Posted 11.20.5 by Andy Herz (at my request and with my permission and encouragement. :eon)

Dispatch #1: Nov. 18, 2005 Meeting with Charlie Nesson and Colin Channer

My name is Andy Herz. I am an entertainment/technology attorney and writer based in Brooklyn. Most of all, I am blessed to be working with Charlie and an incredibly talented group of people on the SSET collective filmmaking project. Truly blessed. My assignment, if I choose to accept it, is to document the story of the story; the way in which we all interact, teach, conflict, and create together; the “making of” our film.

And I’ll tell you what. This film is going to be amazing in every facet.

Our new film is inspired by and will pay thorough tribute to Perry Henzell’s groundbreaking 1972 motion picture, The Harder They Come (“THTC”). Perry’s gritty, authentic vision introduced Jamaica and reggae to the world. Our new film is The Harder They Come – thirty years later. Everything’s the same. But everything’s different.

The beauty part being . . . it will literally be our film, because the Jamaica Express is all of us. It’s not just the core creative folks, though they’ll have hands on the wheel of this magic bus. This film will be created by students in the SSET Program, by all our creative collaborators and by friends out there in the ether who love the original film and want to join the party.

Just as the original film blazed the way for indy filmmakers everywhere, our new film will explore collective, community-building filmmaking strategies which lie not only outside the studios’ playbooks, but also those of more traditional independent filmmaking.

The original THTC creative team, led by Perry and the film’s co-writer, Trevor Rhone, will be consulting and mentoring the folks involved in making the new film. Our director is Chris Browne (Third World Cop, Dancehall Queen, and the wonderful documentary on THTC – A Hard Road to Travel). As you’ll see in the linked meeting notes, below, we are hoping that Jamaican-born novelist and Calabash Festival chairman Colin Channer will contribute his vision and passion to the treatment, then script.

So this is an invite to all of you: come to Jamaica in just a few weeks for the opening of the new SSET offices. Meet our honored guest Ruben “Hurricane” Carter, and get on board. The Jamaica Express leaves the station on December 4.

11.18.05 Meeting Minutes -Treatment/Screenwriting and Soundtrack Processes; Essential Story Elements; and more.
– Duke and Honey (nee Charlie and Fern), Colin Channer, Andy Herz, Marie Brown.

Next Steps for Jamaica Express – as of 11 21 05