Prologue I wanted to challenge myself to distill the essence
of my experience as a producer to illuminate success on the playing fields of life. I’ve been a major event producer for over 30 years and have also played with some of the best in the entrepreneurial and creative arenas. What’s the connection between these worlds? A sports analogy: The world of
entrepreneurship is more like mainstream sports, while producing is more like XTreme sports. There are amazing levels of skill required for top levels of sports, but in XTreme sports you often have to completely nail it just to survive. Producing major events can be like riding a giant wave. You have to hang in the curl just right, spontaneously computing innumerable details, for a perfect ride. If you miss just one, you may crash big time. When I look back after producing a
successful event, I often wonder how we could have possibly pulled it off considering the number of details—the time pressures and the stakes at play. The only way to pull it off is to be completely in the Zone, just like a top athlete. That’s why I love playing in the production arena, because I’m always challenged to play big, play fast, and to play it right. But when all those elements converge at the big event, it’s nothing short of pure magic. When I’m not consulting with executives,
I occasionally take on creative projects, such as this juicy music video I recently produced for a David Lynch Foundation tribute concert. After writing up the story describing my edgy process on this one, I realized that this odyssey had illustrated the core principles for success in any creative or business endeavor. Now see how these ‘nine core essence principles’ apply to you and your own initiatives. I have cited them in the story and you’ll find a complete list of them at the end. Your life is a big production!
“Let’s do a creative project together, Michael.”
A simple seed idea proposed by LA-based Greek actress/singer Elena Charbila (Kid Moxie) to me at the beginning of this year started the snowball rolling. Little did we realize how quickly the creative forces would gather around that simple impulse. [1. Right place, right time] Segue to the world of David Lynch. David
Lynch’s 1986 classic Blue Velvet featured the iconic theme song, ‘Mysteries of Love’. Turns out that this was actually the first time that David Lynch and his longtime composer Angelo Badalamenti ever collaborated together, and their
musical marriage has been lushly expressed in every David Lynch movie since. Fast-forward 30 years. Badalamenti decides to remake ‘Mysteries of Love’ with a full orchestra and asks Kid Moxie to perform the vocals. Later Angelo allows her to feature this classic, richly tapestried song on her just- released album, 1888. Now you have all the background that frames the significant cool around
the genesis of this whole project. And what was the project? Elena and I envisioned the creation of a music video of this iconic song, ‘Mysteries of Love’. Adding even more significance to the timing, I remembered that Lynch was going to be staging a big concert in LA—a tribute to the Music of David Lynch. Wouldn’t it be amazing if our video premiered at this world-class event? It seemed like a one-in-a-million chance that one of the greatest film directors of our time would opt to include our video at this tribute to his lifetime of work. [3. Imagine big and be outrageous] Adding to the challenge was the necessity of assembling a cast, crew and funding in such a short time, since we were now in early February. Let it snow… [4. Inviolable commitment]
Guillaume Campanacci, Amine Kouider, Elena Charbila, Michael Sternfeld. AUGUST 2015 7
PHOTO: ANDREW HUMPHRIES
PHOTO: ANDREW HUMPHRIES
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