Blog Stage - Acting in Film, TV, Theatre - Backstage

NYTF Winners Named; The Real Stars of 'Dancing'

• The New York Television Festival, which is aimed towards uniting independent filmmakers and producers with professionals, closed its seventh award ceremony this past Saturday by announcing the winners of their Independent Pilot Competition. 15 guaranteed deals in over 20 categories – breaking their previous record overall – ended the festivities. Read the full story at The Wrap.

• The New York Times reported, the hit series ‘Dancing with the Stars’ – now on its thirteenth season - has been gaining fans more for its dance pros than the actual celebrities. Who would have thunk it?

• Fox and Amazon Prime announced today that they have just engaged in a new deal that will make more than 11,000 movies and television shows available for streaming, the way of the future as several companies have boycotted DVD and HD Blu-ray for easier access to the public. According to The Wrap, with this new merger Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, hinted that Netflix and its new subsidiary, Qwikster, will be in for a rude awakening. Prime membership for Amazon Prime is currently $79 a year and features unlimited free two-day shipping.

• More than 60 actors, 67 tables, and a whole lot of donating went into the 25th Annual Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction which took place this past Sunday. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS told Playbill.com that the total earnings for the day ended with a whopping $547,658, making this years total $70,000 more than last year.

Pictured: Derek Hough, professional dancer on “Dancing with The Stars” (Photo: Getty Images)

'Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film!' Premieres at the Paley Center in NYC

"Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film!" premieres in NYC (Left to right: Kurt Braunohler, Leo Allen, Rob Paravonian, Kristen Schaal, Liam McEneany, Victor Varnado, Christian Finnegan). Photo credit: Lindsay Aikman/Michael Priest Photography.

Last night, Sketchfest NYC presented the New York premiere of Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film!, a documentary about the indie comedy scene in New York City and the long-running comedy show "Tell Your Friends!," which is hosted each week by Liam McEneaney on the Lower East Side. McEneaney and director Victor Varnado (The Awkward Comedy Show) say their goal was to create a filmed document of the current comedy movement -- like Woodstock or The Last Waltz did for music -- by combining live performances with insightful interviews and candid backstage footage to create an overall sense of the scene.

The film was shot at a live "Tell Your Friends!" show at The Bell House in Brooklyn last summer and features performances by Reggie Watts, Kurt Braunohler & Kristen Schaal, Christian Finnegan, Leo Allen, Rob Paravonian, and McEneaney. The documentary also includes interviews with comedians Janeane Garofalo, Jim Gaffigan, Colin Quinn, Marc Maron, Paul F. Tompkins, Eddie Brill, Wyatt Cenac, Hannibal Buress, and Kumail Nanjiani.

Tell Your Friends! The Concert Film! premiered at SXSW earlier this year, and has also screened at Just for Laughs in Montreal and Chicago, as well as other film festivals. Watch the trailer for the film below, then check out our video interviews with the creators and cast:

Big Day for Net Neutrality, Cold War Metaphors

The Federal Register today published the Federal Communication Commission's much agonized-over net neutrality rules, signaling that the new regulations will go into effect Nov. 20. At last, our long national nightmare is over.

Dish's Answer to Netflix: Blockbuster Movie Pass

If your chief adversary recently committed PR snafus and suffered a major dip in its stock, then it is definitely good time to unveil your business's new endeavor. Dish Network released details regarding its streaming service that will compete against Netflix, reported The Wrap on Friday. Blockbuster Movie Pass will offer a package of DVD by mail and online video, similar to Netflix's old model. Earlier this week, Netflix split its mail-order and movie streaming services by creating a wholly owned DVD-by-mail subsidiary, leading to major criticism and its stock dropping.

Movie Poster Collector Peddles Archive

When Dwight M. Cleveland, president of a Chicago-based renovation and development company, bought a 1930 Three Oaks, Mich. home in 1991, he wasn’t looking for real estate or historical matter. Instead, he was looking for white gold buried within the walls—movie posters.

Facebook's Entertainment Goals; B'Way in Cinemas

• Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, gave a press conference regarding the future of the number one social networking site in the world. Los Angeles Times runs down Facebook's upcoming overhaul and its planned partnerships with Netflix, Hulu, and others that will make it a huge digital platform for the entertainment industry. Earlier this week, Reuters reported Facebook was seeking an executive to help form relationships with the music and film businesses.

• The annual holiday CD benefiting Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS will include performances from the cast of "Anything Goes" and Daniel Radcliffe of "How to Succeed…." The CD "Broadway’s Carols for a Cure, Vol. 13" will be released in November. Read the story at Playbill.

• Four Broadway musicals- "Memphis," "Jekyll & Hyde," "Putting It Together," and "Smokey Joe's Case"- will be shown on silver screens around the world, reported The Hollywood Reporter.

• The technique of Merce Cunningham, avant-garde dancer and choreographer, will be taught after his dance company shuts down at the end of this year. Over the next year, classes will take place at City Center, the Mark Morris Dance Center, and at the Dance New Amsterdam. Check it out at The New York Times.

