Nesht Productions Filmakers Bootcamp

[TheCinephile187]

Nehst Media Enterprises
545 8TH AVENUE, SUITE 401
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10018
TEL: (201) 941-4677 FAX: (917) 591-6813

NEHST STUDIOS TO HOST
“BOOT CAMP” FILM TRAINING

Larry Meistrich Offers Opportunity of a Lifetime to Cleveland Screen Writers & Filmmakers

NEHST Studios will train Cleveland area aspiring filmmakers and writers looking
for their first big break, and company executives will be on hand seeking new ideas
and talent for a $250 Million film fund slate of projects coming up.


WHAT: Filmmakers Boot Camp
WHEN: June 27-29th 2008 (Fri., 6pm-10pm, Sat. 10am-6pm & Sun., 10am-6pm)
WHERE: T.B.A.
WHO: Writers, Directors, Producers, Anyone!
HOW: Register online at www.filmboot.com for Cleveland Boot Camp.

FEES:
• GENERAL ENROLLMENT: $395
• STUDENTS: $150 (enter CLSTU150 as discount code when registering online)
• FILM ORG. DISCOUNT: $300

The Filmmakers Boot Camp is taught by Larry Meistrich, NEHST Studios Chairman, Founder and Hollywood insider. Meistrich offers a rare opportunity for local aspiring filmmakers and writers to learn the A-Z’s of successful filmmaking from his own experiences and successes. Meistrich founded the first indie film studio ‘The Shooting Gallery’ and is the award-winning producer of Sling Blade, Belly, You Can Count on Me, and Croupier. “We are working hard to help break down the Hollywood barriers and make sure other talented aspiring film makers and actors can have access and take part in the industry as well,” states Meistrich.

Joining Meistrich will be Antonia Ellis, producer of the groundbreaking series SEX & THE CITY. She is currently traveling between Los Angeles and Vancouver, working as a Supervising Producer on the second season of the ABC-TV series, MEN IN TREES, starring Anne Heche. During the 2005- 2006 TV season, Antonia worked in NYC as the Co-Producer on the CBS-TV series (with subsequent airings on VH1), LOVE MONKEY. From 1999-2004, she was a Producer on the award-winning HBO series, SEX & THE CITY. She also worked as the Co-Producer on David Simon’s six-hour mini-series, THE CORNER, which was awarded the Emmy for Best Mini-Series (2000) and the Peabody Award.

The Filmmakers Boot Camp is a three day intensive workshop which will cover the how to's of; producing, financing, filmmaking, and content creation. Topics include: how the business is changing/strategies you can use to succeed, career opportunities in the new media, and secrets to pitching your ideas and producing/negotiating/distributing a feature film. All Film Boot Camp attendees will get an insider’s look at how to navigate the film industry and then will have the chance to pitch and potentially sign their own production deal. Over 12 deals have been made already… Are you next?

For information and online registration, visit www.filmboot.com or www.nehst.com

 

[skysight]

Movie moguls move into Cleveland, bringing scandal with them.


Last year, the Plain Dealer trumpeted the arrival of “Nehst Studios” to Cleveland. Star-struck North-Coasters wondered when we might begin seeing Tom Hanks strolling through Public Square. Nehst Studios. You know, like Paramount Studios. Warner Bros. Studios.

They promised jobs. They promised to bring in $125 million a year in new business; show business. In a region where $5 and a sandwich buys you a home these days, that sounded swell. We wanted to believe.

But we knew it couldn’t be true, didn’t we? We’re from NE Ohio, after all. Disappointment is our reliable friend.

Well, yeah, turns out our hunch was right.

Nehst is as much a studio as my dick is a muffin. Their CEO is a renowned swindler. Their principal investor? Bernie Madoff’s family. Yes. That Bernie Madoff. Their good friend: Al Ratner. Yes. That Al Ratner.

And when they tried to swindle $300,000 from Ohio taxpayers, the only public servant asking questions was handed a pink slip.

What’s going on? And why did Frank Jackson just give them the Convention Center?

Let me explain:


Nehst “Studios” is run by two opportunists named Larry Meistrich and Ari Friedman.

Meistrich is infamous in Hollywood for his first company; The Shooting Gallery. The 24-year-old Meistrich founded The Shooting Gallery in 1991, as an independent film production house, at a time when indie films were vogue again. At the Shooting Gallery, this ambitious young man produced Sling Blade and made a name for himself—a good name, for a time. But he reached too far, too quickly. He made plans to build five soundstages on Manhattan piers and a $100 million studio in New Jersey. Soon, there were rumors of bounced checks, problems with contributions to employees’ 401K’s. Productions were delayed; The Shooting Gallery had the rights to Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary but couldn’t close the deals they needed to start filming, prompting Thompson, himself, to scold them in an email; “Okay, you lazy bitch, I’m getting tired of this waterhead fuckaround.”

Though the Shooting Gallery appeared to be making money, there was a problem with funds. The bottom finally dropped out in 2001, leaving 60 staffers out of work with no severance. The shuddering sunk not just The Shooting Gallery, but also a Canadian internet company that had invested in them.

