Shut down?

Well, as I've mentioned, capital influx is at a critical need level. Studio operations have been intentionally kept at a minimum but the situation has taken a turn for the worse. I have been urgently trying to prepare the Core Creative Materials for presentation in the appropriate arenas. The package looks really fantastic, bit it's not quite done. I think my best bet is to sell board positions, but I haven't worked to locate persons of sufficient resources or stature I've been too busy prepping the materials. I guess whatever I have will have to do. But I need players who play in the big league.

Let's Go People. We needs some serious coins... and quickly, ASAP!

Let me know.

Business Plan

I spent the day setting up a DVD burn that contains the "Gnomes in a Gnutshell" PowerPoint presentation along with some flyers, order forms, a file containing The Restrictive Covenant Agreement and the Front Money Agreement. Then there is a file containing sections of a thorough Business Plan.

The Business Plan is divided into eight sections. The first is an Introduction to the Creative Material, the second is the Modus Operandi, which I think contains the Production Approach Summary, the third is a bio outlining my 45 year Career History, the fifth begins the Production Management and outlines the basic terms related to The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture, the sixth continues with other management parameters, the seventh addresses The Approach to The Industry the eighth examines the Ancillary Markets. Then there is a file folder with A Work File and another file with Important Issues to Consider.

These are very extensive files, but since it is time to generate substantial investment, it is appropriate for submission to potential Board Members, Producing Partners, Production/Distribution Companies, Packaging Agencies, Service Vendors and appropriate crew members.

If you would like a copy of the DVD, you will need to submit a request on your company letterhead and open a dialogue with me via email.

AG

The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture

I'm moving more aggressively to locate individuals can and will buy into The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture.

As I said before, buy-in is one dollar per share for one million shares. Each Board Position holds one million shares.

I serve as the Chairman, over a seven member board. There is a plan to increase the board to twelve members.

I am looking for a CEO and a CFO for starters. The Elder Gnomes are not the Producers. The Producers are part of The Gnomes of New Hope Productions, the production company for the theatre, film, television and other products.

I can also secure funding by a buy-in to The Gnomes of New Hope Productions. So producers who are willing to provide funding can secure a position in the management or the board of that organization.

IMS Management, Incorporated is the logistical organization that will supervise the management logistics and we can also begin forming that organization, if funding comes in from that direction.

My point is that these three organizations share in the overall financing, production and management of The Gnomes of New Hope. I do not expect to be in control of these organizations. My arena of production control resides in Image of the Mind Studios, which is strictly engaged in development, limited edition product lines and non-union film and theatre activities.

I outline this briefly because the need to secure substantial funding has become urgent and I invite vested partners to participate in the first three organizations.

IMS a private development studio that will remain a proprietorship.

Funding can also be secured through Licensing and Options, if that is preferable.

Outright Sale of all rights to the material is an option, but that involves a 25% deposit on $30M  against 10% of the reported gross/gross, off the top on all markets.

This deposit is required to pay off the debts thus far incurred and to secure the existing facilities.

I will consider some degree of stock swap against the balance remaining after the 10% deposit of the 30M, so long as the quarterly income is significant. In that instance the Royalty will be deferred until the income reaches the 30M.

No royalties are to be based on any net income and there are no deferrals (other than what was just mentioned)

A 10% fee against the MSRP on each production run of products in every  market is required before production.

In the instance of film, theatre and television productions, there is s prepaid deposit of 10% is against the budget and required to be updated and paid if the budget increases and paid before production commenses. The 10% Royalty against the Gross remains as defined.

All Royalties are against the reported Grosses, not the net returned to the producers by distributors.

No fees are to be taken out of the monies paid to Arthur Greisiger/Image of the Mind Studios. Any commissions, fees, or taxes are added onto IMS income and not taken from it.

That's basically it. I tried to make that as simple as possible. These terms are not open to debate. I know what some of the Industry Terms are, but these are mine and I will not diverge from them.

I've worked too hard, too long, and invested too much over 30 years to create this project and it has a potential that reaches in to the hundreds of millions of dollars.

These terms are extremely fair, and give the producers the Lions Share of the amazing potential.

It also needs to be realized that The Gnomic Tales are also part of those rights and there are three to five more tales with the potential for more based on The Gnomes of New Hope Core Creative Materials.

Obviously, the contracts need to be implemented and they contain other terms, by necessity, but these are my basic terms.

Communicate via e-mail;

image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

AG

Urgent Funding Needs

As it stands now, I am under severe threat in terms of the studio space. I posted elsewhere on this subject.

But the financing requirements I have been discussing for some time, needs to come to fruition.

The basic need here is to secure the facility for a minimum of three years. Optimally, acquisition of the property, which was in the process of happening, is the best approach. The funding to implement that needs to be drawn from the equity inherent in The Gnomes of New Hope.

We were on a path that would not have required that degree of funding, but changes have been forced upon us by outside parties who, from my estimation, have no right to do so. By so doing, the cost and management of the property will be increased and impaired. It may not be worth it, because I will loose the grandfather clause in zoning and the taxes will go up. Yet here it is, thrust upon us by foolish people.

