Like a virus...

That's what a kid is...

(and my little nephew 'Sim' pictured above is in no way archetypal in that way...it's just a real cute shot of him and that super-cuteness illustrates a point I want to make, nothing more...)

And that point is...

You can never take things as they first appear.  You can never trust appearances.  

Most kids are cute.  Some kids, like Simmers up there, are extra cute.  I'm here to remind you 

that said cuteness doesn't mean a thing 'cause underneath the cute exterior they're pure evil.

Kids are like viruses.

Single-minded, vicious, self-oriented.

All a kid wants is to get their way.  

"Isn't she sweet?" No, she's evil.  "He's not a bad kid, he just knows what he wants..." No, he's evil.

And if you let them, they'll take over your life.

Same thing with the people you're going to work with in the movie business or in planting a Church.  People will seem one way then, a few months down the road, will begin to show their real colors and, a year or two further down the road, show themselves to be just like your kids.

A virus, intent on killing you.

Seriously.

Kids are immature.  Most people are immature.  I've found that many people in the Church and in Show Business are especially immature.  Just like kids, or viruses, they're single-minded, vicious, self-oriented.

So what do you do?

You do what you do with kids.  You love them--and the 'color' that takes in your professional relationships will vary with each person--and make sure that they never 'win'.  Meaning, they never get their selfish way.  If they're looking to destroy, it's your job to make sure that doesn't happen.

Your Church, your movie, your TV series are depending on YOU to be the guardian--the virus killer.

You have to nip any and all childish behavior in the bud.  I've been very guilty in my life of being too nice--letting the viruses run amok for too long.  I resolved last year sometime to be much more direct--and even so I'm still letting people get away with more silliness than I should.

It's not about being nasty--far from it.

It's about taking ownership of the simple truth that you (speaking to Church Planters/Pastors/Producers/Directors here) are in charge and that it's on you to protect the venture by killing the viruses.

And that can be hard to do 'cause they bat their beady little eyes at you and they whimper and they cajole and they threaten and they pout and they stomp around and they throw their toys and a tantrum to boot.

And you, like the good parent/producer/pastor you are, stand up to it and win.

'Cause you can't never let the viruses win.

Sick Churches and Dead Movies and Rotten TV are the result if you don't get in touch with your inner virus-killer.

Up and at 'em y'all.

T

The light in the dark...

That's what I saw on my way back to the hotel at 1:00am (which was four am for me) Saturday night in Vancouver.

We'd just wrapped the last ten of twenty episodes we had to shoot June 20th/21st and as I was wandering through late-night Vancouver and passed a doorway I realized:

"Man, that's a shot."

A door.  Emblazoned with that powerful symbol of sacrifice in the name of life and restoration, awash in light--standing out in a dark city.

It could be taken to mean something, you know?

The challenge to me is to infuse every moment for which it's appropriate with that sense of a doorway into the light.  And I say 'where appropriate' because sometimes the moment in the story just doesn't 'fit' that kind of light.  And if you work to force it in, you're 'on the nose', editorializing making propaganda, not popular-art.

But I need to keep my eyes open for it.

'Cause it sneaks up on you at the strangest of times and you need to be watching for it to spot it. I could have walked by.  Could have missed it.

(the other thing that just occurred to me--and it's a minor point, well used by many of you I'm sure but nonetheless worth noting--is that it took some work to get the shot.  I just wanted to walk on by and go to sleep.  Instead I had to drop my backpack, the hard drive I was carrying, get out the camera, fiddle with it, frame the shot, etc... the minor point being that finding those moments and 'capturing' them takes plain, old fashioned, effort...)

So while re-writing two scripts this week, one that I expect will go out to the town within the month (and that's going to be a crazy experience...) and one that I hope to set up to shoot sometime next summer or the summer after, I'm watching for those flashes of light in the dark. Working to find the best way that works to bend hope and love and the idea of redemption into the thing.

'Cause for me, that's why we tell stories...

To laud the light in the dark.

T

new series...

As if I wasn't busy enough...

We've got a new series--an adventure travel series--in the early stages of development.  I've just started the working pitch documents and we had a mock-up done which is posted above.

The idea is to take six young adults on the trip of a lifetime and see if, in the midst of it, they grow spiritually.

