Big vs. Small Picture

I had breakfast with my dad this AM because my brother just had knee surgery in a hospital not too far from my apt. (awwww...feel better Dave!). We started chatting about the challenges of accomplishing the nitty-gritty, day2day details of running a small business, while also finding the time to strategize and plan, which is crucial for growth. The balance is interesting. For example, yesterday, while trying to sell in a host of sponsorships and partnership opportunities for both the NY Latino Film Festival and Cinedulce, I had to write a creative brief for HBO, edit a timeline, write recaps of both our HBO and weekly Cinedulce meetings, update our credit card account, go to the post office to mail in our state tax filing fees and take care of weekly bills. Oh, and did I mention we had a 2-hour weekly meeting in the middle of all of that? Riiiiight... That's just a load of s**t to do while also trying to move the entire organization to the next level. Thank God for yoga. ;)

TODAY'S TREAT
The Victor Cruz Show: Artist of New York
Victor's one of the funniest people I know. And, I'm psyched he's been landing a bunch of commercials, including a series of Lottery ads and now Staples. Great guy. Super talented dude. Gonna be a big success.


Liz.
(P.L.H.H.)
www.Cinedulce.com

Rollin' along...

How annoying are taxes? The understatement of the year, I imagine... Anyway, I have to head over to the post office in a few minutes to mail out NY State filing fees for both Cinedulce and the NY Latino Film Fest. I just needed to whine for a second, but I'm over it now. Moving on...

Okay, so we currently have A TON going on. Between the two companies, there is soooo much planning going on, it's insanity. And yet, it seems (for now) we're a well-oiled machine. It's crazy. Calix, Lyndon and I are completely on the same page, which is awesome. We just finished our weekly Thursday meeting (which you knew already, didn't you?? So clever.). We're planning on introducing a new! Cinedulce channel in a few weeks. Oh my, it's fun. In fact, I feel confident saying it's just as cool as URdulce, and that's some seriously groovy stuff. Plus, of course, we have new content uploads every Tuesday so we're all set for this upcoming Tuesday, 02/03 (side note: can you believe it's almost February already? WTF??). On the back-end, we're about to build a CMS platform so we have more direct control over the site updates. We designed the site knowing we would eventually put CMS in place; we just needed to do it in stages. So, that will be a big help to us and relief to Spoon+Fork. Finally, we think we know how we're going to promote Cinedulce at this year's NY Latino Film Fest and, trust me, it's fantabulous. Sweet.

For the NY Latino Film Fest, we have an awesome promotion we're going to introduce in the very short term. We're SOOOO excited about it. If all goes as planned, it should be a blast for you and a fitting, fun way to celebrate our 10th anniversary. So, keep your eyes and ears open for our announcement. But, of course, I'll write it here, too, so don't you worry...

TODAY'S TREAT
Windows Over Harlem, a hot music video by the great Amanda Diva, directed by the man and our boy, Lyn-don-McCray. LOVE the song. LOVE the video.



Liz.
(P.L.H.H.)
www.Cinedulce.com

HBO: It's Not TV, It's (Our) Family

We had a meeting with our friends over at HBO today. I love them. They're just so great. Anyway, we discussed for a while how we can celebrate our 10th anniversary in a meaningful way without significantly adding to our budget because, as you can imagine, this is not the year to be augmenting the budget. In fact, we, like everyone, are looking for ways to cut the budget. That aside, we discussed some fun ideas that primarily revolve around talent and PR. We'll have to see how that goes but it's good to get the conversation started. AND, very soon we're going to announce the HBO/NYILFF Short Film Contest call for entries, so get ready! We all totally love that program. Thus far, the resulting shorts have been fantastic. In fact, you can check some of them out on Cinedulce.com right now! See below...

Hispaniola (very touching)





Betty La Flaca (my dad's personal fave)





Viernes Girl (hilarious!)





Liz.
(P.L.H.H.)
www.Cinedulce.com

1st Taste Tuesdays: 01.27.09

Okay, here's the plan: each and every Tuesday, I will dedicate my blog to promoting the new Cinedulce uploads of the week: films, videos, trailers, HBO, whatever content we think you want to see. Yes, that's every single Tuesday! So, without further ado, I bring you this week's new Cinedulce programming. Check it while it's hot!

Drama
"Killing Snakes"
3 Men, 1 girl and polo... A tongue-in-cheek telenovela x spaghetti western by friends Rick Del Castillo and Martina Amende.




URdulce
"Maria"
A fiery Latin collaboration between the Del Castillo Brothers and Latin front man Alex Ruiz. Will Maria dance the dance of forgiveness or escape the fire of passion?





"Perdoname"
Song by Del Castillo. Video directed by Dennis Aig and Carl Thiel.






"Killing Snakes" (Official Trailer)
Watch trailer for Killing Snakes, a short film about 3 Men, 1 girl and polo.

HBO Latino
Road Trip 5: "Cubanito"
Patty and Rephstar look for the famous Cuban sandwich.