• The Wrap discusses the decreased enthusiasm in Hollywood for President Obama, as evidenced by a lack of vocal support and campaign contributions from industry bigwhigs. It is pointed out, though, that the 2012 election is just revving up and more advocacy may come next year.

Pictured: Mark Zuckerberg (Photo: Getty Images).

L.A. Coroner Keeps Life After Death

Necrophiliacs eat your heart out—or go with a cannibal to visit to one of the last remaining prop houses in L.A.

During the last 10 years, the decrease in film production in Southern California reduced the number of local prop houses. For Morgue Prop Rental, however, business is booming, reported the Los Angeles Times. Vidal Herrera, owner and operator of Morgue, utilizes his self-made coroner business to help his shop stand out to Hollywood. One of Morgue's two-full service autopsy labs is a set that Herrera rents out to studios as a film location. TV crime dramas, which generate Morgue Prop Rental with a profit of about $100,000 a year, are what really keep the business alive, Herrera told the Times. The shop provides everything from body freezers to autopsy tables, so if you’re ever running short on supplies for Halloween or a really morbid Christmas, you know where to go. Plus, you can always buy a personalized coffin for $3,500.

A collector of mortuary equipment and old hospital antiques, Herrera ended up with a prop business by accident when a set director from the television series ‘Crossing Jordan’ offered Herrera $10,000 to rent his equipment in 2003. He decided to make a business out of it, and so far he has managed to outlast his competition by successfully combining two vocations into one passion.

Big Comedy Projects Abound

Summer is over, and everyone has a sad. The skies are overcast, there are no cherries on the shelves of your local supermarket, Starbucks is already pumping people full of pumpkin spice lattes, and the new fall shows have begun their plodding, inexorable march toward cancellation.

But not all is lost! In these times of downcast eyes and frownie faces, we look to the studio production executives, who, having donned their brightest tunics, prance through the studio backlots greenlighting comedy projects, spreading good cheer, and throwing BlackBerrys at their assistants’ heads. Callooh! Callay!

First up is “Rivals” from Warner Bros., formerly known as “Southern Rivals.” Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis play politicians competing for a House seat in South Carolina, who dig deep into their respective bags of dirty tricks to win. Sounds amazing, pretty much. It’s going to be way funnier than the actual 2012 elections, though that’s a pretty low bar. Allison Jones is tasked with fleshing out the campaign teams. “Rivals” shoots in October in New Orleans.

Next is “Burt Wonderstone” from New Line, which features America’s second-biggest comedy star guy, Steve Carell, as a flamboyant Vegas magician who struggles to regain his love of magic after his partner is killed in a tragic accident. Shoot dates are tentative, but hopefully the project will get going in January. Lisa Beach and Sarah Katzman will be casting it, but it’s not ready to go just yet.

Even next-er, “The Longest Week,” starring Jason Bateman and Olivia Wilde, who is in every movie now, so I guess I didn’t need to mention her by name. Anyhow, Bateman plays an heir to a hotel fortune who gets cut off by his parents and is forced to move in with a friend. His friend has a hot girlfriend, and Bateman’s character gets the hots for her because she is Olivia Wilde, and have you seen Olivia Wilde? She’s hot! “The Longest Week” shoots next month in New York. It’s being cast by Mary Vernieu and JC Cantu at Betty Mae Casting.

See? You’re cheering up already, I can tell. I told you! This good news should tide you L.A. actors over until you remember that in a few short weeks our entire city will smell like feces because everyone fertilizes their lawns before the winter rains. Yay!

BREAKING NEWS: Mike Hodge Re-elected SAG N.Y. President

Read the story at BackStage.com. More on SAG election results as they come in.

New Oscar Schmoozing Rules; Linney to be Honored

• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will implement new rules for receptions, panels and other events for newly Oscar-nominated films. Check out the full press release at Back Stage.

• The New York Times observers that the word vagina is popular this fall on television. Sadly, "master of my domain" has not made a comeback.

• Signature Theater Company will name one of its new performance spaces after the late playwright Romulus Linney, reported The New York Times. Two decades ago, Linney was the founding playwright-in-residence at the Off-Broadway company.

• The Visual Effects Society, which represents visual artists and practitioners, issued an "Industry Bill of Rights." According to Los Angeles Times, the document arose out of qualms over poor work conditions and sparse job security.

• James Cameron hopes to create a literal stamp of approval for 3D films, reported The Wrap. The Cameron-Pace Group wants to officialize its certification process for 3D movies, and a way for filmmakers to be certified is to rent the company's equipment. Though Cameron says people will be paying  for the services, not the stamp, they're actually paying for both. He's making it so that if you don't have his stamp, then your 3D may not be considered good and people might not see your film, making you rent the equipment in the first place. Sorry, independent 3D filmmakers, if you even exist. It's a three-dimensional game of Monopoly and Cameron is the banker.