Read Pittsburgh Post Gazette Article

KDKA's covers Film Factory Panelists. Watch top talent manager Eric Gold, Actress/writer Marcy Kaplan, and Steeltown Entertainment President Carl Kurlander give advice on how to make a name for yourself in the entertainment industry.

Eric Gold pitches Hollywood workings
Saturday, March 17, 2012
By Michael Machosky, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Generally, it's been understood that if you're looking to break into the entertainment industry, hanging around in Pittsburgh wouldn't do you much good.

Churchill native Eric Gold moved to Hollywood in the late '70s, and slowly built a career that anyone would envy, as producer, agent and manager guiding the careers of people like Jim Carrey and Vince Vaughn.

But that rule about taking the train to Tinseltown is becoming a little less hard-and-fast than it used to be -- in part, thanks to people like Eric Gold and the Steeltown Entertainment Project. Gold returns home today to help host the Steeltown Film Factory: The Writer's Pitch. He will share his stories about the inner workings of Hollywood, and advise local filmmakers competing in Steeltown's "Film Factory" contest.

Gold is as surprised as anyone that Pittsburgh has become a production center for big-budget movies -- and potentially, much more. But he already knew the talent was here.

"I was fortunate to go and last in Hollywood," he says. "As I got more successful, I got a bird's-eye view of the process. Carl (Kurlander) and Ellen Kander (of Steeltown Entertainment Project) approached a bunch of us (in Hollywood) who had been ex-pats. We all wanted to try to help Pittsburgh. We put this group together to help nurture the talent in Pittsburgh, and maybe bring some of the entertainment stuff back.

"We had a big summit that Ellen and Carl put together that was pretty effective. It had everyone from Rob Marshall (director of "Chicago") to Jamie Widdoes (director of "Two-and-A-Half Men") come back. One of the things that we had pushed for -- which shocked me that people followed through, a testament to Ellen and Carl -- was that they did get the tax relief that a lot of us asked for, so Pittsburgh. and PA could compete. And you've seen the results of that. A ton of productions have come home."

In addition to ensuring that the playing field is level for movie productions, Steeltown has tried to focus on developing and identifying the talent pool already in Pittsburgh. Then, they try to help connect the talent to established industry professionals, which is what the Film Factory project is about.

From 182 original short-film scripts that were submitted, they're down to 12 quarterfinalists -- including people like Chris Preksta, creator of the web-short phenomenon "Pittsburgh Dad." Five will go on to the next round. The winner (or winners) will be awarded up to $30,000 to make their film, which will be announced at a final Steeltown panel May 12 at Carnegie Mellon University, Oakland.

"The truth of the matter is that you've got to put something tangible on film, on paper or on stage, and get the needle moved," Gold says. "So, we talked about having a program with these shorts, where we could put these kids through some real-life (experience): 'Pitch it to us, write it, here's your notes. Do you work for us, or do we work for you?'

"We wanted to put them through enough of a basic training that they didn't walk in cold. If you give these kids a little direction, they can improve their game."

Holiday house to Hollywood

From an early age, Gold was surrounded by stars.

"My family was close to the owners of the Holiday House (in Monroeville)," he says. "That was a big-time club with big-time performers. My father died when I was 13. My mother went to work there as an assistant banquet manager. I literally grew up in the halls of the Holiday House. I was there all the time. The owners were very good to me, and helped me even when I came to L.A., to meet people.

"A lot of big acts would come through. David Brenner would come in, so I'd get to pick his brain. Whenever there was a comic, I'd sort of show up and ask them a million questions. Unfortunately, for them."

During a long career, Gold has been a producer ("She's Out of My League," "Scary Movie," "My Wife and Kids"), and a manager and agent. He and his long-time friend from Pittsburgh, Jimmy Miller (brother of comedian Dennis Miller), have worked with some of Hollywood's biggest stars during the years.

"For me, I guess the biggest highlight was when I was involved in putting together the show 'In Living Color,' " Gold says. "Going forward, that became the most important show for breaking movie stars."

That lead to jobs managing Jim Carrey, Jennifer Lopez and a lot of Wayans brothers -- Keenan, Damon, Shawn, Marlon.

Curiously enough, Jim Carrey wasn't considered a sure-thing back then.

"He had a career before I got involved," Gold says. "He did standup, and did a show on NBC called 'The Duck Factory' that was supposed to be a can't-miss. He already had a moment where it looked like he was going all the way, then didn't, which is not unusual.

"You hunt for the Jim Carreys. First of all, he's a very good-looking guy, and amazingly talented. I've always loved standups because they're people who have to learn to self-generate. Nobody's handing them comedy routines. They have to learn their personas onstage."

