. 24 during Sacramento Fashion Week. It features fashion from Girly Sparkles & Handsom Shop and stars Alexandria Williams.
"Le chapeau génial" (the funky hat) tells the story of a little girl who decides the hat her mother wants her to wear isn't cool.

Dancer's memoir reveals church, closer Sacramento connection

"Take It All Off" by Susanne Haines Register, 1978

"Susanne wrote a memoir."

That's was the new fact staring at me via a facebook message.
It would have been nice to know that three years ago when I started this screenplay.
"Take It All Off," by Susanne Haines Register, was released by Beta Books of San Diego in 1978.
The book covers her early life, the Sacramento indecency trial, her reign as Miss Nude Universe and more than a year traveling the country as a headlining exotic dancer.
For the uninitiated,  my screenplay "Pink" focuses on Susanne's 1969 arrest and trial. The case became national news when the trial judge decided that for the jury to determine whether the dance violated community standards they'd have to see it.
News clips and the accounts of the reporters that covered it form the bulk of my research. When the script started it was a 15-minute short film I expected to produce for a few thousand dollars. But when I embarked on expanding it, it never occurred to be to exhaustively research the story before leaping into the feature length version.
Reading the news clips gave me the rough outline of what happened, but not much of a sense of the person. The Bee and other news outlets covered the story, but kept their toe in the shallow end. I knew a little more about details about the Sheriff Misterly and trial Judge Earl Warren Jr., who happens to be son of the former Supreme Court Justice, but as the story went through revisions it was clear Susanne was the star.
Why did she get arrested seven times for performing bottomless? I didn't know for sure so I filled in the blanks. I gave her voice.
The book -- somehow invisible to google searches -- provides tantalizing new details. Susanne was born Susanne Tropper (March 13, 1947) to Frank Julius Tropper and Alice May (Simpson) Tropper. Family tragedy forced her to harden fast as she split time growing up between Sacramento's suburbs (Fair Oaks and Roseville) and Provo, UT. After a tumultuous childhood, she won Miss Placer County at age 16 before finding her way to the stage of Orangevale's Pink Pussy Kat.
While the book is lacking in literary grace, it's a flashlight into the shadowy '70s strip club circuit. Susanne represented the highest ideals of the craft in fighting for free expression, but also saw the lows exotic dance.
My task now is to see how the new facts fit into my pre-existing world.

New tools allow screenwriters to pitch from home

Sites take the travel out of pitching film, television

In Hollywood, like most industries, it's about who you know.  That gives people living and toiling in LA a huge advantage over people living elsewhere.

Since most agents won't take submissions, most connections come via a friend-of-a-friend (as so I'm told). To give folks like me access  (and to take our money) the pitchfest was born.

Fade In's Hollywood Pitch Festival and Scriptfest.com are two of the larger ones. The Hollywood Pitch Festival is July 24-26 in Los Angeles. A three-day pass costs $495. The 2015 Scriptfest was May 29-31 in Burbank, with tickets ranging from $300 to $750.

Each pitchfest is a little different, but most involve standing in a hotel ballroom trying to make small talk as you wait your turn to talk to your chosen film exec. All told, you're looking at spending $800 for a day of workshops and five minutes with eight agents, managers or production company execs.

I'm not passing judgment on whether that's a good value, I haven't been to either of those events. They might be worth it for the seminars and networking alone. But in that the information age there are new routes to get your film or television pitch before Hollywood types.

Here are three at to get your pitch to Hollywood:

Virtual Pitchfest 

Virtual Pitchfest allows users to pay to submit a query letter to selected Hollywood agents, managers, and production companies. The cost is $10 a pop, lower if you're buying in bulk. The service guarantees a response within five days.

Greenlight My Movie

Greenlight My Movie allows users to submit a completed short, a recorded pitch or a synopsis to selected agents, managers, and production companies. The cost is $29.95. Most responses come within 14 days according to the service.

Stage 32/Happywriters 

Stage 32 is a multifaceted social network for the world film community, so virtual pitch sessions are just part of what they do.  Stage 32 pitch sessions are sporadically held opportunities to engage in a live video chat with a specific film professional. The 8 minute skype session costs $45 but comes with the added benefit of live feedback without having to fly to Los Angeles.

