Building a Billion-Dollar Enterprise, 23: What happened in L.A.

In March, I wrote about traveling to Los Angeles to meet with a TV executive Joseph Collins about the possibility of creating programming for his network, Punch TV.

I had several ideas to pitch, including "The Laundry," a dramatic series; and a documentary about the rehabilitation of 1015 N. Homewood Avenue, a building at Race Street and Homewood Avenue that faces condemnation.

I did have face time with Mr. Collins, and the idea that I wound up describing was a reality show about the rehabilitation of 1015 N. Homewood Ave. - a project in which the building could be seen as a proxy for the neighborhood itself, and the process of rehabbing it a mini-representation of all the challenges involved in rebuilding a neighborhood.

He liked the idea and asked me to call him later so that we could discuss further.

The next day, I had lunch with my host, Andrew W. Thornhill, and a couple of friends of his, music producer Vaughn De Spenza  and architect/designer Joseph Alcasar Terrell. I told Mr. Terrell about the building rehab reality show idea and he offered his support and assistance.

I was already excited about the possibility of a deal with Punch TV. The possibility of having an an architect of Mr. Terrell's standing involved in the rehab of 1015 N. Homewood just felt like a huge bonus.

The path seemed to be clearing. My own thoughts seems to be clearing.

Then I came back to Pittsburgh. And you know what? I have to review a series of emails to understand what happened then. I did not fully understand it as it happened...

Stay tuned.

Building a billion-dollar enterpise, 18 - In L.A., a step forward

To get straight to it: I missed the BADWest meeting Wednesday evening, mainly because the snowstorm caused my flight to be cancelled, and then the flight that I was reassigned to was cancelled, with the end result being that, instead of arriving at LAX shortly after 2 pm, I got there about 7:15 pm.

Thursday went much better.

I did speak with Joseph Collins, not in Thursday morning's meeting, but in an informal meet and greet Thursday evening. What started out as quite a small group in the lobby of the Culver Hotel, turned into an extended evening of eating, drinking and connecting in a banquet room.

Mr. Collins arrived late in the evening, and sat far enough away from me so that I had to leave my seat to converse with him. So, after a period of feeling awkward, I did, sitting next to him. I asked questions about the company and about whether or not, given current share prices and the number of shares outstanding, he anticipates doing a reverse stock split (no).

In retrospect, I fear I spoke too much, about the emotion that can attach to owning shares of a company, about the work of Paul Zane Pilzer (in particular, "Unlimited Wealth" and "God Wants You To Be Rich")...yikes. Anyway, when he spoke about growing the company, he said that he wants 100 new shows. And I took the opportunity to share the idea, not for "The Laundry," and not for a documentary about 1015 N. Homewood, but for a reality TV show about 1015 N. Homewood.

He said that he liked it, gave me his card, and asked me to call him.

I consider that a measure of success.

The overarching purpose for the trip had nothing to do with that, by the way. It was primarily for the purpose of Andrew Thornhill lining up his ducks, so to speak, for a fashion media project that will include radio, television, events and publishing.

No doubt I'll mention more about pieces of it as they roll out. For now, the first piece is an event: a mixer for fashion bloggers, to be held in New York on May 20, 2013. The thing got oversubscribed in the first week or so, so now Andrew is planning mixers in other cities. Indeed, while we were eating and drinking at the Culver Hotel, he struck a tentative deal with the hotel's events coordinator to hold one there. Cause that's how he rolls.

And how I want to learn to.

Building a billion-dollar enterprise, 15 - Notes in preparation for a really big week.

Tomorrow is going to be such a big day that by the end of it, I may want to sleep for a week.

No such luck.

Early Wednesday morning, I will drag myself out of bed to catch a 7 a.m. flight for Los Angeles. From Wednesday afternoon through Friday night, I will enjoy/endure a whirlwind of meetings put together by my friend Andrew W. Thornhill.

At least, mostly put together by him. The first one, Wednesday evening, will be the regular monthly meeting of the Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers West (BADWest). I expect good content from the presentation, but the real purpose is to be in the room with a group of documentary filmmakers. The relationships established Wednesday evening could prove transformative for me, especially if I wind up acquiring 1015 N. Homewood Ave., redeveloping it, and making a documentary about the process.

Anyway, after that comes the whirlwind.

I want to be on my toes for all of it, but the meeting which offers the greatest apparent opportunity will be an informal sitdown with Joseph Collins. Mr. Collins is President and Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of IC Places, Inc., the corporate parent of Punch Television Network, aka Punch TV. Punch is one of the numerous TV networks that sprung up after the transition from analog to digital television left all of America's 1,700 full-service TV stations with four channels, where they had previously had one. According to the press release announcing its first annual stockholders meeting, Punch ended 2012 with 38 partner stations.

I will spend much of the next three days studying the company's annual reports, along with the information on its websites. As with Joe Ciotti in tomorrow's meeting, the word that seems to best describe what I want to do with Mr. Collins is "seduce." I want to make him want to work with me. Not to pitch a specific project. To have him know that Luminaria Productions can offer a variety of projects over the next 2-3 years.

Or as Dov Simens taught me to say in "From Reel To Deal," "I have multiple projects in various stages of development."

Such as? Well, besides the aforementioned documentary on the redevelopment of 1015 N. Homewood, which would also be about Homewood itself, there's:

1. "The Laundry" - a dramatic TV series about the professional and personal challenges faced by staff and residents of a rehab facility/program that boasts one of the highest success rates in the field ("Come in dirty, leave clean"). The idea was hatched by actor-writer Atticus Cain, known around Homewood as William Robinson, who is also our tenant and one of my closest friends.

3. Either a one-hour TV special or a feature length documentary on Naomi Sims, the Westinghouse alum who became America's first black supermodel. This would build on work already done and already being done: Kilolo Luckett and I partnered last year for a tribute to Naomi Sims, and are planning a 2nd Annual Tribute on March 30, which would have been Ms. Sims 65th birthday. That tribute can be a major piece of a TV program/documentary.

4. "The Nature of Love" - a feature film (drama); a married woman unwittingly falls in love with a man who plans to kill her family. Both this and "The Moses Effect," below, are scripts that I have worked on, and need to finish anyway.

5. "The Moses Effect" - a feature film (comedy); a small town is thrown into chaos when the world's most advanced surveillance system enforces every law on the books, including absurd ones.

Did you see what I did there? I skipped #2. That's because if Mr. Collins expresses any level of interest, and if I have any choice about what to produce for/with Punch, the 1015 N. Homewood doc would be my second choice. "The Laundry" would be my first.

Why?

Jobs.

The desire to create jobs is a very large part of my motivation for building Luminaria Productions. And while even a small indie film can create 50+ jobs, my thinking is that a TV series would create more jobs for a longer period of time than a one-time project.

...okay, there's a second reason.

Financing. Which deserves its own post.