Welcome back to ISE-LA! We started back with a bang. Lots of energy and a great speaker. Marianne Wilson of Spiritual Cinema Network updated us on the new way of P&A. Unconventional film distribution. Her success story was that of the film "Indigo" by James Twyman which was released in a new way, thanks to a little outside-the-box thinking. Instead of a theatrical release, it was shown in 612 bookstores and churches. the alternative venue release landed the film in the Top 20 Movies that weekend, and got it featured in the Financial Times. Marianne told us the story behind the story: The same weekend King Kong was released, his father Andrew Fogelson was helping with the marketing of "Indigo". It was a father-son weekend pushing the two movies. Even though the film grossed 1.4 million, half of that goes back to the venues. An unprecented feat, which could not have been done without staff of 400 volunteers. This alternate venue release was also done with "Celestine Prophesy", "Peaceful Warrior" and "Conversations with God", all of which ISE-LA has had guest speakers from each film this past year.

Meaningful movies. Movies that matter. Marianne Wilson started out working with new age authors and organizations. Now she's uplifting Hollywood. Go to SpiritualCinemaNetwork.com for more information. Another movie of theirs is "How To Cook Your Life," an educational and entertaining story about a zen monk who bakes bread, which has a first look deal with Lions Gate. This niche marketing is becoming a more popular means of distribution, and China is looking for more family films, as they watch them on their cell phones as they ride on the trains. An untouched niche that people are still scrambling for is along the lines of "Touched by An Angel." These niche films live forever, even in small towns, when they end up in Blockbuster, Albertsons and Cosco. Just check out Jaman com - you can even submit your movies to them. Or to her for free, but getting the form from SpiritualCinemaNetwork.com She is watching new movies all the time, like "Jesus of India," a Paul Davids film, which ISE-LA could get as a speaker this year. Other possible speakers this year include producer Mallika Chopra and producer Brian Gerber of "The 11th Hour".

Marianne Wilson told us she is planning a film release that coincides with an event. She wouldn't tell us what it was, but at the end Q&A when asked again, she let the cat out of the bag and said it's called "The Moses Code."

Marinanne talked about GAIAM and their recent acquisition of GTMedia, Zaadz, LimeTV and Conscious Enlightenment. GAIAM is the 5th largest distributor. They also just bought Spiritual Cinema Circle, which cranks out 2 shorts and 1 doc each month. And you can see GAIAM's yoga videos and brainy baby videos in Target.

Also on the horizon, Mark Harris and Michael Beckwith are teaming up to produce and distribute more uplifting films with a 50 million dollar budget. There is also talk of the lauch of EarthCinemaCircle, which will showcase green content like "The Garbage Warrior", "Housing Off the Grid" about recyclable houses for Katrina. Another place she suggested - WithoutABox for film funders.

A must read for spiritual folks is "Eat. Pray. Love." by Elizabeth Gilbert which takes us on a healing journey through Italy, India and Bali. The movie which, like the book, teaches and educates deep spiritual principles in story form, is already in pre-production. Marianne Wilson says that the message of these movies is spreading into other media. For example, The Secret is showing up, written into scripts on TV shows like "Dexter", "Entourage" and "Weeds".

She told us of one creative attempt to get funding for a movie where the film-makers put pieces of their film on the internet. Viewers could buy them via PayPal and try to piece the film together. As the PayPal account grew, they gathered the money to finish the film.

She said don't be afraid of pirating. Your goal should be to get the film out to as many people as possible. Look to Revver and BeliefNet for more ideas.

Marianne Wilson left with one final tip, that Ariel Ford has launched the career of almost every new age person and is doing the PR for Spiritual Cinema Circle.

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Next was Natalie Kaufmann with her www.loveandwealthmarketing.com speed networking. We were seated in such a fashion so that we met and exchanged business cards with each person in less than two minutes!

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And finally, writer/producer/director Darryl Anka signed up actors to read for his new film the following Saturday, "Life Goes On," a mockumentary about near death experiences. He promises to give ISE-LA members first chance at the over 50 speaking parts.

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November 11th is ISELA's Mastermind Meeting for active members. These meetings include actors, writers, directors and producers. ISELA's Writer's group and Elevate's Writer's group are joining forces. T he Elevate Festival of Film and Music produces uplifting and elevating films.

Many ISE-LA members were recently in attendance at Elevate 4 at the Kodak Theater, and Drew Heriot (director of "The Secret" and co-director of the Elevate Festival) will be featured on "IN" with Tamara Henry on Time Warner Cable television Sunday night at 8:30pm Nov 11th, 2007. He will show clips from many films and music videos and also a lot of behind-the-scenes and red carpet footage as well.
For more information on the show: www.tamarahenry.blogspot.com

Tamara Henry, MA - ISE-LA Member