The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum

UPDATE: Sorry for the confusion! The date was previously listed as Oct. 6th and it should have been Oct. 8th at 6pm. For this oversight, everyone reading this is allowed to punch Bryan Harley in the face repeatedly (even though it was my fault. We're a team like that). So adjust your schedules accordingly. And sorry if you already made plans with the babysitter.

You've you've might have listened to our podcast, The DUmb. Well, have you ever listened to the podcast and wondered "Man, I'd really like to see what these fat, ugly bastards look like. Nothing could be more visually stimulating than that! They should go a vidcast (or vodcast, depending on who you talk to)!" Well wonder no more. Next week, October 8th at 6pm, we will be streaming our podcast live over at Late Update. Our special guest for that podcast will be Fresno Film Commissioner Ray Arthur so join us as we talk about all things film & Fresno and I'm sure Ray will kick down some entertaining Hollywood stories. The plan is to be able to have live chats as well as possibly take phone calls from listeners for this one but we're still working out all the kinks on that. We'll keep you guys posted here on The Dumb Drum and you can always hit up Late Update as well. Bookmark this link as this is where you'll need to be next Wednesday at 6pm in order to see this epic Fresno event. Hope some of you can make it to our event which will, undoubtedly be riddled with technical problems as well as possibly less cuss words than usual since we're having a legitimate guest on our roll call.....but no guarantee!

This was the email sent out by Ray Arthur earlier today (I apologize for it's lateness): 

Dear Friends,

It's been a long journey but the City of Fresno Film Ordinance will be brought to the Fresno City Council on Tuesday, July 29th. It is scheduled as a timed item for 9:30 AM. That means it will be heard at or after 9:30 AM.

The Film Ordinance and Staff Report can be viewed on the City of Fresno website here.

Following is a portion from the Staff Report that notes the changes in the Film Ordinance from its previous version presented in February:

On February 26, 2008, the Fresno Film & Entertainment Commission (FFEC) presented the Fresno City Council with a previous version of this Film Ordinance. Council, at that time, expressed concerns in the areas of required insurance for student and small independent film productions.

With the assistance of the City Attorneys Office, this revised version of the Film Ordinance responds to Council's concerns by incorporating the following changes:

Student Filmmaking will be exempt from both the film permitting process and insurance requirements.

The "Rule of Three" has been expanded to the "Rule of 15." This revision greatly broadens the previous "Rule of Three" to include all productions of 15 people or fewer, providing they use handheld equipment and do not interfere with the general flow of the citizenry.

Two additional definitions, for "hand held devices" and "obstruction," have been added to the definition section of the ordinance to clarify elements of the "Rule of 15."

With the inclusion of these additional revisions the FFEC feels these steps meet the interests expressed by all parties.

Sincerely,

Ray

Swear I can never have too much alliteration...So this week I had the honor of being a special, special guest over at the Fresno Famous podcast, Flowing With Famous! I joined hosts Famous Whitewater & The Fresnan as we talk about Timmy T, Autry vs. Dyer cagematch, the upcoming awesomeness that is the Fresno Swede Festival & the state of the Fresno film community and how we united to slay the City Council dragon to save the princess (sorry about the analogy, Ray). Yup, good times. So take a break from editing that swede, head on over here, download it and take a gander and leave us some comments!

Here's the email I just received from Film Commissioner Ray Arthur:

During this morning's COF Budget Hearing, Councilmember Jerry Duncan withdrew his motion to defund the Fresno Film & Entertainment Commission. Councilmember Duncan requested additional information from the FFEC based on his previously stated concerns which we welcome the opportunity to provide. From this process we learned that if there's one area in which the FFEC needs to improve, its providing information to council. That will be a new top priority. The FFEC again would like to thank all those who supported the commission on this issue. Ray

And the adventure continues! Thanks to everyone that went out there on Tuesday and if you were able to make it today, please give us any details you might have.

Bullshit. That's seems to be all we're getting from our "leaders" that we pay to run our city. I can type away and list the ways our fine politicians have decided to slowly and systematically run this city into the ground. But in not very eloquent with words (as you can tell by the first word of this post) so I won't waste your time. Rather, I'm here to inform you about the latest idea out of the think tank that is the Fresno City Council: decommissioning the Fresno Film Commission. It seems like they plan to get rid of it and everyone involved. So what can you do to help stop this nonsense? Well, come by downtown city hall tomorrow, June 17th around 2pm (if you do go, try to get there before) as the council is voting on the budget around that time. Here's the email sent out by Ray Arthur, an overall good guy and head of the Film Commission:

An Email sent out by Ray Authur, Fresno Film Commissioner:
Many of you have asked, based on Councilmember Duncan's motion to defund the Fresno Film & Entertainment Commission, when the vote on the Commission's budget will occur. The budget motionvoting process is scheduled to begin at 2:00 PM, on Tuesday, June 17th, in the Council Chamber at City Hall.


I'm going to try my best to be out there and I really hope that those of you interested in keeping our film community growing here in Fresno can make it out there!

This past Sat. was not only the day to get drunk while dressed up like your favorite fictional character, but it was also a day of reckoning for the film community here in Fresno. The Fresno Filmmaker Forum took place in downtown Fresno early in the morning as although it started off a bit much like a city council meeting with people yelling out ideas as the speaker tried to keep up with all the spewage, it suddenly turned into a good meeting of people and ideas. Ray Arthur, the Fresno Film Commissioner was present and that lent a aire of authenticity and that was important. To see that the city is going to actually take an active role in not only courting Hollywood but maybe, just maybe, we can nurture and cultivate our own productions & filmmakers. Although my name was misspelled on my name tag that I paid $12 for (weird...that was the first time ever that has happened), overall it was a good experience. "So what else happened?" you might ask. Well, I had to take off to get my Thor costume ready for the night's festivities. But something tells me that this won't be the last forum held simply due to the sheer amount of people that showed up and really showed an interest in creating something from nothing. Keep an eye on the Fresno Filmmaker Forum website and this very blog for future events!