Here is the MIPCOM sales trailer for FAST TRACK…
Lee Goldberg
Middleman
My friend Javier Grillo-Marxuach has announced some very good news: ABC Family has ordered the one-hour pilot that he wrote on spec based on his comic book THE MIDDLEMAN.
The project has now come full-circle. The comic book actually began as pilot script Javi wrote ten years ago and couldn’t sell. Javi tells the whole story on his site…just click on the "TV Pilot!" tab.
The Emmys Were Dull
You’d think that a show celebrating excellence in television would at least be entertaining. Well, you’d be wrong. It was the worst show in years (even if you were fast-forwarding through the worst parts, like I was), and my friend Ken Levine does a great job today skewering it on his blog.
James Spader over James Gandolfini??? Sally Field over Edie Falco?
Ricky Gervais over Alec Baldwin?? Thomas Hayden Church over anybody???[…]You could tell Robert Duvall won for a cowboy movie. Even while standing he looked like he was riding a horse.
The best acceptance speech wasn’t even aired. It was Elaine Stritch’s from a week ago. “I’m a recovering alcoholic, a riddled diabetic and I’ve got laryngitis – but I just won an Emmy!”
AMERICAN
IDOL “Gives Back” resulted in AMERICAN IDOL “Gets Back”. They finally
won an Emmy. Next year look for the very special TWO AND A HALF MEN
“Gives Back” episode.
Lori Prokop’s Spiritual Action Plan
As you will recall, Lori Prokop charged that her Book Millionaire reality TV show scheme was ruined by the publishing industry, which was so envious of her idea that they secretly paid guys like me to question her legitimacy as a publisher (she has none), her credentials in television (she has none), her network broadcast agreements (non-existent), and the value of the "prizes" she was offering contestants (worthless).
The Book Millionaire show quietly became an online competition instead…and then it died of inertia and a profound lack of interest of popular interest without fulfilling any of its promises to contestants.
Now, in an update on her site this week, Lori Prokop says Book Millionaire isn’t dead after all.
Book Millionaire continues to move forward, not at the pace we originally intended, but with the same excitement, focus and passion for helping others. Personally, I needed some time to regroup and understand actions of others, of which I felt deep hurt and sadness.
She still maintains that the show — which promised contestants "bestseller and celebrity status" through publication with her vanity press — was undermined by a vast conspiracy.
I have observed some disparaging comments about the Book Millionaire show and me. It has come to our attention — through communications from others — this may be in connection with a group of bloggers who are allegedly blogging false, inaccurate information against about 100+ companies and projects in the publishing industry.
[…]Could it be true that someone is paying for this group of bloggers to blog hate messages about more than 100 companies and projects in the publishing industry that compete with this company? Could this be how the bloggers are paying their bills and feeding their families?
After the Book Millionaire debacle, she says she was angry and depressed…a helpless victim of a publishing industry conspiracy, the uncontrolled rudeness and cruelty of bloggers, and rampant sexism against women.
But now she is taking a new approach.
Lori Prokop — the woman who offered the dream of authorship to chiropractors, cheap leases on brand new cars for the masses, bestseller celebrity status for the unpublished, maximized search engine rankings for everyone, and self-enlightenment for humanity — is initiating her Spiritual Action Plan. Prepare yourselves.
It took some time for me to make my choice that instead of attacking or retaliating for what I perceived as false, misguided actions of others, I decided to find a spiritual understanding and develop a spiritual action plan. It’s my desire that this experience helps me spiritually grow as an individual and leader.
[…]As a result of this spiritual growth, I have learned that anything perceived as an attack from another is an expression of his or her needs.
So I would like to have my attention on that need. What could their needs be?
[…]I have gone to their blogs and contacted them to ask for open dialogues to gain an understanding of their perceptions and provide accurate information. They have responded with additional attacks and threats, rather than peaceful, life-enhancing dialogues.
