Category Archives: Writing

Still looking for my voice…

After nearly a decade you would think I’d have found my voice for this blog. Having changed the focus so many times doesn’t help much I suppose. Personal blog, business blog, aviation focus, woodworking focus, I mean, really… how many times have I twisted this thing into something I needed/wanted at the moment? I’ve lost count.

I don’t know if I will ever know what my blog voice is. I do know, I need to write more frequently if I ever want to find that voice. March 28th, 2018 is marked down on the calendar as my 10th Blogaversary. The family and I have a lot of big changes in our lives taking place between now and March. I am hopeful that I will at least have a whisper if not a voice by then.

Big changes? First and foremost, we are moving. Not just across town, to another state. I say this because I have always lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. 50 years and the only time I wasn’t living in the area was a six month period I lived and worked on a job-site in Stockton, less than two hours from here. In fact, the family and I have been living in the same apartment for over 21 years.

Beginning July 1st, we will be in transition to our new-to-us house in Klamath Falls, Oregon. New town, new state, new house, new jobs; big changes. I haven’t lived in a house in 40 years, Tammy hasn’t lived in a house in almost 30. I am very excited about these changes. We want to shift to a more sustainable lifestyle and getting out of the multi-million populated urban sprawl and moving to a city of fewer than thirty-thousand people is a great start. We will be looking for our forever-homestead after we get up to KF and have had a chance to get to know the area.

Another change for us is the earnest desire to get outdoors and go do things. Sightsee, hike, canoe, just get out in nature, which will be interesting since none of us have lived in an area it snows, or rains a lot. It will take some time to acclimate to the area and its weather.

So you can see, there will be a lot of subject matter potential for the blog and writing in general. I am not making any commitments right now, but I would like to see myself post at least 500 words at least once a week. That seems like a reasonable goal. I am also looking forward to more interesting photographic subject matter to be included in the posts.

Along with all of the changes in lifestyle and location, we are hoping to make a few changes internally. With all of the out-and-about, we will be working on getting more physically fit, and tuning into the new, smaller, less frantic world around us. One of the reasons I don’t go out much anymore is the crush of people everywhere we go. I have to tune out so much background noise just to get from point A to point B. When you think about it, it’s easy to see why people seem to have lost their sense of self-preservation. They tune out so much around themselves, they just don’t see or hear it coming.

When you think about it, it’s easy to see why people in urban areas seem to have lost their sense of self-preservation. They tune out so much around themselves, they just don’t see or hear it coming. The density of it all accelerates the environments natural selection, adaptations, and migrations. An interesting idea for a sociology hypothesis… later.

My only regular outing is going to Volunteer Examiner sessions for Amateur Radio license exams on the first and third Saturday of the month. On more than a few occasions, I have not left the property we manage between VE sessions. If I don’t need something or have been asked to help someone, I would rather just stay on-site. My current density adaptation is to isolate/insulate when possible.

Not healthy, physically or otherwise. Socializing has followed the same lines, aside from the internet, I only see the folks at VE, or chat with other hams on the radio. Radio will still be my main social outlet, but I am looking forward to participating in things with actual people, not just internet friends or disembodied voices.

Any way you slice it, there are some big changes in store for our family. I for one am looking forward to some change with open eyes, mind, and arms. Klamath Falls… bring it on!

Until next time,
~FlyBoyJon

Nine Years

Nine years ago I set up this domain and started blogging, I still don’t seem to have gotten the hang of it.

With everything going on in our lives and in the world around us, I should have plenty to write about. I have my radio blog, also lacking in regularity, and our store/family blog also suffers from a lack of consistency and regularity.

With my 9th-bloggiversary coming up in about two weeks I thought a little goal setting was in order. I have 54 weeks to work on improving those things I feel I lack in my blogging practices. Regularity & consistency.

Scheduling writing sessions had never worked well in the past but I think that had more to do with my lack of keeping up with datebooks and calendars. In the last year or so this has changed. I am using a calendar organizer daily for tracking a lot of different things. Adding writing goals into this routine shouldn’t be all that difficult.

At the moment I’m a little too scattered to vent any moral or social indignation about whatever is going on at the moment. I have been jotting down miscellaneous potential subjects for posts and scribbling out a paragraph or two every once and a while. Some of these should be useful, at least a little. I guess I should continue jotting and scribbling and see how things turn out.