HABLA YA: "Quirogas"






HABLA YA: "Rachel"

Sick? Who Has the Time??

Here's the thing about owning your own small company, there's no one else to do your work. It's sounds obvious, but you don't realize the burden until you have it. To a certain extent, it's like being an only parent. I say this because I have the flu. In fact, I've had it since Friday. It's not been a pleasant few days, I must say, but this, too, shall pass. Even now, I'm thoroughly exhausted and, although certainly feeling better than the weekend, am still battling this persistent little bugger of a virus. That aside, because my Friday was totally shot and I was in D.C. on Tuesday and part of Wednesday, I started to get nervous yesterday (Sunday!) because I have so much pressure to raise sponsorship for the NY Latino Film Festival and Cinedulce. Time is of the essence in this business. You realize, of course, I've been working on sponsorship since September '08. But, no matter. In this economy, it can feel like you've done nothing, or, at the least, not enough. It's fairly stressful. So, yesterday, on my couch and in my pajamas, I busted out two customized proposals for agencies who contacted me with potential client interest. Neither of these potential partners has a huge budget, but that's somewhat irrelevant. Every partner contributes to the fundraising goal and, in its own way, to overall the event experience. This is why you build customized, tiered partnerships and benefits packages... so you can be flexible and accommodate partners of varying sizes.

Side note: did you watch the SAG awards last night? I thought there were some surprises in there, including Meryl Streep's win for Best Actress. It's not that Meryl isn't a genius (hello!)... I just didn't think she was going to win. It was also interesting Sean Penn beat out Mickey Rourke. This should make for an interesting Oscars. Ironically, this afternoon I was supposed to have a meeting with the SAG diversity folks, but I postponed it for obvious reasons... just sort of funny. Alas, we have rescheduled for next Tuesday.

Liz.
(P.L.H.H.)
www.Cinedulce.com

Silver Lining

I just found out I have the flu (ugh!), so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I was thinking yesterday about the economy and I'd like to offer a not-so-insignificant silver lining: all companies are being forced to realize efficiencies across the board, top to bottom. Belt tightening can be a very healthy process, allowing companies to look more closely at how and where they spend money. From the entrepreneurial perspective, it's particularly interesting because our belts are always tight. As a result, we're programmed to make every dollar count. You really can't afford to be greedy personally or lazy about negotiating with vendors or lax about monitoring expenditures because you just don't have any fat to cut. I repeat, every dollar counts. So, small companies are, by nature, very lean. Maybe now some of the larger companies will take their cues from upstarts and apply a more conservative, vigilant approach to fiscal matters.

Liz.
(P.L.H.H.)
www.Cinedulce.com

Growing Pains

Our weekly Cinedulce meetings are the bomb... uh, excuse me, da bomb. ;) I love them. Yes, I realize how tremendously dorky that sounds, but lo que sea. No matter how efficient we try to be, though, they always seem to last for 2+ hours. Never fails. In today's meeting, we had a conference call with our creative agency, Spoon and Fork, to do a full walk-through of the site, including all of our recent edits and changes, new architectural elements and back-end configurations, new capabilities (you can search now!!), etc. I'm really so proud of us. I can't even believe this is our site and our company. I think I mentioned this, but Spoon and Fork won a design award for the site. Check this out: http://www.gdusa.com/contests/agda/08/winners/types/se.php?x=int2288-edi2287

We discussed a load of other stuff, which is largely irrelevant here, but we did discuss one thing that's super important: filmmakers - we need your help! It's time to start spreading the word about Cinedulce. Post your video/film on your personal profiles, share links and promote. Your our most effective marketing arms and legs, so hop to it. It's all about word of mouth and viral buzz. If this site is to realize success, drive advertising and sponsors and help bolster the entire Latino/Urban filmmaking community, then we all have to support it now by telling friends and family to check it out. Be proud... this is your art!

That aside, right now I'm all about trying to balance operational/organizational stuff with selling both the festival and Cinedulce. It's far more challenging than one might expect. You know, things are always so simple when you first consider them. Then you wake up one day and realize, seemingly overnight, it's evolved into something far more complicated. That's true of life, right? Time is that most precious commodity, which sometimes seems to slip through my fingers. How many calls can I make in one day? How many proposals can I customize in one week? How many meeting recaps, follow-ups, reminders, charts, budgets, checks/bills, interviews, etc. can I realize in any given period? It's ridonculous. You can only do your best. Pressure from the NY Latino Film Festival is always the heaviest because there's a finite window to close deals and a basic cost to cover. Calixto and I have been working hard on cutting that budget because it's starting to skyrocket and, although never a desired trajectory, it's certainly more so in a near-depression economy. The festival has grown by approximately 30% annually, a statistic about which we're super proud. But, that growth has a price: mushrooming budgets, increasing sponsor and consumer expectations, escalating talent demands, swelling vendor fees, expanding staffing needs... The flip side, of course, is there are far worse problems to have than growing pains. So, I welcome this pain... sort of. ;)

Liz.
(P.L.H.H.)
www.Cinedulce.com