This is why it takes so long for you musicians to get your royalty checks:

I can't tell you how fed up I am over EFFING clearances. I am cursing and kicking things and I can feel that tightness inside of my chest. Frustration is banging around in my brain, and the deep breathing is not effing helping.

Here's just one example:

• Mid November: I make an application to MCPS for the rights to "Tevye's Dream" (in one of the scenes Kanya is at play practice for a production of "Fiddler on the Roof" with the Tokyo International Players).
  
  
• Two days later: I get a message back from MCPS. "Boy, they are quick," I think. "This is gonna be a snap!" They say I need to contact THE RECORD COMPANY directly. They kindly give me the number.
  

• The next day: I call THE RECORD COMPANY. They give me the name of THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEARING RIGHTS, however, THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEARING RIGHTS is on holiday for a week. "Can I have her email?" "Yes." So I email her and wait.

• Seven days later: The email bounces back with a bunch of computer speak and this human speak: "Despite repeated attempts, this message could not be delivered."
  
  
• The next day: I call to check that the email I've taken down is correct. It is. I ask to speak with THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEARING RIGHTS as, by this point, she is back from holiday (I hope she went somewhere sunny). I explain myself to her. She says to put everything I have just explained in an email, which I do and send to her again.
  
  
• Seven days later: The email bounces back with much the same message as above. I call, but by this time, everyone is on their Christmas break.
  
  
• Early January: I call THE RECORD COMPANY again. THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEARING RIGHTS is out of the office sick. I'm begging the receptionist to help me. She gives me the contact number of THE SECOND IN COMMAND to THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEARING RIGHTS. She is even kind enough to transfer me to him. Alas, he's not at his desk, so I leave a voice mail.
  
  
• Throughout the Month of January: I call, leaving several messages for THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEARING RIGHTS and THE SECOND IN COMMAND to THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEARING RIGHTS. No one calls me back. I have noticed (through Facebook's friend finder) that THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEARING RIGHTS is on Facebook, and I entertain the thought of contacting her via the network. But, this somehow seems like an invasion of privacy, and I talk myself out of it.
  
  
• February: Frustrated, I go onto THE RECORD COMPANY's website and use their contact form to make my inquiry. The next day, I get an email from THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEARING RIGHTS saying that THE RECORD COMPANY does not own the rights to this song. She doesn't know what I'm on about. I ring her just to make sure. "Nope, we don't own it. I've just checked the database. It's not there." I want to scream down the phone at her. Why couldn't she have checked the effing database when I called back in December if it was that easy to do? Time doesn't grow on effing trees, you know.
  
  
• One week ago: I write MCPS again explaining all of the above. They have not written me back.
  
  
• Today: I use the email form on the MCPS website to explain above. Heck, if it worked for THE RECORD COMPANY, maybe it will work for MCPS.
  

I mean, I have tried...I have really tried to do this properly. But, what else can I do? Jerry Bock wrote the music and Sheldon Harnick wrote the lyrics for "Fiddler on the Roof." If any of you know either one of these fellas, please email me and put me out of my misery.

And here's my lesson: it's really time to work with a production company because this SUCKS and I SUCK AT IT.

Tokyo Cowboys on the Big Screen

Well almost...I screened Tokyo Cowboys for a whopping big audience of 3 on the little big screen of Cinema B at the London Film School. Attending were Diane Morris (one of our investors and all around Asia Pacific expert), Margaret Glover (my writing mentor) and Tony Upko (filmmaker and publisher of "This is a Magazine").

It was absolutely thrilling to see the film on "the big screen." I was putting this off as I was afraid that, having shot in video, the picture quality would degrade. Well, it didn't. And the response from our little audience was outstanding. So, yeah!

Tokyo Cowboys Press

in "This is a Magazine"

"Tokyo Cowboys encapsulates the wonder that the city holds. The desires it creates, and the stories that evolve from it."

Japanese Sleeping

There is a whole photo gallery dedicated to Japanese people sleeping in public. I don't see what the big deal is. These people work really hard. They should be allowed to sleep on the train, at the bus stop or in the middle of Shibuya Crossing. As long as they're not a danger to themselves or others...

We have only one shot of a sleeping beauty in the final cut of Tokyo Cowboys, although we shot so many.


