Today in History . . . January 14

1967. A human be-in, the counterculture gathering was born in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. This marked the explosion of the so called Hippie movement. This so-called happening became an event worthy of mainstream news and launched be-ins echoing throughout North America. Which became 'sit-ins' of protest, 'teach-ins' organized by students seeking democracy, and 'tune in, turn on and drop out' slid into the Summer of Love.  Love-ins enticed and Laugh-ins, made us laugh.
This event, the be-in, led into the Vietnam war protests, Make Love not War became the international password as some sought to make the world a better place to live-in.
And some of that mentality seems today, to be repeating itself, except it is now expressed in bits and bytes on blogs, facebook and Twitter, from the safety and comfort of our home computers. One wonders how another summer of love could happen without face to face recognition?
The powers that be are still forcing wars on other countries to bring them a distorted version of democracy and make them better places based on a parochial view of what a better place is.  Whether they like it or not.
A generation later the cycle of love and war has only returned to 1967 with a 2011 technological aspect. 
Sadly it is love that has lost the war.

HST and the film business in BC

Recently Mr. John Winter, the CEO of the BC Chamber of Commerce was on the Bill Good show, pimping the HST. He wants the vote to go later so they (whoever 'they' are) will have time to turn the people around into voting FOR it. During this interview, Mr Winter, when questioned on exactly WHAT business is already influenced favorably by the HST, said the BC film business was an example. Others have commented that the HST will be good in the future.
However Mr. Winters has NO idea what he is talking about or how the film industry operates. and is only promoting the same deception that the Liberal government has been telling us about for months now.

The first deception is that the HST has resulted in more production business for the film industry in BC. That could not be further from the truth! I am not disputing that the HST, in the future, could affect film production here in BC, but all the film and TV business that we have going here has been planned for months, and in Feature Film production, most likely YEARS ahead.

Mr. Winters and other promoters of the Liberal party would have you believe that the HST was announced, and Hollywood THEN decided to write and produce films and TV in BC, as if was an instant project when EVERYONE in the film business KNOWS that these projects take YEARS to get going! (How many films have you heard that take 10 years to get into production?)
So literally every production currently shooting in BC was planned long ago and has NO RELATIONSHIP TO THE HST.

Future productions may be considering it in their planning, but John Winter and others shouldn't try to get credit for what people who are actually IN the film business in BC have already done for years in getting film production here! And we already have a thriving green industry going on in BC.
There are several reasons why we have vibrant film production here:
- we have year around shooting weather
- we have absolutely competant crews
- we are only a 3 hour flight from Los Angeles
- we are in the same time zone
- we have huge variety in locations all close to, or in Vancouver
- we have an active and talented acting community
- we have established and respected casting people
- we have many good sound stages and production facilities
- we have pre production knowledge and ability second to none
- we are already cost effective in how we do things

... and artistically, to quote Chris Carter, producer of X Files, we have that wonderful Vancouver light!

So Mr Winter and others; Do what you want with your spin about the HST, but don't try to undermine the work done by others who have worked very hard for many years to build our successful film industry.