Our Promo is Now on YouTube!

I hope you'll all go there and take a look, rate it, post comments, and definitely spread the word!

Please use this URL to send it around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBGaPv1gnpk

Also, you can watch it here, but I would rather you watch it larger at www.BlueRunProductions.com/OKC_Promo.htm

By the way, this is the same location (Pat Nesbit's polo estate in Santa Barbara) where the recent Britney Spears music video for her song Radar was recently shot.  It too is soon to be up on YouTube.

Ride on!

Driving the Rolling Kentucky Hills.... figuratively speaking....

I apologize to the many followers of this site (I see the visitation stats daily) for my apparent absence.  Can an absence be 'apparent'?  The reality is I'm very much present and accounted for, each and every day....working my proverbial butt off.  And in truth I don't want to bore you with the details...or worse yet to make you sick to your stomach by all the twists and turns and ups and downs.

When I was young, my wonderful grandfather (Chester Kennady) in Kentucky used to love to take his grandkids for a drive in his old beat-up red farm truck, driving quickly over those rolling Kentucky hills.  We would laugh at the sudden tickle in our stomach as we crested the top and started down the other side. 

My love of horse country and roller coasters was born.  Thank goodness, as film finance (even for horse themed films) is veritably the most extreme roller-coaster I've ever ridden.  Fun at times, terrifying at others, and in the end you are quite happy for the flat ride into the station.

And thus I have felt obliged to not carry you dear readers along for the ride.  In short, we are working on financing BlueRun Productions, and of course it's a difficult 'season' for doing so.  A good bit of effort is now being expended toward the publicly trading markets for capital -- a 'brier patch' I am comfortable navigating.

So, we press on.  We could sure use your help (direct financial involvement, or via introductions to financial involvement), but you already know that if you've been reading this for long.  We have several exciting equine-themed films in the line-up, with our flagship being Of Kings & Cowboys.  Keep checking back, and if you are curious about how you can participate financially, just send me an email to dmbluerun@gmail.com

Meanwhile, ride on...up and down and up....

Beautiful Day of Polo in Santa Ynez

A week ago I drove up to Tom Barrack's Piocho Ranch north of Santa Ynez, to watch the Piocho team vs. La Karina team.  The landscape of that area never fails to leave me shaking my head, muttering "Jiminey... this is beautiful."  Here are some pics.  There are more on my FB page.  Ride on.

Paige Beard TJ Barrack

Big Score for OKC Promo!

Ok.... it's up!  Click on this image to go to the page where you can download it.   What a difference the right score makes!  Ride on.

Cinematic Soundscapes come to the OKC Promo

I am pleased to have cyber-met George Kallis, a very talented film composer, working under his UK company: Cinematic Soundscapes.  George has re-scored the promo / pre-trailer, and the difference is... well you be the judge.  He worked on my 'vision' for the sound, and made it look easy.  To say I am pleased with the result it quite the understatement.  The newly scored version will be posted in a few days.  Check back, and I'll let you know when it is up.  Thank you George!

Here's his website: www.cinematic-soundscapes.com/ (turn your speakers up!)

Ride on!

A hunter, an attorney and a writer/producer go in a bar...

OKC CASTING    We've been chasing leading-actors for awhile... several months now.  It's a bit like stalking deer.  Well, that sounds bad.  Not 'stalking' exactly.  But if you've ever tried to sneak up on a group of wild white tail, you know what I mean.  Tricky bastards.  I am not a hunter, but on several occasions I've helped capture red deer and axis deer from a preserve.  It takes enormous patience, planning, teamwork, and a good dose of cunning.  As for getting material read by leading-actors, it shouldn't be so hard.  But alas.  One thing is for sure: we're working our collective butts off.

FINANCING  What can I say?  It continues.  Focused currently on the casting angle, and on bringing down the Of Kings & Cowboys production budget.  Of course we're simultaneously seeking financing for the prod co, BlueRun....see other entries below.

OTHER PROJECTS  A lot happening.  We're certainly not letting the grass grow under our feet while we're in this "time of long patience" with Of Kings & Cowboys. 