You can tell by her uniform that she is an elementary school student. Clutching her school bag, she is conked out on the Yamanote Line in the middle of the day. It must have been the volley ball. Or the Kanji workout. English lesson or Juku.

It's not just being tired, though. Some of the cars on that line are still old. No one speaks, and the gently rocking of the train and hypnotic metallic noises make you feel like you are in the belly of the great warm mother machine.

Mixin' it up

Met with a sound mixer today. We had lunch at The Breakfast Club in Soho. Apart from the fact that Hippies must exit at the rear (no exceptions), the food was pretty good. Got in 2 servings of fruit and veg, so that was also good.

She gave me some good advice, the sound mixer, that is. And she said she'd have a look and a listen to the film.

Simon sent the final music over this weekend, and PJ cut it in. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but PJ says it's finished.

Typed in some credits. This is going to take steady and continuous work for about a week.

Entered contacts into the database.

Packaged and mailed off some festival submissions.

Emailed Ken and Kerry Kennedy about clearances.

Spoke to Dave about the title graphics and about creating an ident for The Elektrik Zoo. We have to send him over a QT of the opening sequence.

This evening, worked a little on the script.

Sales Agents, Distributors and Exhibitors...oh my!

Did the second part of the Sales, Marketing and Distribution course with Mia Bays. Good stuff all around. She brought in the Managing Diretor and Sales Agent Andrew Orr from Independent Film Company, distributor Soda Pictures' Ed Fletcher and Jason Woods from Picturehouse - one of the UK's leading cinema bookers.

I was quick with the meishi and the 30 second pitch. Ed Fletcher gave me the best advice about the pitch, which was that when you are pitching to distributors, they are most interested to know the selling points of your film to specific territories.

This is what I've come up with so far: I think that there is definitely an audience in Japan amongst the nearly one million foreigners living in Tokyo alone and amongst the Japanese themselves as we've got two big stars who appear regularly on Japanese TV and in videos (Patrick Harlan's career has skyrocketed since filming). And, of course, there is America. I think the fascination with all things Japan is there and there is a sort of "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" appeal.

As for the UK, I was thinking of the "look what those crazy Americans are doing over in Japan" appeal might be there. That having been said, the film does not focus on the sensational aspects of Japan as so many films about the area do. It's about normal guys finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances. Our main character, Jewish boy from New York Ken, for example, finds himself performing Christian weddings in order to make a buck while he tries to kick start his career on Japanese TV.

There was a bit of a nuisance with the website going down and email crashing. This right after the workshop, so, of course, I was obsessing about how one of the workshop people might try to hit the site, and how it would be down, and how they would think I was a total looser, but I got over that.

Emailed all of the festivals we submitted to and informed them of the changes.

I'm boring myself to tears now.

Photo is a self portrait of Kimiko Yoshida.

Hello Kitty ii ka na?

Spent the day at the Mia Bays Sales, Marketing & Distribution Workshop put on by my mate Saskia at the London Film School (the old alma mater). Highlights were:

Meeting and swapping cards with the Head of Programming for the London Film Festival, Michael Hayden. Did the 30 second pitch: "Tokyo Cowboys is permanent lost in translation...for real: an intimate look into the lives of 5 western men living long term in the wild, wild East."

Learning that you can ask smaller festivals for something called a "screening fee," which is essentially a box office percentage. According to Mia, not all festivals have a screening fee policy, but a lot of the smaller ones do.

And...learning that "The Lives of Others" was rejected by all major festivals, yet it was in the top ten grossing films of 9 of the top 10 territories. (This is to make me feel better in the event of a worst case scenario.)

Another session tomorrow with a Sales Agent, top Booker in the U.K., and a distributor. Must print out some more TC meishi.

Photo thanks to Tokyo Mango.

Breathing New Life

Spent several hours yesterday with Jaime Estrada-Torres, who gave us amazingly thorough advice on how to professionally polish Tokyo Cowboys. He went through the film scene by scene and pointed out specific action items. Patrick reckons that he can finish the whole edit by next week.

We also laid all of Simon's music over the film, and it is just brilliant. Spoke to him on the phone, and we'll take the new edit round to his studio after the edit is done for polishing.