Refer to the post on The Elder Gnomes.

AG

IMS Producing Partners

This link should really be on the IMS Producing Partners page, but I'm testing the link to the cloud.

An Invitation to Become a   Producing Partner

This is one of the introductory letters to the Industry Review Package, which is still being constructed. The current effort is to assemble portions of that review package in PowerPoint, because by so doing, the e-Storybook and other promotional materials advance at the same time.

Contract materials need to be reviewed before they can be made available, but certain points will be included in the Industry Review Package.

Inquiries are welcomed.

AG

Navigating this blog

I have attempted to move some of the more relevant posts closer to the top without much success. So, I invite you to scan through the posts to look for those which provide you artwork or photos. When I post from my phone, I don't seem to be able to add images. A lot of my posts lately have been via my smartphone, which isn't smart enough to post pictures!

PowerPoint Update

I was delighted to find that PowerPoint works so well as a presentation medium for the e-Storybook. I redesigned the layout to work on the current HDTV format, so now the e-Storybook can be viewed on your television.

I may have posted some of these thoughts before, so excuse me for that.

But, not only does the e-Storybook look great on the HDTV, but I can add Narration and animated videos to that format, which I'm very excited about. As I was crafting this new format, I had a revelation. The e-Storybook needs to accessible via a subscription page. At first thought that seems like a ploy, but the truth of it is that, by having access solely via a subscription page it simplifies thing greatly and solves a number of problems

Firstly, a subscription page delivers the books electronically, eliminating a great deal of expense which comes with hard publishing the books. That's not to say that hard copy books are not also going to be available. For now all the hard copy books are published on demand, so you can still order them. You can read other posts about that. But for the most part, I am not going to inventory the books, until the demand to do so warrants it.

Secondly, by making the e-Storybook only available via a subscription, the expense of publishing can be reinvested in the project; creating the artwork needed for the entire collection, sculpting new Garden Gnomes, creating animations, and a whole plethura of other things that need to be done.

Thirdly, by providing it via subscription, I can make the material accessible to you without worrying that it has been released with some portions incomplete, because I can continue to update the material as it is completed, making corrections or adding things like gifs or other animations. Plus, I can add the music and update it as we add vocals, so you will be part of the production process, leading up to the stage show.

So for those three reasons alone it is a good idea. But...

Fourthly, there are issues of security and presentation format which I think will be solved by using an online service to deliver the material to you for your enjoyment.

As I am sure you are aware, this computer/television stuff is constantly changing. That leads me to believe that by keeping the delivery via the Internet, we will be able to adjust the material to the most current systems. If we we're to deliver it via DVD the technology would be outdated before we even got started. But then there are other issues with providing it as a download, issues that are difficult to solve. So, making it accessible via a subscription page solves a great deal of problems that thusfar, I have not been able to solve.

I am working to prepare some of the PowerPoint material so that it can be posted here. I have a few options, one is to post it as a PowerPoint, which would require you to have access to the program. I'm hoping that the subscription page may be able to provide that program, because it has navigational tools not available to a movie file. So I'm still working all that out.

I am setting up a series of videos, which I expect to post on YouTube. The size if the videos need to be adjusted, so the PowerPoint will need to be broken down into smaller videos. The current promotional presentation is around 45 minutes long (which took me by surprise). That doesn't even include the narrated version of Book One. That only explains some of the project. I can't imagine how long the narrated e-Storybook will end up being, after all it is around 800 pages.

Still looking for Vested Producing Partners. Let me know if you are interested.

Keep watch. AG

Festival Environments

I've posted on a number of important subjects relative to the advancement of The Gnomes of New Hope, on various forums including LinkedIn and Facebook. So check those forums as well.

But after reading the latest edition of The Bucks County Herald, I realize that the summer season of Festivals is a market that we need to be on top of. Yes, we have the developing GnomeFest, and maybe GnomeFest could be a traveling part of The Gnomes of New Hope? After all, we are developing the parade float aspect of this. So, as I write this, I'm thinking that the parade float/portable stage should be the way we present at numerous summer festivals. I guess the original concept was to be a presentation at The New Hope Arts Festival, so maybe returning to that idea, now with the ability to expand into other markets, is the best approach. Hey, a portable stage for puppetry eliminates renting a theatre. Not to say we won't also hit the bricks, when the time is right. The whole point of all these years of development was to prep the material to broach numerous markets thoroughly. We're almost there, it's only a matter of careful planning and implementation of production management. The Core Creative Materials are richly developed so we will never run into a dead end. So we have literally decades of open-ended possibilities before us, clearly there is more life in The Gnomes of New Hope than there is in me. So the trick is getting this up and on it's own feet.

I'm working out a commission structure for the sales department. I'd rather leave all that up to the Board of Directors, but I'm still setting that up. Look for some if the Business Plan getting posted on IMS Producing Partners.