I know this is anything but a substantive post, but that really wasn’t the purpose for writing today. Sometimes you just gotta do some things for yourself.

~FlyBoyJon

Blog Anxiety

I have always struggled with keeping up on the blog writing. It seems like I never have time to post when I want to and finding the inspiration at other times is fleeting at best. Since I set up the other blog for my radio stuff I don’t seem to have a problem with ether.

Any regular blogger will say you have to have something you are passionate about and actively engaged it to make a blog work. I am passionate about aviation but I haven’t been as actively engaged as I would like, so I guess that explains the difficulties.

This blog has never really felt focused to one specific thing. I tried to focus it on several occasions, but that never really seemed to work out. I have usually ended up with this place as more of a rambling stump than an active blog. Funny how I seem to be able to post more here now that I am actively, and daily involved with the other site.

However you chose to look at it i guess it is good that I am using both more frequently now. I have a place for a specific passion and a place to stump speech-a-fie as I deem necessary. Like this post, thoughts that I wanted to get out but might not otherwise have written because it didn’t fit the intention of the site. Well, now this site is more free-form I can post whatever whenever and not feel like I am doing something that doesn’t fit.

Just a musing.

~FlyBoyJon

NaNoWriMo 2009

NaNoWriMo 2009It’s here again so soon! National Novel Writing Month. This will be my second year participating in NaNoWriMo.

Each year, thousands of people from all over dedicate the month of November to writing a novel of at least 50,000 words. It can be a torturous experience for some and bliss for others. My biggest challenge last year was to write, not edit. I worked very hard at not editing anything, well… not editing much. It shows. My finished novel wasn’t finished, nor very good, but I managed to get a bit over 63,000 words on digital paper.

Don’t ask, it will never see the light of day as it is. The concept has evolved into a screenplay, that someday may get some more attention. I have no idea what I am going to do this year and I am not even going to think about it until after Thrill The World is over on October 24th.

Updates will follow on the project, here, on Facebook, Twitter, and on my NaNoWriMo Profile Page. Sign up and join me for NaNoWriMo this year! I am open to Writing Buddy requests so lets get writing.

ETA: Well frack! Things got crazy busy and time slipped away. My total word count this year for NaNo was ZERO. I’ll try this again next time around.

Oops.

Holy Cow!

I didn’t realize how long it had been since I posted on the blog. You may remember I am producing a local live event project. Nothing huge, but for some reason it has been sucking my time away in unbelievable volumes. To get this project off the ground I had to build a support infrastructure before building the actual “group” that is doing the event. The basics are not difficult, I do this kind of stuff all the time, the time killer is having at least one workshop every week and all of the back office stuff going on as well.

Needless to say, I’ve been busy. Oh, and did I mention this is a no money gig. Don’t get me wrong, I love every minute of it. I have been doing tons of web development stuff that will carry over to other projects and a fair amount of media work too. The only real problem has been pulling myself away from the gig to do my “day job” stuff, as I said no $$$ for the gig.

Here is the really funny part. While doing all of the gig work, and the “day job”, I have been getting tons of creative ideas that I have been scrambling to get written down. Not that I have had any time for writing mind you.

With any luck things will begin to normalize before the end of the month. The event is on the 24th and the editing shouldn’t take too long. The live event is only 6 minutes, with that and all of the before material I have been compiling I am hoping to have a solid 30 minute short Doc when all is said and done. At least when I get to post, it will all be on my own time and not a schedule so I can take a breather when needed. For now, time is fleeting.

Until next time,
~FlyBoyJon

Building A Production Team

Howdy all!

This is going to be a short post today, I am totally wiped out tonight but I wanted to get this out right away. I will be refining this post and building a Team Search page later but for now I will get to the guts of the matter.

FlyBoyJon is building a creative team. I have a couple of projects in early development and I need to get them moving forward, so I am looking for some pre-production development talent to start building that creative team. I am looking for… Director, Director of Photography, Editor, Production Designer, Visual Effects Supervisor, and Writer. This is not an exclusive list however, anyone in production is welcome to contact me.

In the interest of clarity I wanted to be sure to let you know that this is not an open job listing. I am looking to connect with more of my fellow production people. If something comes from connecting, fantastic. If not, we will have exchanged some information and maybe be able to work with, or help each other out in the future. This is an open invitation to network with fellow production people.

