Please read through this - I spent 4 hours writing it because I believe it is THAT important - and you will see that I am - in no way - supporting the idea that Joe should SHARE his position as Creative Director of hitRECord, but I see a way that - through proper, professional proposals, a lot of the legwork of Productions/Collabs/Projects can be DELEGATED and Joe can approve and watch over/encourage participation in, etc. these "Greenlit" Collaborations (Perhaps a new Category of project there Marke?) and this will actually INCREASE JOE'S FUNCTIONALITY AS CREATIVE DIRECTOR by allowing qualified members (see below for how the submission process ONLY allows those qualified to lead their proposal can even submit a pitch) to do a TON of legwork, thus freeing Joe to focus on CREATIVE DECISIONS rather than practicalities that "Assistant Directors" could be taking care of on projects - which would in turn yeild a TON more FINISHED HR PROJECTS! Yay!
So:
I know that there is a gorgeous effect of unparalleled synergy that occurs when a small collaboration (like the Bring Your Own Words thread) organically grows into a massive collaboration (like the two-part MMM films that came from the story Meta wrote for that Bring Your Own Words thread.) But those synergistic explosions CAN co-exist with projects that are planned, from day 1, to BE large projects that take a lot of time commitment from those involved. And I believe it is only fair that if someone is going to commit their large project to being made on hitrecord.org and thus becoming a hitrecord.org property that hitrecord.org gets half the profits from; it IS fair to request that Joe review a Professional Quality Proposal for those large projects and tell the person - honestly - whether or not he can see himself lending support to this project by bringing it to the attention of the site as a "Greenlit" project that he will help oversee the completion of; AND state whether or not - when that project is complete - WILL IT BE SOMETHING HITRECORD WOULD RELEASE??? Because I asked a question 7 months ago that others have begun asking: if they put a ton of time and energy into making a project on HR and it gets completed, but JOE doesn't believe it is suitable for the HR Brand and won't release it under the HR name, CAN THE CREATIVE TEAM WHO MADE IT RELEASE IT THEMSELVES??? If so, do they still pay HR 50%? What happens if we are not, legally, allowed to release it at all. So, Joe, I'm sure you can see how someone like Lawrie who produces distributable films would like to know BEFORE he begins his large project here on hitrecord if when it is done... was it always, from the get-go a project that has content hitrecord would NOT release and so now hitrecord owns HALF of a project they don't want their name on??? OR - could Lawrie (and anyone else with the skills and knowledge to create a full Production Proposal) have ASKED you BEFOREHAND in a private proposal, found out that the content is NOT something you and HR will get behind and then he could decide if he still wants to do the project on hitrecord knowing it won't be released or if he would like to do it elsewhere, with another set of resources so that he can do whatever he wants with it when it's done?

You see Joe, this is a dilemma for some members who have the skill and resources to DO their projects elsewhere but would really really love to do them on hitRECord with YOUR approval, support on-site and the knowledge that if they are completed to the quality level of a professional production that YOU will be there to figure out what's next. I realize you greatly enjoy the spontaneous decisions and collisions and magic that happens here. But you now have a worldwide force of artists who WANT to create things under YOUR brand and in YOUR Production Company, but just need to know if you endorse and will help guide their project (no need to give up final creative say on things) or if you just aren't into it and they should do it elsewhere. I think it's a fair question to ask when someone is talking about doing all the gruntwork on a LARGE project that - if you like it - would boost your business and you don't even have to PAY them unless it makes money. They just want to know if you are behind them on what would be a large endeavor. Isn't that fair? ((I realize you would have to have some kind of clause about seeing the finished product before agreeing to release it as HR, and maybe make alternate options in the case it turns out to be less successfully executed than everyone had hoped.) But some things that people would like to do - which could turn out being fantastic showpieces for hitrecord - take too much of our personal resources to just HOPE that you'll like it. We would like to be able to ask you before we invest in doing it here, whether you will invest your support in us doing it here. Not monetary support. "Support" to be defined. I've written below what I think you could do for "Greenlit" projects that won't cost HR anything. But I'm sure there are other ideas and it is ultimately up to you.

While I'm sure you want to accomodate us as much as possible, I know you are probably imagining people sending you mountains of things that don't actually warrant a decision to pre-determine your support for a project and you ending up with that mountain of stuff to go through. But I believe I have a solution for that. (See below.) So I think that if we could eliminate the slushpile effect - meaning lots of poorly done proposals and junkmail piling up - that I'm certain is a great deterent from Joe allowing people to propose projects for him to get behind, perhaps he might consider allowing us to seek his support before beginning something that is meant to be a large project and therefore a great investment of time. And I believe I have a solution to the Slushpile... tailormade for HR. But it would also require that members respect that Joe is very busy and that they need to have a certain size of project and level of preparedness before approaching him for any kind of opinion or approval.