AG

Final Cut Studio

I have a wide assortment of film , photography and video equipment and supplies, most of which is outdated, but we won't go into that!

But Final Cut Studio is one program that I haven't gotten around to using yet. I'm thinking that I need to integrate PowerPoint with Final Cut. In particular, I have been documenting the puppetry with video, so that too needs to be integrated into the editing bench. This is all leading toward the animated videos of each scene.

The other bit of activity that is moving forward is setting up the green screen/sound stage. Right now that space is junked up with assorted supplies, but I'm setting up shelving in the shop to recover floor space. The stage space is starting to seem more necessary. I have been thinking about setting up the scenes with models, or even with the puppets, for the sake of the illustrations. It's much more advantageous for the artists to have a 3D cyclorama to aid in drawing. But that has an array if other uses as well. So that is moving forward, in conjunction with setting up Final Cut Pro.

AG

Music Score

So, as I said, I've been working with PowerPoint. I created a publicity presentation which includes one of the songs, which is accompanied by the Lead Sheet.

The song is Zach & Ferny's love song, a duet  titled "Completely" featuring Nathan Odhner and Justine Buss singing. It was recorded some years ago and turned out really well. 

I n the PowerPoint, the sheet music is presented in such a way as the pages turn at the appropriate time for the reader to follow along. Well, this works out so well that I am going to do the entire score this way as a learning tool. It is so much easier to lay down a piano track against this sheet music for the singers to learn the music. I don't want to eliminate the rehearsal process with an accompanist, but to expedite the process, this method is a great tool.

That being said, I'm working on "The Stone of Wisdom", which you could say is the finale of Act One. It's an epic tale sung to Zach & Zebby by The Master Gnome. It's a very cool song.

I sing with the choir, so I sing an assortment of songs. My propensity is to remember the hook, but not much else, even on my own songs! That frustrates me. What I'm saying is that "The Stone of Wisdom has a great hook.

Well, I'm hoping to post something here, but since I'm going to make the e-Storybook a membership site, then the music will be available on that page. It's about time I start making some money with this project, so I think it's time to set up the membership site. On that site all the material will be available to our members and by so doing, they will be helping us to produce this show.

Well... More later. AG

Parade Float

I'm posting on this subject using a new devise, so this is really a test for me.

After writing the last post I started thinking about the size and shape of the parade float. It gets down to the mobile stage being put into application, for example, at the end of The Southampton Days Parade at the carnaval/fair taking place in Tamanend Park after the parade. So that parade float will also need to serve as a stage for the puppet show. I'm thinking that blending live performance with puppetry may be the best approach to presenting the show in the context of assorted festivals, including "Gnome Fest".

As I said before, the parade float dimensions will also need to be applicable in a Little Theatre environment. As I write this, i'm thinking that a show which starts out with puppets may transition into a live performance. That would be interesting.

So those are some recent thoughts. AG

Puppetry

  For about a month I was busy re-engineering the tail section of the Dragon Puppet we use for the Pageant on June 19th at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral. 

I'm not sure how many years it's been since we built the dragon, by now, over seven years, maybe over ten. A team from NYC was employed to design and supervise building a seven headed dragon puppet as represented in the Book of Revelations. It was intended to replace the hand puppet that was used for decades. It is also like twenty times bigger.

Well, when it was announced that the dragon would be built at MPAC (Mitchell Performing Arts Center) the community was invited to volunteer. I figured why not, after all, I am a theatre guy. 

So I ended up building the chassis to the body & tail, as specified and assembling the necks, while other people built the paper mache heads and made scales.

Well, after the one week build was done, Alex (the designer) christened me the Dragon Master. So I've been in charge of all repairs, modifications and instructing the puppeteers in operation.

Over the years, I've rebuilt and redesigned numerous aspects of the Dragon. The heads were reconstructed to accommodate a flow of water (silk) which involved modifying the structural and mechanical design of the mouths and the operation of the heads.

 The necks we're altered to accommodate the actual operating circumstances, regular annual repairs have been implemented, due to things like the sword fight resulting in damage, but also the original design was insufficient, in terms of durability and didn't really meet the needs of ongoing performance. It was designed as a parade puppet.

Most particularly, this year, I have had to redesign and implement a new spine structure in the tail. 

The tail is a very active part of the puppet, having a stinger like a scorpion, which flexes as part of the operation, to represent stinging and pulling down "the stars of heaven" as conveyed in Revelations. 

So, the tail has broken numerous times, not only because it was not designed for years of use, but because the puppeteers get excited and wack the tail around a lot.

I will post some photos of the dragon and the rebuilds that have taken place when I can do so.

I have to say that; this year's rebuild has me thinking a lot about the puppetry I want to implement on the parade float for the Gnomes. I'm thinking that the sets and such for the parade float may also be usable in Little Theatre, but I'll talk about that later.

I expect to post video of the tail rebuild and will post a link here.

That's all for now. AG

I've also performed as John for the last twenty plus years.

She represents The New Jerusalem coming down from Heaven, revealing the Dive. Good and True in the Word