TAMPA BAY FILM

ABOUT TAMPA BAY FILM

“The future is the past.” - C. A. Passinault, Director, Tampa Bay Film
C. A. Passinault is the owner, and the director, of Tampa Bay Film, Tampa Bay Acting, Tampa Bay Modeling, Independent Modeling, Independent Acting, and many more talent, entertainment, and business resource sites. C. A. Passinault is a professional polymath. He is professionally certified in over 20 different professions in over 12 diverse industries. C. A. Passinault is a well-known, and respected, author and industry troubleshooter, with a history of changing different industries.
For the foreseeable future, the Tampa indie film scene is one of C. A. Passinault’s top priorities, and he intends to help make the Tampa independent film industry the leading film market in the southeastern United States.

A hint to what is in store for Tampa indie film. The future is in the prelude leading up to the founding of Tampa Bay Film.

The roots of Tampa Bay Film began in 2001, when C. A. Passinault, a group of models and entertainment industry professionals founded a modeling resource site, Independent Modeling.
Independent Modeling set about changing business in the modeling industry by teaching models to manager their own careers, and not to be dependent upon modeling and talent agencies. C. A. Passinault, a professional photographer who made a substantial income with the business of modeling portfolio photography and talent headshot photography, invested in the modeling industry resource sites to preserve, and expand, his market. His experience in business, his education, and his creativity were utilized in the effort. It worked. Revolutionary, new ideas fueled a revolution.
In 2002, Independent Modeling launched a sister resource site, Independent Acting. Independent Acting was the fist talent resource site to address issues with the Tampa indie film scene.
In 2003, Independent Modeling combated modeling scams, and even addressed an indie film casting scam in the Tampa Bay market. This first modeling industry war took several modeling scams, and the casting scam, out of business.
In 2004, another modeling industry war was fought by Independent Modeling, crippling modeling and talent photography scams. Several more unethical businesses lost the war, and went out of business. The market improved.
In October 2004, a group of models, with the assistance of Independent Modeling, founded a regional modeling resource site, Tampa Bay Modeling. Some of the most revolutionary ideas of Independent Modeling were tested through the Tampa Bay Modeling site. Tampa Bay Modeling had a huge impact on the Tampa, and Florida, modeling industries. Within a few years, many modeling and talent agencies, which traditionally controlled the modeling industry, lost up to 40% of their income due to the Independent Talent movement spearheaded by Independent Modeling and Tampa Bay Modeling. This improved the modeling industry, especially because the modeling and talent agencies were now in their proper place. The agencies now had to make money they way that they were supposed to, by finding models modeling job leads, and by working for the models instead of managing the careers of the models who they worked for.

