THE BIG PICTURE GROUP

Vision Statement

The vision of The Big Picture is a world in which youth both have and use their voices, knowing that they are tomorrow’s leaders; in which their elders understand that teaching them is vital to the future of this planet; and that the arts are a conduit for both.

Mission Statement

The mission of The Big Picture Group is to engage young people who are interested in visual arts in script-to-screen film making. Through a one-year experience that will take participants from pre-production to post-production, participants will learn how to write a script, prepare a budget, shoot and edit a film. At the end of the year, the participants will have produced a feature-length film, giving them a valuable experience which will translate to higher education and career pursuits.

Rationale and Work Plan

Film is a pervasive part of our culture, but too often under represents the experiences of many viewers. Young people from the inner-city are often depicted in lurid fashion, as stock or stereotypical fashion. They rarely receive the opportunity to express their own experience or vision through film; the people behind the cameras are the ones who make the choices.

The Big Picture Group will demystify the film world for these young people. Through a real-world work experience, they will learn the skills and tools necessary to create and promote a film, and in the process to express themselves through any media and pursue their personal passions in life.

Eddy Duran, founder of The Big Picture Group, has produced four films. In his professional life, he has made introducing young people to film making a personal goal. He began working with his son and his son’s friends from school. He conceived of The Big Picture Group as frame to structure and further this work.

The Big Picture Group will recruit participants from New York City schools. Participants will learn:

• Script writing and development;
• Budgeting;
• Shooting techniques; and
• Editing.

The goal is not merely to entertain, but to create a film that is thought-provoking and relevant to daily life. Participants will spend 3 months on pre-production, 1 month on production, and 3 months on post-production. After this, participants will work to promote the film, setting up screenings at schools, colleges, and community organizations; entering the film into festivals; and generating press coverage.

The promotion of the film will also serve as a recruitment mechanism for future participants: screening attendees will be given the opportunity to sign up to participate in the next project.

After participating in The Big Picture Group, young people will have a documentable experience to put on their résumes, film credits, and clips to be used in a reel of their work.

Current Project

At present, The Big Picture Group is working to promote The Lesson Plan. This film introduces us to Nix Dunn, a Brooklyn, NY public school teacher/scholar. He is obsessed with the William Lynch letter of 1712—specific instructions from a British West Indies slave owner to Americans on how to make and keep slaves. (The term “lynching” derives from his name.) On the verge of a nervous breakdown, Nix Dunn creates a dramatic lesson plan during Black History Month in order to teach his students about the psychological damage he believes still enslaves African Americans today.

The Big Picture Group will screen this 30-minute film to schools throughout New York City and other organizations across the country. They will recruit participants for the task of turning this short film into a full-length feature film.

Project Staff

Eddy Duran started his career as a public access television producer. Recognizing the need to create thought-provoking films, Eddy enrolled in courses for film making at NYU, and moved towards producing and directing his first film short Good Thing. Three months later Eddy wrote the script and assembled the team for his first independent feature Stone Cold Killers: Los Jodedores, an urban drama about how the lives of a drug dealer with integrity, a visual artist, an alcoholic, and a violent ex-con, become inextricably bound together in Manhattan’s Washington Heights and Brooklyn’s East New York. Stone Cold Killers was acquired by Maverick Entertainment, which also acquired his second feature, Grand Opening, a comedy about the owner of a dysfunctional supermarket with eccentric employees and cynical customers. Both have been top sellers in Maverick’s library and can be found in any video outlet retailer including Blockbuster and Netflix.

Eddy recently completed his third independent feature entitled Shoes Crazy, which will shortly be available for purchase through Amazon.com. His latest short film, The Lesson Plan, will be featured in several film festivals across the country. The Lesson Plan follows a Brooklyn public school teacher/scholar on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Obsessed with the Willie Lynch letter, he creates a dramatic lesson plan during Black History Month in order to teach his students about the psychological damage he believes still enslaves African Americans today. The film is being shown at screenings throughout New York City, including public schools, and being promoted across the country.

Amir Minder is currently a film student at Hunter College. He met Eddy Duran while interning on the set of the film Hungry Ghost by Michael Imperioli, where Mr. Duran worked as an editor. Mr. Minder and Mr. Duran remained in contact, and Mr. Minder worked on Mr. Duran’s short film The Lesson Plan doing graphic animation. Mr. Minder is currently working on his thesis short film When it Rains, for which Mr. Duran serves as an advisor. Mr. Minder and Mr. Duran will continue their partnership through The Big Picture Group, where Mr. Minder will take his turn as a mentor to other young people.

Next Steps

In order to move forward, The Big Picture Group seeks support in the following areas:

• Meeting space;
• Screening space; and
• Film making equipment.

The Big Picture Group also seeks an established 501(c)3 organization with which to partner.

