Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

With the apparent end of the s writers’ strike coming, we’re busy preparing to jump into much of what we couldn’t jump into during it.  Fortunately, like any good company should, we’ve seen the opportunities that come with chaos, so we’ve been using our time wisely.

I’d like give you a little insight into what happens now in the film and TV development side of our company, and I’m not going into production, business affairs or marketing. This part of our filmed entertainment group is headed by Rich Marincic, who will be busy beyond belief as the strike ends, as will our content development group. So let’s take a look – in a generic fashion, about what this side of most production companies will be doing.

Also, since “development” means “production” in the vid game business, and means the opposite in film – let’s be clear on the definition for what I’m talking about here:   Development that’s done for ideas, intellectual property and scripts (fixing them, rewriting them) with the hope of getting a film or TV project off the ground, but without any form of production commitment or deals of any sort.

It’s actually fun!!!

So…keep in mind that even with all the complexities I’m talking about below (and a zillion more than listed below), just about EVERY person involved is THRILLED to be busy, and that all these are examples of “a day in the life” — it just so happens that they’re all in the same day on a LOT of projects. This is a passion business in which no wall is too high and no obstacle is really considered impossible, but here’s a look inside:

Agents and Managers:

The development arm of production companies need to pick up where they left off on projects in need of writers for development or fixing.  Agents were very limited, possibly by law, on what they could do or say about the availability of their writing clients post strike, so we’ll be calling and checking on the writers we already were interested in, and in writers that may have fallen out of other projects during the strike.  They’d fall out for a variety of reasons, perhaps even including the cancellation of a project they were on. The writers’ reps had fairly calm days during the strike (not that they were thrilled with that!), but now they’ll be back to “rolling” calls (in a later column I’ll describe) and trying to get off each one in 2 minutes or less.

Studios:

      The development arms have a couple of things going on here. For projects that were in the midst of having scripts worked on or being written, the complexity and politics rise. Projects at studios have specific execs assigned to specific projects, with each exec having a lot on his/her plate.  Production companies will be on the phone with that exec pushing to make sure their project’s on the top of that exec’s pile, and both will also be talking directly to the writers with a “where are we on it” and “how FAST can we get moving?” This is a LOT harder than it sounds because every producer wants his/her project on the top of the studio exec’s desk, and the studio exec now becomes swamped.

The production company itself:

   The development arm not only has to make sure it pushes ahead quickly with agents, managers, studios and writers, but it also has to deal with agents and managers who are pitching writers to the production companies (who then have to sort through which of the writers actually do fit the company’s needs – with LOTS of writing samples needing to be read at 1-2 hours a pop), and it ALSO deals with writers and other talent pitching it projects – just like pitches to studios go.

Writers: 

    The easy part for the development group is getting back to work with writers that were already on the project pre-strike or have eagerly been waiting to get on the project.

    The next mutually difficult part between writers and the company is not quite as easy, such as dealing with writers who are in the situation of not already being on  that company’s project, but were planning to, but now have “situations” with other projects they may have simultaneously been working on for others, or even for the company itself.

   Another part is dealing with pitches from writers that the company doesn’t have time to deal with, but wants to preserve the relationships.  Each of these situations takes finesse and people skills.

So are any of these complexities and issues too vexing to solve? Nope. This is all in a normal day’s work; fortunately however, not ALL of these problems exist on ALL of the projects at the same time. I’ll go back to what I said above:  this is a PASSION business in which everyone strives to be overworked, and everyone is used to lots of obstacles being thrown in their path – and we’re accustomed to overcoming any and all obstacles that may appear.

Our First Week of Publicly Trading

Today begins our first full week of trading publicly on the market!  Although I live about an hour from Platinum Studios, one only goes public for the first time once, so I left my house at 5:30AM to get here by 6:29 – just in time for us to go “live.” It was fun!

I’ve been told many times that it takes a couple months for people to stop looking at their company’s quote ticker constantly as it runs across the screen.  The problem with looking, of course, at least for me, is that it would steer me away from what I’m supposed to be thinking about and working on. Well, in the spirit of how fast we like to move things along here, I’m proud to say that I’ve knocked the couple months into a couple days.

Fortunately, my desk has eight (yes, eight) monitors on it all from one CPU, so all I have to do is glance over, but knowing it’s there helps me resist the temptation to look.

A Weekend of Two Teen Concerts and a Horror Movie

Interesting Stat: This past weekend seems to have set a record both on television AND at the box office. The 3D Hanna

This past weekend, my wife and I took our two daughters (12 and 13) to the live sold out Jonas Brothers concert at Universal Studios, and then raced over to a multiplex that was showing the sold out 3D Hannah Montana concert.