May busy, exciting time on film front

By Ed Fletcher
Early May looks like it's going to be an incredibly busy and exciting time for me. In a matter of days, I'm throwing a party in Old Sacramento, staging a photo shoot and my film short "Goldie" is screening in Seattle.
May 1: Party for "Pink"
May 3: Pink photoshoot
May 4: "Goldie" screening

Party for "Pink" is a chance to generate excitement around my feature film project "Pink" among Sacramento International Film Festival attendees and general Sacramento public.
The free event at Vega's Underground in Old Sacramento will feature 70s rock from cover band Lane 5, burlesque performances and comedy. The fun starts at 9 p.m.

On May 3, I'm turning Sacramento's Blue Lamp back into a strip club for a photo shoot. Behind the camera will be Sacramento photographer and visual artist Melissa Uroff.

Then on Monday, May 4 I fly to Seattle to be on hand as "Goldie," the short film I wrote and produced, screens as part of the Seattle Transmedia & Independent Film Festival. It's part of a night of LGBTQ-friendly films and live drag show.

Whew!

13 Things I think I learned at Santa Rosa Story Expo

Committed to keeping my foot on the gas in turning my screenplay Pink into a feature film, I attended three-day weekend storytellers expo in Santa Rosa.
What the Storytellers Expo lacked in star power, communication and polish, it made up for in intimacy. There is not one reason any attendee should have left feeling like their questions were not answered by real writers, publishers, script consultants, or producers.
It's wasn't cheap, but you'd pay four times that much for the same offerings online.
The following are 13 thoughts, lessons or reflections from the two days of classes and day of pitching Pink at Storytellers Expo produced by the Santa Rosa-based "Northern California Writers" group:

1. The Sacramento film community would be smart to shift some instruction towards writing for television and web series. 
2. Breakdown episodes of television shows I liked, then follow the formula to write a spec episode.  
3. I'm well ahead of the curve in term of branding, social media and the business of film.
4. Re-read/edit scripts with different lenses: think like director, actor, producer
5. People love the true story/premise of Pink.
6. Write your first logline at the idea stage. 
7. Thanks for the instruction on how to write a film query letters, but what's the point if agents don't read them? 
8. Tension = hope v. fear.
9. Seek rising and falling tension through each mini movie. 
10. Author Dale Brown spent a lot of time in Sacramento and is a nice dude.
11. Practice funny by jotting down one funny thing a day. 
12. In packaging start with directors and talent with production companies.
13. In seeking agents and production partners, look to those judging screenplay contests, those are the people open to finding material in unusual places. 

When Sunday's pitch session came, I was at ease and confident. Participants stood in line for five minutes of one-on-one time with the assorted (8) book and film experts.
Making the best of meetings means setting reasonable expectations of learning something, building rapport, and achieving a small "ask."
And while I wish script consultants would use their connections more liberally to help non-clients,  I totally understand the folly of their ways. All of the pitch recipients were willing active listeners who surely would have benefited those at the early stages or those with a polished project.
Now time to email Pink to a Los Angeles studio.

Film research trip ends exotic avoidance

I wonder sometimes what people think about a guy who would devote years of his life writing a screenplay and producing a movie about a strip club.
 "Some big perv."
Fact is, until last night, I hadn't been to a strip club for at least five years -- including the entire time writing "Pink."
For those new to the blog, "Pink" is my sexy dramatic comedy about Sacramento's 1969 "bottomless" stripper trial. The indecency trial became a national story when the judge decided in order for the jury to determine whether the dance violated community standards they'd have to see it. The girls won the trial but the government changed the law making it a health code violation to consume alcoholic beverages in establishments that allow full nudity.
So what's a guy who doesn't care for spending money on exotic dancers doing writing a screenplay about exotic dancers? The short answer is because it a local story that needed to be told. When you strip everything else away its a story about free expression dressed up in late 60s attire.
Think "American Hustle" meets "People vs. Larry Flynt."
Most of my research came from old fraying newspaper clips. I didn’t set out to write a strip club screenplay. It started as a short term project and has steadily grown.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a prude (though "Blue Lagon" was too much for me went I saw it as a boy). I’ve been to strip clubs and enjoy seeing women naked as much as the next guy, probably a little more. The bulk of my strip club experience came from Bourbon Street excursions during college and the rush of bachelor parties one endures in their early 30s.
But I could never justify expending money on the experience.
More than the money, the transactional relationship bothers me.
While I firmly believe performers should have the right to dance naked in exchange for money, I much prefer nudity without compensation.
Pink can be a beautiful movie that makes audiences laugh, causes a modest arousal, says something about art, freedom and culture -- and makes money.
So for the sake of research I, joined by a female friend, went to Gold Club Centerfolds. After an absence of half a decade, the adult establishment seemed remarkably the same in all its soft skin and curvaceous glory.
I'll spare you the details (good and bad) other than to note I drank hot tea, a legacy of the "Pink Pussy Kat" decision.

Taking script notes from strangers

Request for opening pages of script triggers rewriting rush

For an unpublished screenwriter: "Is it done?" is the question that looms, never quite answered.
I've spent months cautiously getting feedback from progressively critical/expert sources. In the last year,  to prepare "Pink" for the prime time its undergone four official rewrites, been table read with real actors twice and workshopped by my screenwriter's group.

But even as I shook a man's hand assuring him, "It's ready" during my time at AFM, I knew I wasn't sure.

Screenwriter Ed Fletcher

I don't think I'll ever be sure until a Hollywood player says: "I'll make that movie with you."

For those new to this blog, I'm talking about my feature length dramatic comedy "Pink," which is based on a 1969 strip club indecency trial.

In my fantasy version of my "How it Happened Story," I befriend a Hollywood white knight. My aging B-player would then introduce me to the right people -- an agent, a business-minded money guy and a gal to get me to all the right parties.

That hasn't happened yet. Instead, I've turned to strangers for screenwriting advice. Not street-corner strangers, rather the screenwriting contest feedback stranger.

For an extra fee, many screenwriting contests will provide detailed feedback. The catch is you're not given any information about the source of the feedback.

Script feedback emails are something you sit down for.

The words can send you into a funk or to the moon with excitement. Since January, I've received notes from the Screencraft Fellowship, Beverly Hill Screenplay Contest, BlueCat Screenwriting Contest and The Blacklist.

Three of the emails sent me into a full-day of happy dancing.

One, I could barely finish. I set it aside with the others for processing once there were time and enough data decide what needed to be done. I've considered hiring a script consultant, but kept putting it off out of a combination of poverty, pride, naivete and indecision.

The feedback notes come weeks or even months before the final decision on contest winners are announced. Awaiting the results of the contest was a good enough reason as any to procrastinate on addressing issues raised by the mysterious readers. If Pink placed, I'd soon have plenty of real people asking to read it, I had decided.

But then the email.

On Friday, a major independent film player, responding to my pitch submission, asked to read the first 10 pages. I didn't think much of Greenlightmymovie.com. For $30 a pop, film or television writers can send a video to Hollywood studios and talent management companies. I skeptically bought three submissions in late January. The first rejection came within three hours of submission. The third company has yet to respond.

The email asking for the pages was a lovely am inbox surprise. I sent off the pages as quick as my fingers could carry me. Then I promptly told the world. Each like of the facebook post was like a warm welcoming pat on my shoulder.

But then came Saturday. Saturday is when I decided as soon as Monday the company could ask for the full script and by the end of the day my script could be in the hands of the pre-screening intern.
My fate my soon by in the hands of a junior employee hoping to impress his or her boss with their keen discerning eye.

Suddenly, now was the time to settle into the chair and ignore social media long enough to re-acquire the characters voices, get back into screenwriter mode and fix any obvious issues. As I poured over each word of their analysis, I struggled to picture the author in my head. Are they old, young? Do I listen to the more critical voice or say forget her? Why do I even think it is her? (cus I'm sexist.)

Sunday, my wave of panicked self-doubt subsided.

No art is perfect and while surely the story and the script will continue to be refined, I'm confident it's close enough warrant collaboration toward a shared vision.

The Monday agenda: hire a script consultant.

