http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/01/tv-execs-death-linked-zhou-yongkang-probe/

Chuck Berry

During the years 1970-1974, as the Concert Chairman at my undergraduate school, Hofstra University, I produced a lot of really great shows: The Byrds, Procul Harum, The Allman Brothers Band, Stevie Wonder, Edgar Winter’s White Trash, Hot Tuna, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Grateful Dead, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Van Morrison, James Taylor, Foghat, Savoy Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Albert King, J Geils, Alice Cooper to name but a few.

Obviously there are a hundred stories in that naked city, and as my memory serves me, I’ll spin a few. But today I’d like to reminisce about the big daddy of rock n roll himself, Charles Edward Anderson Berry, or as we all know him, Chuck Berry. Chuck’s 86th birthday is coming up in just a few days. We all should know Chuck Berry’s story of how he was born the fourth child in a family of six children in St. Louis MO in 1926. He was arrested and convicted of armed robbery when he was a teenager, got married right out of prison, had a baby and had gigs as a janitor, automobile factory worker and was trained as a beautician and lead a pretty ordinary life.

But then on May 21, 1955 Chuck Berry did something extraordinary, he invented rock n roll. He recorded MAYBELLENE for Chess Records and the rest, as they say, is history.

I booked Chuck in 1973. I believe his fee at the time was $2500. Most contracts for recording artists had what was known as “riders” attached to a standard vanilla agreement. The “riders” were special instructions to the promoter to make sure that the promoter provided certain “amenities” that a performer wanted. For example, Joni Mitchell wanted her dressing room filled with roses, The Grateful Dead however wanted oriental rugs in theirs. Well, Chuck Berry wanted something that was a little strange, even for musicians of that era. Chuck Berry wanted his band to be provided by the promoter. Me.

You see, Chuck traveled by himself. Well, sorta by himself. On this night Chuck was to be playing at the Hofstra Playhouse, a sweet little acoustically perfect theater that sat 1120 people. The Playhouse was the pride and joy of Dr. Miriam Tulin, Hofstra’s very conservative, prissy, middle aged chairperson of the Drahmaaaaahhhh Department. Dr. Tulin HATED me, the long hair hippy that brought the devil’s music into her Shakespearean Globe like palace.

When I read the Chuck Berry “rider”, I knew exactly who to call. My friend Jaime Frazier and his brother Charlie had a great local rock n roll band that would fit the bill perfectly: guitar, piano, drums and bass. I think I paid them $350 for the evening… they were thrilled. To be playing with Chuck Berry, they probably would have paid me.

The show was a sellout ($3 a ticket). Chuck was to hit the stage at 8PM, sharp. The band had done their soundcheck, but still didn’t have the set list… they had no idea what songs they were going to play that night. Lighting, however was set and ready. Everything was go… except no Chuck and no set list.

At about 7:30PM a Cadillac Eldorado pulled in to the parking lot. A thin man got out of his car and opened the trunk. He pulled out two guitar cases and headed towards the entrance. It was Chuck Berry and I was there waiting for him, after all he went on in less than a half an hour.

I reached my hand out to shake his hand but Chuck said ” Where’s the box office?”

I offered to carry his guitars but he said no. We opened the door to the box office and Chuck placed one guitar on the floor and the other one on a long table. He started to open the guitar case on the table and I had no idea what was going on. He turned towards me revealing an empty case and said ” Twenty five hundred dollars, let’s count it, now “.

I then realized that he wanted all of the cash prior to taking the stage and that he wanted to personally count it and stash it in his empty guitar case. Well, counting $2500 in ones took awhile. Finally at about eight minutes to eight, Chuck closed and locked the case, went out to the Caddy and placed it in the trunk. Walking back into the box office, he picked up his “other” guitar and walked around the back of the Playhouse into his dressing room. He took of his coat, grabbed his Gibson ES 335 and stood in the wings, stage left.

Standing off stage, I announced “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN… CHUCK BERRY!”

Jaime Frazier’s band was pumped and ready to go. Chuck Berry sauntered out onto stage and the crowd went wild.

The lights came down and I could hear Jaime yell above the din of the crowd, “HEY MR BERRY, WHAT SONG ARE WE DOING?.
Chuck turned around, gave his big ol’signature smile and with a twinkle in his eyes, just as the lights came on, said:

“A CHUCK BERRY SONG”.

It’s been over a year since the Visual Effects Society has issued their hopeful VES 2.0 letter to the industry. Many on the board of the VES have stated that there is action being taken by various subcommittees within the VES and that this is a difficult issue that needs a great deal of research and a strategic plan. I contend that the time to be effective is quickly slipping through our fingers.  I believe that given the structure of the VES, its charter as well as its management and its board of directors, make addressing the issues that the Visual Effects industry face, an impossibility.

The VES is an honorary organization whose charter is to further the art and science of Visual Effects. However, both art and science need to be well funded for those disciplines to exist. Over twenty years ago, I tried starting a visual effects trade association called AVEC ( Association of Visual Effects Creators, French for “with”). Unfortunately because of paranoia, the association never really got off the runway.  There were two meetings held but all of the major VFX companies of the day (ILM, BOSS, APOGEE, DreamQuest) were so mistrusting of each other, AVEC quickly became SANS ( French for “without”).

