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well, not in the usual meaning of the word these days, but sometime tonight or tomorrow most likely my posts in the Film Blog are going to be under my real name.
Tom has invited me to be part of what, though most of us are immersed in the threads and the incredible community we have here, is not necessarily as widely read by a larger community
Basically what I am going to be doing there is similar to a lot of my posts here – focusing on the business (the weekly Sunday gross report will be a feature), but also items related to the Oscar race and other topics. As a result, I may sometimes be writing things there first or exclusively, but I will still be among my friends here as well.
I held back on using my real name because the industry frowns on insiders, to the extent that I have been, getting away from the spin the powers with to convey and with people expressing passionate feelings very much. I have always been honest here, and a lot of things I’ve written go against want people want you to believe. So it was easier to contribute behind a bit of a veil.
But I also am known by a lot of people in positions that make decisions that all of us of movie watchers are affected by, and using my own name for many people will draw attention to the film blog and give it credibility.
For background – since just after college, I’ve been a film buyer working for different exhibitors (translation: I’ve book movies for theatre chains), in control of as many as 400 screens grossing over $100 million annually. But although I’ve booked all kinds of theatres, I’ve most loved and gained a reputation for my work with specialized theatres, first in my long time home city, Chicago, then when I moved to New York, in many different cities and regions of the country. Then in 2000, I moved to Los Angeles, for my dream job – I was Senior Vice President, Film Buying for the original Sundance Cinemas. Unfortunately, shortly after I moved here, the partner company declared brankruptcy, and the project shut down before it started. I since had two similar jobs for two other companies, but as has happened most of the time in the last decade, those companies either didn’t survive or were bought by larger ones.
Anyway, for the last couple years, this community has been my biggest reason for making sure I kept current with what was happening in my field. GoldDerby and my pets together have been what has kept me mellow when not working as actively as I wanted to.
The name’s Tom by the way – nice to meet all of you!
ReplyFigured you were a James or Richard this whole time.
There are two important Richards in my life – one a former employer/mentor, the other a close friend.
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I’ve discussed with them that Richard and Tom are two names that used to be common that are rarely given to boys any more in the US at least.
Richard for obvious reasons, but Tom seems a bit more surprising, except that there are so many negative connotations with it –
Doubting Thomas, Tomfoolery, Peeping Tom, Tom Tom the Piper’s Son and so on – not sure if those have had impact, but it is rare to see a child these days with the name, when it used to be one of the top five given.
Maybe it’s Tom Cruise’s fault.Is there an emoticon for blushing?
Thx Boomer – he likely remembers – when Tom, Boomer and Paul (who is Tom’s editor for the blog, and an industry veteran himself) and I met for dinner in January, I was still going to keep my ID a secret. But the group was so convivial that I quickly, what the hell, this is silly, and ‘fessed up.
I hope it isn’t revealing secrets, but apparently there are some wellknown people who do post here, but have kept their identity quiet from everyone, including Tom, except for letting him know they’re around and among us.
ReplyCopy URLNo.
It hasn’t come up, but that isn’t my forte. I shouldn’t say absolutely no, but it’s not something in my comfort zone. Sound recording would be fine.
I have been on TV a handful of times over the years — once with Paul Bartel when he was promoting Eating Raoul, another giving (believe it or not) my Oscar predictions, another time being interviewed about the opening of Last Temptation of Christ at one of our theatres.
I was actually a participant every Friday on a very popular Chicago rock station through the 1980s – anybody from Chicago probably knows Steve Dahl, and that was fine.
People my age didn’t grow up with video cameras. Seeing film/tape of myself still is a very unnatural thing for me to this day.
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