No H8

Today I participated in the silent photo protest for NoH8 (no hate/no on "8") in support of equal marriage rights for all. This is not the "official" photo -I will post it when I see it in a few weeks!

G'day Mate!

Well, it's been a FUN summer so far. Australia was a blast! I had no idea I was going until about 2 weeks before I went, and I think it made it even more fun. Great way to bring in my big birthday! Matt's away shooting a movie in Nashville called BAILEY, which is being directed by Mario Van Peebles. Get to see Matt in 9 days, but who's counting...

POTA is finally an official non-profit company!!

"Dear POTA, We are pleased to inform you that upon review of your application for tax exempt status we have determined that you are exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(c)3 of the IRS Code. You are also qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under section 2025, 2106 or 2522 of the Code."

ODD BRODSKY hearts UFC

Exciting News --We got an email from the Ultimate Filmmaker Competition (sponsored by Filmmaker's Alliance) saying that ODD BRODSKY made it to the Quarter Finals! We'll be advancing to the next round to win this $200K grant, along with $300K of production expenses! If we make the next cut, we'll be in the final round with only 25 others. I think ODD BRODSKY is a great match for this. Please keep your fingers crossed...

Bob's My Uncle!

Somehow I just booked a flight to Sydney, Australia!!!!! My filmmaker friend Janice, who lives in Texas, is going, and invited me to tag along. Since Matt will be in Nashville shooting his next feature, I said Yes!!! I'm going to Australia!

Just Do It.

Monday morning thought of the day:

"A key element to success is decisiveness. You must be willing to take action if you want results. It's not what you do, but THAT you do that really matters. Perhaps it's time to stop thinking, planning, and preparing, and to start practicing imperfection so you can finally get things going." -Dallas Travers

ODD BRODSKY on facebook

Hey Gang,
I'm so sorry that I have not been blogging very much lately. I have to admit, I've been cheating on you with facebook. I'm sorry. But you can join me there! I just made a page for ODD BRODSKY! I was hoping to import all the past entries from this blog relating to ODD BRODSKY, but alas... it wants to import ALL my posts. So I'm starting new. My goal is to finance, and prep this film so that we can shoot in November 2009! I know... that's a seemingly impossible deadline. Stay tuned for all the drama! Oh, and join my facebook page! ODD BRODSKY on Facebook
xoxo
Cindy

Win an Area Rug

For a chance to win your own area rug up to $55 value, visit All Things Bloggy.

Glidden™ National Paint Giveaway Today! While supplies last!

This summer, pick out your favorite paint color and we will send you a free quart. Then, start coloring your world. Click HERE on June 25 for an order form and complete details....or call 1-800-GLIDDEN. It only took me 1 minute to order my paint! Yay for new paint!

SAG Theatrical Contract Approved

At last. The Screen Actors Guild approved the theatrical contract. 78% voted yes. Let's get back to work.

Bees are dying, Haagen Dazs is buying

Free Ice Cream Today.  YUM

http://go.reachmail.net/track/v.asp?eid=43513&sb_id=333354,333355&aid=267

The Future of Film

One word: AMAZING


Carousel from maxime caron on Vimeo.

Life is Good

Here we are in the new house! We officially moved in on 3/3 and things are finally settling down. Matt has his screening room, complete with 7-foot screen (the equivalent of a 92" television), and I have my creative space, which I refer to as "the studio". It has a private entrance on the side and a view that looks out onto the backyard.We are going to build a sliding bookcase instead of a door, so it's like my studio is a hidden room! If all goes as planned in 3 days the bathroom remodel will be DONE, and then we start the kitchen soon. I love it here.

3 out of 6 Ideablob winners are TFA Alums

November's Ideablob winner was just announced, and surprise, surprise, it's yet another TFA Alumnus.  That makes the winners of the June, August and November competition ALL TFA beneficiaries.  You may remember that Ideablob created an incentive back in June (right when we lost the grant the FIRST time because our entry was sabotaged by Jessica Hammock of Project Epiphany, a TFA Alum) that if a TFA Alum won their monthly $10,000 contest, the TFA Organization would receive a separate $5000 award.  (Ideablob denies this, but we have evidence.)  Now, to date, 50% of all the winners since this financial incentive went into effect have been TFA Alums.  

Here is what you can do if Ideablob's TFA bonus incentive has adversely affected your win: You can contact your state's Attorney General, as well as the USA Attorney General, Make a claim with the Better Business Burrow, File a complaint with the FDIC (they regulate the activities of banks) and lastly, of course is private litigation. (Unfortunately, lawyer fees will likely cost as much as the amount of the injury.) And, of course, if enough people have been effected by this, it could be classified as a class action suit.  

Sometimes justice is believing in karma --knowing that what goes around comes around.   

