Back to 2002...
After a few months, Sakren, who had been the elected leader of the group, accepted employment out of town for a year and the NFA initiative was gradually placed on hold simply because the group was unable to meet. Sakren subsequently got very busy in his career and the NFA remained in a holding pattern for years.
In 2006, Sakren decided to rekindle the initiative in his spare time by exploring ways to develop the NFA. He met again with the NFO to discuss the current filmmaking landscape. Sakren soon after decided the focus should begin with, in his words, "the Actor, whose very talent can be responsible for a film's success. Great acting is not as easy as it looks, but it sure makes a difference between a bad movie and a good movie; in conjunction with the great efforts of writers and directors, of course; and considering a great ensemble all around, crew included."
To build the NFA, and without Derek Carlton whose contact had been lost over the years, Sakren joined forces with Teri Dukas, a producer herself of three independent films. Starting with a concept called the AuditionMachine in February 2007, colleagues Sakren and Dukas offered the entire community of southern Nevada the opportunity to put the pedal to the metal and test their skills at auditioning every first Tuesday of the month. A coffee shop was selected (It's A Grind on D.I. just East of Durango) because it offered an artistic, relaxed and non-alcoholic setting to help people feel comfortable, and encourage families and young people to attend.
By August 2007, Sakren's three-decades-long arthritic condition was becoming a greater challenge to his productivity so he needed to bring in some assistance. Despite his limited financial resources but at the insistence of an old friend in L.A., Sakren decided to invest in an assistant. He accepted three referrals to candidates he was encouraged to consider for hire in Las Vegas.
Terence Delepaut was a soon-to-be Masters graduate in Business. Ely Bascoy was a music composer, writer and former office manager. <Anonymous> was an organizational and communication specialist. Not knowing which candidate was the strongest, Sakren decided to hire the services of all three, fulltime, for a limited engagement through December 31, 2007. The team of Sakren and associates (including wife Kim Sakren and colleague Teri Dukas) produced a detailed business plan for various endeavors, including a phased-in plan for the NFA, which was dictated at first by Sakren to <Anonymous> in September 2007 and then developed by <Anonymous> into an online, social-networking community that started on November 11, 2007, and grew to 442 participants by the end of 2008. The NFA plan involved three major initiatives entitled AuditionMachine™, NevadaFilmNetwork™ and FreeTimeFilmmakers™.
The AuditionMachine has been running almost continuously on a monthly basis at various locations around town (Las Vegas) ever since it commenced on February 6, 2007, having auditioned hundreds of actors and seeing many of them get cast in local films. In March of 2008, filmmaker Greg Van Cott took over the reins from Marko Sakren as Director of the AuditionMachine. On hiatus since the last event in December 2008, AuditionMachine started up again in June 2009 under the direction of Marko Sakren. In addition to founding the NFA, Sakren currently serves on the NFA board of directors and continues to share his vision for the organization. Derek Carlton, now a full-fledged film distributor with national connections, has returned to the NFA as a founding member. Other consummate professionals are hereby invited to join the NFA initiative and be added to its history and progress in serving the needs of filmmakers in Nevada.