What Previous Participants Have to Say

I strongly support Eddy’s non-profit organization, The Big Picture Group, which is responsible for putting together productions such as this. The group enables novices of all ages to work with seasoned professionals who guide them in a non-competitive atmosphere. One who has no experience can build a resume and reel that can help him or her get a job in the field. One can also meet essential contacts that could open doors. The Big Picture Group gives like minded individuals the ability to make a dream into a reality. I feel privileged to have worked with the group. I currently work freelance for many different shows working in many positions, including cameraman. I am also working on many independent projects of my own. The footage used on my reel from, “The Lesson Plan” helped contribute to my success. I feel that Big Picture Group, and the dream of giving everyone a chance, is a remarkable philosophy. – Daniel Abril, Miami, Florida.

I've had the opportunity to work with writer and film director Eddy Duran. I started to work with him a couple of years after graduating high school. I attended Metropolitan Corporate Academy High School in Brooklyn, New York. Before I began acting, I worked with my uncle (Eddy) on his sets as a production assistant. In doing so, I developed a passion for acting. I followed him closely and listened to his direction carefully behind the camera before I got in front of it. My first role was in a film called "Grand Opening", where I played an employee in the grand opening of a supermarket. Under his direction, I discovered I had a natural talent to give life to this character "Timmy". Following "Grand Opening", I would continue to work with my uncle as a production assistant in his film "Shoes", before landing another role as "Mark" in the short, but powerful film "The Lesson Plan". The film also includes some of my music, which helped me to express my creativity on a much broader spectrum. These experiences have allowed me to express my creativity in such a way that I've decided to continue pursuing a career in the entertainment industry. If I continue to work with directors like Eddy Duran, I know my career will be a great success.— Jason Ramirez

Conclusion

Doctors attend the ill and lawyers defend rights. Artists, too, provide a service vital to human existence--emotional stimulation. Through their work, they help bring about a unique balance in human nature—happiness, stress release, hope, inspiration—a process the ancient Greeks referred to as catharsis. Students can learn about visual art, music, and literary arts in school or through a multitude of community organizations. Dance lessons are easily accessible. Breaking into film may seem out of reach to many young people, but The Big Picture Group seeks to rectify that imbalance.

Black People Are People Too...Coming Soon

Is Karen the last racist in New York?

Karen is a mid-thirties white woman struggling with her racism (“I know it’s not polite to refer to them that way,” she says, after calling someone a monkey). Enter William, who resolves to devote himself to “exorcising the racism from Karen the Racist” by taking her on a tour through some of the city’s "ethnic" literature, art and neighborhoods, but still Karen can’t manage to kick the habit.

The story takes a turn when Barack Obama, a first-time senator from Illinois, begins to mount an impressive presidential campaign (Obama is “half-white, half-black”). It soon becomes clear that America’s race sensitivity is as skin-deep as it is color blind.

Can William convince Karen the Racist that skin color is entirely incidental? Or is she a lost cause and, as some of his friends say, a total waste of time? Or is Karen’s racism symptomatic of a larger problem in dire need of eradication?

Black People are People Too is slated for production in fall 2010.

Pale Blue Light T.V. Series coming soon

Pale Blue Light is a television drama series that centers on a hip-hop record company called Pale Blue Light Records. The series will focus on the everyday lives of those who work at Pale Blue Light Records – at times a to-scale representation of the highly commercial industry as a whole, at others an intentional counterpoint – as the show’s stars struggle to make ends meet while also trying to raise hip hop as an art back to the days of its genesis.

This half-hour program deals with the drama and lifestyle that is hip hop, offering a behind-the-scenes of the hip hop industry and culture: the shady record deals; the struggles and squabbles defacing the business; the conflicts between labels; the video shoot and what happens when the cameras stop rolling; entanglements between artists and their fans; the myths of the hip-hop industry; radio stations and TV networks and how a song gets air-play; the violence that plagues the industry; individual conflicts, mudslinging and power-tripping and the chain of unexpected incidents and mysterious events that reconstitutes Pale Blue Light Records as one of the hottest record companies in New York.

Our show directly targets the largest built-in television audience in the world – the “Hip Hop Nation.” Cameo appearances by real hip-hop artists will blur the line between fantasy and reality.

Perhaps the best way to describe this series would be a cross between Entourage and The Wire, where you experience life in the fast lane with expensive cars and mansions and the gritty thug-life of crime and disloyalty, but Pale Blue Light will have a distinctive advantage in marketing over these other successful shows: the lingua franca that is hip hop. This show will be marketed around the world, because hip hop is in Europe, Japan, South America, Canada, Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, etc. The storylines will go beyond the coasts and midlands of America to the banlieues of Paris, the favelas of Brazil or the boroughs of South London, where the new breeds of hip-hop are evolving.

The first season is slated for production in fall 2011.