SAG begins new year with civil war

According to Variety: SAG's moderate wing plans to replace the guild's negotiating committee -- and possibly fire national exec director Doug Allen -- in hopes of breaking the contract stalemate with the majors.

While much of the town's been shut down for the past two weeks, SAG's internal firefight over its divisive strike authorization vote has escalated. Allen and SAG president Alan Rosenberg have spurned calls to ditch the authorization vote but agreed Dec. 22 to delay it until after a Jan. 12-13 emergency meeting of the national board in order to present a united front to members.

But the moderates have grown increasingly frustrated by what they perceive as a lack of response from SAG toppers and are poised to begin moving to make SAG more pragmatic -- three months after gaining control of the 71-member board over the more aggressive Membership First faction, which still dominates the negotiating committee.

Ned Vaughn, spokesman for the moderate Unite for Strength faction, said he could not comment on specifics of steps to be taken at the meeting. "The board has a choice to make -- either go ahead with the strike authorization vote or move in a new direction," he told Daily Variety. New York board member Paul Christie said Allen may be on thin ice if he doesn't change his approach.

"His idea of re-establishing consensus to date has been 'getting you all to agree with me,' " Christie added. "He will go down in flames if that is his game plan for this meeting." But SAG First VP and negotiating committee member Anne-Marie Johnson told Daily Variety it would be "undemocratic" to call off the strike authorization vote and not allow SAG's 120,000 members to make the decision. Johnson also criticized Allen's critics. "To want to fire your lead negotiator, whose only fault is that he's trying to get the best possible contract he can get, baffles the mind," she added.

SAG's New York board, now in open rebellion from Allen and Rosenberg, first called for the cancellation of the strike authorization vote and the replacement of the negotiation committee on Dec. 12. A new negotiating team would probably attempt to restart negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, which made its final offer on June 30, the expiration date of SAG's master contract on features and primetime.

SAG, led by Allen and Rosenberg, held 46 negotiating sessions with the AMPTP since April but refuses to relent on key new-media issues. And Allen, who's starting his third year as SAG chief, has become a polarizing figure over how he's handled SAG's strategy on several fronts: 1) Efforts in 2007 to force AFTRA to reduce its participation in joint bargaining, which led to AFTRA splitting angrily from SAG and negotiating its own deal 2) An unsuccessful campaign to persuade dual SAG-AFTRA members to vote down the ratification of AFTRA's deal. 3) The inability to close SAG's deal with the AMPTP, even after a federal mediator joined the process in October. Two days of talks cratered after SAG deman congloms ded a hike in DVD residuals -- long a nonstarter for the 4) His latest assertion that while he's hoping a strike won't occur, it won't shut down the industry since work would continue on indie features with SAG waivers and on cable shows and commercials.

That declaration, made Tuesday in a message to members, was met with incredulity by Christie. "If you are constantly telling the members no way will I shoot the gun I am asking for, then why are you begging for bullets?" Christie added. "These emails are astounding in their similarity as if they will wear down the membership by their sheer volume. Honest fact is, if Doug 'no way' Allen really wanted a strike authorization, he should have, according to any knowledgeable labor negotiator, asked for it July 1st." Christie also accused Allen of stalling on negotiations until after the September elections in hopes that Membership First would retain control of the national board.

The AMPTP also blasted back at Allen on Tuesday. "Today's SAG statement suggesting that a SAG strike would not have a devastating impact on our industry, in the midst of the greatest economic turmoil since the Great Depression, simply defies reality," the AMPTP said. "The 100-day writers strike -- which resulted in the writers receiving the same terms that the DGA achieved without a strike -- cost our economy $2.5 billion. A SAG strike would cost the working families who depend on our industry even more -- at a time when everyone is already under extreme pressure by the unprecedented national economic crisis."

The moderates have rallied behind a Dec. 2 letter by Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman contending that SAG needs to accept a deal along the lines of the final offer, which contains similar terms to those in pacts signed in 2008 by the WGA, DGA, AFTRA, IATSE and the casting directors. More than 1,800 members have come out against the authorization including Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Sally Field. Nearly 3,000 members have signed a solidarity statement supporting a "yes" vote, including Martin Sheen, Ed Asner and Mel Gibson.

Happy New Year!!

I'm making my list. Have you got yours?

YES MAN

YES MAN starring Jim Carey was GREAT!  I just adored it, and completely recommend it. Tonight we are ringing in the New Year in a hot tub, outside in the brisk Portland air, even though it is raining.  YES MAN reminded me of how fun it is to say Yes to life! Happy 2009 friends!!

SAG postponing Strike Authorization vote.

According to Variety, SAG's postponement of its strike authorization vote may signal that its leaders are tilting in a more moderate direction -- so much so that the divisive vote may be called off. 

