Transcript
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Welcome to the heart of show business.
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I am your host, alexia Melocchi.
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I believe in great storytelling and that every successful artist has a deep desire to express something from the heart to create a ripple effect in our society.
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Emotion and entertainment are closely tied together.
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Emotion and entertainment are closely tied together.
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My guests and I want to give you insider access to how the film, television and music industry works.
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We will cover dreams come true, the road, less traveled journey beginnings and a lot of insight and inspiration in between.
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I am a successful film and television entrepreneur who came to America as a teenager to pursue my show business dreams.
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Are you ready for some unfiltered real talk with entertainment visionaries from all over the world?
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Then let's roll.
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Sound and action.
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Hello, hello, guess what?
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We're coming to the end of 2024.
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And I wanted to come on this time around as a solo episode With a little bit of a year-end wrap-up.
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I would like to sum it up as talking about my favorite things, the lessons that I've learned and the power of momentum.
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Favorite things, the lessons that I've learned and the power of momentum.
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Also wanted to share a little bit of my journey as a professional, as a woman, as a human.
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I believe that an element of leadership is making courageous choices, and I had to make quite a few of those this past year on a personal and business level.
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So why not come tell you a little bit what I've been up to above and beyond this podcast, and maybe give you a little bit of inspiration?
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Or maybe you feel in some way connected to me above and beyond listening to me and my guests, or maybe there is parts of your life that you identify with mine.
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So for me, it's all about being transparent and showing up authentically.
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So here I am.
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I have something coming up in January and I'm very excited about it.
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I am going to be celebrating the 25 years of Little Studio Films, a company that I created with my mother, who's my business partner and my best friend, and this is a very special episode that is going to be dropping in January with some special guests and, believe, quarter of a century, although I have been in the business a little longer, but we don't want to say too much.
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So, this year, what happened to Little Studio Films and to me this year?
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First of all, as many of you know, I published my book An Insider's Secret Mastering the Hollywood Path.
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It was self-published, quote unquote through Little Studio Films, and it was a way of me to give back to all the artists and the aspiring creatives that have spent so much money and going into film school and maybe still feeling a little bit confused or disempowered.
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And so I created this book to give my little wisdom, nuggets and cliff notes on how the business works.
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And, surprise, surprise, with Harley and New Marketing I have probably now 30 five-star reviews and it keeps on selling and being shared with people, so thank you to all who reviewed and support it and are buying it.
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This brought about the decision, with our company, to create a little studio films publishing division.
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There's so many international books that deserve to make their way into the United States.
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There is also some American books that maybe are not being treated properly as far as, like the authors are concerned, and so we wanted to give this opportunity to some storytellers and some unique stories to be published through our label so that we can also have a curated list that will go to big decision makers in Hollywood and beyond for film and TV series, and we felt that the book is a way to start and introducing this incredible authors to Hollywood.
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This is a very big one for us.
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We also secured quite a bit of writing deals paid writing deals and options for some of our clients.
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We're very excited about them.
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Paid writing deals and options for some of our clients we're very excited about them and they're very excited about continuously feeling their work being validated.
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I was a co-producer on four movies myself as Alexia Malocchi, and a few of those films were actually directed by my longtime clients Marco Ristori and Luca Boni, some very, very talented Italian filmmakers.
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Their films that got released through V channels, now called Insurgents Thank you, nicola, for their trust, for your trust and belief in them reached millions of streams within the first six hours or dropping, which really gives us a taste of the power of AVOD and the power of direct-to-consumer distribution.
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I have taught a few classes, as usual on Stage 32, prepping authors, writers, filmmakers, producers for the American film market.
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That happened in Vegas.
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I taught them how to pitch, how to navigate the rooms, how to best find the right partners for the right projects.
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I also worked a little bit on their mindset.
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That was really great.
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All my students loved it and there will be some news about that in the next segment of this podcast episode.
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I have also attached directors and producing partners on eight of our in-house projects that are going to be produced by Little Studio Films.
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I shot a TV pilot in Florida this fall, called Rescue the Rescue.
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This fall called Rescue the Rescue, and I'm very proud of that, although I am no longer associated with the project per se, but I can proudly say that I put together the whole thing an amazing crew and we raised over $40,000 in donations for the rescue that was being covered.
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There were some celebrity appearances and it was just a very, very rewarding experience that I do not regret, in spite of it not going the way that I wanted.
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In fact it was.
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Maybe it was needed.
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This thing was needed to happen so that we could do something a little different, but I do hope that it finds its way and if someone knows how to do unscripted, it certainly is Little Studio Films, and especially for the right price.
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So, yes, there was hard lessons, precious gifts and changes in the industry happening while I was navigating all these milestones.