If you are interested, feel free to send me an email or you can leave a message for me by using the Call Me button up on top of the page. Please remember to send/leave your name, contact information, what you do, and any other information you think relevant or important. I am looking forward to hearing from you.

I am also looking to meet up with fellow producers in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area so please feel free to drop me a line or email anytime.

Political Activism At Its Worst

Today I took my son to get a couple of books at the local Barns & Noble. I was not aware that a prominent political figure, who is also a writer, was signing copies of their book at the same store. I should have turned away from the bookstore when we saw the huge crowd of protesters outside. But I am curious by nature so we went in anyway.

Driving up to the intersection of Stevens Creek Boulevard and San Tomas Expressway in San Jose where the bookstore is located, we saw hundreds people waving protest signs and making a huge commotion on all four corners of the intersection, as well as down the Stevens Creek in both directions. Most of them were carrying signs, many were misspelled or illegible. Just about all of the signs were about the Obama health care plan. Some of the signs were outright incendiary and violent. As we got to the driveway, there were dozens of people crowding it on ether side and in the entry to the parking lot. We finally parked – it took a while because the protesters had almost filled the store’s parking lot – and went in. There were 4 or 5 security people at each door and many more roaming around throughout the store. We found a couple dozen people in line for a book signing in the children’s section, which was cordoned off with more security people. I asked who was there and I was told it was Senator Barbara Boxer, there to read from her political novel, “Blind Trust,” and sign copies of the book. So, we had a couple hundred people outside, and about one hundred in the store of which half at most were there for the book signing. My son and I were there to buy a couple Garfield books.

Now I want you to keep in mind that I strongly support the right of freedom of speech, which is one of our fundamental rights here in the United States; I also strongly support the right to peaceful assembly, again as a foundational right. What was going on outside the bookstore was just barely a ‘peaceful assembly.’ Getting out of the parking lot was an ordeal in and of itself, but nothing compared to being yelled at by protesters as we approached the street.

The people outside the Barns & Noble bookstore on Stevens Creek Boulevard in San Jose today are MORONS. This is the part where I get angry, in case you didn’t catch on.

I went to a local book store to get my kid a book or two, completely unaware of the book signing that was taking place inside, and on the way out I am labeled a communist, a baby killer and several other things that were completely unintelligible, along with a few I refuse to repeat. Just in case you were wondering, yes, those were some of the things that were actually shouted out at me as I pulled towards the driveway with two Garfield books. I never thought that buying a Garfield book would mean I was a communist. Who knew!? Oh and by the way, to the idiot that shouted that out… The word you were looking for is Socialist, not Communist. Get your political ideologies straight.

The crowd was very much like the fanatical fundamentalist protesters outside Planned Parenthood clinics. I would assume that more than one participant in today’s semi-controlled riot has attended at least one of those ‘social gatherings’ before; they certainly exhibited the same mob mentality. It is events such as this one that are going on all over the country showing how today’s political climate has swung the right and the left so far apart that when the inevitable inertial return swing comes, the impact is going to be very messy.

To say that my opinion about the political subject matter or opinions of the people involved will be changed due to this incident would be completely untrue. My personal convictions are based on my own sense of right and wrong and my own pragmatic sensibilities, and have very little to do with public opinion and I am certainly never swayed by a mob. I can say, however, that I am disgusted by the display of outright ignorance, intolerance and unabashed rage that I saw. I have no idea who organized the protest but by the look of the lemming herd they’d gathered I am sure they had an agenda of their own that is projected on to others by instilling fear and hate.

I can now say comfortably that I am thoroughly and completely disenfranchised by the current ‘two party’ system, including the ‘other’ parties that are currently playing the ‘party politics’ game. Several years ago I realized that I no longer identified with any of the political parties in California or on the national level in any meaningful way, so I changed my voter registration to ‘Undeclared.’ All of the parties have lost their way, and their respective minds. It seems as though it is no longer about what is good for the nation and it’s people; it’s about how to shut down or embarrass the other guy. In my play-book that’s completely unethical.

Life of the FlyBoy

BlackBerry Curve 8330, The CrackBerryTime has flown by the last couple of weeks. This is going to be a catch up post rather than a topical one, though several things are related.

