Voices4Action!

For the past month we've been filming interviews with writers, directors, actors, futurists, DPs, and people on the picket line, asking them to talk about the strike. Oliver Stone looked back at his years in the business, remembering how it used to be before the corporations' greed overwhelmed the movie business. Maria Maggenti told us about the importance of residuals to her career. Tony Gilroy talked about fairness. Adam Brooks about fighting for the future. The picketers outside Fox just before the holidays, called for "Action!" We've heard these ideas before, but, for us, the interviews personalized the issues of the strike.

Voices4Action is also a place where we'll be talking about the future of story-telling in the new digital marketplaces. The congloms say they don't know how the internet will work, if there is, in fact, any money to be made on-line. Putting aside their disingenuousness, there is an honest fact that can't be denied. The internet is evolving and changing in ways difficult to predict.

The more people we talk to, the more we realize that the future is double-edged, holding great promise and challenges. We'll be casting a wide net to bring many voices to speak on this topic. In addition to people close to us (writers, directors, actors, DPs, sound mixers, teamsters, and designers), we'll also look to the outside world, to venture capitalists, technology gurus, and politicians, asking them where they think the internet will lead our business.

We don't expect to create a road map for that future, but we're hoping the voices we'll hear will inspire and energize us.