Individuals with ties to the military were involved at the outset: Richard H. Breen, Jr., APR, Retired U.S. Army Major Benjamin C. Frazier and Gary Bishop, in addition to retired marine Cary Abbott. Since service men and women were being CHARGED MONEY to submit projects to Larry Meistrich, Breen, Frazier and Bishop have disassociated themselves from G.I. Pictures. They are still featured prominently on Larry's website even though they no longer participate in this venture.
Per Cary Abbott:
"I am also unassociated with GI Pictures, because I don't believe there's a film fund nor do I believe they will be creating any original projects. Larry Meistrich even suggested at one time that with enough veterans submitting, it would be easy to use that money to fund a project. That was a big trumpet sounding off to me that there was no film fund.
With $250 million, why is there not one original project? The few that have been released under Nehst were created by indie producers then brought to Larry and he simply released them under the Nehst name with a promise of revenue sharing. I hate that people are still going to GI Pictures. They won't take down the site, or give it back to me. I want my name removed and that hasn't happened yet either. Other than a website, Nehst did not put any time, effort, or money into the concept of GI Pictures".
With $250 million, why is there not one original project? The few that have been released under Nehst were created by indie producers then brought to Larry and he simply released them under the Nehst name with a promise of revenue sharing. I hate that people are still going to GI Pictures. They won't take down the site, or give it back to me. I want my name removed and that hasn't happened yet either. Other than a website, Nehst did not put any time, effort, or money into the concept of GI Pictures".
Nehst is making additional money from the unsuspecting public, similar to Screentest and Pitchnehst. G.I. Pictures is basically inactive, although it is still accepting money. There have been submissions in the past, but no refunds have been sent out. Nehst has kept this money, even though it had no substantial film funding to actually produce these projects.
Meistrich keeps implying that he has a $250 million film fund which, per numerous sources, has not existed for two years, if at all. G.I. Pictures is a way for Nehst to make a little extra money on the side. Jeff Silverstein is the President of Access & Development for Nehst who worked to get this project off the ground. An article from Reuters first published on May 29, 2009:
GI Pictures isn't Meistrich's first effort to discover and groom talent. Nehst seems constantly to be seeking out amateurs through contests and such. GI Pictures, in fact, is modeled after Pitch Nehst, whereby budding filmmakers make pitches for $10 apiece (just enough to weed out the unserious). Meistrich said 40 projects have been acquired and are in various stages of development through Pitch Nehst. Two have been released already, and two documentary films are headed for theaters this summer: "Article 32" and "The Mayor of Strawberry Fields."
"The Mayor of Strawberry Fields," 38 minute short film documentary, and "Article 32," a 64 minute documentary, have never received a theatrical release by Nehst except for the ocassional screenings organized by Nehst.
Retired Marine Cary Abbott, me, is now also disassociated from GIPitcures for more than a year. I invested time, energy and money into this project and other than a few sodas and a couple of meals, I've seen nothing from Meistrich to make me believe there will ever be a project made from this. A great idea that I'm pursuing on my own now.
ReplyDeleteCary "Top" Abbott