Years later, Tom Atkins had started making some noise about starting a new visual effects community effort, the VES.  I was at the time apprehensive about this new organization, fearful that it would not have a business component, which I felt then and now, is the critical issue facing any industry, particularly ours.  I mean, without a healthy and vigorous business climate, any industry is doomed. Lo and behold, the VES board at the time did not want the VES to be involved with business issues.

VES MISSION
The Visual Effects Society (VES) is a non-profit professional, honorary society, dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences, and applications of visual effects and to improving the welfare of its members by providing professional enrichment and education, fostering community, and promoting industry recognition…

I decided there and then that while I love awards shows and honoring great visual effects, I fully understood that visual effects artists and visual effects facilities needed to make money to continue to make great images.  Imagery was the heart of our industry but money was the blood.  I decided that the VES while well intentioned was misdirected, and so I withdraw my involvement.

At present, and over the last twenty years or so, the Visual Effects industry has been managed poorly. The companies that support the men and women that create the outstanding and outrageous images that propel box office on all tentpole movies have been unduly taken advantage of. Dozens of visual effects companies have gone bankrupt even after creating incredible value to producers, directors and motion picture studios. Profit margins for visual effects companies have been mostly non-existant even while box office returns on these effects laden films have soared.

Recently Peter Berg (Battleship) has publicly stated that the business to be in is the visual effects business as the lions share of tentpole films budgets goes towards creating visual effects. In the past, I’ve had lots of conversations with directors that feel exactly as Mr. Berg does.  It’s hard for a Director or a Producer to understand that even though the visual effects component of a film is by far the largest line item in the budget, that given the cost structure as well as the deal structure of visual effects, there is rarely any money left to fall to the bottom line. I used to get in conversations with Mr. Cameron who constantly challenged the pricing structure of DD.  Oftentimes he would be stymied that DD’s fee was far in excess of his fees… and he was the Director, the Producer, the writer, the editor and the cinematographer!  Try as I may, he seemed to not understand that the costs against DD’s fees were oftentimes 90-110% of the actual fee. And while I am sure that Jim had expenses as well, they were far less than those of an effects company.  Bottom line, Jim could reduce his fee by 50% and still make a profit and still have a back end upside as well.  If DD had cut its fees by 50%, we would have easily gone out of business half way through production.

The issues facing the industry are complex and lengthy.  Visual Effects Workers face growing problems around benefits, overtime pay, relocation and workload to name but a few. Visual Effects Facilities, given their inability to maintain reasonable profit margins are scrambling to do what they can to stay in business. Those efforts include opening up facilities in low cost markets, chasing the tax incentive and subsidies offered by various governments and cutting labor costs wherever they legally and at times, illegally can. Much of this desperate maneuvering by the VFX facilities have further exacerbated issues facing VFX workers. Yet 18 of the top 20 box office mega hits are laden with VFX. Something here seems unfair and in need of attention.

Given various governments willingness to sponsor the VFX industry through subsidies, the relatively low cost of entry for new VFX companies and the Hollywood Motion Picture Studios pressure to lower the cost of below the line production, the globalization of VFX has truly taken hold.

With globalization in full swing, the industry seems to have been divided into 2 types of skill sets.  The super high end character animation and VFX continue to be produced by facilities in English speaking countries ( US, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada). These are the effects that drive the marketing of the current tent pole films. It seems that the major motion picture studio awards these large effects contracts to the likes of ILM, SPI, D Neg, Digital Domain, R&H, WETA, MPC and The Mill. Unfortunately, because of the fear of having to cover the massive overhead that these studios carry, these VFX studios are scarred to death by upsetting the six or so only clients they have. These large VFX houses, given the ongoing cost pressure by the studios, are constantly looking for ways to lower their costs.  Each large VFX house is in a competitive bidding situation and the studio/clients take advantage of cross bidding between them. Each VFX company lowering their price, even though they don’t really know what it will cost to produce the effects asked for.  This practice, along with the fear of pissing off a major director or one of the major studios generally drives the VFX studio to lose money on their work.

Then there is the other tier of work, the less glamorous work like roto, match moves, compositing, animation effects and the like that seem to be awarded to the lowest bidders. At present, to compete in this world the work needs to be produced by low cost labor.  Today, much of this work is moving to third world countries or to government subsidized efforts.

All of the above is the result of the motion picture studios efforts, and understandably so, to reduce costs.

Most of us are aware of the direction our industry is moving. And because it continues to get worse, there is, understandably, discussion about how this might turn around.  The VES…. well, let them continue doing what they do, though they’ve shown that they cannot be effective regarding a turnaround.  Lately there has been a great deal of conversation around Unions and organizing the VFX labor pool.  The reception of a Union however seems to be lukewarm.  The Union organization process is daunting and from my point of view, it seems that it will only exacerbate the downward spiral of the industry.

