Goodbye Century City, Hello Santa Monica

The company move is finally upon us - after a good (ish) year in Century City the company is off the a more creative space in Santa Monica. Reasons for the move include, but are not limited to: bad ghosts in the office, the awful corporate atmosphere, new executives and lack of funds. Thats right, Santa Monica will be cheaper than Century City. Naturally, there are pros and cons to both locations. I for one will be glad to get out of this office though - hopefully some big changes will happen in the new building.... However, there are-

Things I'll miss about Century City:

-The proximity to my house. Don't get me wrong, it still takes me 30 minutes to get there during morning rush hour - but hell, it's closer than Santa Monica.

-The Starbucks in the ground level of my building. I don't even need to go anywhere to get my morning coffee! Amazing. They know my order. More amazing (or embarrassing)!

-The way the elevator says "going down" when I return to the lobby. I can't help but laugh... EVERY time.

-The awful fashion sense of people who work in a corporate setting. I'm especially fond of the ones that dress nice, but where tennis shoes.

-The view. I'm on the 21st story and can see out to the ocean. Even in Santa Monica, I'll rarely see the ocean.

-The Century City mall. It's so close! It has awesome food! It's an escape during lunch time, and it has a movie theatre we sometimes go to instead of doing work.

Things I'm looking forward to in Santa Monica:

-Being ocean side. I won't be able to see it, but it'll be there. Maybe somedays, I'll even go down there, just because I'm so close.

- The new building. It's an old abandoned warehouse that we're converting. It's going to be cool (and hopefully) creative. And hopefully I'll finally have a new assistant to help me out!

-The Daily Grill. I've missed it and there is one around the corner from my office. This will end poorly for my wallet, but so well for my stomach.

-TruYogaLA. I'm going to start doing yoga. Mark my words. There is a studio around the corner from the office, and while they don't have early morning classes as I'd hoped- they do have one I can do after work, or at lunch. We'll see how that goes!

-The bus. I'm going to take it. So long to my driving commute, and hello to the bus. Sure it might be sketch (because come on, who rides the bus in LA?) but its going to be an hour where I'm not wanting to kill myself in my car. Its an hour where I can do something else. Its an hour that my car isn't polluting the planet. I'll take the risk.

There is some bad too though, like how I have to contact every single person in contacts to tell them that we've moved. Or have to pack the entire office in boxes. Or how I need to order new stationary, business cards, letterheads, etc. because no one in the office had the foresight to plan ahead. How about how I still don't know the new phone number so I CAN'T do any of those things? Augh! The first few weeks in Santa Monica will be a mess, but then it will hopefully calm down. I'm going to really need that yoga.

Trailer Analysis: The Social Network

If there is one thing I know about, it is social networking. I love my blog, my facebook, my twitter. Hell, I still I love my myspace (in a nostalgic type of way). I've been social networking since xanga (but you don't get the link to that, nice try). But enough about me-

David Fincher's trailer (the real one, not the teaser) for The Social Network has hit the Internet today. Let's take a look shall we?

Find the trailer here: The Social Network.

The trailer is presented as a series of status updates accompanied by the voices of actors reading them. Not very cinematic, but the movie can hardly be expected to be visually stunning. Its the type of story that might make for a better play.

This clearly means theres nothing interesting to show in the movie.

There is a definite feeling of drama amidst the founders (or those who can be presumed to be founders based on the trailer) of facebook. Who said what, who stole what from whom. It's the story of invention and court. A relationship drama. Sounds a lot like Flash of Genius. Look at how that did (you don't have to, I'll tell you: TERRIBLY).

Film is a visual medium and while it might have story, The Social Network, does not have visuals. Maybe stunt casting people like Justin Timberlake will put young people in seats, you see- aside from it's lack of visual appeal (that isn't the actors, I'll admit they're er... visually pretty. No, not you Jesse Eisenberg) there is another fundamental problem with a drama about facebook-

People my own age (aka The Facebook Generation) do not care about dramas. Very few people, in fact, care about dramas. So why would a movie, whose primary audience should be facebook users, gear itself for those looking for more distinguished dramatic fare (often, but not limited too, older people who know nothing about facebook). Maybe I'm being harsh on the elderly, maybe I'm being harsh on people my own age- but look at the movies in the marketplace- how many are dramas skewed for younger crowds?

Interestingly, the movie is placed in the "history" genre on IMDB. While facebook will be history, this movie will hardly make a historical dent.

The Relevance of Twitter

Twitter, whether you like it or not, is relevant. It is also a hell of a lot of fun, but more on that later.