Spent several hours this evening researching distribution models. Of particular interest was Peter Broderick's Distribution Bulletins, specifically his one on using Radiohead's online model. Got a bit freaked out by Film Specific's Podcast about how to position your film for distribution in 2008. Deliverables? "You're gonna have to spend a bit of money?" Help!

The photo above is by Altus. He's using some cool technology to manga-fy his stills.

Tokyo Cowboys New Year Update (in case you didn't get the email)

Dear All,

Patrick and I would like to wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year. It's been a while since we sent out an update, and there's a good reason. Patrick and I have been busy FINISHING the film. Well...almost.

What's the Score

Our composer, Simon Rogers, has been working hard to give us an incredibly beautiful score. It's been a pleasure and a great journey working with Simon who brings years of experience and loads of talent to the project. Patrick and I have both learned so much from him. Simon studied at the prestigious Royal College of Music and has been a success as both a Musician and Producer. You can see his CV and visit his profile on Wikipedia.

Clearances

What a palaver. This is where filmmaking gets really boring. We've got to clear every song sung in karaoke, every musical performance and every one of the TV shows we filmed. It adds up to about 30 individual clearances. We've been lucky, though. Three of the big songs will only be about £300 each to clear for festivals. The folks at Universal and Carlin Music have been very helpful, and we are making progress.

Other Bits

The remaining work on Tokyo Cowboys includes finishing the credits, grading and the sound mix. A mate is letting us use his online suite for the grade, so we have been very fortunate. The credits are going to be as long as the film, and the sound mix will be hairy. We've been listening on the mini speakers on our editing suite, but, when Patrick screened the film on Graham's home cinema system, he could hear every little finger tap on the camera. Loads to do here, but we've got some good leads on affordable sound mixers.

Festivals

So far, we've been sending off the Work-in-Progress to festivals. It is crucial to the success of the film to get a good run as festivals are where we can flog the film in various territories. This month is when we start to hear back, so please send us good vibrations. Also, a successful festival run often times depends on who you know. So, if any of you good folks out there have any connections to festivals for which Tokyo Cowboys qualifies, please do get in touch (Tokyo Cowboys is classified as a feature-length independent Documentary).

New Technologies

I have been following various blogs about emerging technologies in online film distribution. Online, we can find and exploit (in the best possible sense) audiences that may not be able to access Tokyo Cowboys elsewhere. I know there are some techies and marketing geniuses out there, and I would like to open a dialog about how we can get Tokyo Cowboys to the online market. Please email me if you'd like to participate.

That's it from TC headquarters. Patrick and I would like to thank all of you for your continuing support. We are almost there!

Hugs,

Daneeta

Festivals Again...

Spent all day yesterday on festivals. The process is searching out the festivals that TC qualifies for, filling out all the paper work, packaging up everything and posting. Doing one festival can take upwards of 2 hours. Insanity. It's also quite expensive, but it's our career and at least it's tax deductible. This is the most boring bit about filmmaking, and, if we weren't independent, we would have some little worker bee doing this for us. Another reason to align yourself with a production company. Oh, how much we have learned on this project.

Thanks to http://www.nataliedee.com for the image.

Clearances

Spent all day working on clearances. A bit of good news in that some of the major tracks will only cost about £300 to clear. We lucked out with "Just a Girl," "Wherever you will go," and "Linus and Lucy" in that we only need the publishing rights. Because characters are singing, and we are not using the recording (mechanical rights), the fee is much cheaper. Things get complicated with the karaoke tracks. Not only do we have to get the publishing rights, but we have to get those cleared through the karaoke company as well. Katsura is working hard on those. There are a couple of tracks owned by Victor Entertainment in Japan, so my Japanese skills will be tested to the limit when I do the calls on Tuesday. Then, there's all the Japanese TV stuff. All of this is tedious, but it will be so worth it in the end.

You can blow your independent spirit up my ass...

I have spent the last few days and nights trawling WAB, BritFilms and the like for appropriate festivals for Tokyo Cowboys. I figure the festivals specializing in "independent" films are the ones for us. I mean, we are the epitome of independent. We raised the money ourselves, we shot it, we edited it and we are selling it...all without the aid of a production company. Here's how most festivals define independent: "made with less than 50% participation by a major studio or television broadcaster." What the hell does that mean? Budget? Publicity? Marketing?