So… my wife and I were mistakenly thinking: cool, now we can take the kids to 3D concerts instead of real ones. Well, according to our kids, seeing the 3D only wants to make them see the “real” one even more IN ADDITION to 3D. So, instead of saving time and money, we’ll now spend more on concerts and movies for our kids! I also found it amusing that the tickets were $15, all ages, all performances. I found it amusing because it’s smart. Charge more for events. Frankly, they could have charged more… 

None of this stopped me from my passion for horror movies, so I still slipped one in (The Eye) with my 13-year-old daughter. My wife and 12-year-old don’t like horror. And that didn’t stop my wife and girls from making sure we saw the romcom Over Her Dead Body as well.

I barely slept last night, but I am incredibly awake. This is the first day that I’ll walk INTO the office of a public Platinum Studios, Inc.

We had a PR and marketing strategy meeting today to go over our initiatives, timelines, and what we can and can’t say. The rules make sense because we don’t want to misinform current or existing shareholders. The biggest restriction is what we can say about the future, which is very different from when we were private.

I’ll give you an example. Well, before the example I guess I need a legal caveat too: this is a fictional description folks!

With that said, without training, I could have said to the press: “lots of exciting deals in the hopper at Platinum Studios.” But let’s dissect: “lots” is too difficult to put a number on, “exciting” could be problematic because it’s an adjective, and evidently “hopper” in Jheraki means something like “destroy the Sparkling Bunny,” so what is one to do?

Essentially, the only thing I can say that won’t require layers of approval is: “With 100% conviction, CEO Rosenberg stated that the company’s name is Platinum Studios, Inc.”

In all seriousness, “deals in the hopper” could be interpreted several different ways, such as “deals already done but not announced” or “deals are being worked on and, if they go through, are exciting.” So we have to be clear.

And, just for fun….
Who would think it, but the Jheraki language is owned by Platinum Studios and spoken by some of the aliens in our 3800+ character library.

Just to cover myself, I am currently not aware of any of our characters actually destroying bunnies of any kind, but we have more than 3800, so one never knows. I think I should also point out that no Sparkling Bunnies were destroyed by me in writing this blog. Or at least none are presently admitting such destruction.

See you tomorrow!

Platinum Studios Goes Public!
(official press release here)

Wow, my first day as CEO of what is now officially a public company with stock symbols in a week or so for trading on the NASDAQ-owned OTC boards!

What is Platinum Studios, Inc? Read the “About Platinum Studios ” , or go to our site, or call our Investor Relations folks.

Should I chronicle my new adventures?
Although I do know the process of going from a private to a public company (our last 15 months), I’ve now only had one day of being CEO of a public company. Actually, just ten hours.

There will be lots to talk about, including all the rules of what we CAN’T say. For instance, adjectives are often a no-no and so are phrases like “the biggest.” More fun about this as I learn it tomorrow.

So MINUTE ONE happened like this: I was in a meeting with Brian Altounian, the best president imagineable, and our General Counsel Helene Pretsky (I’ll brag about her in a couple of days). It was 1:00 PM. Brian answered his phone and looked over at me: “Scott, you’re now the CEO of a public company.” Helene jumped up and we high-fived, and just as I was going to simultaneously click my heels and hug those-who-it-couldn’t-have-been-done-without (Brian and Helene!) and revel in it together, there was a knock at the door and I’m pulled out for an important deadline. OK. I’d have to revel in it later.

Imagine an hour hand going round and round a clock. So, MUCH later, I’m pulled out of a different meeting and I’m led into Helene’s office where a champagne toast to all of us was about to happen….. The cork, just about to be popped and paper cups in our hands — a tablespoon, I just wanted a tablespoon, or a bubble, give me a tiny bubble — and then another knock on the door. It was the ONE call I said I couldn’t miss.

The heel clicking and toast in paper cups had been 15 months in the making, so what was a little more time…?

For the rest of the day, we all took congratulatory calls (and high fives from our really awesome staff) while also running in and out of meetings.

My day ended at around 11 p.m. and ultimately, we did get together to clink, er, tap cups!

Oh, and the heel clicking? That DID happen when I got the best news of the day: my three girls (my incredibly loving wife, Pam, and my two beautiful daughters) called – separately — (so my kids called me WITHOUT Pam putting them up to it) — to say they were proud of their dad.

Oh, and THEN my kids asked if they had any of our stock. And how many shares. And what they’re worth. And told me to get back to work.

Tomorrow? Well that’s day two.