A VFX Union under the auspices of either the IATSE or the IBEW, by their very nature would, even if very successful, only address workers in the US.  The Union would have to get enough cards signed showing interest from workers in individual companies. In the case of VFX, that would be a gargantuan effort if even possible.  Assuming employees of a given company decided to vote yes on being represented by a Union, what would that do?

Well, the Union would then negotiate a contract with that company governing the ways in which that specific company would compensate its employees.  Sounds great, but… having run both Union and non Union companies, I can safely say that a Union shop is more expensive to run than a non Union one. So, the additional costs of running a Union shop will be borne by whom?  Remember, the motion picture studio, the client, is constantly applying pressure to LOWER costs. Remember, the Visual Effects Facility has little wiggle room as they have no margins.  And finally, international companies without Union contracts, subsidized by their governments or located in countries with very inexpensive labor pools will offer motion picture studios even more attractive alternatives.

The next argument I hear is always an interesting one. Great artistry always wins, China/India doesn’t have the skilled artisans, we do things better and more economically. Well, yes….. for now.  It’s only a matter of time before those statements no longer hold water. Don’t believe your own hype.  Talent has no borders.  Creativity is not an American birthright. The world is becoming smaller, cultures are blending, technology democratizes art.

Is there a solution?  If the VES has been unsuccessful and Unions make matters worse, is there any hope?

One of the key issues is to understand that the VFX industry is a global one. While today’s concerns might be varied depending upon one’s geographical location, we must recognize that any solution needs to be a global solution. I believe the core issue, that influences all other issues, is that VFX facilities are not paid appropriately. If there were indeed profit margins, many of the issues such as benefits, work week, residuals, work environment and relocation would be fairly addressed. Additionally, contracts, payment schedules, control of the whims of directors and producers, change orders, turn around time need to be collectively agreed upon  by both clients and vendors alike. And finally, the issues regarding tax incentives and subsidies need to be brought to light and the governments that support those subsidies need to be educated and lobbied to understand the long term effect those programs have on the industry as a whole and their particular segment within their borders.

The first step in executing the above is the formation of an International Trade Association. And so here we are again, full cycle yet 20 plus years later.  Let’s hope that the powers that be are less paranoid today than back in the 80’s.  The time has come to organize.

Los Angeles, the city of angels.

A city built in the middle of a desert.  A city built on dreams.  A city built on great storytelling. So much has been said about Los Angeles, all one need do is watch Lynch’s MULHOLLAND DRIVE and one starts to understand.

I first moved to LA in 1993 to start Digital Domain. I dreaded the move, having lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for for almost two decades.  San Franciscans, especially those of us in media, hated LA.  Moving to LA was considered to be the great cop out.  The city by the bay had a long standing issue with its big sister 400 miles to the south.  The Giant/Dodger rivalry was just the tip of the iceberg.  San Francisco had long been the financial capital as well as the most sophisticated city in California, or so we thought.  San Francisco had a history, albeit only one that spanned about 150 years. LA seemed like its history started when Hollywood did. San Francisco had a very diverse population, not just in terms of ethnicity, but also in terms of one’s vocation.  The Bay Area was not a company town.  One could go to a party and meet people that were employed in various fields.  Los Angeles on the other hand seemed to be very segregated.  There were folks that were in the “biz”, folks that wanted to be in the “biz” and the other fifty.  San Franciscans always put LA down. Angelinos thought San Francisco quaint.

It took me awhile to get comfortable with names like Cahuenga or Tijunga, or that when driving on a freeway, when I used my turn signal to indicate that I wanted to change lanes, all the other cars would speed up, ensuring that I would stay in my lane, and miss my exit for Port Hueneme (?). I was, and to an extent, still am confused by Freeways that have names instead of numbers.  Sometimes the freeways have the same names but different numbers and sometimes the same freeway will go in all directions, north, west, east and south. WTF!!!!

But I first realized just how strange LA was when I went to my first LA movie premiere party. TRUE LIES premiered on July 15, 1994. The screening was at Mann’s Village in Westwood but it was the extravagant party afterwards that made me uncomfortable. I arrived at the location with my then wife, and was treated as the nobody that I was. I walked around the party watching all the “beautiful people” air kissing, feeling very out of place. After about an hour of this, I decided it was time to leave. As we were walking out, someone from the press saw me and tried to get my attention. Once there were cameras flashing at me, a crowd gathered. Someone mentioned I was Cameron’s partner and then I was surrounded. Being Jim’s partner never felt so good… really. One second, I was invisible, then one second later having had some connection with a famous director, I was “someone”.

Years later, after my divorce, having dated a few “wanna be” or more to the point “never was” actresses, I really got it.  One night, my date said to me that she had been out the other night at an industry event and had met the writer of CRASH. I got pretty excited because CRASH had blown me away and I had quickly become a fan of the writer/director.

“Wow, you got to meet Paul Haggis, what was he like?”, I said.

” No, I met Jim Franklin, the writer”, she protested.

“No, Lucy, the writer’s name is not Jim”, I said.

“He showed me his card… he was the writer of CRASH”, she continued.

Los Angeles, the city of lies.

I wondered, is this the way it works in this town. Fake it till you make it.

