The Imagine Party
Tuesday night's party at the International was in several ways, quite successful. There were about l50 people networking and catching up. Manyfamiliar faces from the old Mass Media Aliance were there. And it was an industry party..
But I was also aware of who wasn't there - with one exception noone from the film press, and with another single exception, noone from film academia. Although there was some representation frm the commercial industril portion of the community, there were far too many actors, most of them wannabes. In the past, I've gone to events like this, and the next day an event at the Coolidge. Both are well attended, but often there may be an overlap of only two or three people (myself included). At the Imagine party, Iwonder where the Ross McElwee's, John Gianvito,'s Ray Carney's of the area are, or even Gerald Peary, who is the godfather guru of regional independent film. Even on the production side, there was no Mark Hankey of Picture Park or Rob Sprouill of FilmShack or representation from the animation or documentary community or WGBH.
True, it was a successful party and certainly Carol Patton is to be commended for her heroic efforts in puyblishing Imagine, with very few resources. But the party did serve to remind me that as small as the media community in the Boston area is, it is still compartmentalized, and there is neither the unbrella organization nor the leadership to make this group cohesive enough to positively affect the climate for film and television production.
But - long live Imagine!
But I was also aware of who wasn't there - with one exception noone from the film press, and with another single exception, noone from film academia. Although there was some representation frm the commercial industril portion of the community, there were far too many actors, most of them wannabes. In the past, I've gone to events like this, and the next day an event at the Coolidge. Both are well attended, but often there may be an overlap of only two or three people (myself included). At the Imagine party, Iwonder where the Ross McElwee's, John Gianvito,'s Ray Carney's of the area are, or even Gerald Peary, who is the godfather guru of regional independent film. Even on the production side, there was no Mark Hankey of Picture Park or Rob Sprouill of FilmShack or representation from the animation or documentary community or WGBH.
True, it was a successful party and certainly Carol Patton is to be commended for her heroic efforts in puyblishing Imagine, with very few resources. But the party did serve to remind me that as small as the media community in the Boston area is, it is still compartmentalized, and there is neither the unbrella organization nor the leadership to make this group cohesive enough to positively affect the climate for film and television production.
But - long live Imagine!
4 Comments:
This is Ricardo of Fairfield writing. If anyone knows a party, it's Kleiler. If anyone knows the media, it's Kleiler. If anyone knows independent film, it's Kleiler. I take his views on this party to be pure gold. Onward, Kleiler, you the man!
Hi David - Howard Phillips here - maybe MOST of film academia wasn't there, but I did make a a quiet perhaps unassuming appearance, handed out cards for the school I work at, the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University; while we're primarily technical and hands-on in teaching style, we do provide aesthetic content, along with guest speakers featured periodically; fofr example, Michael Phillips, one of the designers of the Avid FilmCmposer™, and Maureen Foley, among several others, have spoken at our Friday afternoon sessions. In fact we are always interested in hearing from creative people in the area who can offer some insight into the filmmaking process.. Agreed, there were an amazing amount of acors and starting-out actors at the Imagine Party this year-in addition to them,I did have the pleasure of meeting a few producers, directors, animators, among others. Speaking just from my perspective, it was a pretty fruitful night, having met some great people. Take care, David.
Howard P again - forgot to mention, many thanks to Carol for hosting this yearly event!
Howard P blogged me to comment on how valuable he thought the Imagine party was. I don't disagree, but I do believe there needs to be a more comprehensive vehicle for the various constituencys to network.
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