Basically, I think that having a submission process like the one described below would result in a surprisingly FEW number of submissions and only ones that could be truly great hitrecord projects on a large enough scale that they would NEED Joe's support at some point anyway. But I honestly believe there are some projects that would take so much resources from the members who commit to it that it's fair to want to know if the project will have that support ahead of time. For instance: when Lawrie and I were talking about doing my Jane the Ripper short film, the idea was that I would make all the costumes and send them to him and he would do what he does and make it an awesome movie. (Yes, THAT is how much I trust him artistically.) We both got distracted by other things, but had that particular project progressed, it would have meant many thousands of dollars worth of fabric (I actually already own all the fabric but the point is it had to be paid for at SOME point) and it would take me 3-4 weeks to build all the costumes. Right there ALONE is reason enough to know if the content of the story I'd be investing money and a month of labor in (if you haven't looked at my site please do - I've been invited to show at London Fashion Week next year - INVITED! Not ok'd but actually sought after!!! OMG. Just need $10K to finance it. But that's another topic, the point is I do Couture: www.SarahJennyDesigns.com) so if I'm going to make an investment like that in a project hitrecord would own the right to release or NOT RELEASE, it would be fair for me to know if the violence and bisexual elements of the story would be something that hitrecord would release or would shy away from. You know what I mean? Some things are just too big to gamble but I WANT to gamble them on hitrecord if I know they have a fair shot at completion and release with your approval. And I know others feel that way too. They WANT to put a lot more time and energy into projects here but they want a little assurance that if they do well on a large, intricate project that hitrecord will be behind them on it.
Otherwise, as Monkey said in Math of the Heart thread, they'll just do their "serious" projects elsewhere.

But Joe - you WANT us to do our serious projects HERE just as much as we want to do them here, don't you?

Scratch that. I know damn well you WANT us to do serious projects here because you have spent YEARS - near a decade - and hundreds of thousands of dollars building us a place to work together.

So let us work together at whatever level each member is capable of. And you have got yourself some very talented members who COULD run productions under your approval (myself NOT included lol) and it could only do good things to have more projects completed, IMHO. And I believe that more projects would be completed if you agreed to DELEGATE work to Assistant Directors - or whatever title they should have - and you were freed up for creative decision making and publicly endorsing approved projects and encouraging participation by letting people know that "Greenlit" projects are still under YOUR creative control through private conversations or suggestions with the person who Proposed and is running the project. Think how much we could accomplish!
SO:
Lawrie, I wholeheartedly agree that there should be some kind of DIRECT and private pitching system. I think it should be a form on the site that REQUIRES certain information be included to assure that ONLY COMPLETE Professional Level Proposals will activate the "SUBMIT" button. (See below for more on that.) That would be in order to avoid them ending up with a HUGE slushpile of pitches that do not have the proper information or simply are not talking about projects that need any particular help, suggestions, or support from hitRECord or Joe.

So, in short, there should be some VERY STRICT submission guidelines and requirements. (See below for how the complexity of the submission requirements will assure the person submitting the proposal is QUALIFIED and CAPABLE of doing what they are proposing to do and asking for assistance getting completed.)

WHAT DOES A "GREENLIGHT" MEAN ON HITRECORD??
Well... I don't know. :^) I am assuming that since HR doesn't have traditional support, ie.: money to hand out BEFORE production that anyone submitting a Proposal would be looking to Joe and HR's support in helping to:
GUIDE THE ATTENTION/ACTIVITIES of the sitemembers toward that project and helping to ensure that people stay interested and active until THE PROJECT GETS FINISHED!!!
I believe this would be the best thing that Joe and HR could offer as a "greenlight" to a proposal - but Lawrie, I don't know what you had in mind as the definition of an HR Greenlight, since they don't have the budget to be handing out cash upfront. But since I am not a Director, Lawrie, perhaps you could shed some light on what YOU - who would actually be able to lead a proper production - would want hitrecord to do in terms of support for a project Joe has "gotten behind."
Of course it would ultimately be up to Joe because this is his turf. Period. It's HIS playground that he built for all of us and that's a great gift in itself, so asking for more from him, like personal suppost, is - on the one hand: asking for more - but on the OTHER hand, potentially of GREAT benefit to hitRECord (and Joe) by getting more projects finished.

And while I am - and always will be - on the side of the fact that JOE funded and developed this place and he will ALWAYS be the ultimate Creative Director of hitRECord and what he says goes (of course you can also just not watch the Regularity videos and ignore his existence completely if you want LOL) - I am ALSO of the mind that him Greenlighting projects to be run by, OR "Assistant Directed" by qualified members, does NOT diminish his role as the ultimate creative leader of HR.
It would simply be DELEGATING the everyday details of a project that Joe has approved of to a qualified member so that hitrecord can have MORE projects completed in less time. I believe that as long as the "Assistant Directors" or "Project Directors" respect that if Joe asks them to change something, it should be discussed respectfully and taken seriously as the request of their employer - I don't think that would diminish Joe's role as Creative Director and Director.
I actually think it would ENHANCE it because if he delegates then he can run more projects that are successfully completed and they will ALL be projects he has approved and is overseeing.