When I started DD, I needed to hire a handful of senior people that would help me build this new company. DD needed technologists, producers, visual effects supervisors, artists, finance people, lawyers , human resources and a plethora of others that would allow us to scale up to become one of the largest studios of its kind in the world. Many of these folks I had known over the years and some of them would come highly recommended from folks I had known over the years but a few would come to our attention from folks that we didn’t know.

One fellow, (who will remain nameless, though I’ll call him Richie) , came recommended from folks that I didn’t know.  I met him and his wife and while he was charming, well connected and very senior, it was his wife that won me over.  She seemed so down to earth. I offered him the position and I did so never having checked any references. He had been in the business for a very long time and seemed to know everyone. Some said he had the greatest rolodex ever.  Unfortunately he did not live in LA and so when we hired him, we had to offer him temporary housing for a short while, until he relocated to the LA area.

I guess Richie had been used to the “high life” in his previous positions because he demanded to be put up in a very toney Santa Monica hotel. I assumed that he would stay at the hotel for a week or so until he found an available rental. Richie stayed for a long time. We later found out that he had cut a deal with the management at the hotel that after DD had paid its bill, the extra amount that the hotel billed found its way into Richie’s pocket. Richie was a piece of work, he only traveled in style…. town cars, business class, five star hotels, rooms with a view. Richie was wild.  Richie didn’t know much about technology, filmmaking or for that matter, much about anything. Though Richie seemed to have “secrets” and knowledge of certain indiscretions about powerful people in the biz.  Richie would accompany me on all the speeches I would give. Richie had the uncanny ability to open doors. Richie was tan, well dressed and glib. Richie spent company money like we were, well, rich, which we weren’t.  This went on until we discovered that Richie was doing certain things that didn’t fit well within our code of ethics, and so, Richie was fired.

Well, that didn’t stop him. After all, this is LA. This fellow has gone on to several high profile gigs, now gives speeches himself (though he has borrowed a bunch of his rap from others) and has, according to some sources, said that he personally started Digital Domain.

That all being said, I guess I too have succombed to the LA syndrome as well.  In the late 1990’s, for some strange reason ( maybe because of Rich), I was considered to be a leading expert on technology. Digital was a catchword that appeared everywhere. I was actually voted to be one of the top 100 most influential persons in the digital world in 1998. Hmmm, don’t believe what you read.

It is because of that lofty position that I received an invite to write an article for Qwest Communications annual report.  Mark Dowley, a senior executive at McCann Erikson asked me to write something about the digital age for Phil Anschutz, at the time, Chairman of Qwest Communications. He made me an offer that I found difficult to refuse.  In return for said article, I would be invited to the 2001 PGA Pro Am event, The International at Castle Pines Country Club in Colorado. I was, at the time, an aspiring golfer. I fell in love with the game after reading my friend’s book, “Golf In The Kingdom”. I was, and still am, a terrible golfer, though when Dowley asked me what my handicap was, I thought if I told him the truth ( a 29), I would not be invited.  I lied and told him I was a 14.  I don’t remember what I wrote but I do remember the golf.

I flew to Denver where a car was waiting to whisk me off to Castle Pines. I checked into the lodge and was told that I would need to be downstairs bright and early, 6AM.  I don’t think I slept that night, I was so excited by the thought of playing golf on this course in this event.  Six AM came quickly.  I put on my golf attire and headed to the lobby.  I got on the bus with a lot of white middle aged guys and we drove over to Castle Pines. It was pristine. I checked in and found out that my pro was to be Mark O’Meara. We were to play best ball, that is the best shot of the foursome would be played and the other three in the foursome would drop their ball at the spot where the “best ball” lied. Then each of us would hit again, and once again, the “best ball” would be the next drop, and so on.

At check in, each amateur received a goody bag which included a great putter and a pair of Nike golf shoes.  We also met our caddy. My caddy was named Steve. Steve was about 30, stood about 6 feet tall and most probably had a single digit handicap.  Steve wore a white jump suit and emblazoned on his back was “ROSS”.  Wow.

We headed to the driving range.  There were press and spectators everywhere.  I grabbed a 7 iron and started hitting perfect 155 yard draws. I hit my nine iron like a champ. As I reached for my driver, a loud claxon sounded.

Steve said ” Okay Mr. Ross, we tee off on the 18th, it’s a shotgun round. Do you have a few sleeves of golfballs?”

“No, I assumed that the tournament provided balls”, I said.

“Well, no sir, they don’t. Why don’t you head over to the Pro Shop and buy a few sleeves, this course eats golfballs and with you as a 14… I’d buy at least two”, Steve answered.  “I’ll carry your sticks to the 18th tee… I’ll meet you up there”.

I headed to the Pro Shop. There was a line at the register. Earlier that day I was given a little gold lapel pin that indicated I was a “player”.  Little did they know.  After what seemed an eternity, I finally flashed my pin and moved to the front of the line. I paid for the balls and headed up the cart path of the 18th fairway.  I heard the PA announce the first foursome.

“On the tee from Jupiter Florida, Ernie Els”, the PA blared.

I started to run.  I zig zagged between the throngs, stumbling on occasion. I reached the 18th tee completely out of breath and tried to make my way to the tee box. A security guard stopped me, wondering who this madman was. I flashed my pin. He still didn’t believe me, but Steve spotted me and waved me in.  The security dude relented.

