Our event yesterday (09.19.09) at the Regency South Coast Village Theater was fan-damn-tastic as a friend of mine is wont to say. People began arriving at 9:00am for the 10:00am start and it built from there. We didn't keep exact track but it seemed like we had a lot of new people there which speaks well (hopefully) of our marketing but more of our word of mouth friends who have begun to spread the word.
Highlights included great networking before and after the event and giving out the contest prizes from our Make It Reel writing contest (in cooperation with Lennexe Productions.) Congrats to all winners but also to all who entered. Having done contests in the past, I know what pressure it is to try to turn in on time and to submit your best
effort.
Greatly accomplished novelist Maralys Wills came to talk about her new book "Damn The Rejections, Full Speed Ahead," and sign copies.
We will have Maralys come to speak to our org soon if not in the big theater then certainly at a college venue. Her depth and breadth of experience is astounding.
We also gave away some free copies of Final Draft Scriptwriting Software 
compliments of Final Draft, one of our org's sponsors.
The highpoint, though, was our guest speaker, Steve Eccelsine, whose book, "So You Want To Be A Producer" provided us with a beautiful opening essay called "All That Glitters" which will be reproduced here in its entirety soon. Steve was gracious, informative, and his scope of experience provided us with a total
understanding of many of Hollywood's arcane experiences. We can't wait to book him back again and get to the hundreds of questions we didn't have time to ask.
A terrific event with great attendance. Couldn't have been better.
Unless....come and see us on Halloween (10.31.09) - we might just be able to top it. Details soon.
Thanks to all who came and to those who couldn't be with us, we hope to see you soon...
And, as always, a huge thanks to our good friends at Regency Theaters. Please check out their amazing film slate including their stunning classic film Wednesday nights.
Mark
