Manifesto Television

Here are a few photos from the shoot in New York. And a quick anecdote from the crew.

It rained most of the day that Friday.

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Many thanks to Anne, Bob, Thomas, Erik, and the entire New York Manifesto crew. We look forward to returning to the east coast soon!!

Technorati Tags: manifesto, New York Manifesto

In a cross globe tour, representatives from Manifesto have now converged upon New York to document the story of a water related charity.

While this organization has only been around for a couple of years, they have made great changes in a very short period of time.

Check back for stills from the shoot and some thoughts from the NY crew.

I’m not writing this post because I love documentaries.

I’m writing it because I love good stories. Real characters. An element of truth, even if that truth is only a shining moment of true exuberance caught on film.

I think Francois Truffaut hit the nail on the head when he criticized many - including the English - for creating literary based films which he thought served only to ‘translate’ a story which is often only advanced by nature of its dialogue. Who knew his criticisms would be appropriate in 2008. Literary based cinema is the soup du jour everyday in Hollywood.

Who could possibly make narrative film today without a 3 act dialogue driven structure? There are a few people doing it. But they’re not getting the recognition they deserve.

This is why I love documentary stories concerning the lives of individuals. No script. Only exuberance, pain, longing, sadness, and joy. Everything which means anything to us as human beings.

In documentaries, a success or failure is not just an ending to the story in a film, it’s a facet of a person’s life. Whether you know that person or you think of them as the main character in a film, their daily experience is their world and I assure you they take it very seriously.

Is that grounds for self importance? It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t want to get into an Ayn Randian discussion on ego. But in terms of a cinematic experience - the kind which makes you want to jump out of your seat and yell to yourself, “I want to live!” - that documentary subject, that main character is your movie. You must live through their experiences. I believe it is the closest we will ever get (besides some questionable technology looming on the horizon) to honestly living in another person’s shoes.

This is also the central reason why I wan’t to stay away from celebrity Manifestos’ as much as possible. Documentary subjects often lose their exuberance and honesty when they’ve been in front of the camera for years - or even days… We will cover some household name folks from various movements, but it will be in limited amounts and only when we are able to line up folks with integrity.

When pushy people ask me what the French have “ever” done right, I insist that film is on a list of four or five disciplines (including cuisine) where I think they have outdone most of the competition. Wow, you’d think I was moving there or something, expecting a welcome wagon.

Although I’m sure a few people would be happy to see it happen, I’m afraid I love US soil too much.

MANIFESTO

Technorati Tags: Real characters, true exuberance caught on film, Francois Truffaut, Literary based cinema, celebrity Manifesto, MANIFESTO

That’s what’s happening.

Famed Hollywood publicist Michael Levine has come onboard MANIFESTO: Television. He will be providing publicity services for the film.

From his bio:

“Called by USA Today, “one of Hollywood’s brightest and most respected executives,” Levine has been responsible for public relations campaigns for, among others, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Charlton Heston, Linda Evans, Jon Voight, Suzanne Somers, Demi Moore and Michael J. Fox. His clients have run from movie & TV stars, to sports heroes, to music figures, comics, producers and multi-national corporations. ”

He is the author of Guerilla P.R. among other best-selling tomes about modern public relations.

Need we say more? Well, maybe so. Let’s just say it’s amazing to have him onboard.

We will be shooting some of our meetings behind the scenes so you can see him in action. Can you dig it?

MANIFESTO

Technorati Tags: Michael Levine, MANIFESTO: Television, Guerilla P.R., MANIFESTO

A phew production photos from the latest shoot:

Read more

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The pilot edit is going really well. We’re assembling all the segments to take a look at the big picture tomorrow.

We should probably be celebrating!

But there’s no time for that… We’re too busy prepping to shoot some transitional elements (cutaways and interviews) this weekend to cause any trouble. What we’ll be shooting:

1. Interviews with our Manifesto subjects who have slipped through the cracks
2. Interviews with new subjects who have come us
3. At a closed event pitting 7o year old network execs against futurists (it’s not a death match, they’ll be discussing the future of television. So there will be no “Exec vs. Futurists” segment for all you dark hearted heathens.
4. Transitional stuff for the pilot

That’s it. A two day shoot. Hopefully painless.

We’re still working on those teasers for you, hopefully we’ll have some up soon…

Technorati Tags: the big picture, celebrating, shoot, Manifesto, heathens

Today we sat down with our editor and saw the first two segments of Brian’s Manifesto. They look really good. We have a third segment to cut of him and then two additional segments for Cheri.

I can’t explain the feeling I have watching these rough cuts - creating a tv show from scratch is an exhilirating experience - like creating any piece of art, if you can possibly call a tv show that…

All I can say is that I feel like i was meant to do this. This show is my Manifesto.

Technorati Tags: Manifesto., piece of art, tv show, my Manifesto