Grateful for support of short film campaign, future film plans

I’ve been stumbling around my keyboard for some profound way to say “thank you” to all the people that supported my Goldie crowdfunding campaign and to put this all into perspective.

On Wednesday, Feb. 4, the “Sharing Short Film Goldie” collected $766 or nearly 77 percent of it's $995 goal. For days, I had feared that the campaign would cause me stress as it limped along.

It’s by no means a large sum, but it money you earned and have plenty of other uses for. It  means a great deal that you would give money you earned to support me and my film efforts.

I one day soon hope to be asking high wealth individuals to invest a great deal of money into my projects. It means a lot and does a great deal to my confidence that you would support me.

As of the time of this publishing the campaign remains open. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

Should media use hacked Sony e-mails?

How do you feel about the juicy Hollywood tidbits being reported by media outlets as a result of Sony Pictures being hacked? I for one am conflicted.

In a nutshell the Hollywood, pop culture and mainstream press are reporting stories using documents possibly likely stolen by the North Korean government. From quips about President Obama to how much Kevin Hart gets paid for tweets the leaks have led to one embarrassment after another for Sony.

The screening of the movie "The Interview' amid in the face of threats is whole 'nother matter.

As a general rule the press is willing to use stolen documents if the news value of the story warrants it. In many instances, I’m not sure the value of the story, say one reveling Sony execs think Adam Sandler is an a-hole, meets any reasonable standard.

But at the same time, as someone interesting in film, the leaks provide candor seldom shared with the outside world. Largely in the name of protecting the commercial interest in the movie, Hollywood types rarely air their grievances publicly. So in effect we never see how the soup gets made or that the chief was replaced mid-meal.

Brad Pitt, Aaron Sorkin and Seth Rogan have been critical of the media's use of the hacked emails and now Sony has threaten to sue twitter over hacked tweets.  

Yesterday’s Gawker post about a reply-all chain argument about the Gaza Strip, featuring Russell Simmons, sent to Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Ryan Seacrest is a prime example.

What do I really care? And yet there I was clicking away. It’s like sneaking peek at the pretty girl changing clothes behind your back. You’re not supposed to look, but it so hard to resist.  

10 Things I Learned from American Film Market

Screenwriter and producer Ed Fletcher delivers his pitch for "Pink" at the 2014 American Film Market as pitch expert and forum moderator Stephanie Palmer looks on.

By Ed Fletcher

Armed with a stack of business cards, some new pink ties and a four-day pass ($500), I recently attended American Film Market in Santa Monica, one of the world’s largest film markets, to develop or sell my screenplay Pink. For more information on Pink, a sexy dramatic comedy based on Sacramento’s 1969 bottomless stripper trial, read my blog or find us on Facebook. What follows is a rundown of things I learned or reconfirmed from attending American Film Market for the first time and as someone new to film.

1. Hollywood is not about openness or inclusion. It’s a meritocracy based on your ability to make them money. That’s not an indictment, just real talk.
2. In the film world there are creative types and business types. AFM is more for the business types. It ain’t called a market for nothing.
3. There is little demand for comedies, dramas, sports movies or urban movies overseas. As a result, there are an exorbitant number of low budget thrillers, action movies and beast/zombie movies being made and marketed. 
4. Getting on stage at the Pitch Conference can make you interesting to all the other filmmakers in the room, but since heavy hitters were in the their temporary sales offices blocks away, you’re still a nobody to them. 
5. Just because somebody retweets you doesn’t mean you’re somebody to them.  
6. Having a good pitch is one thing, but have it packaged (name director or talent signed on) and you’re cookin’. I wasn’t cooking.
7. Wearing a Pink tie everyday was a great idea. Who forgets the Black guy, wearing a pink tie, and talking about a screenplay named Pink?  
8. Cell phones are a security blanket for people afraid to be alone. It’s hard to spark up a conversation when people are checking their security blanket.
9. The Producer Forums are popular: Get there early. Disregard this if you have a confirmed “producers” credit and can skip the line. 
10. Despite the new ways to network through social media, nothing beats spending time in the lobby bar in terms of making connections.

The event offers a bevy of high level forums on the film business.

