My-Bio asks and answers some questions

My-Bio provides personal information and insight into my dream of screenwriting which of course leads to my experiences ranging all the way through production and distribution. I will concentrate on my movie industry specifics in the My Productions section.

First, let's set some ground rules. Just like the rest of this website I will give you the straight information. No hype and definitely no glitz. Your basic Coplike attitude. Just the facts mam.

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Without question, My-Bio describes an average mid-west guy who truly loves movies. What I said earlier is so true; I have been a movie nut since conscious thought. Don't know why. I guess I just love to see a story unfold visually.

My-Bio begins as a little kid getting up late at night after everyone went to bed so I could watch the late show and then the late late show on our old black and white Hoffman tv. I may have been tired in the morning, but I got to watch John Wayne, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey, Jimmy Stewart, Abbott and Costello, W.C. Fields...etc.

I started writing little stories that were movies in my youthful imagination. Of course, no one else got to read them, but they were mine. Writing for me was basically going into those movies I was watching. I got to be whoever I wanted by just putting words on paper. Magic!

In high school and even college all my friends and family knew my love for movies. They would usually ask for recommendations on movies I had seen. I may not have done as much writing then, but I was always reading about the industry. Maybe it was then that my dream became more focused?

Before I get into more details on how things progressed let me state one very important fact. My-Bio is not complete without stating, I HAVE BEEN BLESSED beyond my wildest imagination by my family and friends!!!

Although I doubt they ever truly understood my passion and dream, their love and support never wavered. NEVER!!! That also includes the many people I have met along my journey. In particular the legal help I received and my business financial "Angel!" I will talk more about both in My Productions.

Ok, back to My-Bio. So if my dream was becoming more focused in high school, why didn't I go to college or film school in LA? Why didn't I go to LA and chase my dream after going to college in Missouri? Simply put, didn't believe in myself, and I was afraid.

After graduating from college still holding my dream pretty much to myself, I got my first professional job in Kansas City. It was a good job and although not near family, I had many friends from college who lived in KC.

It was in KC that the dream grew stronger. I started writing more. It was there that I finished my first real script. Now remember, I had no formal training of any kind. I had never seen a script. I was just trying to tell a story. Hell, I made up my own screenwriting format. Believe me, it wasn't even close to industry standards.

Within a couple years I had to try something. On a lark I got a bus ticket to San Francisco. I know, what the Hell am I doing going to San Francisco. Well an actor who I really admired lived about 120 miles south; Clint Eastwood.

I had read many times where dreamers like me, writers or actors, try something uncommon and get lucky. So why not have a mid-west no talent no experience would-be writer hand deliver their first script to the number one box office actor?

Excited beyond imagination but shaking in my boots once I got there, it hit me hard. What the Hell am I doing? None the less, I got as close as I could by dropping off my script at the guard shack on Pebble Beach. I made up a story about being asked to deliver a script to Mr. Eastwood. I could see the smirk on the guard's face. Yeah right, no one has tried this before.

Well I made it back to KC. Went back to work. Surprisingly, I was contacted by Mr. Eastwood's personal reader. She said that since I made such an effort, if I would sign a release, she would read the script. So of course, I signed the release. I kept all this to myself knowing I was about to get that break.

What a dreaming idiot! I was going to get a script read by the reader for the number one box office talent, and all I had to offer was a horribly written and formatted script. The script didn't even have a part for Mr. Eastwood. What an idiot!

I waited anxiously for the reply. It wasn't long before I got a very nice letter. The reader thought the story was ok, but wondered why I would present it to Mr. Eastwood since there clearly wasn't a part for him. She also suggested I get some formal education about script formatting.

To start wrapping this up and knowing I will provide more of My-Bio information in My Productions I did as she suggested. I started reading books on screenwriting. I attended seminars on all types of subjects about the movie industry. My dream was growing stronger.

So I quit my job in KC and moved back to St. Louis. Still not having the courage to go full bore and move to LA, I thought maybe I could make things happen in St. Louis. The business part of My-Bio started when I formed my production company: Bear Productions, Ltd.

I kept attending seminars learning more and more about the industry. I talked with local people about movie production in St. Louis. I also got the opportunity to enter the Police Academy for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. If I wasn't going to be in the movie industry, at least I could do something else I always wanted to do.

To make a long story short I kept learning and meeting people both here in St. Louis and on my many trips to LA for the seminars. Finally, as I will explain in My Productions, the opportunity to realize a dream happened. To actually make a movie.

So I went for it. I left the department and chased my dream. I remember what a fellow police officer, who had become a friend, said after hearing I was leaving after serving over ten years.

Now remember this is a cop talking. He said, I know about your dream. Everyone knows you are a movie nut. Hartig you are one goofy Walter Mitty "mother f****r!!" You know, he's probably right, but how do you turn down living a dream? Well, that's the start of My-Bio.

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