First off, the Thrill The World event I am working on with Grave Mistake has been going strong. We have had two Dance Workshops so far and had around 20 people at each. The group has 58 people registered so far making it likely that we will be over 100 for the event. It is still very possible to hit 250, which is my ‘goal’ for the event. I have managed to get two short videos produced and I am putting together more media for the project now. As you can see this project has kept me hopping by itself.

And of course, if you are in the Silicon Valley and want to learn Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ dance come out to one of the free workshops. 😉 *Shameless plug, cause I’m a producer*

Other things in the chute include getting a visit from an old producing partner two weeks ago. He expressed an interest in me working on a couple of projects with him. I am interested, but was very up front about my expectations from him. I think that might have soured the deal as he was supposed to send some information to me to use in developing a preproduction/development budget and I haven’t heard back from him. In truth, I wasn’t holding my breath.

On the good side of producing, I was encouraged by his interest in me working on a couple of films, and decided to drag out a story I have been developing for a few years. I finally have two and a half acts laid out, and a screen play well under way. This is most definitely a labor of love, so the time laps is not all that frustrating. I also think that my returning to the original plan (I wrote about this lat time in Writing for Screen) was a good move.

There are of course the requisite ‘subsistence’ projects that I do to keep afloat during long development stretches as well.

I know I have mentioned social media interests and projects that I have been implementing in previous posts and now one of the tools I have been waiting for has arrived… yes, I am now a member of the CrackBerry (read as BlackBerry) set. I considered both the BlackBerry and the iPhone and opted for the one more oriented to business applications and durability. I am hard on cell phones and have been wanting to do more with mobile media so it was a natural choice. The QWERTY keypad is a godsend for mobile data. I am still getting used to having a really useful phone, but it is fun getting there. With a little work I will be posting more media here and on my twitter feed.

Now it’s time to take The Boy for a hair cut before he starts High School. 😉

Writing For Screen

SkyBlueIn 2004 I was working on several commercial productions. One of the people I was working with had some experience in screenwriting. He had a script optioned and the film was given a green light. Unfortunately, as things sometimes go in Hollywood, the film was shut down before principal photography began. It had been several years and he was looking at producing the film himself. We had become production partners and began to talk about production projects he had started. I spent a good deal of time retooling some of his older work and we collaborated on several new projects.

What I had not realized at the time was that I was developing the skills of a producer/screenwriter. The work we were doing was preproduction script development. After a while he suggested that I come up with a concept and begin writing the screenplay on my own, which I did. I started with a basic story, then started writing it in screenplay format with dialog. Not the best idea, at least for me.

When I am producing, I can move and think very quickly. My thought process is able to encompass the entire production. Everything is physical and relative, there are reference points and connecting processes. When I am writing, things happen a bit differently. The writing process in more difficult for me, it is all vapor. When I first began writing I was stuck for long periods of time because I needed a connection between each scene. I had to write in chronological order. Recently I have been developing the ability to maintain relative continuity while writing scenes out of chronological order as they come to me. I have been trying different exercises and new techniques to improve my skill and speed in screenwriting.

As I mentioned, I had developed a basic story and began writing the screenplay back in 2004 the working title of which is Sky Blue. After building the basics, my writing/producing partner and I started to co-develop the script. I didn’t like the new direction the project had taken. All of the things I loved about the story had disappeared. It was clear that we had very different visions of the story. At the time I was new to screenwriting and filmmaking, so I differed to him on many of the creative choices. Now its five years later, a LOT of water has passed under the bridge, and I am a different person. A much stronger writer, and a much more confident producer.

I recently read a book by Lawrence Turman called “So you want to be a Producer.” He produced “The Graduate,” among many other films. In truth, I have read Larry’s book several times so that probably should read as ‘I recently re-read…’. In the book, Larry’s biggest point to aspiring producers is be true to yourself. As he put it “taste is everything,” referring to your intuition and good taste, and he was so right.

I had shelved the script for over a year. I was just unable to look it in the face. It depressed me to see what my idea had become. I chucked it, obliterated it. Paper copies I had were shredded, the digital copies were deleted, and I went back to my original concept. Sky Blue is back on my screenwriters workbench. I started writing it again at the beginning of the week, I have fourteen pages completed, but more importantly, I have a beginning a middle and now an end. The ending had alluded me for so long. There are a few rough spots and some holes, but that’s fine this is a second go at a first draft right? The story is much more complete and I know where things are going, now all I have to do is get them there believably, interestingly, and lovingly. I like this script again. No, I love this script again.

