It’s that time again. It’s the middle of the night, early morning, and I should be writing a paper for college - hi, it’s Scott Lee, Company Administrator of Barton Ct. Productions Inc. If you click the play button above and watch the box for about a minute, you will have seen the latest teaser trailer for the feature length documentary that premiered to a private audience last year: I’m Not Gonna Lie. It’s getting released to the public this summer, along with our new comedy series: Barton Police, which now has an all new section on the website for behind-the-scenes news here.
We’re proud to announce that between these two major feature length projects, we’re releasing an intended grand total of 4.5 hours of total edited, polished new content to the public. And behind all of it lies only one goal: gain as much exposure, publicity, and fan following as we possibly can. We’ve already started it on the social networks: YouTube, MySpace, Yuwie, and others, but to really get a true following is going to take a lot more than just sending out a lot of random friend requests to strangers. We’re going to need your help, obviously, but beyond that we’re also going to need a sound financial plan.
Hopefully, that’s where I come in. After all, it is my job to look after the financial well being of the company while director Stephen Wolfe produces ridiculously good content on a limited budget for public consumption and public relations. While we have been making many announcements for distribution plans over the course of 2008 with intentions to gain distribution at retailers, create a new online store to be completed by the end of this quarter, and many other lofty, ambitious goals, I’d like to say with some regret that we’re changing our minds.
To some, this may seem like a negative thing. I can understand where they might be coming from. We’ve just gone from saying that we’re going to distribute music, books, and films various places online and possibly even make them available by ordering them from your favorite retail store to now saying: none of that is happening just yet.
So what are we doing, then?
With the recent onset of the bad economy we have seen a drop in sales with Dirty Mechanism Apparel, first of all, and at this point that is not really too much of a secret. The bigger secret is that DM may be in trouble because of CafePress.com’s new commission structure. This is causing us to make a tough decision. To make a long story short, we’re going to be making a LOT less money from Dirty Mechanism and that is a huge incentive to either start fresh with it at a competing on demand production company, reinvent it entirely with a costly start up plan along with carried inventory, or shut it down entirely to pursue other ventures. For those of you that are fans: I’m sorry, but there is no telling what will happen to Dirty Mechanism just yet.
While our decisions not to continue with our original plans we had set up in 2008 does not come entirely from Dirty Mechanism’s possible demise, we can say that it has a decent deal to do with it. Aside from that, we’ve got merch that we have not sold that we need to sell, a comedy series that has been dragging its way to completion, and a marketing plan that is as sound as a homeless man acting as though he does not need the quarter he manages to find on the street. The fact of the matter is: we’re hurting a bit right now, and our primary goal in the midst of these events is to save money.
A long while back, Stephen and I made the decision to sell off 10% of the company to private investors. For the most part, private investors have not been sold anything, primarily because of the way our stock is set up. Number one, it is a privately held company. Number two, in order to have a real stake in the company they will have to pay a hefty price per share to essentially help the company launch. Number three, for that hefty price they get virtually no control over what decisions the company makes.
No control + high price per share + private held company = Having faith in the leadership of a company they’re likely not familiar with + running a high risk with their investment capital + not being able to easily get rid of the stock if something goes horribly wrong.
Aside from all this, there are also investment limitations on our end, as well. We do not want to sell off too much stock in small portions, because we do not want to be splitting up tiny little pieces of the company to the wrong people. When it all comes down to it, it appears to be an odd power and trust game: who are the right people to leave money with and what are they going to do with it?
Needless to say, we’re not holding our breath for someone to come along and deliver a nice fat check for $200,000 in shares either. Instead, we’re going to do things a bit like the old fashioned way, and the same way that an individual, not just a corporation, might do it.
We’re going to perform jobs for other people and other businesses and with the money that the corporation gets, we’re going to be saving that money. Stephen Wolfe, in the midst of his lifetime artistic high, will continue funding projects out of his own pocket. Though it might sound strange to those who are unfamiliar with business or accounting, I suppose Stephen and I will be battling each other to see who can generate the highest negative number on the company profit & loss statements over the next five years in terms of putting in endless new capital and creating more and more equity for ourselves.
On his end, it will be for his ongoing development as a film maker. On my end, it will be for my frugal strategy at creating a corporate piggy bank to one day unleash its fury upon the world.
In addition to Dirty Mechanism, lots of other factors have gone into our decision to discontinue our 2008 plans. Hurricane Ike has done considerably more damage than we originally anticipated. Flooding and environmental hazards have actually begun to wreak havoc on an already unstable filming schedule. Our membership program was discontinued because it could not be sustained due to an inactive and ineffective marketing plan. We do not have time to do our event packages and services because of everything going on in our lives. We have too much inventory and no venue or time to actually sell it. The list of problems goes on and on.
In the mean time, we have some great things planned in the middle of this awful recession that will keep you entertained. As long as you can still access the internet, we hope that you will enjoy 2009 like we will. Even though many of our plans are having to be redirected and reevaluated, 2009 is still going to be the single biggest year this company has yet seen. In truth, since incorporating Barton Ct. Productions in 2006, it is only now in 2009 that I feel we are just now beginning to make the ideal launch toward a better future. Spread the word: I’m Not Gonna Lie and the hilarity of Barton Police is about to take the internet by storm.
Websites for Current Projects:
http://www.ImNotGonnaLieMovie.com/
http://www.BartonPolice.com/
Stay tuned over the coming months for these websites to receive new content, updates, trailers, and of course: the actual movie and show! BartonPolice.com will soon have a full layout with various sections and features to explore.
