Together, together...
Any of you remember that song from Sunday school?
Man.
Interesting couple weeks since last I've written here. Had a 'whoops, your TV show might be cancelled...' moment, worked through it (along with my intrepid executive producing biz-partner) pitched past it and closed a final 'yes' with a real 'whiz bang' pitch meeting with the top execs from the network. I could tell within minutes, by the temperature in the room, that things were going to be o.k.
And they were. The execs were really happy, we got a final 'greenlight' and lived to fight another day.
Had the final set comps for both shows approved and boy oh boy do they ever look awesome.
Oh, and in other late breaking news, (and this is confidential so don't go talking or blogging about it or anything...) it looks like I might have found a key partnership in L.A to help us get 'THE STORM' distributed and explore setting up some of our other projects. I realize that's an awfully nebulous comment, but I'll give you more once things lock down on that front. Needless to say, I was very encouraged to get some positive feedback on our first wee feature-film.
As part of our development process I've currently got three scripts in the works; here's what I mean by 'in the works':
One is being re-written by a screenwriter I know in Austin. He's been working on his interpretation of a script I wrote a year and a half ago or so, for the past month. We decided to have him start work on it after he and I talked at length (and he gave me pages and pages of notes) about what he thought was working and what wasn't. I really felt like he had a good 'sense' of the story and a good 'take' on where it should/could go. So I'll see his first draft end of this week.
The second film is at concept stage right now, with ideas being batted back and forth between a Seattle-based screenwriter and I. The story that is taking shape is based on an idea I had four years ago and shared with him recently. He really took to it and we've been sending lengthy emails back and forth with things getting more and more exciting with each email.
The third script is one I'm writing based on an idea I had a few years ago and which got a bite out of L.A last week. I'm currently outlining, locked the first pass at the story structure today, will expand on it tomorrow and maybe start writing end of the week. Fun to be back at it as a 'writer' for a bit.
The reason I'm blogging on this is to simply testify to the amazing experience of working with talented people, people who are smarter than me, more creative, and willing to bend their talent to craft a story that I've been part of birthing. I'm very thankful to be starting this process. It feels like I'm starting to play with 'the pros' and I deeply appreciate the opportunity.
What's interesting to me is how, so far, the collaborative process seems a little more streamlined in show biz than it is in Church work. I've always thought (and others have written) that the volunteer-based nature of Church is what makes it particularly difficult; the idea being that when you're not paying people it's hard to demand things of them. I'm not sure if that answer is totally sufficient. See, on the second script I'm working on, the other writer and I are working for free, simply because we love it. We have interest in giving birth to the story to be sure, but at the root of it we're in it because we love this. He's an atheist, I'm a preacher turned producer and we're getting along great, finding shared passion in story crafting trying to build something that 'speaks' on a deep level, and it's a beautiful thing.
I wonder sometimes about passion in the Christian community. I wonder how hot under the collar our preachers and congregants are. I wonder how much their faith MATTERS to them, cause, to the people I'm working with, what we're working on MATTERS and I find that tremendously humbling and challenging at the same time.
T
No comments:
Post a Comment