Gold's passion project at the moment is a Broadway musical based on the music and life of rapper Tupac Shakur. Gold originally approached playwright August Wilson to write it. Eventually, "Holler if Ya Hear Me" was taken on by Wilson's protege Todd Kreidler, also a Pittsburgher.

"We're going to put it up on its feet in May," Gold says.

At the Steeltown Film Factory event today, Gold's wife, actress-writer Marcy Kaplan Gold, will be screening her short film "The Pre-Nup" -- using it to depict each step in the process of creating a successful short film.

"The Pre-Nup" led to Kaplan Gold getting a script-writing deal with Universal Studios. It's based on a true story.

"It's really funny. I had been married before," Gold says. "When we were dating, I told her she'd have to sign a pre-nup. She said, 'Of course, no problem.' You'll see in the movie, I messengered her over a 102-page pre-nup."

Click Here to Visit Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Website.

31st Street Studios in the Strip District wants to be L.A. East
Sunday, March 04, 2012
By Maria Sciullo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

31st Street Studios recently announced that it will be creating a large special effects motion capture studio.

That Hollywood dreams are based on so much faith, trust and pixie dust has not been lost on Chris Breakwell.

Right now, in the massive 31st Street Studios complex in the Strip District, it's the "dust" that is mostly evident.

A joint venture announced Monday will add a motion capture operation, production support and training for students at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center to the facility, which already has done traditional moviemaking with "The Dark Knight" and "One Shot." But what Mr. Breakwell, the studio owner and president, described as a "Hollywood of the East" still looks mostly like the former steel mill it is.
PG VIDEO

Standing in the middle of Stage 3, 29,000 square feet of sheer empty space latticed by soaring metal girders overhead, Mr. Breakwell was giving visitors a quick tour of the site, where Paramount On Location, Knight Vision Studios and CMU's ETC Global are combining forces to try to create a production powerhouse.

Over there, great swaths of spongy, cellulose soundproofing material had been sprayed up one side of the wall. And here, the smell of recently cut wood still lingered on a soundstage version of the basement wine cellar from "Locke & Key," a Fox pilot shot last year.

Footsteps echoed as Mr. Breakwell walked up a dark staircase to nowhere in one of the complex's seven other studios. Later, he showed off the fake jail cell -- the iron bars, toilet and cot were authentic -- and a creepy mock-up of a large, earthen well.

"I spend a lot of time [wandering] -- this facility is 300,000 square feet, and I try to learn every inch of the buildings. After almost a year, I still haven't learned everything," he said.

The almost-10-acre former steel mill and business park is the kind of physical space coveted by the movie industry.

"If you know anything about the business, what makes this so unique and special is the size of the buildings, the ceiling height and the clear span," Mr. Breakwell said, referring to large spaces unbroken by pillars or other structural items.

Outside of New York and Los Angeles, huge soundstages are a rarity in this country.
Lights! Camera! Mo-cap!

Paramount On Location, which is a division of Paramount Studio Group, is setting up residence at 31st Street Studios to serve as an East Coast "gateway" for its production support services, such as lighting, grip and transportation.

If its involvement in Pittsburgh is old school, the new will be provided by L.A.-based Knight Vision Studios and CMU's ETC Global.

Known here as Knight Vision31, the motion capture and digital production company was founded by James Knight. Mr. Knight was a key player in the "mo-cap" portion of James Cameron's "Avatar" before leaving to form his own company. Motion capture allows artists to use computer animation programs to create characters based on actors' movements.

Todd Eckert will head the KnightVision31 operation, arriving from a background of producing films and directing cinematics for video games. He even has donned one of those awful leotards embedded with computer chips -- "tight-fitting clothing is not something I naturally gravitate toward," he said, drily -- to play a character in the upcoming game, "Ride to Hell."

Graduate students in the ETC Global program will work with Knight Vision, as well as take classes on site. The hope would be that students trained on the system would eventually work for the company.

Mr. Eckert moved to Pittsburgh's North Side 11 years ago after working in the industry in Europe and L.A. In 2003, he wrote a Post-Gazette opinion piece that urged state legislators to approve film tax credits, with the goal of turning this into "today's media town."

Thanks to computer wizardry, a console in the Strip District can create scenes set on a beach or ski slopes -- or Mars.

"[With] digital effects or digital capture, those elements are possible absolutely anywhere," Mr. Eckert said. "So, like with any industry, where does it make the most sense to create this product?

"Pittsburgh has proven to be very aggressive in establishing not only the financial mechanisms that make sense, but also the facilities that can do every facet of production."