I didn't much understand the importance of twitter until recently. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong - where else can you berate your friends with your humor? Where else can you win free screenings (I did, by the way - win tickets to a Paramount screening of Paranormal Activity)? Where else can you @ your friends? Twitter is a lot of fun for writers and for people who like to hear themselves talk. I am both of these things.

But relevant in my business? I never would have really guessed. Sure I would have stood by twitter and said "you can follow companies" to try and make it seem like something more than Facebook - but really, what did I know?

And then the Hollywood Fringe Festival happened. Hash tags (more in a bit) popped up like mad. #HFF from everyone associated and tweeting about the festival. And it worked. Suddenly we were bound. We could find and follow each other. We helped each other with costumes. We advertised our shows. We discussed venues and shared rehearsal pictures. We whored out the reviews we wrote (well.... I did). We were, in a sense, a mini online community. The festival was spread out, but twitter brought us together. I "met" other artists and writers and reviewers on twitter and then met them in real life. And it's not weird at all.

Hell, I got my job writing for the LA Theatre Review because someone posted it on twitter. Twitter makes things happen.

Reasons you should believe in twitter:

1) Like Myspace in the end, people want followers. Where in Facebook I will only accept friend requests from people I know, twitter allows you to follow anyone (whether they follow you back is another story entirely) but once following - you can mention (@) them in your tweets. It is much easier to connect to people you don't know yet, effectively building up your network, on twitter.

2) Hash tags (#LAThtr) instantly connect groups. Sure people tag things like #fail, but it works to unite communities as well. The LA Theatre scene has started to utilize twitter because of it's successful contribution to the fringe festival.

3) Jobs get posted on twitter. There are users you can follow that post job openings. You can follow people in the industry who might tweet job openings. Believe me, it happens. Just the other day I started following a woman (@cindymariej) who shares career advice to her followers and offers a weekly mailing of entertainment job openings.

4) As I mentioned before, you can follow companies on twitter. They post about what they're up to and what they want to be up to. I'm following every studio on twitter, and while it's often shameless self promotion of their latest action film, there often are tweets about the inner workings of the company as well. People hear things on twitter. It is often quoted. Hell, half the Emmy nominee reactions were quotes pulled from the nominee's twitter account.

5) In a world of instant news, twitter is the fastest. Earthquake? You'll know about it on twitter. Prop 8 trial won't allow cameras in? How about a live tweet from the courtroom. It happened and let all of us interested in the trial capable of following it (and not when its days old news).

So there you have it: my love letter to twitter. So the next time someone tries to tell you its just a string of status updates, slap them in the face with my blog.

And follow me on twitter - @marcusbkaye.

My name is Marcus Kaye, Bon Appetit!

I have discovered something new. It's not new, per se, but its an area that never really found myself diving into. New for me- how about that? If the title didn't give it away, my new found obsession is FRENCH FOOD.

Prior to Julie & Julia (see that, Columbia Pictures, the movie DID reach someone) I'll be honest that my knowledge of French food was limited to bread, cheese and escargot. Given that I dislike cheese, I always kind of passed over that particular type of cuisine. What a mistake!

The first place I encountered french cooking was La Poubelle on Franklin in Franklin Village. Parking here is a bitch, so valet. It's worth it. Its dark and moody and the waiters are clad in bow ties. French posters adorn the walls and wine is served by the bottle. I got trout doused in butter and spices and served with baked red potatoes. It was incredible. Rich and creamy and flaky and buttery.

Next was Figaro Cafe on Vermont in Los Feliz. This French cafe feels like it could have been right out of France. Table crammed together outside. People smoking. Dark coffee. My friend Kyle and I went for breakfast and I had some of the best eggs Florentine (a variation of the French eggs Benedict) I'd ever had. There's something about the mornay sauce that it's covered in that I absolutely love. I'd probably go ahead and say that this is my favorite French place in LA thus far, although I'm going to continue expanding my horizons.

This place looks like a gimmick. To French food what Taco Bell is to Mexican, but I assure you it's the real thing. On Santa Monica Boulevard, amidst the bars, is the Paris Crepe Cafe. I've been twice, once for sweet crepes and another time for savory. The Nutella/ banana sweet crepes were delicious and fattening and wonderful. Served with whipped creme AND ice cream, I dare you to say no to these. The savory crepes were good, but I'd recommend La Poubelle for those if that's truly what you're feeling. I shall call this my favorite place for French dessert.

You all know I'm as thin as a rail - maybe a few more trips to French restaurants will cure me of that. Ha!

My next foyer will be in cooking it! Art of French Cooking, anyone? Bon Appetit!