“On the tee from Malibu California, Scott Ross”, the PA bellowed.

Steve handed me my driver. I stepped up to the tee box, which was surrounded by bleachers filled with about 100 spectators.  I  teed up my ball, driver in hand and looked down the 18th fairway, which was lined by even more spectators. I addressed the ball. I waggled my driver, slightly touching the ball. It fell off the tee.  I teed up again. I waggled again. I touched the ball again, watching it fall off the tee. Again.

I could hear the gasps from the crowd. The laughter from some. I teed it up one more time. No waggle this time, I hit the ball and it took off. A duck hook directly into the crowd. Thank god I didn’t hurt anyone.  People starting yelling… “Way to go Ross!”, “Be the man, Ross” ….

I watched the other three tee off.  O’Meara hit it 325 yards in the center of the fairway. Clearly we weren’t going to play my ball.  I left my ball where it landed and headed down the 18th fairway, head hanging.  Steve caught up to me. I handed him my driver, he handed me a new ball.

“Mr. Ross, don’t worry, it happens to all of us, you’re a 14 handicap, you’ll do better as you calm…” Steve said.

“Steve, I’m a 14 handicap in LA, in Colorado, I’m a 29”, I said.

I’m not sure Steve understood, after all, he was from Ft. Collins.

And I guess, now…. I was from LA.

Realizing that US studio financing was not in CRANES immediate future, I started pursuing international financing and distribution.  I assumed that Japanese studios and distribution entities would be the best place to start.

Over the last several years, I had come to know a few international film sales agents. Kathy Morgan had been in the foreign sales game for a number of years. I liked Kathy and more importantly she seemed to like the films that I and my team were developing at DD. Kathy put me in touch with Penny Karlin, another veteran foreign salesperson that was representing Shochiku Company Ltd. , a famous Japanese movie studio and production company. Penny and Kathy graciously ushered me thru the corporate hierarchy of Shochiku, finally putting me in touch with their most senior executive responsible for foreign acquisitions.  Shochiku “seemed” to be interested in CRANES. I assumed they would be as Hollywood films based upon a Japanese theme always did well in Japan. THE LAST SAMURAI grossed $111 million in the US and $119 million in Japan.

On yet another trip to Japan, and yet another 9 course formal dinner, I sat with Shochiku’s top brass and tried to negotiate an agreement for financing and distribution of A THOUSAND CRANES. Negotiations with Japanese is an art unto itself. First there is the difficulty regarding language but real complications arise regarding culture.  Japanese eschew legal agreements, take forever in their decision making process, need to get to truly “know” you and build  meaningful relationships before a deal can be struck. Additionally, as I’ve stated before, the Japanese word for YES is “Hai” and the word for NO is “Hai” though said whilst sucking air between ones teeth.

A ‘deal’ was struck, and a press release was announced:

Visual effects production studio Digital Domain has entered an international co-production deal with Shochiku, one of Japan’s largest and oldest distribution, production and exhibition companies.

The companies are partnering on the epic love story “A Thousand Cranes,” with Shochiku making an equity investment of nearly $25 million in the film and picking up the rights for Japan.

The film tells the story of a taboo love affair between a young Japanese translator and an American spy amid the backdrop of the atomic blast in Hiroshima.

“Cranes,” developed by Digital Domain CEO Scott Ross has been Ross’ passion for several years…

Twenty five million dollars down and $125 million to go.

Unfortunately, a very short time after the above press went out, Shochiku announced serious financial woes and much of the senior management of Shochiku exited .  As a result, the new management backed away from the deal.

Covering my bases while in Tokyo, I visited a very wealthy individual that was the owner of Japan’s biggest cable TV provider “WOWOW”. This gentlemen was in fact wowed by CRANES and pledged that he and his company would cover the entire budget of $150 million if we met one condition. I braced myself, and waited for the translator to interpret his only caveat. It seemed that if I was able to procure the directorial services of Steven Spielberg, then and only then, would he deposit $150MM into an escrow account for the production of the film. I tried, in vain, to explain that if Spielberg had signed on to CRANES, we wouldn’t need his money. We took the perfunctory photo, the one where I shake his hand and smile, and then I bowed deeply and said “Sayonara”.

I guess by now, you, the reader can tell that I am (was) unflappable in my pursuit of getting this project underway. CRANES had become my passion. I was doggedly determined to bring CRANES to the big screen. It had become my life’s work and in many ways defined the rest of my life.

I continued pursuing financing alternatives in Japan. Fuji TV, Toho, SEGA, Ninetendo were all approached, and they all said “Hai” through clenched teeth. I finally started to realize, through insightful conversations with Japanese friends, that the Japanese had not come to terms with losing WWII, let alone with the Atomic Bomb and Hiroshima/Nagasaki. As opposed to Germany, WWII was, in Japan,  rarely mentioned at all. Japan, in many ways, was terribly embarrassed by the only war they had ever lost. And in some ways, their world wide economic dominance became their revenge.