By the end of the month, much of Knight Vision31's equipment will be arriving, and an ETC classroom is being built.

"Having the Knight Vision system at 31st Street Studios will give ETC students a tremendous opportunity to advance filmmaking in Pittsburgh," said Don Marinelli, executive producer of ETC Global.

Student externships would be unpaid, but students would benefit from the experience. Classes on site could begin as early as the upcoming term. Although ETC has about 100 students in the grad program, the number interested in this specific technology is considerably lower.

An added attraction for students: In their off-time, they can use the Knight Vision technology for personal projects.

At Knight Vision's facility at Universal Studios in California, up to four figures can be motion captured at one time using its PhaseSpace IMPLUSE system.

In Pittsburgh, there will be the capability of capturing eight at once.

With bricks-and-mortar filmmaking projects, history shows that up to 500 jobs might be created when a major motion picture is in town. When you're talking digital, it varies.

Mr. Eckert said that one video game might employ at least 20 developers but that more would be needed for testing and "cleaning" the data. If Knight Vision31 branches into animation, as Mr. Breakwell expects, hundreds could be employed.

"Our goal is to build animation here," Mr. Breakwell said. "There is a cost curve to doing animation; that's why it's overseas. We can bend that cost curve with motion capture, and have a higher quality [than elsewhere]."

The big goal, partners say, is to make good on the studio's motto: "Outsource to Pittsburgh."
Local support

"I think it's a great win for the region," said Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office. "It gives us one more tool in our toolbox."

The state's willingness to offer 25 percent tax credits to film companies spending at least 60 percent of their total production budgets here helped attract projects large and small in the past three years.

Mr. Breakwell estimates at least $300 million has been pumped into the local economy, based on the 2011 production budgets of projects filmed here.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said his office supports redevelopment that can entice the entertainment industry.

"We just want to let them know that the county is very accommodating when the streets are closed, and that our unions are, by all accounts, the most accommodating in the country," Mr. Fitzgerald said. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees represents stage and film employees and technicians, and artists.

"We have a good union labor force here," said Mr. Breakwell, who grew up in Belle Vernon and now resides on Mount Washington, "so when you couple the tax incentives with the labor savings, and the infrastructure that we're putting here, you look at all the costs.

"When you add them up for a series, if it's a million [dollars] an episode, we can save them a hundred, two hundred thousand when you look at how many episodes. It adds up."

Mr. Breakwell had been an investment banker, securing financing for films and other projects through his sports/entertainment practice. He eventually wound up in St. Louis with JP Morgan for seven years, but saw 31st Street Studios as a chance to return home.

His Gateway Entertainment Studios LP closed on the property for $2 million in May.

"I thought it was a good investment, when a lot of people thought I was crazy," Mr. Breakwell said. He said the financial investment of the new entity is "50-50" between 31st Street and Knight Vision.

Since the announcement, Mr. Breakwell has been pushing the studio through appearances such as an interview with Fox Business Wednesday. He said 31st Street already has gotten "more than a few" inquiries from studios.

Having a few major motion pictures at the facility each year, in addition to smaller films, would be a goal. But Mr. Breakwell hopes to attract a regular television series or two.

"It's one thing to come in seasonally and do location shots, but for California to know there is an infrastructure here, they need to know they can come do a series here year-round."

To that end, he said, "a couple of pilots are looking here, and there is a series that is fairly firm."

The partners are confident that the enterprise will live up to the star billing they've given it.

"People have a tendency of saying 'this is what we are going to do' within the industry," Mr. Eckert said. "The announcement [last week] was one in which we simply said 'this is what we've done.' There is a difference between the two.

"We are in the midst of making all this happen, as opposed to predicting it is going to happen."

Read more: http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/12064/1214341-60.stm#ixzz1pmKikF00

Click Here to Visit Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Website.

Hollywood manager's heart never far from his hometown
Friday, March 16, 2012
By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Talent manager and Pittsburgh native Eric Gold will be back in his hometown this weekend to judge prospective films for the Steeltown Film Factory.

You can take the man out of Pittsburgh, but you can't take Pittsburgh or its sensibilities out of the man.

Eric Gold is the big-time manager of Ellen DeGeneres and Jim Carrey and in the process of mounting a Broadway musical based on Tupac Shakur's words and lyrics.

But the onetime Wilkins resident still likes the Original Hot Dog Shop in Oakland -- "which my cardiologist will not be happy about," he jokes -- along with Pamela's, Lidia's, going to the Rivers Casino with his mom and slipping away to Nemacolin Woodlands.

