Narrow Gate Productions

Great News from the LA Times!

Good morning football fans! For most the tried and true, this really is the most wonderful time of the year! Tensions run high as we all prepare for our teams to smash their competition and make it to Arizona in 08.

American Football is how I've made my living for the last 10 years. Not on the field but behind the scenes, with the players, preparing them to take the inevitable beat down inherent of the game. I just read some great news in th LA times. Six Vikings have now joined seven Chiefs in donating their paychecks from the December 23^rd game, to the Gridiron Greats. It’s awesome to see these guys voluntarily give back to the players who gave the body, mind and spirit to make the game what it is today.

I also wanted to point you in the direction of Greg Johnson, a Los Angeles Times staff writer who always fairly documents what’s happening in the cause. Here are some links to a couple of his articles.

New rules on disability set for NFL

December 13, 2007

The league says procedures should streamline the cumbersome system retired players must navigate when they apply for medical disability benefits. A discounted prescription drug plan is also unveiled.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-nflplayers13dec13,1,4411952.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-sports

NFL, players' union promise medical assistance to needy former players

 

December 11, 2007

Announcement to be made Tuesday in Minneapolis. An unknown number of current players pledge to donate all or part of their Dec. 23 game checks to the cause.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-nflplayers11dec11,1,5246404.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

The movie is finally done! We’ve relented, done the Hollywood thing and gotten an agent. Roman, Joe and I never claimed to have any experience in filmmaking. We just did this from the heart so it’s kind of funny to be in the position of "shopping" a film. Bill, of course is still our main connection to the industry. He pushes us, opens doors and continues to be our mentor. We should have news soon as to where you will be able to see "Blood Equity." In the mean time, as always, wishing you a great week, filled with Gods Blessings.

Rico

HBO Inside The NFL Wed. Dec 5th

WATCH it.

Blood Equity our documentary film about the footbal greats now facing hard times, will be the subject of one of the segments!

Roman and I shot it a couple of weeks ago. It was kind of fun having the cameras follow us around Golds Gym and a couple of other spots in Venice. Although, frankly I don't know how people live like that everyday!

For info on times http://www.hbo.com/infl/

We are done with the editing and are having music traxks composed and inserted. Almost at the finish line. We will definitely be completely done before Christmas and of course the SUPERBOWL.

To see the trailer: www.bloodequity.com

Blood Equity Trailer v.1

Just getting started...

This is the first blog entry about the journey of making a film.

Blood Equity is the documentary feature produced by Roman Pfifer and myself.

It all started one day over lunch. We'd just gotten through a workout and were talking about a meeting Roman had gone to. It was an NFLPA meeting. He was disturbed to find out that many of the leagues pioneers were not receiving the care they needed or deserved. Upon investigation we came to find out the Gene Upshaw believed that his duty was to current players ONLY and that during his term he and Robert Goodell had denied countless legitimate diability claims.

Roman has spent most of his life on the football field and I have trained players or the last 10. We LOVE football! What we saw here was an injustice not just to the individual players and their families but to the core values of the game. Football, the team sport, the game where players put their lives on the line for a common goal. Although neither one of us had any experience in film production, we decided that a documentary would be the best way for us to get involved.

I'v had the great fortune of working out at Gold's gym in Venice for the last 20 years. It was there that we met our co-producer Joe Reggiero (my client). Armed with a small budget and camera crew, we set out for two weeks to find players around the country. We got major help along the way from the Grid Iron Greats organization. A portion of the proceeds from the film will be donated to their cause. Things miraculously fell into place with interviews from football icons, Mike Ditka, Harry Carson, John Mackey, Willie Wood, Tony Dorsett and more.

Back in LA we brought footage to our editors Pyan, Josh and Collin. One we had a rough cut our creative advisor William MacDonald (also my client), introduced us to our post production house Tunnel Post and made sure we met with people from HBO, his buddies from his Emmy award winning show ROME. Last week we shot a segment for inside the NFL.

We're not sure how the film will be distributed yet. We are in the process of working all that out. All we know is that we are honored to bring the untold stories of men who were once warriors.

More to come,

Rico