I will be posting more about Sky Blue as things progress. I am excited again, now I can finish the script, do my 3X5 cards, storyboard, all of the preproduction development is beginning to take shape once again in my mind.

Low-Budget Motion Picture Studio Development

reels-bl-2 copy

This entry is a paper on micro-production companies I wrote a few months ago. I know of a few people who follow this blog who are participating in low budget film making and though this might be of interest.

~FBJ

Contents

•    Introduction
•    Low-Budget Motion Picture Production
•    Making movies cheaper
•    The keys to the kingdom
•    What makes a motion picture commercially viable?
•    What makes a script commercially viable?
•    Start selling early
•    Getting started
•    Return on investment
•    Mitigation of risk
•    Elements to successful production
•    Keeping the talent pool fresh
•    Summary

Introduction

A new course is being charted in motion picture production. Sextant MPS has been building a catalog of properties since 2004, its founders have been developing properties individually since the early 1970’s, and as a collaborative are in position to produce any one of its many motion picture properties.

With the development of new technologies and the falling prices of equipment and software there has never been a better time to enter the motion picture industry. When cameras cost $50,000 or more it is difficult to justify purchasing new ones frequently; when they cost $500 you can easily keep up with the Jones’s as new breakthroughs occur.

Low-Budget Motion Picture Production

Low-Budget does not have to mean cheap or crap. There have been many commercially successful low-budget films in the general distribution market place. Some have been cheesy, presumably on purpose (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, cost $90K, spurred 3 sequels, video games in a franchise grossing hundreds of millions of dollars), some have been cult classics (Blair Witch Project, cost $60K, grossed over $240M), and others have been serious entries into the general market (Chasing Amy, cost $250K, grossed $12M).

The Screen Actors Guild calls anything under $2.5M a low budget film. The Hollywood industrial standard is anything under $25M. Independent filmmaking is generally under $250K.

Previously mentioned examples of low-budget films all could be done today for less than they cost when they were made. Technological landscapes have changed a great deal in the last five years. High Definition video and extremely versatile Non-Linier Editing systems (NLE’s) have come down in price so fast that it is now possible to buy a good quality, pro-sumer camera and an NLE for less than $10,000 combined. These advances in technology make it possible for new companies to enter the market fresh, and upgrade with the technological advances frequently without breaking the bank.

Making movies cheaper

Many motion pictures are still being shot on film. Shooting on film adds a lot of cost to the project. A project using 16mm film can expect to pay $100 per minute of film. A project shot on 35mm could expect the cost to be $1,000 per minute. This cost is on film used to shoot, not your projects run time. The average production has a 5:1 shoot ratio or higher, this means, for every minute in your scripted project you will shoot 5 minutes to get that 1 minute needed. The average project shot with 35mm film costs over $505,000 just in film stock and daily processing. This does not take into account scenes that are shot and cut in post-production. Shoot digital, and you just saved half a million dollars.

The keys to the kingdom

The keys to making low-budget commercially successful motion pictures are making movies that are fresh, entertaining and commercially viable. Independent filmmaking has been very successful with respect to making motion pictures on a small budget, it has however, been traditionally unsuccessful in making motion pictures that are commercially viable.

What makes a motion picture commercially viable?

Many, independent filmmakers produce motion pictures with the mantra “art for art’s sake”. Although there have been commercially successful films produced under this edict, they are few and far between. The saving grace of independent film is its tenacious ability to produce motion pictures on a very low budget. The motion picture industry as a whole has operated on its own edict that it takes big money to get big money. This has been proven incorrect by several filmmakers within the traditional motion picture industry, Clint Eastwood is a master at producing low-budget (by Hollywood standards) films that are commercially successful. On the fringe of the established industry, Robert Rodriguez has also produced a number of commercially successful films on low budgets. Both filmmakers understand the key concepts to making low-budget, commercially viable films.

Commercial success can be achieved in low-budget by the selection of an appropriate script, writing and editing that script with the intent of linking it to a marketing plan, and the judicious use of the independent filmmaker spirit

What makes a script commercially viable?

