The 2012 Merge Summit - Event

The 2012 Merge Summit - Event

By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist

The 2012 Merge Summit Is A Resounding Success!

Photos Courtesy of The Merge Summit

     Last week from Thursday, August 23^rd through Saturday, August 25^th; The 2012 Merge Summit convened at the famed and historic Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. 

Dr. Holly Carter Co-Founder Chairperson

Robi Reed Co-founder, Co-Chairperson

    The Merge is the brainchild of its Founder and Chairperson Dr. Holly Carter, Founder of Releve' Entertainment and Co-Founder, Co-Chairperson Robi Reed, VP, Talent and Casting, Original Programming, BET Networks. 

  The Merge Summit is designed to provide a platform for promising Christian talent to interface, glean from, and partner with leaders in the entertainment industry. Conference attendees will interact in thought provoking and career inspiring settings with well-known entertainment executives, talent, and artists. The hope is that attendees will walk away with information that will encourage, enrich and empower them in their individual fields of pursuit.

     The Confab lived up to every expectation the attendees came to seek and more. Both days saw overflow, capacity crowds who packed master classes, workshops and showcases while networking and hob-knobbing with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry from major film studio heads, producers, writers, actors, music artist, attorneys, managers, agents and industry administrators. 

 Soul Man TV Show Panel, Naomi Richard Photo

 Some of the over twenty workshops and master classes included How to Brand Yourself, Alternative Distribution, Building A Legendary Career, Public Relations, Creating Hit Music, Music Business Panel, Digital Marketing, Film Producing, a Director’s Panel and many others. 

Actress and honoree Wendy Raquel Robinson

  There was also an Awards Luncheon co-hosted by Shaun Robinson and Bishop Lester Love that Honored Actress Wendy Raquel Robinson, 
Tony Waller, Sr. Director, Constituent Relations, Wal-Mart and DeVon Franklin, SVP, Production, Columbia Pictures. BET held a “Music Matters” Showcase which was standing room only. 

Kary McHoul Pres of Nigel Lythgoe Prdns

     For those who were lucky enough to get in on it, The Merge Summit offered private, closed door by appointment only, “Exclusive Speed Mentoring and Connecting” with the who’s who of the entertainment industry. 

Suzanne de Passe, de Passe Entmt

        Somebody in this group more than likely left the Merge Summit with a career changing opportunity. After each class and workshop session, attendees would assemble in the main corridor of the hotel to discuss what had been covered while networking and meeting new friends. Who knows, some of these new acquaintances may even become future associates


.

Denzel Washington's Master Class is SRO!

     The main attraction of the entire Merge Summit was the master workshop with superstar, Two-time Oscar®-winning actor Denzel Washington being moderated by Merge Summit Co-Founder Robi Reed. 



       The ballroom was packed to capacity. Washington gave a detailed rundown of his humble beginnings and his rise to the top of the game. One of the things he emphasized to the crowd that his friend and mentor two-time Oscar® winning actor Sydney Poitier said to him as an up and coming actor was that your first four or five films will largely determine the direction your film career will go so chose wisely even if it means turning down a big paycheck. Washington emphatically stressed that if the role does not feel right to you deep inside for what ever reason be it spiritual, moral, ethical or whatever, don’t take it, even if you are starving. As he succinctly put it, what God has for you is for you!  He also noted that God answers prayer and sometimes the answer is no! Washington regaled the crowd with personal stories that had the room in stitches laughing and some were sad. He answered questions from the crowd and held the full attention of that ballroom from start to finish with a concluding standing “O!”

     As with the annual tradition of the Merge Summit, they held their event closing Freedom Gospel Concert which featured performances by Mali Music, Lecrae, B. Reith, Myesha Chaney, Tasha Cobbs and Kingdom Business. 

Mali Music

B. Reith

Myesha Chaney

      It was a packed affair as well. For information on next year’s Merge Summit in Los Angeles, go to www.themergesummit.com .  It is well worth the sacrifice to get here no matter where you live.

L-R Stan Lathan, Robi Reed, Niecy Nash, Holly Carter, Eric Rhone, Brely Evans, Naomi Richard photo

 © 2012 Rych McCain Media/Syndication tm 

(You DID Hear It From Me!) 

