The Tampa Film Review for August  by Nolan B. Canova
MOVIE REVIEW Summer '06 in Review  by Mike Smith
MY MIDDLE TOE Las Vegas....Small Markets....Hollywood East  by Mark Terry
ODDSERVATIONS Mike Douglas is Gone....VHS Grindhouse....By George -- He's a Dustman!...New York Dolls Back in the News....Screem Magazine Review (#12)  by Andy Lalino
MIKE'S RANT Seen the King Lately?...Movie News....Passing On....My Favorite Films, Part 33: "Blazing Saddles"  by Mike Smith
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Las Vegas; Small Markets; Hollywood East

I was in Las Vegas over this weekend. The trip out there is always hell. From LA to Las Vegas you can literally see everything. I have seen over 100 degree weather, snow, hail, bad wind, rain, fog, and so on. Its a long 280 mile drive but worth it once you get to Vegas.

A few friends of mine went to Vegas with me and we all booked one room at the Las Vegas Club Hotel on Freemont Street in Downtown Las Vegas. We didn't get to the hotel till 1am Friday night. It seemed like all the hotel rooms were booked so they put us into an empty suite on the top floor. What a great experience and lucky break.

While I was out in Vegas driving around I drove by Charleston Blvd and thought about Ray Dennis Steckler and how we recorded a voice over with him a year or so ago. At the time we were talking about the local indie scene in Vegas. Now you think "The City of Entertainment" would have a great indie scene. Not really. Steckler told us CSI isnt even shot there. Then several months later I find myself at Universal Studios Hollywood on set of CSI. It really made me think of the conversation recently brought up over the message board about Florida maybe being Hollywood East one day.

Let's build the image in our head. Big budget movies, work for everyone, money being pumped in locally, seeing lights on every corner for people shooting stuff and so on. Could we really see this taking place in Tampa or anywhere in the state like it happens in Los Angeles on a continuous basis? Its a very hard image for me to put in my head.

Hollywood, movies, and the studio system have been around for over 80 years. Generations of families have come and gone through this business in southern California area. LA is recognizable for being attached to movies as the state of Maine is for their Lobsters. Why doesn't Florida have a market in Lobsters as well then? Well simply cause it wouldn't work. The same with movies. It has already been tried.

There was a time in Florida where Universal Studios was built in Orlando. I can remember seeing the commercials in the late 80s for Universal Orlando coming soon. After the big boom in the 80s why not try to set something up in Florida? There has been a couple glimmers of hope as far as movies, but nothing stuck for the entire time.

If I still lived in Florida knowing what I know now I would be thinking this way. Instead of when is Florida going to become Hollywood East, I would be thinking, how can I get my name and projects be seen in the industry of movies.

I always say that I am for making your film in Florida. Make the movie from a home base. Where rent is cheap and locations are easy to get. However, when you done shooting even though you may have practiced hitting baseballs in a batting cage you have to go to the ball park to actually play in front of people.

The crazy thing is if Las Vegas doesn't even have an indie scene why would Florida have one?

The three major ways to get work in Tampa are below:
    1.) Commercial work- 80% of my paying work as an actor in Florida was commercials
    2.) Television News/Radio- Jobs like Chris Woods has at Bay News 9.
    3.) Then Misc places like Home Shopping Network, Tampa Digital, Education Channel and so on.