Trips & Outreach ·
A Los Angeles Trip That Became a Relationship-Building Reset
Not every business-development trip becomes the trip it was supposed to be. The February 2024 Los Angeles run still clarified which relationships were real and which doors needed a more specific reason to open.
The plan did not land exactly as planned.
This LA trip was not attached to a formal conference. The plan was to reconnect with VFX collaborators, follow up on earlier camera and studio relationships, spend time with Roark Critchlow, and try to turn a few warm introductions into real meetings. Some of that happened. Some of it did not.
A planned general meeting with Laura Notarianni at Untitled Entertainment did not fit her schedule while she was prioritizing active development work, and an earlier RED-related contact had moved on. That information still mattered. A general meeting is only valuable when the timing and the ask are specific enough for both sides.
The real work was in the relationships that continued.
The Roark Critchlow connection was the strongest thread from the trip. The follow-up moved into scripts, story possibilities and the kind of practical development conversation that can later become a project path rather than a loose introduction.
The Gneiss Stuff VFX relationship also stayed active after Los Angeles, with project materials, NDA conversations and post-production planning still moving. VFX and post partners help make a regional production offer more complete than locations and gear alone.
The reset sharpened the KFS pitch.
The lesson was not that LA was closed. It was that LA needs a sharper reason. The next version of the pitch had to say what KFS could practically solve: Canadian production service, Okanagan locations, local crew, equipment access, and a path into BC without pretending Kelowna is Los Angeles or Vancouver.
That reset fed directly into the later Banff approach. Instead of asking for broad interest, the KFS deck became more focused on where the company could reduce friction for producers already looking at Canada.
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