An introduction to Tampa indie film and the agenda of C. A. Passinault

C. A. Passinault, who had accomplished major changes to the modeling industry and the photography services industry, began to turn his attention to indie film in 2005.
C. A. Passinault began his professional career as a writer in the 1980's, writing a novel and many works of fiction.
In 1988, C. A. Passinault began experiments with event planning. Within a few short years, he would become a professional event planner, with many trend-setting parties and events accomplished.
In 1990, C. A. Passinault began experiments with music and the spoken word, starting a career as a popular underground DJ. By the mid 1990's, C. A. Passinault would add banking to his professional portfolio, and his career as an event planner would reach legendary status with the development of advanced theme events which were decades ahead of their time.
In 1993, around the time that C. A. Passinault founded the Frontier Society subculture, he began learning television production and casting. A series of auditions for his plays taught him how to cast, and he became a professional casting director. By 1994, C. A. Passinault was learning indie filmmaking, too, helping to make Tampa indie films years before the present Tampa indie film scene. Also in 1994, Passinault started his photography career.
In 1995, Passinault began an acting career, and did a long run of television commercials and a few indie film projects.
In 1998, C. A. Passinault began to learn web design, and launched his first web site.
In 1999, C. A. Passinault prepared for his career as an indie filmmaker, as career that he had trained hard for in the early 1990's. His indie film production company, Dream Nine Studios, was founded.
In 2000, C. A. Passinault turned pro as a photographer, specializing in modeling portfolios and talent headshot photography. In 2001, Passinault founded his first modeling resource site, Independent Modeling. By 2002, his photography company took the lead in the Tampa photography services industry.
In 2001, Passinault.Com, the parent company of an array of production and business support companies run by Passinault, was founded.
From 2001 to 2003, Passinault attempted to get his first indie film production, a large feature film titled Reverence, off of the ground. Although the five auditions were successful in securing a large cast of professional actors, and the 140 page script was completed, the film project was dependent upon production support from production companies which had the equipment that were needed. Neither one did, and they dropped out. With production costs exceeding $45,000.00, Reverence was cancelled in 2003. Passinault’s first solo indie films would have to wait until digital production costs came down (as of late 2009, that $45,000 film can be done for under $2,000.00, and some estimates are as low as $1,200.00. The Reverence feature film was too soon, and in the years since, Passinault has completely changed his indie film strategy. Rerence would have been done the same way as any other indie film. This would have been an expensive mistake. The new indie films are revolutionary in every way).
During the audition process for Reverence, a Tampa indie film company paid a visit in 2002. They poached two Passinault.Com actresses, who were also models. The actresses made up 40% of the cast of a short indie film, and their source was not disclosed to the filmmakers who helped make the film.
In 2002, Independent Acting addressed issues with the Tampa indie film scene. A few Tampa filmmakers began to fight back. Independent Acting succeeded in its efforts. C. A. Passinault, who owned Independent Acting, began to study the Tampa indie film scene for his eventual introduction. Concerns about a filmmaker bad-mouthing Passinault to other filmmakers, especially after the loss of the two actresses, led to a delay in that introduction.
In the fall of 2005, C. A. Passinault finally made his introduction, meeting Tampa filmmakers and making peace with the filmmaker who he had an issue with.
In 2006, Passinault was very active in the Tampa indie film scene, attending Tampa film festivals and helping with the production of indie films. In late 2006, Passinault assisted with the production of The Quiet Place, a short horror film which would later be one of the most controversial films in the history of Tampa indie film. Around that time, Passinault had noticed issues in the Tampa indie film scene, and began planning an online film festival, since Internet technology had finally advanced enough to support one. With the industry-changing success of his other resource sites, such as Tampa Bay Modeling, Tampa Bay Film began development.