Key elements of a commercially viable script are a unique story, or in the very least a unique retelling of the story, and development of the screenplay with an eye toward product placement and ancillary commercial opportunities; including merchandising, book sales, sequels, and unique marketing opportunities such as membership websites, organizations, societies, or movements.

Start selling early

Viral marketing of a motion picture property requires careful integration with key elements of the story, dynamic content and ease of distribution. The most successful example of viral marketing in a low-budget motion picture that made lots of money is the Blair Witch Project. The story of Blair Witch Project is weak at best, the production quality is also weak, however, due to the nature of the story, and in light of the enormous viral marketing campaign surrounding the project and it became a very strong property for the distribution company and the studio. Together the viral marketing campaign and the extremely low budget for production of the film where responsible for its financial success.

Getting started

Although the definition of low-budget is the subject of debate by various organizations, the disparity is based on whose industry standards are being cited. A budget of $250,000 is quite sufficient for the production of commercially viable film. Within this budgetary range, preproduction funding for the development of a property can be between $10,000 and $25,000 up-front, depending on the complexity of the film and technical requirements it may have.  In its most simple terms, a low-budget studio could feasibly produce seven to ten motion pictures in one year for under $5M. Up-front capital for an independent, low-budget studio to produce these films would be in the range of $500K -$750K.

Return on investment

Turnaround times on low-budget films, though shorter than major studio motion pictures, still run between one and two years.

Preproduction development times run from 3 to 10 months depending on the complexity of the motion picture. (median time in months; 6)

Most low-budget motion pictures can complete the preproduction phase between 3 and 6 months.  (4)

Post-production, like the other phases, is dependent on the complexity and technical requirements of the motion picture.  Post can run anywhere from 2 to 10 months. (5)

If distribution has already been arranged, the motion picture should go directly to theaters or consumer direct channels. If distribution has not been secured in advance, it becomes necessary to present the motion picture within the film festival circuit. Playing the circuit could add 18 months or more to secure a distribution contract. (6)

Assuming a run in the film festival circuit before a distribution contract is negotiated; this brings our median time in around 21 months before revenues are generated on the motion picture. This is of course assuming that the property is picked up by distribution. This is not always the case.

It is the responsibility of the producers to provide their best efforts at securing distribution for any motion picture from its inception. There are however, elements well outside the producers’ control that may prevent the film from obtaining distribution.

Mitigation of risk

The business of making movies has always been a risky venture. There are no absolutes in the industry guaranteeing distribution or the profitability of a motion picture. A producer can mitigate risk by ensuring the property is developed as a commercially viable project, and by securing product placement contracts and distribution contracts during the development phase of the motion picture. Elements that can reduce risk of loss include completion insurance and preventative measures against stock asset material destruction and curtailing proprietary information exchange

Elements to successful production

Filming in digital formats, thorough preproduction planning, extensive storyboarding and shot lists, and the early involvement of editing staff can reduce back end expenses and time a great deal. Spending a little extra time in the preproduction phase can smooth out the bumps in the road before you get to them.

Keeping production elements in the house whenever possible may cost slightly more initially, however, the flexibility and oversight it allows outweigh the slight cost increase quickly. Development of regular crew list keeps the set environment familiar and allows the crew to flow smoothly from one project to the next. Frequent reanalysis of the production paradigm provides regular feedback on the flow of the production, more importantly it provides the producers with information that can streamline the flow of production and provide continued cost reduction information from one project to the next.

Continual development of industrial relationships such as distribution companies, vendors, and talent, along with regular scouting of new crew, talent and locations provides the studio with ready resources going into the next project.

Keeping the talent pool fresh

Experimental filmmaking with regular cast and crew in between projects by making short subject films, though not usually commercially viable, presents many opportunities for the development of new techniques, equipment, and expanding crew skill sets. This kind of intermediary project also provides an opportunity to audition new crew and talent in a professional environment, without commercial loss. Furthering the growth and development of regular crew and talent affects the bottom line positively.

Summary

Maintaining a top-of-mind awareness, a studio can develop a reputation for its ability to develop fresh properties and get them to market quickly while maintaining a high quality product.

Combining the independent filmmaker spirit with big-picture management, a small studio can produce a high volume of commercially viable motion pictures annually while incurring very low cost-per-project expenses and a minimal studio overhead cost.