A few weeks ago I had the good fortune to attend the "launch" party for the Nantucket Film Festival. It was on an old boat called The Frying Pan docked off the Chelsea Piers in New York. The boat once had been submerged, but had been resurrected to become a genuinely funky event place. The boat was fun. So was the party.

It is the season of launchings, both nautical and cinematic. The Nantucket party caused me to reflect on the number and nature of the project launchings I’ve attended. Sometimes they are seaworthy and sometimes they seem like the equivalent of premature ejaculation: staged readings of scripts that are not even good "first drafts"- investment meetings for obviously ill conceived, ill-prepared projects.

In a business where hype is almost everything one hears a lot of hopelessly optimistic claims. Producers will tell me, "We’ve got all the money and will be shooting in six weeks." Then why are they asking me if I know any investors? On a lesser note I’ve been to two staged readings where the screenplays were nowhere near ready for public exposure. There may be more rewrites, but once the word is out, there is no second chance. In project development - whether it be a film, a script, or a festival - there needs to be a state of readiness. As with a launch, is the project seaworthy? If not, unlike the lucky Frying Pan, there may be no resurfacing for many of these projects.

Fortunately, there are some imminent resurfacings for people who have proven track records. Producer Mitchell Robbins is now shooting his long-awaited next feature, XXXY, in New York with Susan Welch producing and John McNeil associate producing. Jan Egleson’s BLUE DINER, his first narrative feature in 15 years, is readying for public screenings. And veteran director Jim McBride, whose last noteworthy film was the cult favorite THE BIG EASY in 1987, has completed shooting an MTV biopic on Meat Loaf, and he is ready to rewrite and direct the locally produced HAND ROLLED. Finally, Brighton Ave. Films’ Laura Bernieri should be announcing a start date for Kim Caviness’ BIG GIRL by the middle of summer.

And there are some genuine launchings.

Proving that there is life after Miramax, Brad Anderson has been seen in Boston regularly, scouting locations and recruiting a production team for a low-budget horror film, tentatively titled either HAZARD or SESSION NINE, to be shot in DV in mid-summer. Whether the proposed location is seaworthy (the old Danvers State Mental Hospital is in a terrible state of decay) is a matter of debate, but the production planning is. And the money will be in place.

By the time this column will appear, Alice Stone will be editing her short, EXPIRED, a film about meter-maid rage. It stars Michael Maronna, the "Stuart" of the Ameritrade ad campaign, who recently co-starred with none other than Bill Clinton in the piece about the President’s last months. For Alice, who co-wrote the award-winning NIGHT DEPOSIT and directed the documentary SHE LIVES TO RIDE about motorcycle women, this is her first narrative film. As careful a planner as she is a thinker, she lined up her talent, her finances, and her crew months in advance.

Another launching I went to took place at the surprisingly well attended monthly MMA meeting in May. It was at Robert Patton Spruill’s Film Shack where Laura Wilson is also launching City Scape, her quite practical and ambitious educational program, which will lead to the production of a film produced and distributed by the King of the B’s, Roger Corman himself. Although the Film Shack studio is not yet completed, Rob has many aspects of the business up and running with several co-production ventures. At City Scape, although the classrooms are a work-in-progress and I hear there are some equipment shortages, there should be enough good things working and a way of getting the kinks out so that the Fall program, leading to the Corman project, will be quite effective. Laura, somewhat jaded by her experiences with non-profit mismanagement, has constructed City Scape as a for profit, and in the process has really had to do the work of developing a business plan.

But back to Nantucket.

Although the Nantucket launch party was not quite ready to "launch" (the schedule wasn’t finalized, there still wasn’t a firm location for the staged screenplay readings, and the party barely broke even) there will be a second fund-raising launch party in Boston at the home of Jay and Christy Scott-Cashman on June 8th in preparation for the Festival June 21st-25th. And Nantucket remains, because of the compactness of the setting and the mix of events, one of the best regional festivals in the country.

Happy Sailing!