Seems like a win/win to me.

But back to avoiding a slushpile. I believe the guidelines and submission email address (or online form) should be available to EVERYONE because only those of a certain knowledge and skill level will be able to create a truly professional submission package (even WITH instructions you still have to know the answers to the questions!) so hopefully only people who look at the submission requirements and understand them will submit something. Because I am talking about FULL Production Package Proposals. Budgets, Timetables, Schedules, nearly everything you have to do to get a proper project greenlit by any production company. I say nearly because it should be enough to show that A) As proposed Project Leader (or whatever you want to be called) you are qualified for the job. But B) It shouldn't make you do SO much work to submit an idea that you feel like you wasted a ton of time if it gets turned down.
Though I think it should be made clear that if something gets turned down for Joe's personal support of the project and seeing it through - that DOES NOT MEAN YOU CANNOT DO THE PROJECT! You can still start a Collaboration and do YOUR very best to get it finished. It's just that there is an UNDENIABLE benefit to having Joe standing behind and cheering on your project. Because he IS the ipso facto Leader of this site: by definition. Hitrecord is Joe's vision. Period. And the ONLY reason our little site has gotten the media attention it has is because of Joe's lifelong position in the traditional media. Of course we had to produce good content or the press on hitrecord would have been VERY different than it was. So we are all important to the reputation of HR as well. But there are TONS of people making good content and art on the internet who don't get to make a music video for Sean Lennon or have Robert Redford review their short film. So there's just no seperating Joe's natural position here from the existence of the site itself.

But if Joe, et al, start taking submissions - again, only PROPER Pitches (see below for how to ensure that is what AND ONLY what you receive) and begins delegating responsibility to people he trusts, there is no reason anyone should even be TALKING about whether or not Joe should or shouldn't be the Director of HR. It's a moot point anyway because he's not going anywhere and no one can make him and I hope no one WANTS him to. But I know some people want to have his support in them taking on larger roles in certain projects they want to do. I think it would make everyone - site wide - happy because we would be more productive, people could choose whom they want to follow in a project and those who do not yet feel qualified or capable of submitting a GOOD Proposal can rest happy knowing that the more projects they work on, under the leadership of others, the more they will learn and that they have a place that - WHEN THEY ARE READY - they can pitch their project.
And as Marke pointed out in the "Mathematics of the Heart" thread, there ARE members who have EARNED the trust and fellowship of a good percentage of the members - like Lawrie, Tori, Meta, etc. - and I know from statements people have made that they would be comfortable following the lead of those members who have consistently shown they FINISH QUALITY PROJECTS. There's a number of members I'd gladly follow - including those three and others - because I know they see things through to a quality finish.

But back to the actual Proposals: For those of you who have never seen one - a full production proposal is essentially one of the most complicated Business Plans you can imagine. So I believe this - especially if paired with a form/attachments that are submitted through a page on the site that ONLY accepts things that are complete and formatted properly - would save Joe et al from the dreaded SLUSH PILE that comes with opening one's creative business up to submissions. (FYI: Slush Pile is a publishing term for the huge pile of unsolicited manuscripts that flood an Editors office and must be stepped through and around like a pile of slush. It makes a mess and most of them are not of professional quality - down to being handwritten on UN-NUMBERED loose leaf paper sometimes!!! - and therefore are a waste of the Editor's time to read, but they don't know until they've already wasted the time reading them.)

Of course, there is also the shame factor to keep people from filling the submission box with poorly planned and unprofessional submissions: because you know if you send a professional business man a crappy business proposal once, he's NOT gonna read your next one. So when you have the chance to have the head of a company - like Joe is the head of HR - read your business proposal, you do it right or you embarass yourself. Period.

I like that word today. Period. lol.
K, well thanks for reading this and if you guys in charge like the idea, I'd be happy to help write up Submission instructions, as I'm sure Lawrie would be happy to help as well. I know Metaphorest is right there as well and a fantastic writer, but I was a Technical/Instructional writer too so I am happy to put my "towel in the hat" on writing Submission Instructions too.
In fact, Joe, if you are willing to take PROPER Project Proposals, in the spirit of delegation of work, I am willing to do ALL the legwork to make it happen. All you guys have to do is send me a list of what you would like included in the proposals that would A) make the project clear to you, B) show you the person proposing the project knows what they must know to actually lead it and C) make clear what they want in terms of help/site support from you - then I would be happy to turn it into a set of Submission Instructions and then - if you don't want an email - maybe Marke could post a form with basic info and a place for people to attach their spreadsheets, additional outlines, etc. and it gets submitted THROUGH THE SITE so no one thinks they should be clever and send fanmail to the submission email. ;^)
You rockstar, you. heh. :^D