More FSM Studios Pimping

Above: my crude sketches for some of the VFX in our Sky Fighter short film.

I put this message on social yesterday—we have almost $3K, many thanks to those who have put in their reservations!

FUNDRAISING IS LIVE!

My friends...this is a crucial time for me. This raise will either work or not.

Go directly to wefunder page here.

I have to put in this disclaimer:

We are 'testing the waters' to gauge investor interest in an offering under Regulation Crowdfunding. No money or other consideration is being solicited. If sent, it will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities will be accepted. No part of the purchase price will be received until a Form C is filed and only through Wefunder’s platform. Any indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.

Guys, from the heart...

I have had a charmed life. I grew up the son of a doctor on Martha’s Vineyard, an extraordinary place to be a kid (or any age, really). I love my family so much. My parents and brothers understand me and have always supported me. As a kid, in many ways I was very easy: I learned well and was sweet. But I could also be difficult: I didn’t make friends easily, and was given to loneliness and frustration.

Let me put it this way: when I was 16, and a dishwasher working at the Wayside restaurant in West Tisbury, one afternoon I was told to slice up potatoes in a gadget to prepare the French fries. I spent 20 minutes fumbling with this mechanical plunger thing on the wall before one of the fry cooks came up, showed me how to use it in 5 seconds, and said, “GOD DAMN, YOU SMART KIDS ARE ALWAYS THE STUPIDEST ONES.” Hah!

That was a very difficult time in my life. Maybe the hardest. My parents were recently divorced, and shuttling between houses and getting used to my parents’ new partners was deeply traumatic—not because of anything anybody did wrong, just because it is. I felt like an outcast at high school for my geeky interests. My brother Tyler and I had always been close but we were at different schools with different schedules.

I truly felt alone and it broke my little heart.

Somewhat randomly, during this time, I wrote a letter to the editor to Starlog magazine which was published and led to a dozen film music fans writing me to start a fan club. (This is before the Internet was a thing, 1990.)

That one, somewhat impulsive and trivial letter has somehow led to, in effect, the entirety of my professional life. Without much planning—beyond the immediate interest to do something cool—I created the Film Score Monthly magazine and later the website and CD label. And none of it would have happened without you, the fans.

I had no idea how many people would be interested in such a thing—but you were always there for me. And your passion, kindness and enthusiasm has always been heartwarming.

Multiple times in my life and career when I have felt stuck, something has happened—a mentor, a friend, a lucky break—to get me “over the hump” and onto what I truly have a passion for doing.

I remember how difficult it was to get the license for one film music CD, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three—and then to get the second one, after that, Deadfall. Even after Deadfall, I felt stuck. Nobody would take me seriously.

But the late Nick Redman brought me titles from the Fox catalog—which basically saved my business. And after that, George Feltenstein hooked me up with Warner Bros. Without those two (and many others) none of the CDs would have happened.

In my personal life, too, just when things seemed hopeless—bam! A stroke of luck. First, I met my wife. Thank goodness!

And then, when we were trying to have kids, and had pretty much exhausted all the options during a very fraught and expensive IVF process—the doctor literally said, “I’ll try this one more time for you nice people, but then you have to do something else”—we had identical twin girls. The staff at the clinic said, “Every year, there’s a miracle, and this year, it’s you.” We remain in total awe of this.

So...here I am at age 47 trying to be a filmmaker and movie producer. My parents always told me that as a small kid, I did everything late. They said, “You wouldn’t walk, or talk, at all—until you knew how to do it.” But then it just came out all at once, like fully formed.

Hopefully this will be the case with filmmaking. I have working on my skills for the better part of a decade. I truly believe I have what it takes to be a success. My films and TV series will be both good and profitable. THIS IS NOT A HOBBY!

But as with the CDs, it’s always getting started that’s the hardest. You need that someone to believe in you and give you that shot. In this atomized, COVID-paranoid world, it’s hard to meet that “someone,” because I’ve been holed up in the suburbs raising small kids—and it’s a tremendously competitive environment.

So I turn to you, our community, to be that “someone.”

And I want to be clear: I’m not asking for a favor. I’m not asking anybody to give me money out of obligation. Nobody owes me anything for releasing weird film score CDs. It was my pleasure and honor to do so.

I’m asking for your investment because I have every confidence that I can make this a success.

But in any case, it never hurts to tell people that you like them. You have truly made my life full of magical moments and unique experiences, and it is my great privilege to write this just to say...thank you.