His mother, Thelma Landay, was the assistant banquet manager at the old Holiday House in Monroeville and still lives in the same house where Mr. Gold grew up.

In a comic twist common to movies, his boyhood bedroom looks the same, but he generally stays in a hotel when he's back with his wife, actress and writer Marcy Kaplan, and their identical twin daughters, almost 9 and fans of the Carnegie Science Center.

Mr. Gold was part of the 2003 Steeltown Entertainment Summit at WQED-TV that brought such luminaries as directors Rob Marshall and George Romero, sitcom producer Jamie Widdoes, actor David Conrad, producer Bernie Goldmann and many others together.

On Saturday, Mr. Gold and his wife will judge the writer's pitch portion of the Steeltown Film Factory. They and Asher Garfinkel from Readers Unlimited will listen to a dozen quarter-finalists hoping to win $30,000 to turn their script into a short film.

"The reason Carl [Kurlander, Steeltown co-founder with Ellen Weiss Kander] and I talked about doing this in the beginning was, you got to be able to take people from theory to practicality," especially because the process might surprise novices.

"If you're writing it within the environment of Hollywood, you have to have some eye toward commerciality, scale, casting. It's the difference between throwing the football in the backyard and having to come up with a game plan for an NFL team."

Selling a work brings loss of control, and even having someone evaluate your work may mean hearing such assessments as: "Interesting character, bad story" or "Good story, but did you really round out that character? ... Do you have an emotional underpinning to what you're doing? What's the story you're trying to tell and did you really tell it well? And why would an audience care about that story?"

But as Mr. Gold says, "The great thing about writing is you don't need millions of dollars of production in order to put your creativity on a piece of paper and have it be exposed.

"So there's a great opportunity for anybody sitting anywhere, if they have some talent and have done enough work to get the structure and all that kind of stuff, to be able to pursue it, but not if you have no idea how you're about to get your head smashed in."

Yes, smashed in. The more money at stake, the more voices in the mix and the greater possibility that you may be marginalized or replaced on your own project.

"We want to provoke them a little bit," he said of the writers making their pitches on Saturday. "There are some really good ideas in some of these shorts, not all of it is executed perfectly."

Mr. Gold once shared a management/production company with longtime pal and Castle Shannon native Jimmy Miller, and they continue to work with Mr. Carrey. They both were producers of "She's Out of My League," the raunchy romcom that made Pittsburgh look more inviting than ever.

He was there when Ms. DeGeneres' talk show shot to No. 1 and she became the new spokeswoman for J.C. Penney Co. as part of an ambitious plan to make the department store chain and American manufacturing robust once again.

"I've been so lucky. If you think of show business like football, I've been to the Super Bowl, like, seven times -- Vince Vaughn or Jennifer Lopez or the Wayans brothers or 'Scary Movie' or 'In Living Color,' I've been really, really fortunate in my career."

The seeds were planted at the Holiday House. He once told the Post-Gazette he was "the only 14-year-old who had his own account number that I could charge dinner and a show with" and then try to meet stand-up comedian David Brenner.

"Pittsburgh was never far from us," he says. "For good or for bad, Jimmy and I are very direct individuals. ... We're gonna be fair, we're gonna be honest but we're also gonna be direct," he adds.

"We're trying to do the right thing and we're a little fearless about it. The other thing about Pittsburgh is, I think it's a very populist community. I didn't grow up in Fox Chapel, but I never felt a big divide amongst the people, I thought the values were the same and I feel like when we look at projects, we kind of look at it from, 'Will this play in Pittsburgh?' and that reference point never goes away."

Mr. Gold is convinced a musical inspired by Tupac Shakur, who took on political and gangsta themes in an angry, poetic style before being shot to death in 1996, will have universal appeal. A backers' audition is set for May.

"I had an idea that I thought rap and hip-hop would lend themselves to a Broadway theatrical narrative. I've been working on it for 10 years," he said, and he's partnered with the late performer's mother, Afeni Shakur, on the musical "Holler If Ya Hear Me."

The writer is Todd Kreidler, a Duquesne University graduate and onetime August Wilson-protege-turned-director-playwright. Kenny Leon, who directed Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett in "The Mountaintop" along with the celebrated revival of "Fences" starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, will direct.

"It's fictionalized; it's not Tupac's biography," Mr. Gold says, but it will answer why the late rapper is becoming an even bigger icon. "It really takes his words, it's very dramatic and very insightful and gives you context. It's very emotional and the music is fantastic and it's very cathartic, the whole thing.

"I'm really excited about it, and it's been long and hard to get it to this point," he said.