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I also did a little bit of brand consulting, which was very rewarding, and using Hollywood tactics to help a few solopreneurs with very exciting products that I really believed in and helping them streamline their messaging on their website, on their social media, giving them a little bit of the Hollywood pizzazz, so that they can feel empowered and continue to expand their business endeavors.
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I learned a few things also, and I also learned that I should trust my God, and sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't, because we're all human.
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One thing that you all need to know is books are becoming the thing again.
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Being self-published or published really makes no difference.
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As long as the book has a very strong characters and storytellings, that can be done on a global scale, and they're also a protection for the creator to have a book, because that's a little bit harder to steal ideas if there is already a pre-existing intellectual property.
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There is many streamers that are now starting their own book division, so I definitely had a good instinct into creating this publishing division for little studio films.
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The other thing that has been very interesting is there is a lot of fast turnaround in movie production, in writing for hire assignments.
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Those that are getting ahead are the ones who are doing the most research and that they are creating unique and compelling characters in film and TV, in books and also when they get hired to write specs for third-party producers and buyers.
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Lesson number three, I would say that AVOD is alive and strong people.
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As we all know, most of the streamers are now using advertising.
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There is definitely a reason for it.
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So think outside the box when you're creating content.
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Don't think about the studio, so the streamers.
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There's so many niche avenues for distribution.
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It's crazy.
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All you have to do is do your research and be very smart with your social media, with your audience outreach, and you will succeed.
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And the proof is in the pudding because, as I mentioned before, those films that we co-produced did really well, even though they were done for a fraction of the usual budgets that I work with.
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They were done for a fraction of the usual budgets that I work with.
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Networking and pitching is.
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Networking skills and pitching abilities are really superpowers, but one of the things that is the most important lesson for everyone is that access is everything.
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I've seen that with some of my students who went to the AFM.
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All they needed is to drop my name and they got meetings.
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Students who went to the AFM all they needed is to drop my name and they got meetings In order to get access.
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You do need to work your network in an authentic way and you need to know how to pitch, having a strong why, a strong vision, a strong mission, and just why you are here, why now, right.
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So there's so much more which I can teach you, if you choose to come into my first mastermind that I'll be launching in 2025, I would say end of winter, early spring.
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Another thing that we saw is that movies are visual and are global.
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So every time something gets screenlit for a series, for a film, most likely it has behind it a visionary director with a very, very clear idea of how they want to portray and shoot that story and also the characters behind it, and because actors like to put themselves at the mercy or in the magic hands of a filmmaker.
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And also the global, the global outreach you will see more and more.
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There's so many international co-productions happening, and so movies are visual and global.
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That's the way to sum it up.
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The last lesson is doing things for a good cause, for getting a business sense Doesn't necessarily always work.
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One of my favorite books is the 48 laws of power, and one of them says despise a free lunch, and I learned the hard way that sometimes I get caught up into wanting to help everybody, especially when there is animals involved or there's some cause and I break my own rules and then that bites me in the butt.
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So I would say that it is called show business, it's not called show friends, and it is a business, and so there is a way to actually still work for a good cause but also have a strong business sense on choosing the right partnership, the right stories, the right circumstances and good, clear agreements.
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Team and ownership are key in anything in life.
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You want to have the right team with you and you want to own your stuff, whether it's your house, your books, your IPs, your podcast.
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You have to be the majority owner.
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That is something that is so important.
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I can't stress that enough, because things can go sour when there is a battle of the egos and there's lots of egos in Hollywood.
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So I would say find yourself the right team and make sure that you do own a big piece of the pie.
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Sure that you do own a big piece of the pie.
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And sales everything is sales in life, but sales is really about showing up and problem solving, and you have to show up for your client and you have to be able to solve his or her problems or at least give them something that makes them feel empowered to do so.
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So when you are selling, whatever it is you're selling, you have to show up authentically and you also have to solve a problem or something that may be missing in the market that you can provide.
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I had quite a few podcast guests this year.
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That didn't do as many episodes as I usually do I've been very busy but I do have to say, my personal highlights of the year and I highly do suggest you listen to those episodes if you have not done so is my episode with Reverend Michael Beckwith from the Secret.
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That was an amazing conversation.
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I can't believe how lucky I was to have him here.
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Thank you, data Magazine, for making sure that that happened for me, and that conversation really was life-changing for so many people and I hope you get to listen to it, especially at the end of the year, when it's all about finding inner peace and having a strong vision for your future.
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Kyle Seas was another special guest.
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He used to be an actor and comedian.
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He wrote the Illusion of Money book.
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We talked so much about being present.
