News & Events

Creative Projects Group^® is now part of the creative team that is developing a documentary special, entitled This is Ragtime: The Birth of American Music, designed for PBS or cable broadcast.  Ragtime's groundbreaking music is all but forgotten and its full story remains untold on television.  This documentary will be a long-overdue look and listen to America's first truly original popular music. The program will be feature Ragtime's legendary composers such as Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Irving Berlin and Eubie Blake and some of today's top musical entertainers including Jazz master, Wynton Marsalis, and Ragtime virtuoso and Eubie Blake protégé, Terry Waldo, who will also serve as the program's Music Supervisor, Featured Performer and Writer/Producer.  Producers Charles Hobson and Janice Lee and CPG's William Nix, serving as Executive Producer, are at the core of the creative production team.

See also: http://thisisragtime.com/

Congress Calls for Slashing of Federal Arts Funding The Creative Coalition Urges All Citizens to Defend Investment in the Arts
Washington, DC: The Creative Coalition calls upon the nation's citizenry to oppose cuts proposed today by the U.S. House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee.  The proposal -- which allocates $132 million to the National Endowment for the Arts in the upcoming fiscal year -- is $14 million below the current funding level, and $22 million less than the amount contained in President Obama's budget.  The National Endowment for the Arts funds non-profit arts efforts in all 50 states, including programs designed to expose children to visual arts, music, drama, and dance.  Government support for the NEA is already substantially lower than it was two decades ago.  Taking inflation into account, federal investment in the arts has been cut by half over the last twenty years.

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William Nix was certified this Summer as a Film Commission Professional by the Association of Film Commissioner's International (AFCI). He will be actively working with Film Commission Offices in the United States and internationally for CPG production projects and also as a consultant to national industries and governments that are working to establish such commissions in their countries.

A bi-partisan congressional budget deal was reached that includes $146,255,000 in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. This represents a cut of almost 6% from last year's NEA funding level of $155 million, though this $146 million funding level is in line with the Obama Administration's budget request for the agency. Importantly, the final number is higher than the $135 million approved by the House of Representatives earlier this year. The budget deal also provides $146,255,000 for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

While The Creative Coalition and other arts advocates have supported increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, maintaining a strong bi-partisan commitment to federal arts funding in these challenging economic times is an important victory. Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have worked together this year to support the arts and defeat efforts to cut -- or even eliminate -- federal support for the arts. For that, we are grateful.

For more information on the focus and work of the Creative Coalition, please see:  http://thecreativecoalition.org/

William Nix will be a keynote speaker at the April 19-21, 2012 "CreativeMine Roundtable on Film Finance" conference being held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Atlanta. Other speakers at the event include: Morris Ruskin, Shoreline Entertainment, Richard Reiner, Shooting Star Pictures, Marvin V. Acuna of Rainmaker Productions and Jaeson Dubrovay, Hedgemark Advisors.  For further details see: http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1032325

William Nix, CPG Chairman, will be teaching an "Entertainment & Media ADR" course at Pepperdine/Straus Institute during the Winter 2012 Term for the second year in a row.  He will continue to co-teach the course with ADR veteran and CPG Board of Advisors Member, Gerald R. Phillips http://www.plljlaw.com/Bio/GeraldPhillips.asp , of the Los Angeles firm of Phillips, Lerner & Lauzon LLP http://www.plljlaw.com/

William Nix, CPG Chairman, served as a screenwriter-producer pitch-session panelist as part of the Latin American Training Council's 3rd Annual L.A. Immersion Program http://www.latamtrainingcenter.com/?p=2772&lang=en for Ibero-American producers and other audiovisual industry professionals during the American Film Market in November 2011.

William Nix, CPG Chairman, has been appointed to be a Member of the 2012 Institutional Grants Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.  This AMPAS Committee oversees three of the Academy's four grants programs, those for : Film Scholars, Internships and Institutional Grants. See:  http://www.oscars.org/education-outreach/grants/index.html

In just three weeks, video gamers deciphered the structure of a key protein in the development of AIDS that has stumped scientists for years. According to an article published in the journal "Nature Structural & Molecular Biology," the findings could present a significant breakthrough for AIDS and HIV research.

Using an online game called Foldit, players were able to predict the structure of a protein called retroviral protease, an enzyme that plays a critical role in the way HIV multiplies. Unlocking the build of the protein could theoretically aid scientists in developing drugs that would stop protease from spreading.