Back in New York City, Jeremy Leven and his two “assistants” were supposedly busy working on a rewrite. As I had mentioned, DD was funding an office and two employees under Leven’s direct supervision. I had chosen Leven not only because of his prior work but also because he, unlike some famous writers, actually wrote the scripts they were hired to write. Now, I know a few of you just said “WTF ?”… but there are writers that employ a staff of junior writers that write screenplays that have “oversight” by their famous screenwriter boss.

I was quite excited to be working with Leven and was so looking forward to his new “take” on a screenplay that, to date, had four other writers already ( not including me!). I had become close with one of Leven’s assistants as I had hired her directly. I would check in with her almost daily while she was in Leven’s NY office. After a few months had passed and I wasn’t receiving any pages from Leven, I started to get worried.  Speaking to Leven’s assistants, I started to get disturbing reports that Leven had other projects that he was working on as well.  This was not my understanding of how things were to work.  Eventually, I let Leven go. It upset Jeremy and he threatened legal action.  At this point, I had enough. I never used anything of Leven’s yet he said he was going to go to the Writers Guild and tie CRANES up with chain of title issues.

After all these years, and the incredible efforts by all involved, I had decided to shelve CRANES. It broke my heart to do so, but for the time being, I was done. Finding funding for a story where an American atomic bomb drops on a mostly civilian population whilst George W Bush was sitting in the White House and two of the largest film studios were controlled by ultra conservatives seemed impossible.  On the other hand, maybe the script sucked, though I only got positive reactions from all those that had read it.

I had spent eight years of my life and almost $1.5 million of Tsuzuki’s cash on pursuing a dream, producing the definitive peace film. It had been over 60 years since August 6th,1945 and in today’s zeitgeist there are now nine countries (excluding Iran) that possess nuclear weapons. And the weapons of today are a thousand times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima.

And I still fold a crane every year.

Post Script

When I sold DD back in 2006, the new owners, Wyndcrest Holdings headed up by DD’s new CEO John Textor was unwilling to let A THOUSAND CRANES revert to me. To this day, it sits in a file folder somewhere within the halls of Digital Domain, collecting dust. Maybe, one day, DD will either produce this important film or return it to me. I’d fold a thousand cranes if that dream became a reality.

Post Post Script

Much has happened to Digital Domain since I sold it back in 2006.  Wyndcrest Holdings and John Textor led the Company into bankruptcy in 2012. Textor and his management took huge sums of money from the State of Florida with promises that DD would build an animation studio in Port St. Lucie FLA. Textor’s hopes were that DD FLA could become the new PIXAR. Though DD FLA hadn’t a distribution deal nor the necessary funding or talent to produce an animated CG film, the Company not only made promises to the State of FLA but also went public on the NYSE (DDMG). Neither effort worked out well.  Textor left the Company just before it declared bankruptcy. The now bankrupt company was put on the blocks and was ultimately sold to a Chinese company, Galloping Horse Beijing (80%) and Reliance Media, and Indian company (20%).  There have been a lot of rumors about how the deal was done… whether there was Chinese money laundering involved and whether the new owners of DD were actually shills set up by its real financier, Che Fung, who has since been arrested and is now spending his days in a Beijing jail.  The new DD, now renamed DD3.0 is owned by yet another public company called Digital Domain Holdings (0547.HK ). Various reports of black market dealings, off shore companies as tax havens, continued money laundering, IP law suits, a murder of Galloping Horse’s CEO and general hanky panky continues. And though all that nastiness is still purportedly happening, DD ( the VFX company) continues to make incredible images, albeit losing millions of dollars a year in the process.

Over the years since the sale back in 2006, I have been very concerned about the company that I founded. I worried about the artists, the reputation and frankly my legacy regarding this once great organization. During that time, I took Mr. Textor to task. I used all social media available to reveal the truth about what was really happening behind the curtain.  The Wizard, in my opinion, was either a crook or just plain stupid. At times, I couldn’t tell.  I once asked one of Textor’s partners if he thought John was evil or delusional. His response, “both”.

Years went by and I saw DD become a shell of what it once was. Time passes. Passion fades. But, the one thing I could never let go of, was A THOUSAND CRANES. I tried every trick in the book to get my script back.  After all, DDMG, DD 3.0, DD 2.0 or DDH seemed to have no intention whatsoever of doing anything with CRANES.  It seemed to me, that the only reason I was unable to have CRANES revert back to me was DD management’s desire to somehow punish me. I mean, they did nothing with this screenplay for a decade.  Additionally, as I had raised the development money from Tsuzuki, and that there was still several hundred thousand dollars unused, didn’t DD have some form of legal and moral obligation to, at minimum, return the money to Tsuzuki? I contacted Tsuzuki and told them that I was willing to act as their agent to get the script and the unused portion of the money.  I told DD that they had a possible lawsuit on their hands if they didn’t return the money and the screenplay.  In the end however, Tsuzuki-san passed away and his heirs were unwilling to pursue any legal action. Textor and friends were unwilling to even have a conversation with me.