But, OK, whatever. That's not the thing. The thing...the real thing...the thing that gets up my butt is that the films specializing in independent films...the festivals that are filled with the independent spirit (whatever the fuck that means) charge outrageous fees. I just came accross one that is charging $110. And, that's the early bird deadline...AND, it's a European film festival. For shame! You greedy bastards. European film festivals are subsidized by tax euro...your's and mine. Outrageous!

P.S. The picture above is not my ass. Would that it were.

Tokyo Cowboys Press

Check out the interview about Tokyo Cowboys over at Broken Projector.

Minding my P's and Q's

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod...Simon is going to fahlippin' kill us. Well, it's Patrick's fault anyway. He keeps tweaking when I'm not looking. But this is it, this is truly it. Tonight is truly the end. All of the tweaking has been done, and Patrick is burning for festivals. Now I just have to call Simon to let him know that all of the music Q's I sent him last week are now completely changed!

Music to My Ears

Last week I met with Simon, our composer and certified Japanophile. We had a listen to some ideas he's been working on for the score. The stuff he did for the Salaryman/Samurai bit and for the Ask/Answer bit are so kickass that I nearly cried with joy that it's all coming together. We've given him notes, and he's in the studio as I write creating magic.



Today, we watched the cut, yet again. It's clocking in at 83 minutes without credits. Patrick has got a last minute inspiration and wants to cut in a 30 second sequence that brings Daneeta the character back into the film. I'm not sold on the idea, but I'm going with it. Patrick's ideas are usually pretty much on the money. I think my luke-warm reaction to the idea might have more to do with the fact that I'm really tired of the cut, and I just want it to be over. Is that bad to say?

Other than that, I've been dealing with clearances all day, which is the worst possible thing you can do with a hang over.

Jesus save me from myself!

Linus and Lucy

Spoke to Lish over at Warner Chapell about getting rights for Lunus and Lucy. It's the song in the film that introduces Mark. He plays the piece on the piano at one of the EWC events. Lish says it's going to cost us £500 just for festival rights. I've written her a teary email explaining that we're broke and how we've been working on the film for ages and how we haven't been paid and that we would share the wealth if we had any. She hasn't responded yet.

Also put in a request to Universal for "Wherever you will Go." They also own the rights to "I'm just a Girl," which we requested earlier and are still waiting to hear back on. "Wherever you will Go basically ends the film as Aki sings it in Karaoke (hope I'm not giving away the ending here).

Doing all of these clearances sucks. Next time, it will be different.

Festivals...again

Spent the whole day checking festivals. It is mind-numbing work and requires someone about a thousand times more meticulous than me, but there is no one like that around my place, so it's all down to me (poor me!).

I really f*@ked up on Rotterdam and missed the festival deadline, so now I'm all paranoid and have to check all my lists on, like, a daily basis. this can take hours.

Anyway, packaged and posted three festival entries and realized I missed the one in Montana. This sucks.

More Feedback and Paperwork

Received more feedback yesterday and today from two more viewers, and it was good all round with some minor suggestions. Simon says that we can fiddle a bit with the picture until the 30th when he will need everything done and dusted for real. This is how I feel about the project today.

Been working at the day job yesterday, today and tomorrow, so haven't had much time to do much, but I have gotten info back on three sets of clearances we are after. So, on Friday, I will make the calls.

Also sending to Festivals on Friday as well. Two well-known "women's" festivals and a few others. As an aside, "Liza" was accepted to the 21st Stuttgart Film Festival in competition. This is an experimental documentary that Patrick directed in February. I Exec. Produced it, and it is an Elektrik Zoo production, so we're quite chuffed.

Tagged and Bagged

This is a pre-announcement ahead of the official TC Update to be sent out next week. We have locked the picture...tagged and bagged. Now on to sound. Simon is taking a 1st pass at the music as I write. It's all happening.

Is Cinema Dead?

And, if so, what is replacing it?

Thursday night...9 p.m. Central London...Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror"...10 people in the cinema.

Big trouble in the cinemas, and the online world is taking over. In an article in this week's "Screen International" ("Film's New World Order") producer Ira Deutchman suggests that studios are struggling to adapt to the online explosion and that this is a good opportunity for independents.

I know he's right I just have no idea what to do...how to exploit the markets and audience streams on the Internet. The thing is that I'm not really interested in that part of filmmaking. I just want to make the films and have someone else exploit those markets. But, it's still the frontier.