Ideas: Hollywood Style

Does your company need ideas? Then let Ron Solomon show your employees how to get more ideas than they’ve ever had before... great ideas!

Vowing to live a creative life at five years old, Ron Solomon has made millions of dollars (for himself and others) through his uncanny ability to not only generate award-winning ideas, but to develop and polish those ideas into highly successful products. Solomon’s ideas have created products for network television, the toy industry, the internet, and even financial companies.

"Ideas: Hollywood Style", the pressures of creating and maintaining an ongoing series is brutal. A staff of writers, directors and producers must not only mine hundreds of ideas each day (What is the series about? Who are the characters? What are the stories? Where does it take place? We need 800 lines of dialogue! We need 100 jokes... funny jokes!) , but they must know how to choose the right ideas then make them work. It's a brutal environment that is constantly surrounded by intense pressure, inhuman hours and monumental stress. Yet based on the incredible amount of content that is generated each season, they somehow succeed?

Find out how ideas are generated for a network television show and learn how to apply them to your business and personal life in this extremely fun, entertaining, educational and motivating workshop. It's guaranteed to get everyone on your team to be buzzing with ideas.

Ron Solomon, the Executive Producer, creator, and head-writer of nearly 300 episodes of television will re-created the writer's room with your staff and teach them how to find, identify, and refine gold from straw: Hollywood Style!

Part I - What are ideas? Where do these timid creatures lurk and how can you get them to eat out of your hand?

- Understanding what the idea is needed for (Goal setting)
- Setting the bait/opening yourself to seeing the ideas all around you
- Environment
- Musing
- Playing (Toys! Lots of them!)
- Shotgun Approach (Not for the faint of heart!)
- Patience
- Teamwork
- Catching the idea(s)
- Being nonjudgmental
- Yellow Pads and pencils
- Pitching ideas
- Target practice (have someone assigned to catch them/write them down)
- Write them down or record them yourself

Part 2 - Now that you've found some ideas how do you determine the ones you can use (as opposed to judging them as good or bad)?

- Switching from child to adult/artist to craftsperson
- Getting rid of the ego
- Assessing the idea(s) for effectiveness
- Creativity
- Function
- Templates
- Does it meet the goal for the product (demographic, client sensibility, market)
- Is it doable with the given parameters?
- Is it accessible (i.e., does it need to be explained?)
- Is it conceptually simple or complicated?

Part 3 - How do you refine the selected ideas into the result that you need?

- Spinning gold out of straw
- TV Guide synopsis (Short form B-M-E)
- Pitching to the boss

Bio

Ronald Solomon has created award-winning and commercially successful products in a number of mediums including, television, theater, music and the retail market.

Prior to forming Swingset Press, Mr. Solomon spent over a decade in the television industry. Beginning in 1987, he worked with NBC to create the highly successfull TNBC" block of programming. Ron worked as a writer/producer and writer/co-executive producer on such award-winning series as "Saved By The Bell," "California Dreams" (created by Ron for NBC), and "Hang Time."

From 1997 to the present, Mr. Solomon has successfully created and distributed his own line of award-winning toys and children's books for the "tween" market. Through his company, Swingset Press, LLC, Mr. Solomon has forged a successful commercial niche for his products in the specialty toy, gift, book, girls' apparel, catalog and e-commerce markets. His company and products have received publicity in such high-profile, national venues as The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Radio Disney, AOL's "Kid's On Line", InStyle Magazine, The Today Show, New York Magazine, Working Mother, Parenting and YM (Young & Modem), and more.

After completing over 200 episodes, Mr. Solomon left NBC to pursue other creative avenues. These endeavors included the writing of several original television pilots for Fred Silverman, UPN, The Disney Channel, and FOX Television.

Before moving to Los Angeles in 1987, Mr. Solomon lived in New York City where he produced and directed television commercials and music videos for five years. His company, Whritmon-Karis Productions, successfully raised the capital to produce two original pilots: "Down These City Streets, II and "Hollywood After Dark."

From 1981 - 1983, Mr. Solomon was the Managing Director and Co-Founder of The Art & Work Ensemble, an off-broadway theater group in Manhattan. The group successfully ran acting, directing and playwrighting workshops in its own space on Sixth Avenue and 32nd Street. In the time he was there, Mr. Solomon produced and performed in several original productions - all to sell-out audiences.

Believing that education is a life-long venture, Mr. Solomon has attended college from 1977 until the present. He studied Mass Communications at Emerson College from 1977 - 1979; Theater/Dance at SUNY Purchase in 1980; Business Administration at Mercy College in 1980; Acting and Directing at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts from 1981 - 1982; and continues his education today, near his home at California State University at Northridge.

Awards

Emmy Award winning series - Pet: Part of the Family
Silver Apple Award - California Dreams, "Superman Brodis" Prism Commendation - California Dreams, "Short Cuts" Humanitas Certificate - Saved By The Bell, "Home For Christmas" National Parenting Ctr. Seal of Approval, "My Best Friend"

Education

California State University at Northridge, CA American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Los Angeles, CA Purchase College, Purchase, NY
Emerson College, Boston, MA