It's still unclear what direction the national board will take at its emergency meeting on Jan. 12-13, scheduled ostensibly by national exec director Doug Allen and president Alan Rosenberg to persuade the fractured 71-member panel to present a united front and convince members to vote up a strike authorization. But the timing of the Monday night announcement was telling. It came a few hours after Allen and Rosenberg met with leaders of the Unite for Strength faction, a group of Hollywood moderates who gained five board seats in the fall after campaigning on a platform that asserted that Rosenberg and his allies had bungled the contract negotiations strategy.

Unite for Strength spokesman Ned Vaughn told Daily Variety that he and his colleagues expressed concerns about going ahead with the vote, given the growing numbers of SAG members - particularly high-profile stars such as George Clooney and Tom Hanks - coming on the "no" side. "We felt that in light of what's been happening that it would have been reckless for the national board to proceed without having the chance to reconsider," Vaughn said. "We appreciate that they've taken our concerns seriously."

The victory by Unite for Strength wrested away control of the national board from the more assertive Membership First faction for the first time in three years and gave the moderates - comprised largely of New York and regional reps -- a narrow ruling margin . It's unclear whether the emergency board meeting will lead to the withdrawal of the authorization vote or replacing the SAG negotiating committee, which remains dominated by Membership First. Vaughn would not comment as to what steps the board might take but he expressed concern that scheduling the confab as a "face to face" meeting in Los Angeles on a Monday and Tuesday will make it more difficult for New York and regional branch members to attend. Similar concerns arose earlier this month when Rosenberg scheduled an emergency meeting for Dec. 19, but then called it off a few days later.

SAG's insisted it needs a strike authorization vote, which requires the approval of 75% of members who cast ballots, to force the congloms to improve their final offer and has spent the past year blasting the moguls and the deals they signed with the town's other unions,
particularly in new-media residuals and jurisdiction. The guild's also contended that signing the final offer will hasten the disappearance of residuals as TV programming migrates to the Web. But the majors have insisted that they won't change the terms of the deal and they've blasted SAG repeatedly for insisting it deserves better terms amid a full-blown recession.

Happy Holidays!

http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/whitchr.html

POTA is CA nonprofit!

Well, we're 1/2 way there! Today POTA officially received tax-exempt status in California! We expected it would not be until January or February until we heard. So this is great news! Now we are just awaiting federal approval and we are done! It feels good to move forward.

House Update

Sorry I have not had a chance to write lately. Things have been so hectic with buying the new house right in the middle of the holidays! On Monday we had our home inspection in the pouring rain, and discovered a rook leak right in the middle of the living room. Our amazing realtor Tom Sardo (who is the best realtor EVER) said we were lucky this happened before we bought the house and not after. Just like magic, later that same night bank interest rates dropped to under 4.5% for a 30-year-fixed... which means that if the seller can't pay to fix the roof, we now can pull out extra money to pay for it, and have the same monthly payments as planned. Amazing! Sometimes I feel so lucky...

SAG faces dissension from NY board

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A faction of the Screen Actors Guild on Friday called for the union to suspend an upcoming vote to authorize a strike amid stalled negotiations with Hollywood producers. The announcement represents a major split between the union's Hollywood leadership and a more moderate group based in New York. The group hopes its opposition will force the union to rethink the timing of its vote scheduled for January."Our members and our industry are struggling through the worst economic crisis in memory," the New York board said in a statement. "While issuing a strike authorization may have been a sensible strategy in October, we believe it is irresponsible to do so now. 

"The New York division's 14 board members also called for the 71-member national board to hold an emergency meeting to appoint new negotiators to work with the American Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the major studios."With a fresh team, the AMPTP will return to the table, and we can get a fair deal," the New York board wrote. "A deal that will not cost careers, homes, lives. We want our members to understand that while strikes are sometimes unavoidable, we will do everything in our power to avoid this one." 

SAG President Alan Rosenberg said he was surprised by the announcement because the group did not approach him first. He said he agreed to call an emergency meeting to discuss "this extraordinarily destructive and subversive action." He would not say when the meeting would be held or what effect the board's opposition may have on the scheduled vote. SAG plans to send strike authorization ballots to more than 100,000 union members on Jan. 2, a date that puts Oscar night within reach of a potential boycott. Votes will be counted on Jan. 23, ahead of the Feb. 22 Academy Awards, the most important date on the Hollywood awards calendar. Approval by 75 percent of voting members is required to pass the measure. 

If it is approved, the SAG national board can call a strike.Studios and the actors union have been negotiating a new deal since before the previous contract expired June 30.SAG wants union coverage for all Internet-only productions regardless of budget and residual payments for Internet productions replayed online, as well as continued actor protections during work stoppages. Directors, writers, stagehands and another actors union settled for lesser terms
and the studios said it was unreasonable for SAG to demand a better deal, especially now that the economy has worsened.AMPTP spokesman Jesse Hiestand declined to comment on the board's announcement. Meanwhile, the guild has been sending e-mails, fact sheets and Web video testimonials by famous actors urging members to vote yes on the strike. 