The rooms of two Santa Monica hotels are turned into temporary film offices.

Ed Fletcher posing for a picture at American Film Market 2014.

Film about exotic dance trial needs an image

Which of these three are best represent "Pink?"

Having never been a screenwriter before maybe I don’t know any better, but when I finish something I burn to see it made. That’s the point, right.

With that in mind I’m going to American Film Market in Santa Monica Nov. 5-12 to sell or develop my feature screenplay “Pink.”

Logline: A free-speech-loving exotic dancer battles a small-town sheriff and bares it all to convince a jury that her "bottomless" dance is art worthy of protection in this sexy courtroom comedy based on an actual 1969 case.

Here’s where you come in. The super talented graphic artist Val Mina has offered up three great ideas for an illustration. The illustration will be used on the web, but most importantly right now will be the image on our “leave behind” materials given to distributors, agents, producers, money men, casting directors and the like.

1. In one the judge's robes become the theater curtains, as a girl dances on stage.
2. Instead of lady justice we have a judge peeking under the blindfold to get peek at the lady dancing on one of the scales.
3. Classic. On possible variation would be to have sheriff between the legs rather than the judge.

Give us your thoughts.

I had previously begun laying the groundwork for a photo shoot and video tease also be used to market the film, but in the interest of time that will wait until after November. Thanks again for your support in this endeavor.

Despite fears, ticket secured to big film event

Matchbook from the Pink Pussy Kat Club

And with a click I’m going to Hollywood.

Well, going to Santa Monica for what’s billed at one of the top film conferences in the world.


If you’re new to the blog, I’m a longtime newspaper writer with the bold ambition of turning his first feature-length screenplay into a film. That’s why three days before my 40th Birthday hit “purchase” on a $500 ticket.

I’ve produced a couple shorts, but this will be, by far, my most significant film project.
Going to this thing kinda terrifies me.
My brief experience in film has taught me that Hollywood isn’t built to absorb ideas from outsiders.
It’s hard to sell a script, until you have an agent. And its hard to get an agent, until you’ve sold a script.

I’ve tried from afar. But to date, none of the 30 odd email queries I’ve sent have been met by a positive response. That’s to be expected I’m told.
Going to the conference is a chance to take matters in my own hands. Here is the wiki description of the event:

The American Film Market (AFM) is a film industry event held each year at the beginning of November in Santa Monica, California. About 8,000 people attend the eight day event to network and to sell, finance and acquire films. Participants come from more than 70 countries and include acquisition and development executives, agents, attorneys, directors, distributors, festival directors, financiers, film commissioners, producers, writers, etc. Founded in 1981, the AFM quickly became one of the premier global marketplaces for the film business, where unlike a film festival, production and distribution deals are the main focus of the participants.

Event marketing materials point out that whole films have come together at AFM, but I bet they had an agent to schedule those meetings. Not that I hadn’t been working hard already on moving the script and film forward, but knowing that in a month I’ll have a golden opportunity to make a contact that can catapult this project forward is invigorating. I worry I won’t have the money to put my best foot forward, but I’ll do the best I can.

Between now and then I’ll perfect my pitch, study the players, and develop “leave behind” materials that keeps my screenplay “Pink” on their minds.

If you’re just coming to this blog its high time I tell you what the film is about:

Logline: A free-speech-loving exotic dancer battles a small-town sheriff and bares it all to convince a jury that her "bottomless" dance is art worthy of protection in this sexy courtroom comedy based on an actual 1969 case.

Membership card from Pink Pussy Kat

It’s a story I learned about through my occupation as a newspaper reporter. The fact that the club was in Orangevale the community where I grew up only fueled my interest. Now I want to bring this story to the big screen for all of Sacramento. I’m hoping people will support me and rally to this cause.

I could use help reading my business plan, giving me feedback on my pitch, crafting my leave behind materials and finding a place to crash.
I’m so thankful for all the people who have helped me get this far. I’d never have made it this far without your encouraging words, feedback and participation in table reads. A special thanks to all of the people who have tried to connect me with your Hollywood connections.

We’ve got a long way to go, but I’m confident will be much further down that road as a result of the conference. Help me break a leg.

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