Behind the scenes with National Geographic's "Killing Kennedy"

Check out behind the scenes with some incredible lighting from Chimera.

Seduced and Abandoned: A review for filmmakers (HBO Doc)

The HBO documentary Seduced and Abandoned with Alex Baldwin and James Toback explores the insanity of the film industry.  It shows the difficulty producing a film with an a-list actor already on board.  The one reoccurring theme is that 95% of the time is spent chasing funding with 5% of time spent actually making films.  The film says "this is no way to live."  The times have changed where you cannot simply walk into a room and convince a director or actor to jump in on a film, everyone has a conscience and a due diligence to complete.  People in the large scale film business do not do films because they want to but because they will make a profit.  The COO of a major studio interviewed said it best "you make the shitty movie people will see not the good film that nobody will see."  What Toback and Baldwin suggest at the conclusion of the documentary is that new channels and people must be found who are willing to work in a new paradigm.

These people are everywhere I do believe.  Learn from the old but create something new.   The gatekeepers are dead as George Lucas said recently. So build your team, high concept something original and make it happen.  There are creative and unusual channels to find funding. It is still talent, concept and passion that will create.  Perhaps it is some kind of blind naivete and optimism that makes me think it is possible to create original successful works on large scale but I think this is what it takes to be successful.  Never give up when the doubters give you reason to do so.  Some of the most successful men have said that it is that one step they took beyond when others would have turned back and quit that made them successful. So here's to being a little crazy, unorthodox and having the strength to persist in creating something amazing.

It is my sincere belief that things worth doing are never easy.  Unless you take the view that it is easy because it is the only thing to be done.

Quotes of the day

"if you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not people or objects" -Albert Einstein

Quote of the day

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson / Nelson Mandela

Story of the Day

Story of the day

One day the animals called a contest to measure their strength. Animal after animal displayed their strengths. Monkey leapt high and swung from tree to tree. All of the animals applauded his strength. Then Elephant leaned against the same tree and uprooted it, raising it high above his head. The animals agreed Elephant was stronger than Monkey. Man said, “I am stronger still,” but the animals laughed— how could Man be stronger than Elephant? Man was angry at their laughter and produced a gun. The animals ran away from Man forever. Man did not know the difference between strength and death. And to this day, they fear his ignorance.

-Old African Folk Tale

Atomic movie by IBM

Interesting film-making idea that had not previously been executed.

Watch the making of the worlds smallest movie

Slow Money

BMG attended the Slow Money National Gathering in Boulder Colorado and met up with Woody Tasch, author of Inquiries into Slow Money: Investing as food, farms, and fertility mattered.  A very interesting progressive investing conversation is occurring these days in Boulder and elsewhere based on the Slow Money movement, which is all about local investment in agriculture.  Check out what they are all about below. BMG supports localization of economies around the world in a variety of sectors including the local food movement. 

The Slow Money Principles

In order to enhance food security, food safety and food access; improve nutrition and health; promote cultural, ecological and economic diversity; and accelerate the transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to an economy based on preservation and restoration, we do hereby affirm the following Slow Money Principles:

I. We must bring money back down to earth. 

II. There is such a thing as money that is too fast, companies that are too big, finance that is too complex. Therefore, we must slow our money down -- not all of it, of course, but enough to matter. 

III. The 20th Century was the era of Buy Low/Sell High and Wealth Now/Philanthropy Later—what one venture capitalist called “the largest legal accumulation of wealth in history.” The 21st Century will be the era of nurture capital, built around principles of carrying capacity, care of the commons, sense of place and non-violence. 

IV. We must learn to invest as if food, farms and fertility mattered. We must connect investors to the places where they live, creating vital relationships and new sources of capital for small food enterprises. 

V. Let us celebrate the new generation of entrepreneurs, consumers and investors who are showing the way from Making A Killing to Making a Living. 

VI. Paul Newman said, "I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes out." Recognizing the wisdom of these words, let us begin rebuilding our economy from the ground up, asking:

* What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?
* What if there were a new generation of companies that gave away 50% of their profits? 

* What if there were 50% more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now?