After the bankruptcy in 2012, all DD assets, including A THOUSAND CRANES, were placed in trust with the bankruptcy court. When the Chinese bought DD out of bankruptcy, they were not interested in A THOUSAND CRANES and so that asset remained under the control of the bankruptcy trustee. I must have contacted that trustee a half dozen times over the years trying to buy the script. I was always told the same thing… ” The court has not yet determined what it wants to do with all of the assets, please check back”. Needless to say, I did just that… every six months to a year. And every time I made that call or wrote an email, the response was the same.

A few more years passed. One day, about 6 months ago, I get a call from who other than … John Textor himself. It seems that John had negotiated a deal to get all of the DD assets that were not acquired by Galloping Horse, which included… my script.

John then made me an interesting offer. He said ” I acquired the script because I knew that you wanted it… and as soon as the proceedings close, the script is yours”. Needless to say, based upon my previous dealings with John, I assumed this was a trap. Several months went by and I would occasionally drop Textor a line ” So, John, what’s happening with A THOUSAND CRANES”? Sometimes he would respond with “Oh, yeah, we are working on it” and sometimes I would get no response at all. After awhile, I guess I just gave up.

But a couple of weeks ago I get an email from John.  “The script is yours. Here’s the conveyance, sign it and send me $10”.

The journey was finally over.

Eighteen years had passed since that meeting in Hiroshima. The script was now mine and there were no legal entanglements.

And now…the next chapter.

I wonder what happens if one folds two thousand cranes?

The $1.7 million had been received and about $1.2 million already spent.  Two writers, a trip to Japan, dozens of meetings and two years had transpired and so far, several disappointing drafts and not even a traffic light insight, let alone a green light.

Interestingly enough, the money had been wired directly into Digital Domain’s bank account, but there had been no contract or agreement governing the use of funds nor any obligations that DD would have regarding the money. The bubble in Japan, at least in the educational sector, had not yet burst. Tsuzuki Gaukonen had dozens of educational and vocational enterprises.  From Hotel Management, Economics, Pharmaceutical Sciences,  Digital Content to Flower Arranging… Tsuzuki Schools had extraordinary tax advantages (they paid none), and thousands upon thousands of students.  The schools were run with military professionalism but when it came to entertainment business affairs, they were sorely lacking.

Try as we may to put an agreement in place, we just couldn’t come to any terms agreeable to both parties. They wanted ultimate creative control… approval of actors and director and final script approval.  They however had no concern about DD using the funds for script development and never once asked for their money back. In fact, at one point, Tsuzuki had indicated that he was prepared to fund the entire film, all $150 million.  He sent his beautiful daughter Asuka to Venice to discuss the possibility, but several months into negotiations, funds were diverted elsewhere.  Tsuzuki-san decided to purchase one of the largest buildings in Fukuoka and open up StarBucks throughout Japan.

I continued to travel to Japan, lecturing at various Scott Ross Digital Schools. I gave press conferences, met with Tsuzuki –san to discuss actresses that might play the lead role of Keiko (Tsuzuki-san was very interested in beautiful actresses) and continued my conversations with resources that would give me further insight into what led up to that day in August 1945. I met with dozens of Hibakusha (survivors), professors, news archivists, military, and government officials.  I built a friendship with Hiroshima’s mayor and had full support of the Peace Memorial Museum as well as the Hiroshima Film Commission.

But, I still had over a million dollar script(s) that I was unhappy with.  I realized that I would never really be happy with a personal story that was written by writers that wrote in seclusion without my direct involvement.  I had also learned that writers, at least scriptwriters were a strange lot, and rightly so.  Hollywood had mistreated writers forever.  While everyone in Hollywood will tell you that a script is the most important part of a movie, writers were, for the most part, treated like second-class citizens by Hollywood powerbrokers. Those at the top were paid extremely well, deservingly so at times… but most writers were often mistreated, and not compensated fairly.  And so, over the years, the WGA, writers agents and writers themselves had developed their rules and regulations, their tough outer skin, to protect themselves.  Unfortunately, like all of business, and most acutely the business of Hollywood, had become absolutely dysfunctional.  Everyone expecting to get screwed by the other guy, and there for, defensively, trying to make sure that they did the screwing first.

I figured that if I were to be involved with the writer, I needed to be part of the writing team. I had conversations and meetings with several good writers but all of them refused to have the Producer be a part of the writing team.  It seemed obvious to me that I needed to find an already existing writing team that would be open to allowing a third member (moi) to join the team.  After more meetings and reading even more bad scripts, I stumbled upon two young guys that had written a pretty good sci-fi script.  While the script wasn’t appropriate for CRANES, I was intrigued by the last name of one of the writers, Kebo.

This team was comprised of two young guys, an Argentinian, Rudi Liden and a Japanese American, Dave Kebo.

They showed up at DD, and I took an immediate liking to them.  They were cool, excitable, eager and loved the story. And then I lowered the boom… I would only hire them if they allowed me to be part of the writing team. They wanted to think it over.  I think that they didn’t want to embark on what they thought would be a cluster fuck.  They came back with a no… sorry, but this won’t work, they thought.  I thanked them and told them that I would have to move on.  After a few days, they got back to me and said, yes, they would like to see if they could work under this rather strange arrangement. Personally, I think they really needed the money.