 E-Mail: feedbackrych@sbcglobal.net 

Natasha Calis - Movie

(C) 2013 by Rych McCain, All Rights Reserved. No part of this column may be reprinted, re-posted or duplicated without written permission from Rych McCain Media/Syndication. Violation is subject to applicable laws.

Natasha Calis - Movie

By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist

Natasha Calis

Scares Up A Name For Herself!

Madison Davenport (Hannah) & Kyra Sedgwick (Mom) Lionsgate Photo

 

     Every now and then an unusual movie will offer an equally unusual  role that has all of the makings of a project that will not only draw the public’s attention with its subject matter but will single out the actor in such a way that they both become synonymous with each other while becoming a classic. Then child actress Linda Blair is still referenced and talked about to this day from her convincing portrayal of a possessed child in the 1973 horror classic “The Exorcist.” That film scared the socks off of a multitude of theater goers while piling up ten Oscar® nods including being the first horror film to be nominated for “Best Picture.” 1968 saw another classic that keeps getting referred to via Mia Farrow in “Rose Mary’s Baby” and the 70’s gave us “The Omen” with Gregory Peck dealing with his stepson Damien played by Harvey Stephens who has the satanic numbers “666” as a birthmark on his head.

       Now in 2012, we have a new film that will accomplish what all of the above mentioned did and maybe more. It has already opened #1 at the box office. As with Linda Blair before her, 13yr-old, Vancouver, BC, Canada native actress Natasha Calis’ name will be on the lips of generations to come as “Em” in “The Possession.” Unlike Blair who was easy to hate because of all the vulgar things the demon made her say and do, Calis was a sweetie-pie who was trying to fight the Dybbuk (an evil spirit in Jewish folklore) who she unknowingly freed from its box after she bought it at a yard sale and took it home. 

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Em's Dad w/Dybbuk Box) LG photo

 In the Jewish tradition since the 1600’s, small wooden boxes were made to trap a Dybbuk and keep it sealed and contained. However, people who have had ownership of one of these boxes all have reported horrible and scary experiences in their homes or where ever the box was kept. The Dybbuk box is the center of the entire movie.

     Calis started acting at age 7 and has worked in television and movies. She is currently starring as Claire McDeere on “The Firm” an NBC drama. 

Em being taken by the Dybbuk from the box LG photo

However, Calis’ role as Em in “The Possession” is the one that will launch her on the fast track to superstardom. Those who see the film will be talking about Calis without question. 

       The film’s director Ole Bornedal and producer Sam Raimi knew almost immediately that Calis would be Em from her first audition. With such heavy and scary material to deal with was Calis afraid? She gives a sweet smile and says, “I was having too much fun shooting it and I really wasn’t bothered.

The Dybbuk has taken over Em

  It was exciting to me to play a possessed character because I really got to experiment. I got to play around with the whole idea of possession. I got to experience what it feels like and what you would do and what you would look like and it was really thrilling.” 

Did her screen mom (Kyra Sedgwick) and dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) help? Calis praised them while recalling, “Jeff and Kyra did a really good job of keeping it a light set. We all bonded really well and became one big family and we were blessed with such an amazing cast and crew.”

     One of the most emotional and horrifying moments in the movie was the exorcism scene which was shot at a particularly haunting location; the abandoned Riverview Mental Institution, whose dilapidated buildings – once rife with paranoia, fear and grim treatments – still stand in Coquitiam, British Columbia. It was built in 1913 and closed 70 years later.

The Exorcism begins Lionsgate photo

    Calis reflects, “It was pretty intense both emotionally and physically. For me it was really fun, I mean I got to scream and lose my voice a few times but no,  it was fun experimenting what level I could take Em to because she is such a complex character. 

Matisyahu (Hasidic Rabbi Tzadok) cast out the Dybbuk

 I really played two characters. I played this 11 year-old girl and I played the 11 year-old girl getting devoured by this demon inside of her. But it was just really fun, all of the scenes, especially the exorcism scenes because they were the craziest and the most fun.” 

Natasha Calis Photo by Eric Charbonneau

    And in case you may be wondering as with all of the youth I interview under 18, yes Natasha Calis (A real life cutie-pie) is the newest inductee to Rych McCain’s Youth Media Family! 

 © 2012 Rych McCain Media/Syndication tm 

(You DID Hear It From Me!)  

E-Mail: feedbackrych@sbcglobal.net