2024 Closes, 2025 Is Here!

Best Wishes For The Holiday Season & New Year!

In this LAST IPG Newsletter of 2024. I give you a QUICK update & review of the year - and I want to thank all our IPG members for your valuable support and participation throughout 2024!

As well, as the Executive Director of the IPG, I would like to thank all those who supported SSI with a donation in 2024, as well as all those who have given of their time. We have a very small but growing support base among IPG and outside IPG for these programs. We cannot accomplish our important work without you. - Shadow Dragu-Mihai IPG.

Last Call For 2024 Tax Deductible Receipt!

As a reminder - if you have been holding off a contribution for 2024 - you still have a few days left to get your 2024 tax deduction. The stagescreen.org website can take contributions through debit/credit card, and has information for payments through CashApp and Zelle as well.

MEET DIAMOND MONIQUE WASHINGTON IPG - Artistic Director of Stage And Screen Innovations.

I am Diamond Monique Washington, the Artistic Director of Stage And Screen Innovations (SSI). I want to introduce myself to those of you who I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting.

As the Artistic Director of SSI, I have worked hard with IPG leadership and to represent SSI to outside consultants, while we design the important Virtual Theatrical and Producing Unique New Creators (PUNC) programs which the Guild oversees. As the Artistic Director of SSI, my mission is to develop and implement these valuable programs, and make them relevant in both the film industry and cultural landscape.

The Virtual Theatrical initiative breaks new ground in storytelling, and production workflows. It connects what have been up to now unconnected advances in the evolution of digital media, and traditional film and theater. Virtual Theatrical adapts storytelling to the way people view their entertainment in the new millennium. It combines elements of immersive theater, streaming and interactive media, virtual gaming, and filmed entertainment, in a workflow that shortens the production period for feature length projects, and commercial media products. The Virtual Theatrical format has peculiar script and story requirements. The format itself inspires new ideas and new ways of storytelling. With rare exception, pre-existing scripts are not suitable to be produced in the Virtual Theatrical format without extensive reworking. One exception is Joey Madia's Three Gothic Doctors And Their Sons, which is slated as our second Virtual Theatrical Production for 2025. Three Gothic Doctors was originally written and produced as an immersive production, being a Gothic horror-musical in genre, with compelling contemporary themes and subtext. It is a theatrical adaptation of Joey Madia’s novel of the same name.

There are numerous programs which introduce young people to the motion picture arts, and to the dramatic performing arts. However, they are generally overview experiences, and even film schools do not give adequate preparation to a serious creator who intends to make film or theatre a career. PUNC is a trailblazing program that seeks out talented individuals from under-represented groups. PUNC gives essential hands-on experience needed to be successful in the film and theater industries. Through PUNC, we seek out talented creators from diverse walks of life, who we assess as having what it takes to succeed in this very tough industry, if only they had the right direction and support. PUNC gives these people hands-on work experience, supplemented by a practical educational curriculum presented by producers with many decades in the industry, within an environment where they can create their own network. It is a unique program, designed to give unique new creators a boost to get their expressions to production and to a market. Participants in PUNC will change the world.

2024 has been a year of design and structuring for these and other programs. 2025 will be a year of implementation and program building. I invite you to join with me and with SSI. By joining with us, you have a hand in all that we do. You will change the world.

I also have the pleasure of chairing the IPG's new HORRORxSCIFI Producers Group, the first Producer Group to be active in 2025. HORRORxSCIFI will focus on a lifelong passion of mine: thriller, horror, sci-fi and fantasy film. The intention of the IPG producers groups is to allow serious writers, producers and directors to exchange ideas in a collegial environment, where they can relax, socialize, connect and debate, and also to connect with fans directly within a controlled environment. It is going to be an evolutionary process to see how this works out, but I am anticipating it is going to be a fun journey.

Thank you for your time! I look forward to meeting everyone directly at some point in the coming year! You have my best wishes for an amazing holiday season, and a prosperous and rewarding 2025.

 Some IPG Accomplishments in 2024

• Organized and confirmed 501(c)(3) status for Stage And Screen Innovations. See stagescreen.org.

• Finished structuring the basic Producing Unique New Creators (PUNC) program through SSI, and began groundwork for grant applications and support campaigns to take place throughout 2025.

• Expanded our membership among serious professional filmmakers

• Opened our first high-profile offices in the US Bank Tower downtown Los Angeles

• Expanded industry recognition for the IPG and its mission of establishing producing standards and advocating for the interests of the independent filmmaker

• Continued developing FilmPods - the public implementation of the IPG’s Direct To Audience Initiative. This will officially launch in spring of 2025 and revolutionizes distribution and marketing for independent film.

• Designed and structured the Virtual Theatrical program, selecting 4 of six first season productions. We intend to begin streaming in fall, 2025.

• Work on the next edition of the Members Handbook.

The personal hours and expense that have gone into this important enterprise are many and uncounted. By supporting SSI in membership fees, in donations of cash or in-kind, or with your valuable time, you are helping to change the world for the better. You are making a difference with your simple act of support. We appreciate it.

2025 Prospective In Brief:

Our first 2025 Newsletter will be out first week of 2025. But here’s an overview of 2025 for those who want to meditate on the year over the holidays:

• Crowdfund and Regulation CF offering for the FilmPod corporation.

• FilmPod Licensing and streaming arrangements will open up for independent productions.

• PUNC will begin with seminars, workshops, and on-set work experience for a growing alumni.

• Expanded Members Handbook with updated sections on safety on set, AI, and with genre & format checklists and production contract templates.

• Producers Groups will launch in January, begining with HORRORxSCIFI.

• Formation of independent film lobby group, so that the IPG membership can properly address the development of law and regulations which are of interest to us and the independent film sector in general.

• Development of international co-production opportunities, and of work referrals for IPG members.

IPG/SSI Virtual Open House - the week of January 16, 2025.

Register at stagescreen.org for FREE to attend. Some highlights will be: Details of the unique Virtual Theatrical process with a presentation by the award winning writer/director Joey Madia on adapting his book and play Three Gothic Doctors to the VT format; Details of Alex Moreno IPG’s Future Leaders Of The World (FLOW) filmmaking program for at-risk youth; The trailblazing Producing Unique New Creators (PUNC) program, and Creating Your Brand, both presented by Diamond Monique Washington IPG and Shadow Dragu-Mihai IPG; Casting for Independent Filmmakers by Steven Tailor IPG; A presentation on the new Candy TV streaming platform for new filmmakers by founder Chris Blair; Intro to the HORRORxSCIFI Producers Group; giveaways, networking and more!

Not a Member of the IPG yet? Contact Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq. IPG at [email protected] and join today!