The adventures will be wild, the settings immense, the challenges hooked from 'rights of passage' traditions in different faiths.

"Where bikini's meet Buddhism..."

Had to go there.

T

Ratings...

Oh man, it could have been ugly.

Getting the ratings for the first episode of this new TV series I'm producing.  The moment when reality hits--do you suck or don't you?  Is anybody watching or not?  Are you going to be successful or a failure?

But it wasn't.

Ugly.

It was great.

We got the ratings for the first episode and right around 60,000 people were watching.  That's how many people there are in the photo up there.  Sixty thousand...

Pretty neat.

And our highest rated demographic group was men, 18-34 (which is me) and that's something nobody was expecting.  Talk shows typically skew heavier to the female side of things.  But there you go.  Our first show actually showed up on the chart (and they didn't think we would for a couple months at best...) and there is an audience out there for the show.

Our entire team gets the 'props' on this one.  Word up team.

Also, I'm very mindful of the importance of real feedback.  No matter what you do--preach, write movies, direct films, build Churches, or any version of those in whatever field you live/work in...it's so very important to get real, actual, objective feedback on the work you do.

I know that it's hard to do.  We get defensive, we react, we don't really want to know if the work we're doing is finding a way through to people.  

But we've got to know.  Are there people being impacted by what we do?  Who are they?  What impact is the work I'm doing having on them?  How could it be better?  What's great?  What's bad?  How would they change things if they were us?

Of course, they're not, and probably could never do the same thing as us...

(math teaching anyone?)

But they are the reason we do what we do.  There is no point to creative expression without an audience, I mean unless you're painting or writing poetry for yourself.  But for the 'popular arts'--which for me would include TV, film, publishing, preaching--you've got to know if anyone's listening.

'Cause if they're not, you're out of business.

T

It's all in how you 'crop' it...

Took that shot today.

Downtown Vancouver.  Looking to capture images I can use on the site for one of the TV shows 

I'm producing.

I had a meeting at the studio we use to see if we could DOUBLE our shoot days and bring another series under their roof.

(just a 'wee little request...)

Meeting went really well.

Then I wandered the city for an hour shooting.  Caught this one.  Gonna' use it on a show having to do with the whole idea of 'work' and what drives people to do what they do.

Can you imagine having that guy's job?

Bet most of us couldn't be paid enough to even think about it.

So what is it about that guy that makes him want to hang his ass off a building?  What is it about a dude who quits his job, spends a year or two raising money so he can plant a Church from scratch just so that ten years later the people in his Church can drive him nuts?  What is it that makes someone eat nothing but noodles for ten years just so they can maybe (1 in a million...) have a shot a rendering images on screen?

There's just no accounting for taste...

Or calling.

T

The power of collaboration...

Is an awesome thing.

So I have this idea for a story.  The germ of it comes when I imagine a sunflower field (like a cornfield but with sunflowers) turning away, all at once and as one, from the Sun to face somewhere in space.

They're tracking something.

Then the field splits in two, then three.

Three somethings.

And in the field, a girl and her father are running for their lives.

The film will be called 'HARVEST', it's a supernatural/sci-fi/thriller that a writer friend of mine is currently writing based on my original idea and turned into something waaay cooler based on his.  He's on page ninety and sent me the above shot apologizing for the fact that he's gone and shot the budget all to hell...

'Cause it looks like he's taking them to Siberia.

How cool is that?

That's two creative people working together.  That's the power of film, and the power of Church-done right.

More than one person bending their will to get a thing done.

Awesome.

(now to pitch the right studio in to 'greenlighting' it...)

T

A big step...

In the right direction.

On the one hand I can't believe I haven't written about this by now, but on the other I'm not that surprised.

I was commenting to my wife the other day that the journey of the past couple years (years in which I transitioned out of one career into another) has been so tough I feel like it's dramatically changed me.

To the point that signing a deal in L.A hardly registered.

And that 'aint right.

I mean, it's a "Producer's Rep" deal.

Pretty awesome.

So, some of you might be wondering what a "Producer's Rep" is.

Well, they're a film industry professional, often a former development or distribution executive at a major company who has transitioned into representing producers; guys or gals like me.