I haven’t heard from Lori yet, but I am looking forward to it…and the spiritual enlightenment I know it will bring (and, perhaps, a cheap lease on a new BMW).I will be glad to tell her what motivates me to blog about Book Millionaire: a desire to expose unscrupulous and dishonest people who prey on the desperation and gullibility of aspiring authors for financial gain.
Even though I do not personally know these people, I can imagine these are beautiful human beings who are misguided in trying to have their needs met, doing so in tragic ways.
I can understand that they are making these choices for the same reason all human beings do everything: to meet needs in the best way they know how at the moment.
I believe Love is the answer to this.
I love you, too, Lori Prokop. I love how you never quit coming up with schemes to make money off the Internet, how you keep re-inventing yourself in new and exciting ways, and how you offer me the chance to do the same thing for only $16-a -day.
You are a wonderful person and a beautiful human being, Lori Prokop, but you already know that.
UPDATE 9-19-07: Victoria Strauss, a tireless crusader against publishing scams, blogs today about Lori Prokop, humanitarian, philosopher, publisher, web master, motivational speaker, and champion for chiropractors everywhere.
The Final Laps
I’m nearly at the end of post-production on FAST TRACK. Thanks to the Internet, I am able to do a lot of the work from home rather than having to be in Germany.
Dirk Leupolz, our composer, uploads scenes with his score to a server, then I log on, download the Quicktime files, watch them and give him notes. The same goes for each cut of the main title sequence. This weekend, Dirk sent me the final scenes of the movie as well as some "fixes" on earlier scenes. I am really pleased with the way the score has turned out…and can’t wait for my own CD.
The editors and graphics team did a fantastic job on the main title sequence. It looks and sounds great…all that’s left now is to choose the font, size, and actual placement of the credits that play out over the first scene or two of the movie (I’ve already approved the credit lists, and the order of the credits, for the German and International versions of the move).
I’m red/green colorblind, so I entrusted the color correction of the movie to our director Axel Sand (who is also our director of photography) and our line producer Heiko Schmidt. They are also overseeing the German-language dubbing, though I approved the voices for the non-German actors (I didn’t understand what they were saying, but I could judge the performance and the sound…I was sent scenes dubbed with the German voice auditions).
My final remaining post-production task is to oversee the final sound mix…when we bring together all the music, sound effects, and re-recorded dialogue for the English and German-language versions of the movie. I’ll fly back to Germany at the end of the month to do that.
And then the movie/pilot will be complete.
But my work is far from over. I’m keeping a close eye on the promotional and publicity materials (the posters for MIPCOM and AFM, sales brochures, etc.) and am working with our international sales team to sell FAST TRACK to networks in the U.S., Canada and other territories.
Today, my family and I had nice lunch with Erin Cahill, one of the stars of FAST TRACK, and then she and my daughter Maddie spent the afternoon shopping together. Maddie just adores Erin and so do we. I’ve been staying in close touch with the cast and crew…and I’ll be heart-broken if we don’t get the opportunity to keep working with together.
(The FAST TRACK photos are by Gordon Muehl and Stefan Hoederath).
Zoe Sharp is in town
My friend Zoe Sharp is on the West Coast leg of her U.S. signing tour for SECOND SHOT and will be stopping by Mysteries To Die for in Thousands Oaks on Monday at 1:30 and at Mystery Store in Westwood at 7 pm. If you live in Southern California and don’t show up at one of her signings, she will hunt you down and kill you.
Lori’s Mission from God
Lori Prokop has offered humanity so many things. She’s shown people how to get cheap car leases, to achieve "bestseller celebrity status," to live in the upper energy levels of life with her "Life Guidance System," to awaken their "million dollar intuition," to "Podcast for fun and profit," to "awaken your child’s genius," and she’s even helped chiropractors to become authors (and what greater calling is there than that?).
It’s hard to top those amazing achievements (are you listening, Nobel Prize Committee?)…but Lori Prokop has.