The Tampa Bay Film Story

In late 2006, Tampa Bay Film and its online film festival began development. With no web site ready to launch, Tampa Bay Film and a rough prototype of the online film festival debuted on Myspace.
In January 2007, a lot of things happened. The Quiet Place debuted at The Tampa Film Review, a monthly film festival. The group of filmmakers who had collaborated to make the short film began to fight, and blamed each other for the shortcomings of the film. It came to light that many of the filmmakers were petty and unprofessional, and actively tried to sabotage each other. Passinault readied Tampa Bay Film, and noticed that the Tampa indie film scene was even worse off than the modeling industry had been. He was also relived that he had done a good job as a photographer on the set of The Quiet Place, and that he seemed to survive the blame game unscathed. Up until this point, Passinault had been polite, and had not criticized anyone or anything in the Tampa indie film scene. Of course, on the set of The Quiet Place, lead actress Harmony Oswald, a good friend of Passinault’s who met him when she was one of his clients who had contracted him to shoot her headshots, and whom he referred to the film (unknown to the filmmakers or most of the cast), got on his case about not being assertive enough. Passinault told Harmony that he was there to take production stills as a photographer, and it was not his place to criticize the filmmaking. Harmony was right about her point, however, because Passinault was not receiving any cooperation from the director, or the filmmakers, in his effort to do his job. Passinault should have been more assertive, as the filmmakers were ignorant about the importance of production stills, and getting the photography done without cooperation was proving to be a difficult job. Passinault did succeed, however, despite the lack of cooperation. After The Quiet Place debuted, one reviewer remarked that Passinault’s production stills blew away the quality of the film footage itself.
Unknown to Passinault, some of the filmmakers on the set of The Quiet Place started some rumors about him, and slandered him behind his back. Passinault was not as unscathed by the battles of The Quiet Place as he thought, and just about everyone associated with that film has been bad-mouthed, or blamed, for things. Passinault had a busy schedule around that time, and when he had to leave the set early on the first day to get sleep so he could go to work that night, a filmmaker claimed that he had been “thrown off the set” because he had done something wrong, which was not the case.
Of course, Passinault was back the next day to take more pictures, and it is unknown how the filmmaker explained that, if Passinault had, in fact, been kicked off the set. Passinault, of course, was only aware of the lack of cooperation that he was receiving, and did not know the lies that were being spread about him behind his back. Thus began the discrimination and slander which Passinault had to endure from the unprofessional, insecure filmmakers of the Tampa indie film scene.
Of course, had the filmmakers in question been smart enough to do some research, they would have found out about the extent of resources that Passinault had, especially his ability to address scams and unethical activity. They made a mistake, and Passinault was the wrong person to start slandering. It seemed that slander and discrimination was a tool often used by filmmakers in the Tampa indie film scene to discourage perceived competition, and to run them out of the market. Passinault, however, would not roll over and take it like their other victims did. Passinault was about to discover the true nature of the Tampa indie film scene, and it would become the cause of the most intense fight of his career.
Passinault did do something that he has mixed feelings about. He helped out on films in 2006 as a photographer, and did not talk to anyone about who he was and what he did. As a result, most of the people on the sets, who did not know him, simply saw him as a photographer. This caused them to drop their pretension and be themselves, and was the litmus paper for the true condition, and the professionalism, of the Tampa indie film scene. As Passinault said “If you want to see what is really going on, introduce yourself as a lowly worker bee. With most people not aware that you can benefit their careers, you will get to see them for as they are. This strategy proved to be instrumental for my understanding on just how unprofessional the Tampa indie film scene was, and still is. I was easily able to determine who was worth working with, and who should be avoided. Once my cover was blown, a lot of people scrambled around and backpedaled, and it set the stage for a massive fight with others who chose to gang up on me and attempt to discredit me. Boy, did they regret it. The Tampa indie film market needed a professional voice, and needed the fight for change, and I gave it to them. I was able to out-compete, and defeat, a clique of detractors who are still in retreat. My efforts have already put some things our of business, and made it much harder for unprofessional, unethical filmmakers to work their careers.”
For several months after The Quiet Place premiered, however, Passinault would remain unaware of what had been going on behind his back.
On January 11, 2007, Tampa Bay Film, and its built-in online film festival, launched. At the time of the launch, the slogan of the new Tampa indie film resource site and online film festival was “Covering Tampa indie film”. This would soon change, as what happened in 2007 would help Tampa Bay Film find its footing, and its voice.
There was a bit of controversy surrounding the launch of Tampa Bay Film. A rival online film festival entered the picture, and so did some commentary from some in the Tampa indie film scene. A Tampa indie film blogger implied that the online film festival idea was stolen from a filmmaker friend of hers, which was not the case. Her filmmaker friend had overheard C. A. Passinault discussing online film festivals with one of his filmmaker friends on the set of The Quiet Place. In fact, work on the rival online film festival started after Passinault had begun developing his, and Passinault himself was unaware of it until it was announced in January 2007!
The film blogger reviewed Tampa Bay Film, and the review disparaged everything from the design of the web site to an opinion expressing that the online film festival was not a “real film festival”. This, too, despite the fact that no one in the Tampa indie film scene could match what Passinault could do with web sites. The biased review was clearly propaganda in support of an unprofessional clique on Tampa filmmakers who discriminated against Passinault and who opposed Tampa Bay Film. The filmmakers did not want any press which could reflect badly on what they were really doing.
The fight that the rival online film festival had with the Tampa Bay Film Online Film Festival was short-lived. By the summer of 2007, Tampa Bay Film defeated the other online film festival, which was abandoned and left adrift on the Internet. Tampa Bay Film became popular, and its online film festival flourished, unopposed.
Enter the first Tampa Film Network (which lasted until 2008), an organization of Tampa filmmakers which was responsible for the production of The Quiet Place. On July 20, 2006, there was a Tampa Film Network meeting held in a restaurant in Tampa which would be very notable in Tampa indie film history. Two filmmakers got into a massive argument about how to do indie films in Tampa. The fight was interrupted by the Tampa film commissioner and other filmmakers. C. A. Passinault, who was there with his good friend, model and singer Ann Poonkasem (who was also Miss Tampa and Miss Gasparilla over the span of a few years), observed from their seats. Passinault made an announcement of an idea of a new annual film festival for Tampa. The Tampa film commissioner discounted that, and she and another Tampa filmmaker announced their plans for an annual film festival of their own. Their film festival would become The Gasparilla Film Festival, which would later become The Gasparilla International Film Festival. Passinault paused, and wondered why the Tampa film commission was so interested in starting a film festival. With their objective of attracting large outside production companies to do films in Tampa, he also wondered what motivation that they would have to support indie film in Tampa.
In the summer of 2007, roughly a year later, Tampa Bay Film was online for several months, and it was becoming popular. The filmmaker who had announced The Gasparilla Film Festival with the Tampa film commissioner a year before was the same filmmaker who had tried to compete with Tampa Bay Film with a rival film festival, and who was defeated in that endeavor.

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UPDATED 11/07/09

 

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