People who have made a movie and are trying to get it distributed, or picked up.

A Producer's Rep is like a magician.

The toughest part is finding one.  Once you find them the next most difficult part is seeing if they like your film.  Usually, once you've made contact (which is an art in and of itself) they ask you to send them some info on your film--usually a logline (one sentence describing your film) a synopsis (one to four pages outlining the basic story) and any artwork that you've created to support the film.

In our case we had all of the above, and a smokin' hot website that I was able to send.

Within days the Rep got back to me asking to see a trailer.

Ah, the trailer.

By this point, we'd created two, neither of which my Executive Producer was happy with.  And a major reason he wasn't happy is because I couldn't make the trailer 'sexy' enough.  And I don't mean T&A 'sexy' but WHIZZ! BANG! 'Transformers' sexy.

Couldn't do it.

Why?

'Cause I didn't have the money.  Simple as that.

I was working with editors who, while very talented, were basically working with me for free after nearly a year of working for with me for all-but-free and, at some point along the way, you run out (or nearly so) of goodwill.  It's that classic 'volunteer fatigue syndrome'.

At some point people don't want to help you anymore.

Not 'cause they're bad people.  It's just that they have a life too and their life is not about making your life happen.  That's what you are supposed to do.  So, unless you're paying them well enough that they stay committed because they're professional and because the income they're generating from their work with you keeps them fed and housed, sooner or later they're going to run out of steam and you're just going to have to recognize that you can't suck anymore blood from that particular stone.

This is why working in a 'volunteer intensive' environments like a first-time feature-film or a Church-plant can get so tiring both for the lead visionary and for the people working with him.

It's tough, it really is.

(and to all of those I've burned-out along the way, you have my abiding respect, and thanks...)

So there I was, facing fatigue on the part of many of my collaborators and facing a very real creative fatigue of my own.  I just didn't really have much left in me.  I wasn't really able to push much more.

And that's a problem in the arts because you always have to PUSH to get the good stuff.

So the Rep asks for a trailer and we don't have one to send.

So, off I go to another collaborator, one who's (I'm hoping) a little less fatigued than some of the others and one who I've never tapped to do this kind of work but have often thought of.

He's game.

We cut a trailer.

It's good.

We send it to L.A.

They LOVE it.  LOVE the site.  Want to see the screener.

And here's where the rubber hit the road.

"Oh man.  He wants to see the movie.  With all it's warts and bruises.  He wants to see it."

I'll never forget driving the screener to FedEx that day.

I sat in my car at the drop, and prayed.  Not a stupid "make me a millionaire" prayer.  An honest, emotionally naked, cry from the heart for the Lord to have mercy on me and help this thing have the ZING it needed.

('cause when it comes down to it, it really is [and only is] about the movie...)

Sent it.

Waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Then the email came:

"Hi Todd, I just wanted to let you know that I've screened the film (you guys did a great job) and will give you a shout tomorrow to discuss it going forward. What is the best number to get you at tomorrow? Thanks..."

How crazy is that?

I mean, just like that, the lines of communication between hallowed Hollywood and lil' ol' me are flung wide and things start happening.

I couldn't believe it then and I still don't believe it now.

I'm not freaking out or anything--not rushing out to buy a sailboat or a big-screen-- just doing what I always do, and happy and tired and emotional and humbled at the fact that I'm starting to find my way, and (as always) awed at the uncertainty and the promise of it all.

Since that email our lawyers have shuttled the right papers back and forth, we've settled on two more scripts of mine the Rep would like to set up and--oh wonder of wonders--one of the scripts was read at one of the Major Studio's a couple weeks ago and my Rep emailed me to say he was  'having drinks' with the development exec at the studio to discuss the positive reaction they'd gotten and see about setting it up.

The other script (a huge adventure film) is also getting great response.

Aww, heck, here's what he said:

"He see(s) this as a very commercial high concept spec that he expects will sell to one of the majors..."

Done made my hair stand up all over my body.

Now, it goes without saying that all of this is still very much 'work in progress' and there's a chance (there's always a chance) that none of it will come to anything.

But it's progress.

And that, my preaching/producing friends is what life and this thing we do is all about.

Progress.

Baby steps.

One foot in front of the other along the road less travelled.

T