• I'm busy writing Russian Warmblood and pushing for budget breaks in the Baltic countries.
• We're putting together a team to lead the Camp Lexington project...a huge endeavor for TV/Web....great potential;
• I'm also writing a extremely low-cost film, Riding Home, that I'd like to shoot in the fall;
• We're in conversations with some Stanford alums regarding our ensemble film in development, Fast Women Beautiful Horses (story of first motion picture, takes place in Palo Alto, 1876);
• We're talking to several equine-related 501(c)3 organizations to partner with, to pledge a percentage of our project's earnings; and
• We're moving forward on a patent application for the HD SteadiMount, a new gimbal/gyro mount system for the next generation of cinema-quality digital cameras coming out later this year.  Whew!

BACK IN LA  I'll be back there again on the 31st for a week or so. Tons of meetings.  But if you're in the area, drop me a note, buy me a drink and say hi.

Ride on.

War Horse and Sleepy Hollow Horse

I was thrilled to be given this following YouTube link to a story on the play War Horse, based on the book, and its amazing puppetry-horses.  I can't wait for it to come to New York.  Anyone want to help produce it there?

This reflects the power and grace and beauty of our film Russian Warmblood, which is also set near the first World War.  Click here to read the Russian Warmblood treatment.

On a peculiar and oddly related side note, I forgot to ever mention the over-sized animatronic horse carrying the headless horseman (left) that I built a few years ago for Halloween.   (This picture is from the local news coverage.)

He is complete with red glowing eyes and nostrils that spewed steam and a head that pivoted toward the little kids...inducing them to pee their princess and batman costume.  I built the horse all from wood, so it was very heavy... and covered in wire mesh, burlap and felt.  The horseman is PVC, dressed, on a motorized pivot in the horse's belly.  And he was wielding one of my authentic antique swords...I didn't leave it in his hand much!  It was quite the project.  Not nearly as cool as the puppets for War Horse above, but...thought I'd share.

At Christmas he was still in the front yard, so I made him some 'nice' eyes, and then I built a full sleigh for him to 'pull'....thank goodness the song has the line, 'in a one horse open sleigh'...I  sure didn't want to build another one.

After a couple of years, I donated him, and the horseman and the sleigh to a private housing development for their Halloween and Christmas events.  I hope he's doing well.  Ride on!

Looking Down the Road -- Change Coming

Making a film is a journey, to be sure.  And all journeys have their changes, their events, their switching of strategies and means.  This one is no different.  For the past year I've maintained this site as a blog of the 'making of' the our (BlueRun's) big film, Of Kings & Cowboys.   And tens of thousands have visited, with over 1500 subscribing, and I am very grateful.  But we're entering a new phase soon, and the nature of this site will need to adjust accordingly.

In the coming weeks I expect us to begin attaching some major talent, and secure the next $8M pledge toward production financing (negotiations underway).  At that time I'm thinking we'll go pretty much 'radio silent', as we move into many months of pre-production.   (Meanwhile, I'll also be gearing up Russian Warmblood, which has its own twists and turns...but not right to blog about here.)

Another reason for the change is that there is less to discuss during this period, and no one wants to hear me go on about financing.  No doubt you've noticed that for the most part (the below entry being the last exception), our financing, etc. has moved to the BlueRun Productions site: www.BlueRunProductions.com  And open discussions of casting are, well, not going to happen...a lot of casting work is currently underway, but it is not done in public.

And meanwhile my blogging of the process of putting a big film on its feet has moved to my column/blog for MovieMaker Magazine: www.moviemaker.com/blog/category/marlett_me

Starting to see my point?

And there are more reasons.  A big purpose of this site was to bring awareness of the film to the polo community.  Trust me, the polo community is now well aware, and is supportive.  In addition, this site was to provide 'behind the scenes' info as we prepared for and filmed the promo/pre-trailer, and the editing and presentation of it.  Well, that has been done now, and once the leading actors are attached, the promo will be pulled from viewing.

So, where does that leave us?  Most likely we'll build a new website for www.OfKingsandCowboys.com, with general info, including who's involved, press, etc. and that's about it.  But honestly, I'm not sure.  I do know the times are a-changin', which is a good thing!  For now, keep checking in here, and we'll all see what's ahead down the road.

Ride on.

