63 Los Angeles Entrepreneurs To Be Proud Of

We are about to head on a four-month, 48-state road trip to help people across America bring their ideas to life and shine the light on some of the amazing entrepreneurs and communities. We believe there are awesome entrepreneurs everywhere, not just in the places constantly covered by the media.  We want to help them, and will.

And you know, one of the communities that has some super remarkable entrepreneurs that doesn’t get enough credit is Los Angeles. There are hundreds of entrepreneurs here in Los Angeles who are building awesome companies, writing awesome books, making awesome movies and are trying to solve important problems to help make this world a better place.

Here are 63 Los Angeles entrepreneurs we can be proud of.  If you or someone you know should be on this list, feel free to comment below.

Mark Gantt – Executive Producer of The Bannen Way

Mark Gantt is the Executive Producer, and Star of Sony Pictures Television’s web series, The Bannen Way, created by Jesse Warren & Mark Gantt. He plays a character named Neal Bannen who is a womanizing, con man and small-time thief who wants to start his life over. All he has to do is pull off one more job to pay off his debts.

Also mentioned are Bannen's ZACK ARNOLD and friend CHAD KUKAHIKO

Nearly one hundred talented Latino actors and actresses armed with headshots, demo reels and business cards brought their friendly faces and interesting personalities to the Actor Summit on Thursday, April 12, 2012.  The National Association of Latino Independent Producers(NALIP) hosted the summit to kick off their annual conference-NALIP: Diverse Voices, Universal Content.  It was an opportunity for performers to meet and network with professional filmmakers, producers and casting directors. The Actor Summit took place at the Wizards Theatre on CityWalk at Universal City.

One of the popular panels was on how to use New media to keep careers from stalling. "I suggested to NALIP that we bring in actors who have successfully used the new media to get seen by Directors, Entertainment Executives, and Producers," he said.  The workshop entitled 'How to create, produce and star in your own webisodes!' featured Ruth Livier, Mark Gantt and Julia Ahumada Grob.  All started as actors but took their careers to new levels by creating their own content to showcase their talents.  "These actors grew beyond the "normal" actor roles and became producers, writers, and even executive producers of their product.  Hollywood is beating down the doors to get to these resourceful actors," Fairbanks added.

Gantt co-created the award-winning The Bannen Way, an American crime drama.  Gantt, who stars as Neal Bannen, the main character, stated, "I couldn't even get co-star roles. I had an acting teacher who said create your own stuff, build your own door and walk through it." Gantt followed that advice and has not looked back since. He shared, "I wrote something that was me. After 19 days of shooting, I have confidence that I'm an actor and I'm a filmmaker." 

April 12, 2012

Marc Scott Zicree breaks down essential steps for creating your own projects. Uses Mark Gantt and The Bannen Way as an example of not waiting around for your career.

Hunger Games fan series “Star Squad” gears up for production

Wildly successful veterans from the web series world are making a new series in the Hunger Games universe, and they need your help to make “Star Squad” happen.

Woody Tondorf has well over 48 million views on YouTube for his show “Elevator.” He also happens to be a huge fan of The Hunger Games. When he teamed up with Caroline Framke, who writes for the Hulu show “The Morning After,” they ended up expanding on the world of the Hunger Games and creating their own series. Now they’re ready to make it a reality.

“Star Squad” is 3 episodes, but think of them more as “acts” instead of episodes. Act One sits at about 14 pages, and that’s the shorter one. We can probably expect the run-time for the whole series to be around an hour. That’s a lot of Hunger Games and could definitely hold fans over between the Hunger Games feature film (not related) and the sequel, Catching Fire, set to be released in November, 2013.

They’ve already lined up some amazing cast that they’ll be rolling out over the next few days. The first cast member they released is Cressida played by Tonya Kay . I don’t know about you but their propos picture of Cressida is exactly the way I had her pictured in my head.

But Tonya Kay is just the tip of the iceberg. They have done some brilliant casting and the announcements they’ll be making over the next few days will definitely make you even more excited to see the show. I’m really excited about … well I can’t really tell you until they release the names. But I’ll post more info here as it comes out.

Brendan Bradley pairs with Youtube’s “Mystery Guitar Man” for new original series

THE BANNEN WAY

THE BANNEN WAY is a sexy crime series with elements of action, comedy and a bit of thriller thrown in for good measure. Most importantly the series has fun with itself, as it chronicles Neal Bannen (Mark Gantt), a con man attempting reform. He guides himself with a series of rules--“The Bannen Way”--which are weaved throughout the story when they apply to the often tumultuous situations he finds himself in. Neal is caught in a bit of a conundrum with a father who is a cop and an uncle who holds onto his grandfather’s mob legacy both pulling him in different paths. Neal is confident and always looks for the angle; the trick is to see him navigate an ever-increasingly complicated landscape where options disappear as quickly as they appear. The cast is amazing with Michael Ironside as the father and Robert Forrester as the uncle, and let’s not forget Vanessa Marcil as the sexy pickpocket with suspect motivations. Neal is set on a mission to procure an object that will clear his debts and allow him a way out of the life he leads.

My hat is off to Mark Gantt and Jesse Warren for creating something interesting and fun to watch. Like most people, I like to be surprised and I found this be well-written without the obvious “I saw that coming a mile away” moments that hamper so may stories today. Not surprisingly with something based on a con man seeking reform or more importantly a way out of the life, this series was full of twists and turns. I got a bit of a Guy Richie vibe with the rules he lives by and the way the story unfolds without all of the spastic editing that sends parts of the population into epileptic fits. The series was smart and very sexy, as Neal Bannen is a bit of a ladies’ man. Seeing what content creators can do with a bit of money always makes me wonder how Hollywood produces so much crap when this kind of talent is available.

The writing in the series was tight, as any good web content has to have; otherwise we’re bound to click on onto the next thing. The plot entwines the different pieces of Neal’s life nicely as the pressure is amplified episode to episode, making it ideal for the web. The cast ismarvelous and I found it a real treat to see actors I liked so much turn up in such good roles. The whole series is a real gem and I encourage anyone who likes this genre to tune in.

On The Comedy Rich Web, An Elite Group Of Dramas Break Through, These Are Their Stories

The creators of web series "Anyone But Me," "The Bannen Way," and "Robert Townsend's Diary of a Single Mom"--and the web sites that host them--talk about the challenges facing online shows that aren't all about laughs LOLCats.

Dina Kaplan, a co-founder of blip.tv, says she thinks it may take one to two years for drama to really make a splash online. She offered her perspective on four keys to making online drama click.

1. Economics

Unlike television, it’s hard to promise or predict the amount of eyeballs necessary to recoup production costs from shooting a drama. “It's been harder for scripted dramas to succeed because their costs are higher making the margins for profit slimmer,” Kaplan says. “The successful series are riding the margins. We need a little more time for more money to flow into the market.”

Many original series post on sites like Kaplan’s blip.tv, which acts much like a television network and shares revenue made from online ads with producers. But there’s also the rare show that takes its content straight to the big boys for a deal. Take the creators of the hit Crackle.com action-packed crime drama The Bannen Way. They produced a high-quality pilot to shop around before landing a deal with Sony, which eventually led to 13 million streams of the show on Sony's Crackle site.While it’s unclear whether or not there will be a second season, the first season is available on DVD and there are murmurs of developing it into a television series.