Back from the Bay and sellin' stuff!

Just got back from San Francisco last weekend where I attended a seminar by the IIFF - good stuff, though I was a little dissapointed (I think many of the participants were) that the topics weren't a little more "film-focused" (The seminar was the "One Day MBA for Film Entreprenuers", after all). The seminar was given by a VC (Dr. Frank Greene, bio.) who had some good advice - and a lot of it really hit home - but the details as it came to motion picture projects were a bit slim. I'm really starting to think that film finance is an inexact (is that a word?) science.

anyway, despite a total of fifteen (yep, you heard me right) hours of delay and getting bumped from flights (thank you, United - friendly skies indeed. George Gershwin is rolling over in his grave!), I had a chance to check the site and lo! Sales! After a painfully slow roll out, we had our first sales! IMDB'd a couple of the buyers, and I'm pleased to say Strikeset Brand Filmmaker Gear will be sported this fall on the sets of some of cable's most popular programs! Thank you early adopters - you guys rock!

Stayed with a couple of old friends in Oakland - Bill Rowley produced my directing efforts "Low Flying Clouds" for Born in the Flood (I heard they just landed a deal) and "The Proposal", and his wife, Sara, was the art director on "Proposal". I couldn't help but enjoy the irony - I made a film about entreprenuers trying to pitch venture capitalists, and I was in Cali learning how to pitch...venture capitalists. (Michele tells me she now works for a VC firm - after playing a character who works for a VC firm in TP. Irony. It's hot. [ooh! New T-shirt]).

Oh, while I'm jabbering about VCs, props to my La-La land based homegirl Heidi Bramlet for her recent roll-out of the Idealab-funded Perfect Market (http://www.perfectmarket.com/). Check them out, some good Silicon Valley folks involved - archived search technology. Heidi's always been an adventurer at heart, she looooves this stuff. Great work, kids!

Also had a chance to run (literally) through Ikea and pick up some lamps, napkins and finger puppets. Hmm. I wonder if carrying a freakin' floor lamp onboard a cross-country flight might have been the reason TSA selected me for the new naked scanner? Geez we really need an Ikea in Colorado. Hey, anybody who wants to make a fortune, let me know, we'll work out the logistics and franchise that mofo. Coloradans will eat it up. Trust me, easy fifty million. Missed Trader Joes, nothing quite as fun a carrying $2.00 worth of wine 967 miles.

Sorry I missed La-La land (Los Angeles) this trip - missed the earthquake too. Hopefully I'll get back out there before AFM in November. Cris, Jackie, Henry, Heidi, Cris...all the rest - keep the faith!