Cinemartini — a great idea off to a great start

Last month I was one of those in attendance at “Cinemartini“, the brainchild of Nick Monteleone, a producer-in-process who used to work as my assistant and who is off on his own now making things happen.  The idea for Cinemartini is pretty cool — once a month, an evening of short films presented at a cool neighborhood bar in Koreatown, LA  (it’s called R Bar,  and the owners seemed very cool, check it out) . . . .  So you go, get a drink, order food if you like, and Nick or the filmmaker gets up and introduces each short film, the lights go out, you watch a film, then there’s a little break and you get another drink, then another film, another drink — you get the idea.

Aside from providing an opportunity to reload at the bar, the pauses between films provide a great opportunity for filmmakers to network and get to know each other, and in the end, I think that will be one of the real benefits of this, if it grows the way I think it will.  It’s particularly important for filmmakers in the early stages of their careers (and even for gnarled vets like me) to mix it up and expand the network.  A lot of that happens online and on the phone — but this is a much more pleasant framework for it, so I really do recommend it, whether your’e just starting out of plodding along like me.  Ane if you happen to be  one of those who’s climbed out of the swamp  and is on dry land and succeeding ….it may not do you that much good — but you could do some good for others by going there, and that’s a good thing too — remember what it was like when you were stuck in the swamp.

Anyway– here’s the text of Nick’s just-published email.   You can also view it here.  And the next event is January 17, at 8 PM at R Bar. . . . .. Go! . . . you won’t feel weird just walking in.  It’s very mellow, there’s plenty of room, you can mix or lurk, whatever suits.

And watch out for that Nick Monteleone guy……he’s gonna be big.

Well, he’s already big, in a way (as am I) . . i.e. a large human being.   But I mean “big” in that other way, as in successful.  Good stuff. Check it out.

Here’s a gallery Nick put up.  It gives you a good feel for it.

View The Gallery Here

LIke the Cinemartini Facebook Page.

Oh …. and in case Nick forwards this to anyone, pardon me if I include a little plug for my book John Carter and The Gods of Hollywood, which is just out and doing pretty well as both a Kindle eBook for $3.99 and a dead tree book for $15.95, available through Amazon and soon to be available through other outlets including as a  multi-media iBook.  It’s a critical, very thoroughly researched analysis of Disney’s abysmal handling of the Edgar Rice Burroughs property A Princess of Mars, which eventually made it to the screen last year as John Carter.  There are 18 Amazon reviews so far — 17 are 5 star, so that’s pretty cool.  It will be going out to the press for real reviews this week, so we’ll see.  On Amazon the “Look Inside the Book” function is happening, so you can read excerpts.  And here is the direct link to the Amazon reviews.  Okay, end of plug!  (Here’s a link to my author site in case you’re curious.)