The next several months was to be one of the greatest creative experiences of my life.  Everyday Kebo and Liden would show up to DD at about 10 AM.  After sketching out characters and a rough outline, the three of us would talk through each scene.  The guys would retire to their cubicle and get on with writing while I tended to being the CEO of a major visual effects facility. At about 6 PM we would reconvene and review the scene(s) that had been written that day.  Comments, discussions, at times heated debate would ensue, yet at the end, we would craft a screenplay that we all would be proud of.  This went on for several months.  I believe both Dave and Rudi would say that the experiment was a great success and that the end product was everything that we had hoped for.  At some point, Kebo got out of the business, but Rudi and I remain close friends to this day and have collaborated on several other projects.

With this new version of CRANES, it was time to attach the necessary “elements”, as those in the biz say.  A project like A THOUSAND CRANES, a big budget film, chock full of visual effects, drama, romance, history, intrigue and character development (everything I like in a film) is a film that for the aforementioned reasons is neigh on impossible to get made.  Again, I learned that a little too late. What I did learn was that to get a project like this off the ground, one needed “elements”.  And in this case the elements needed to be as heavy as Uranium.  Those heavyweights fell into two categories: directors and movie stars.

Over the years, while heading up VFX companies, I had the opportunity to meet some of the world’s biggest directors. I had also learned that most of those heavyweight directors had projects scheduled for years ahead and that unsolicited screenplays like CRANES were rarely, if ever accepted by their production companies.  I was not your average solicitor, after all I had cut deals with most of these guys over the years, and  many of them said “ Take care of me on this one Scott and I’ll take care of you guys in the future”.  I also realized that CRANES would have to go through the necessary channels to ever make it to the desk of any of these directors.

The script would be submitted, wind up on the desk of some “20 something” reader, dressed in black, smoking Gauloise and still having nocturnal emissions over some darkly disturbed “Fincheresque” film noir piece.  Assuming this reader even cared what happened fifty years ago in Hiroshima, I was pretty sure I would never get the coverage I needed to move to the next level, the director’s Producer.

Over the next few years or so, I submitted the screenplay to Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Peter Weir, George Clooney, Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson.  Interestingly enough I got responses from all of them.  Oliver and I met a few times but he had a real problem that, even though there were many historically accurate elements, the main characters were fictional.  I reminded him of JFK.  Spielberg said that although he liked the script, he had a Japanese film already in production (MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA).  RSA ( Ridley’s production company) sent their Exec Producer to DD for a meeting but ultimately decided to pass.  I called Peter Weir at home and explained the project.  Peter had just finished MASTER AND COMMANDER and explained to me that after that experience he would never again direct a large visual effects laden movie. Clint’s producer Rob Lorenz and I discussed Cranes and while Rob thought the script good, said that Clint too had a Japanese film in the works (LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA).  Rob recommended that I send the script on to Clooney’s production company which was located just next door to Eastwood’s Malpaso Productions on the Warners lot. Clooney’s people said that while the script was really great, that George was through making WWII movies after his experience on THE GOOD GERMAN.

The feedback I was getting on the script was very positive, particularly from women.  With that info in hand, I started to look for a woman director.  Unfortunately, the pickings were slim. At the time, there were very few female directors that a studio/financer would feel comfortable handing a $150 million epic war story to.  I had fallen in love with Julie Taymor, the director of FRIEDA and felt that she would surely understand our heroine, Keiko. I spent a half an hour on the phone with Julie . She had read the script but felt that our heroine was not strong enough. I tried to explain that in 1945 Japan, Keiko was akin to Wonder Woman in today’s society.  She wasn’t buying.

At some point, the writers and I through our research, became aware that the first Caucasian to witness the devastation of Hiroshima was an Australian reporter, who after seeing the remains of Hiroshima, telegraphed a story back to Sydney. He was immediately seized by the Japanese Authorities and detained. I thought maybe we could rewrite the intro, include the Australian as a bookend and now tell the story thru the eyes of this Australian reporter. I contacted Mel Gibson.

Bruce Davies, Mel’s partner wanted to pursue CRANES and it seemed that through Mel’s production company, their development execs prodding and this new twist, we had some serious interest.  Bruce and Mel set up a meeting with Paramount’s then President of Production, Michelle Manning.  Bruce and I met with Michelle armed with a tone poem DVD that Rob Legato had put together with images of Hiroshima cut to a track of Madame Butterfly.  The meeting was relatively brief. Manning loved the script but felt that the ending was really sad. She wondered if it had to end with all those people dying, and our hero and heroine dying as well.  I tried to explain that was the point of the screenplay.

“Couldn’t we have a happy ending?”, she asked.

“Well, over 90,000 people were killed as a result of the bomb”, I answered.

“Couldn’t Keiko and Nic live?”, she continued.

“Well, it seemed to work in TITANIC”, I responded.

“ Maybe at least one of them, like in TITANIC, should live on”, she said.

“How about ROMEO AND JULIET, that seemed to have worked…. for centuries…. internationally”, I said.

Paramount passed, and certain issues started to plague Mel.  We moved on. I continued folding Cranes.