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We talked so much about shedding any false identities and allowing our real selves to emerge and also preparing for the changing of the times, right Age of Aquarius and so much more going on in the world, as we all know.
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Another personal favorite of mine was an episode all about distribution and international sales with my friend Michael Favell from Odin's Eye.
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Make sure you check that out.
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That is a masterclass into how the international sales business works.
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And then, of course, actors like Joe Mantegna what a legend, what a gentleman, and learning a little bit about his background in theater and the journey as an actor and you're going to really, really enjoy it.
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Got featured in a few magazines this year.
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Thank you, bold Magazine, thank you Canvas Rebel, thank you, eden, for the interviews done on yours truly.
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I thoroughly enjoyed.
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And I want to talk about some of my favorite things.
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Oprah style, I'm just going to go with movies and books.
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My favorite books this year were the 48.
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Laws of Power is an oldie but goodie.
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It's not a new book, but literally it should be read by every person who has goals and dreams and focus and wants to succeed.
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When there's so many things that change, and especially people, right, the people that you surround yourself with, that's always a little bit of a question mark, and so I think reading this book is going to help you a lot navigate people relationships.
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I would have to say.
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Another great favorite is the book by the founder of Italy, oscar Farinetti, called Never Quiet, come on.
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How can Oscar Farinetti called Never Quiet, come on?
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How can you not love that title?
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Never Quiet you know me, I'm never quiet and it's so inspiring.
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It really shows that mindset is everything and please do pick it up.
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You can buy it at any Italy store in the United States.
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I would think it's in Italian, but I think there's also an English version.
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There has to be.
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Essentialism by Greg McHugh talks about simplifying your life in every area, getting rid of toxic things, toxic people and, just in general, focusing on what really matters, because the simpler way is the more relaxed way and the most successful way.
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So make sure you check that out.
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Favorite movies this year, I would have to say Emilia Perez.
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What an amazing surprise that was.
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As you know, it won big at the Cannes Film Festival and you just have to see it.
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Don't take my word for it.
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I know it hasn't performed as well as we wanted it to at Netflix, but please do check it out because there is so many great messages about that film.
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They have to do with family, leaving your past behind or do you actually leave it behind?
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Because the past is always a part of who you are, and there's so much more which I don't want to say too much, not to give away the plot.
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Another one was the Apprentice, which is the early days of Donald Trump.
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I don't want to get political here because this is not a platform, but it is a great character study on how families and people that we look up to can have a big imprint on our personality and the way we present ourselves to the world years later.
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So make sure you check that out.
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You'll understand a lot about our future president, and I think you're going to like it.
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It doesn't matter which side of the fence you're in.
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I think you're going to appreciate it.
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Last one is the Last Showgirl, which was an indie film done for less than a million dollars, shot in 18 days in Vegas, with incredible performances by Jamie Lee Curtis and Pamela Anderson, dave Bautista.
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It really talks about aging, as a woman especially, but there is a lot of themes that are there and it's really a celebration of indie filmmaking.
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When there is a will, there is a way.
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Great little behind the scenes stories on how Pamela Anderson was never given the script by her agents, who are now her ex-agents.
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And look at her now she's got a Golden Globe nomination and, most likely, an Oscar.
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So that's pretty much it for this episode.
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So that's pretty much it for this episode.
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What's coming on next for Little Studio Films in 2025 is we are going to be publishing more books.
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We're going to be doing a lot more corporate consulting for international companies and local companies, production companies and distributors and media especially, and solopreneurs and brands.
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We will be slimming out a little bit our management division because it's very time-consuming, and we're going to be focusing a lot more on production and consulting and high-end consulting for those that they really want to get to the highest places all over the world.
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To get to the highest places all over the world and they want to have the best team possible behind them to guide them to make the right choices, both creatively and business-wise.
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So, with that said, I wish you all a very, very happy new year and hopefully you had a wonderful Christmas.
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By the time this episode drops, it will already come and gone, but we'll be coming on into 2025 new century, uh, or actually new quarter of a century and uh, don't ever forget who you are, don't ever forget what you stand for.
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Your values and, uh, your character are the most important thing that you can have and that is the biggest treasure to cherish, as well as, of course, making authentic connections, because you know, that's what I'm about.
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And then also all heart Drop into your heart and whatever you do, do it with the heart, but also using your mind to make the right choices.
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Thank you so much for listening.
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If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate and review.
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This is the heart of show business.
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Alexia Malocchi, I will see you next year, over and out.
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Thank you for listening to this week's episode of the heart of show business.
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If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend.
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You can also subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast player.
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If you have any questions or comments or feedback for us, you can reach me directly at theheartofshowbusinesscom.