The Ever-Profitable Horse Film -- Batting 900

I wrote a blog on this subject before...a few months ago, but it's back by popular demand.  Or, well, to be honest...one of our investors asked me to re-post it with the new graphic.  When investors speak, I listen, so here goes.  (Also see www.BlueRunProductions.com/Investment.htm )

In any industry, any investment, the ultimate prize is the 'sure deal'.  In a twist of irony, we all know the 'sure deal' is an illusion, and indeed the more something is touted as a 'sure deal' the more we avoid it (or should).  Well, I guess there are the Madoff victims who just choose to look the other way when presented with a sure deal...but... you get my point.  Nevertheless, we want to find those deals which are nearly 'certain', nearly 'sure'.  As close as possible.

We at BlueRun are working in about as sure of a deal as possible (though not perfect of course).  As everyone knows, the film business is inherently risky.  Or at least that is what we are told to believe, since time eternal.  But one need only take a cursory look at the past twelve month performances of the once-stalwart industries (like banking, manufacturing, etc.) and all the old 'truths' go on their head.  The truth is that when approached professionally, calmly, and without an ounce of wanderlust, the film business (actually the entertainment business which is really the media business), is actually a great performer for investors.

And yet drilling deeper, we can even do better.  Within this well-performing media biz, the odds can be greatly improved by looking for historical performance anomalies.  And one genre, perhaps the only genre, that has consistently performed very well is big horse-themed films.  Take a look at this chart.

Here we have the major horse films of the past thirty years.  As you can see, every single one of them made a gain over their production budget, and all but Hidalgo made gains over their P&A (prints and advertising) too.  That is huge.  To my knowledge, that is unmatched in any other genre of the media business, including films, TV and other sources.

So, simple question:  As our first three films are all horse themed with great production values, what do you think the odds are of us making a great return for our investors?

We start with Of Kings & Cowboys (the subject of this blog), and Russian Warmblood (see link in upper right column), and will then follow up with Fast Women Beautiful Horses (also see link in right column.)  And we have ideas for other horse-themed films past these three.  Of note:  it is now looking like we will be shooting Russian Warmblood before Of Kings & Cowboys.

But in any case, they are all three strong horse-themed films.  And in addition, we are developing a young adult horse drama series for Animal Planet and possibly HorseTV. (More info later.)  All well within this evergreen horse-theme zone.

As someone else put it, it's as if every restaurant we open goes to five stars, or our team batting average is 900.  There is something really special going on here, and I hope you'll consider joining in.  Especially if you love horses, and want to work around/near them.  Just contact me.  I'll get you the investment docs and we'll talk.  Really a cool opportunity that I am thrilled to be part of.

Ride on!

And Now for Something Completely Different...

With the sad story now resolved (as to the cause of the horses' deaths)... I thought I'd change the subject, rather radically.  Yes, I know the following has nothing to do with the film, polo, or actors, or money.... ok... maybe a little to do with money.

My son, Jack, soon to turn five, is a walking vacuum of all bits of interesting paper, pieces of bark, rocks, acorns, marbles, shards of metal and of course wickedly sharp glass.  (Aren't we all in some metaphorical way?)  And as you can see from this picture, I do my part to pay for Lucas's Skywalker Ranch.

Anyway,  this past Wednesday, I picked Jack up from his preschool, and as we walked down the hall toward the front door, I saw he was in his own thoughts, neatly folding and unfolding a worn piece of paper.  "What ya got there?" I asked.  "Money!" he replied happily.  "I found it on the playground!"  I stopped. "Really?"

I could then see that it did appear to be the size of currency, and at first thought it was something foreign.  But the denomination was $25.  Then he flipped it over and I saw a sultry blonde with a come-hither look staring back at me.  "Hey, let me see that!"  After exacting a promise that I would indeed return it, he proudly handed me his prize.  What my son had found was a lap dance certificate for a strip club about twenty miles into the city.  (See pic of it below.)  Jack was beaming.  "It's pirate money and she's who Eli and I have to capture, and give that to her for rescuing her!"  At that a frown appeared on the poor boy's face, seeing his father laughing himself to tears.  "Yeah, that's about the way it goes, son!  Good luck!"

The woman who owns the preschool was near the door.  Thank God she's cool.  I proudly showed it to her, saying, "I sure wish my parents had taken me to a preschool like this!"

Yeah, I promised to return it to Jack.  And I will.  When he's twenty.  We'll laugh about it together then.

Ride on.