It said Mel Gibson, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Martin Sheen and other actors were among the first signers of SAG's "Statement of Support."The actors union, however, appears to be in transition. In guild elections in September, an upstart group called Unite For Strength broke up the majority control of the national board that had been held by Rosenberg's supporters. But the Unite group has not clarified its position on the strike vote.The guild plans a town hall meeting in New York on Monday and one in Hollywood on Dec. 17.

Can you believe this?

Who would have thought that after gas prices reached $4/gallon only two months ago, we'd see these prices EVER again?  Not me. Amazing...

On Project Closer

Now that we are buying a new house, all I can do is think about it! There's no pantry or laundry cabinets, but Matt came up with a great idea to remodel a hallway!  Not only would it create a dream pantry and lots of space, but it will also create a large supply cabinet that connects to my office! Inspired by the new house, I entered the One Project Closer December Giveaway". This month's prize is a gift certificate to Home Depot!  What a perfect housewarming that would make!  

Homeward Bound

Matt and I have been on pins and needles for a few days now. Our realtor said the house we bid on was listed at a CRAZY LOW price and it would probably go up by atleast $50,000 in bids. So we did not have our hopes up, but I have to say...I had "that" magical feeling! Since many people were away for the Thanksgiving weekend, it was a particularly slow time for showing houses. There were still 5 bidders by the end, and it was neck-in-neck between us and one other applicant. But a good plan combined with a GREAT real estate agent & bank lender and a heaping spoonful of luck all came together in just the right way and made it so that WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!

Less Trash is Easy

My friend Karen's cousin was on ABC news giving helpful hints about creating less trash! Look how simple she and her friend make it all look!

The Offer

Today Matt and I put in a bid to buy a HOUSE!  I'd been feeling very stagnant and stifled lately. But after Jenn and I went to Agape on Sunday I felt suddenly inspired again.  It's as if this giant weight had been lifted and I remembered my true nature.  The theme was about moving forward --just "doing it".   Yes!  Yes to life!

Life is Beautiful

This is a fire rainbow - the rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phenomena! The picture was captured this week on the Idaho - Washington border. The event lasted about 1 hour. Clouds have to be cirrus, at least 20k feet in the air, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees.

Petition against the SAG strike

Here is a non-partisan online petition seeking alternative solutions WITHOUT striking.  PLEASE take a moment to sign at 
http://www.petitiononline.com/DealNow/petition.html
We CAN NOT afford another costly strike...

It's Official: SAG Wants Strike.

I just received the following email. I have only one word: unbelievable. After holding firm on deal points that AFTRA and all the other unions agreed upon, and after a federal mediator did not rule in favor of SAG, and in this horrific economy --SAG wants to strike.  But they don't want to put out ballots to vote for a strike until they have "educated " the membership. My greatest education was when I became a producer.  I spent 7 YEARS of my life working  to make a movie, promote the movie and find distribution. My biggest SAG actor worked a total of no more than 12 DAYS.  And yet if any check comes in, it's only the SAG actors who'd get paid. Don't get me wrong.  I'm a SAG actress, and I'd love to earn more money.  But I see the bigger picture. DISTRIBUTORS should be paying these upgrades, not the producers. That's where the money lies, and therein lies the problem. I can't imagine that with any amount of "education" this strike authorization will pass, but regardless, I wish that these officials would try their hand at producing and get a bit of an education as well. These are very scary times.  According to the Associated Press, the recent writer's strike cost the Los Angeles area economy an estimated $2.5 billion. 

November 22, 2008

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member,

The National TV/Theatrical Negotiating team was optimistic that federal mediation would help to move our negotiations forward, but despite the Guild's extraordinary efforts to reach agreement, the mediation was adjourned shortly before 1:00 a.m. today.

Management continues to insist on terms we cannot responsibly accept on behalf of our members. As previously authorized by the National Board of Directors, we will now launch a full-scale education campaign in support of a strike authorization referendum. We will further inform SAG members about the core, critical issues unique to actors that remain in dispute.

We have already made difficult decisions and sacrifices in an attempt to reach agreement. Now it's time for SAG members to stand united and empower the national negotiating committee to bargain with the strength of a possible work stoppage behind them.

We remain committed to avoiding a strike but now more than ever we cannot allow our employers to experiment with our careers. The WGA has already learned that the new media terms they agreed to with the AMPTP are not being honored. We cannot allow our employers to undermine the futures of SAG members and their families.

No timeline has been set for the mailing or return of the strike authorization ballots.