"He wasn't like the normal rapper who was rapping about insubstantial things. His mother was a Black Panther, his father was a Black Panther, his stepfather was a Black Panther. They're part of a bigger experience, and he was really prophetic about and gave audiences some insight into the struggle within the underclass, and that plays out beautifully in this fictional story.

"I mean, it's really something."

Saturday's 11 a.m. event, at the University of Pittsburgh's Frick Fine Arts Building, just sold out. To be placed on a stand-by list, email info@steeltownfilmfactory.org or call 412-622-1325 today.

Click Here to Visit Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Website.

Pittsburgh-based 'Anea' gets chance to be talk of nation
Thursday, January 26, 2011
By Michael Machosky, The Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Just past King Friday's dusty castle and X the Owl's vacant oak tree lies the Fred Rogers Studios at WQED -- one part of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe that still has the lights on.

It has everything one would need to make a modern television show, up to and including the latest high-definition production equipment. The one thing it's missing is, well, a TV show.

Now, if all goes according to plan, the Fred Rogers Studios may have its first national television show in the post-"Mister Rogers" era. The pilot for "Anea," a women-oriented talk show in the "Oprah" vein, just wrapped up shooting there on Thursday.

Carl Kurlander ("St. Elmo's Fire," "Saved By the Bell") returned to his hometown several years ago and started Steeltown Entertainment Project in an effort to leverage the vast array of Pittsburgh connections in Hollywood. As executive producer of Steeltown, he hopes to build up the entertainment industry here.

Though the city has had success in luring movie productions to town, it would be a major coup to shoot a television show here -- with all the steady work for local cast and crew that entails.

One of Kurlander's Steeltown connections is Jamie Widdoes, director of the most popular sitcom in America -- "Two and a Half Men." Kurlander thought Widdoes, a Squirrel Hill native, might jump at the chance to work in the studio where "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" was made. He was right.

"It's a potential nationally syndicated talk program," says Widdoes.

"Anea" is a co-production of Steeltown and WQED, under the banner of the Pittsburgh Innovative Media Incubator. It's hosted by Anea Bogue, a Los Angeles-based life coach. The show will focus on empowering women and girls. Kurlander thinks it has some things in common with "Oprah." This is Bogue's first foray into television.

"Women and girls make up 51 percent of the population (in America)," says Bogue. "Girls and women face a lot of obstacles. We'll look at what those obstacles are and actual steps they can take to improve their lives."

For Widdoes, "Anea" is quite a departure from his regular job directing "Two and a Half Men" -- the raunchy sitcom buoyed by the boorish behavior of its former star, Charlie Sheen.

"I believe this is my karmic give-back to the world," says Widdoes, laughing. "I've had nothing but fun with 'Two and a Half Men,' but doing a show in support of girls growing up into good strong women is another side (of my work)."

Widdoes' production partner, Peter Isacksen, was happy to return to Pittsburgh for "Anea." His last job here was as an actor in "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh" (1979).

"Jamie and I are in the talent-finding business," says Isacksen. "What makes you successful is finding that great script, talent or program. I had seen this tape of Anea, and she has this 'It' quality. She just pops off the screen."

It helped that Bogue, originally from a small town near Winnipeg, was willing to do whatever was necessary to get the project off the ground.

Isacksen recalls the conversation Widdoes had with her, when he told her they wanted to make the show. Widdoes told her: "The good news is that they want to do the show. The bad news is that they want to do it in Pittsburgh."

"She said, 'I don't hear any bad news,' " Isacksen says.

Widdoes doesn't have a lot of free time, in between work on "Two and a Half Men" and his many other projects. He directed the pilot of the new sitcom "Rob," for instance.

But, he says, "when you find a project you're really into, you find the time to do it."

Time to take a shot

Steeltown Entertainment Project has a new contest for aspiring filmmakers. The "Take a Shot at Changing the World" contest kicks off this weekend at the Senator John Heinz History Center. It's open to middle school and high school students, who are invited to make short films about how Pittsburgh and/or Pittsburghers have changed the world -- or about their own plans for taking social action.

Students can win up to $10,000 in prizes, trips to the Jefferson Awards in Washington. DC, and mentorship to implement their ideas. Details: www.takeashotcontest.org

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," Steeltown also be screening "YERT: Your Environmental Road Trip" -- a humorous documentary about a cross-country road trip, where the filmmakers visit 50 states in one year, living on one shoebox of trash a month. Their journey began at the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale. Tickets for the 2:30 p.m. screening at the History Center are free and open to the public. Details: 412-622-1325 or Rachel@Steeltown.org

Click Here to Visit The Pittsburgh Tribune Review Website.