Friedman is a former business analyst and trader at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, the firm that Madoff used for his ginormous Ponzi scheme, which is now being liquidated following Madoff’s conviction. Turns out, there wasn’t as much trading going on there as laundering.

Oh yeah, Nehst’s investor is Andrew Madoff, Bernie’s son.

[Insert cartoon head-exploding sound effect here.]

But…but…the Cleveland Film Commission said they were awesome!

I know. The Cleveland Film Commission lies.

Case in point: Remember when Ivan Schwarz told the Plain Dealer that Ohio had to pass a tax incentive ASAP, or risk losing TORSO, a movie based on Cleveland’s historic depression-era serial killer, starring Matt Damon as Eliot Ness, to Michigan? Smoke and mirrors.

Former Ohio Film Office Director Christina Grozik smelled something fishy wafting from Cleveland, and it wasn’t just dead walleye on the shore of the Cuyahoga. She did some research on her own (apparently the Plain Dealer can’t be bothered to research anymore in a one-paper town). According to internal emails obtained by The Independent, she discovered that Matt Damon was not attached to the protect and that Michigan’s film office had never been approached by the production.

“Why is the Cleveland film office lying, when this is so easily disproved,” wrote Janet Lockwood, Director of the Michigan Film Office, in an email to Grozik. “It’s dangerous—legislators hate to be lied to. Please feel free to very firmly tell dweeby Cleveland that Michigan is NOT in talks…for TORSO.”


Behind the scenes, Nehst has been chasing a $300,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development, which was headed, until recently, by Lee Fisher. Fisher was lobbied by his son, an independent film director, to bring more movies to Ohio. Nehst told the ODD that they needed a tax incentive or a grant to bring three films to Ohio. Fisher had his staff help them with a grant proposal. Meanwhile, Ivan Schwarz, a location scout who inherited the Cleveland Film Commission from former Mike White protégé Chris Carmody, has been attempting to secure the convention center for Nehst’s offices.

Not surprisingly, there were problems with Nehst’s application for the ODD grant. According to internal memos, Nehst wanted their contract with the state changed so that they didn’t have to film 90% of the movie here. They submitted random receipts from the production for re-imbursement, in a large shoebox. Some of the receipts could not be justified with the production; things like fast-food meals and a receipt for lingerie.

And they wanted more money to fund a for-profit filmmaking boot camp. It would have been a nice grift; using taxpayer money to fund a business that charged those same taxpayers $300 to use the equipment their tax dollars purchased.

Still, they had the ear of our governor. One email mentions that Forest City exec Al Ratner called Strickland, personally, on behalf of Nehst, to arrange an in-person meeting at Morton’s steakhouse with the governor and Lee Fisher. Ratner’s involvement, until now, has remained secret.

So why is Ratner taking such an interest in Nehst? Could it have something to do with the Convention Center?

Before Carmody left the Cleveland Film Commission to chase his heart in the Carolinas, he pimped the convo center as a soundstage, louder than the most-seasoned hustler might pimp a 50-year-old strawberry at Arlington & Exchange. Anyone with sense knew the convo center was no sound stage and its giant pillars were a hindrance to any Hollywood shoot. Schwarz continued when he took over, sealing the deal just last week to lease the convo center to Nehst for one year for $1.

Forest City/Ratner/Sam Miller desperately want that MedMart at Tower City. To many, it appeared Miller used his influence at the Plain Dealer to chastise Hagan’s decision to back the convo center location (Miller and PD editor Susan Goldberg are quite cozy after all; he’s been aloud to proof-read his obit). If the convo center can be proven to sustain a $125 million-a-year film studio…all bets are off.

Then again, maybe Al just likes movies.


Earlier this summer, when Grozik raised serious questions about Nehst, she was abruptly fired. She was given no explanation. Her performance reviews were positive.


On August 12, Nehst’s former production executive, Dana Offenbach sued Meistrich and Friedman. In her complaint, she claims they had promised her $250,000-a-year salary, but in the five years she worked for the company, she only made about $30,000 and was forced to dip into her savings to survive.

Nehst, she says, has been securing deals with script writers and directors by touting a $250 million pool of capital. That fund does not exist, she says.

Offenbach describes a business where meetings were held in vans in New Jersey parking lots, where employees were told to lie about Madoff’s involvement with the firm, where money was contingent on sealing the Cleveland deal.

“We’re working on closing a deal with a developer in Cleveland named Ratner,” Offenbach says she was told, according to the complaint, “and he will want a big piece of the company if he’s going to put up $15 million to build a post-production facility.”

When she demanded her money, she was allegedly told, by Meistrich: “We’re closing the Cleveland deal and we’ll have plenty of production fees coming in. You’ll get paid out of those.”

You might have heard about this lawsuit on the Cleveland Film Commission’s message board, but someone over there erased the comments.


Dear Spielberg: Please save us from ourselves!

 

[blazingb]

Wow someone needs to make a movie about that