Now, with The Keyboard Culture Blog Community, she is on a mission from God to improve your search engine rankings.
In 1996, Lori and her husband sold their business. After it sold, Lori woke up with no “purpose.” She asked for a repetitive dream to reveal her purpose. In between the sleep and wake states, Lori began hearing and seeing “You are the publicist for Love and Light and Forgiveness and Gratitude.” Even though, at the time, the dream did not make much sense to Lori, she remembered it. In 2003, Lori Prokop received intuitive messages guiding her to learn and master search engine optimization, programming, Google algorithms, pay-per-click web site promotion and sophisticated web site linking strategies.
Apparently, despite her intuitive and total mastery of search engine optimization, she hasn’t been able to get rid of all the posts about her hucksterism from a simple Google search of her name.
It will only cost you $500-a-month to join her Keyboard Culture community, have her host your blog, and benefit from the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to glean spiritual enlightenment from her profound guidance and wisdom in one-on-one counseling sessions.
Who knows, she might even throw in a cheap car lease, too.
But the real news here is the story behind the demise of Book Millionaire. Now the truth can finally be revealed. Lori Prokop was the victim of a vast conspiracy.
Lori Prokop launched a reality show that rocked the publishing world with excitement. She didn’t realize it at the time, but she was first to market with a powerhouse of an idea and some of her competitors were furious she had the jump. Instead of approaching Lori to see how they could be included, they launched a paid online hate campaign to tank her and the project — if they couldn’t have it, they didn’t want anyone to. Lori discovered this was not the first time this group hired and paid online attackers to use false claims and hate attacks to take out competitors.
I had no idea I was a paid agent of the New York Publishing Cabal. That certainly explains why I’ve written so much about Lori Prokop and my tirades against the vanity press industry, doesn’t it?
I have been outed.
The only question I have is…when do I get the money for all of my hard work?
The Best of Lori Prokop
I love Lori Prokop. My favorite online huckster never quits. She has re-invented herself yet again and is offering you the benefit of her enlightenment…and another chance to get rich!
But before I share her amazing new self and her astonishing new business venture with you later today, I thought we should celebrate all the great things Lori Prokop has done for humanity before. So now, after the jump, I offer a look back at The Best of Lori Prokop.
(Note: she has since gone back and removed many of the links I reference in the posts…and who can blame her?)
A Cautionary Tale
An article this week in the San Diego Union Tribune about Martell Publishing, a vanity press scam that bilked authors out of thousands of dollars, should serve as a cautionary tale to anyone who is considering paying to be published. The article reads, in part:
Ed Johnson operated Simon & Northrop Publishing, formed in 1998, and created Martell Publishing in 2005, according to state records. Both ventures were housed at different times in a one-room unit at 3333 Midway Drive, a complex that appears to be an old motel converted into offices.
Lynn Karstens, a former Martell employee, said Johnson purposely deceived potential clients about the scale of his one-room operation. He used pseudonyms when answering the telephone or in correspondence to potential clients to “make it seem like he had a staff.”
Karstens also said Johnson instructed her to tell clients who telephoned him that he was “on the other side of the building” so they’d think the company was housed in a large facility.
Karstens said she was hired as an office manager. But Johnson soon had her editing manuscripts, a job for which she had no qualifications, she said.
Most aspiring authors found the San Diego publishing houses on the Internet or by answering ads placed in small regional newspapers and out-of-state Yellow Pages.
[…]Johnson was unapologetic about taking money from Perry and others even as he failed to pay his rent and other bills.
“Is it a crime not to pay your bills? I tried to keep the company rolling and it didn’t happen,” Johnson said. “I didn’t try to cheat anyone. I sold some books for some people. Authors are all unhappy unless they have a best-seller.”
Sadly, scams like this are NOT the exception but the norm in the vanity press world. If you are still intent on throwing your money away, at least go with iUniverse or Lulu, which are about as reputable as you can get in the self-publishing POD business.