On the Ground: Produced By Conference 2014
Shawn Montgomery here! First official blog post on beyondthenametag.com. Wow, has the site been growing over the past month. Our social media initiatives to reach out to the Independent Film community have cultured some great relationships and led to a spike in viewing on our Vimeo page. Expansions to YouTube, Instagram, SlideShare and Tumblr are coming soon. But enough about us, let’s discuss the state of producing entertaining content in the digital age.
Living in Los Angeles certainly has its perks, especially when it comes to accessing professional film industry events like the Produced By Conference put on every year by the Producer’s Guild Guild of America (PGA). I’ve been a member for three years now and this is also my third Produced By Conference. Leave it up to the PGA to bring the biggest names from film and television to the table for panels with prestigious moderators that ask how can we break into an ever-changing landscape of entertainment.
I was able to attend three sessions on Saturday, June 7th at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. These panels included discussions moderated by esteemed Producers such as Mark Gordon, Marshall Herskovitz and Michael De Luca, with big-name talent such as Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Cean Chaffin and the one and only, David Fincher. Also in the groups I attended were talks with Producer Jessika Borsiczky (House of Lies, Flashforward), TV Agent Peter Micelli from CAA, President of Scripted TV at Slingshot Global Media Quan Phung and Head of Drama at Amazon Studios Morgan Wandell. Here’s the run-down: