Crazy day...

So these are some of the people I interviewed yesterday...

On the left, and from the movie that made me get into show-business in the first place, Mr. Corey Feldman (THE GOONIES, STAND BY ME).

Academy Award nominated actress and director, the fabulous Ms. Dyan Cannon, who at 71 years of age defies time...

Known to most of us from her work with the NFL on FOX, Ms. Jillian Reynolds, a native of Burlington (where my family and I currently reside) and veteran of more entertainment and talk oriented television than you can imagine...

And a woman who, literally, took my breath away she's so beautiful in-person, Fran--'The Nanny'--Drescher...

I interviewed twelve others (including Wolfgang Puck, Adam Gregory [the new 90210] talk-radio legend Michael Jackson, Extreme Makeover's Michael Thurmond, singer/songwriter Steve Tyrell ['The way you look tonight...' from 'The Father of the Bride'] U.S Marine and war hero Nick Popaditch, Actor Ted McGinley [Dancing with the Stars, Hope and Faith, The Note] Super-Lawyer and activist Gloria Allred, Rabbi Mark Borovitz and his wife Harriet Rosetto, The Rev. Dr. Robert Schuller [The Hour of Power] and fashion designer Rachel-Zoe famous for dressing Jennifer Garner for her breakout 2004 red carpet appearance at the Oscars and lately of the 'Rachel-Zoe Project' on Bravo!) in the course of a crazy day that was my first introduction to working in L.A.

Crazy.

I was so nervous to start the day that it took all my willpower to keep putting one foot in front of the other, forcing myself to show up.

Here...

Yes, we shot at the Beverly Willshire Hotel.

And after shooting we had dinner, here...

Yup, that would be 'CUT' Wolfgang Puck's newest L.A hotspot where you have to wait three months for a table--unless (as he told me in the interview) you have a Canadian passport. Two things about 'CUT'.  1) I've never eaten such a fabulous meal in all my life.  2) I'm still blown away by the cost of eating in such a way.

And that leads me to two things that have really struck me the past couple days.

1) The luxuries and star-perks of L.A seem to be things that have been manufactured to create and 'atmosphere' of entitlement.  The thing is, the actual people working in this actual business often 'need' some of those perks, like assistants and food brought to them and a driver to get them to their meetings on time simply because the pace is so fast and the stakes are so high. However, many of the perks aren't 'necessary' but they're still nice and I can see how one could get used to living in that way.  But the most striking thing about it is that, it seems to me, that most of the 'real world' in L.A and outside of it has bought into these perks and luxuries as symbols of success and class or rank and it is their hard-earned dollars (the cash of the ordinary) that are spent on acquiring for themselves those things that we've all agreed symbolize the celebrity lifestyle.  The whole thing comes off as a snake eating it's tail. 

So the SFS point for me (and maybe for you) is that I/we must have a clear view of the life we know we're meant to lead so that we can maintain clarity and humility and contentment so that we don't get sucked into expecting to live a certain way just because the noise of opulence is raging all around us.

2) The people I interviewed yesterday are just people.  They're stars sure, but at the root they're people who respond to people in the same way as you and I.  Warmth, honestly, a genuine interest in their journey and their view of life begets from them much the same response you'd get from your friend at the bar or at Church or in the park with your kids. They're just people.  But the thing I found to be almost universally on display in each of them was a raw intelligence, a stubborn work-ethic, and a will to make it.  In that way, I can see a common denominator for how to 'make it' in life.  And I'm not saying make it to their level or make it so that you can eat where they eat or drive what they drive.  I mean 'make it' in the sense that I believe that you have a life you're supposed to lead.  A thing you're supposed to do. And I feel that if you apply whatever raw intelligence, work-ethic and will that you happen to have living inside of you to that thing you're supposed to do that you might end up being outstanding in a way that's uniquely you.

That way, no profusion of bright lights or expensive meals nor the lack of them will have any essential impact on the essence of who you are.

You will be you, in all your glory and humility.  Just the way you were made to be.

And that's something that's truly worth while.

T 

Of locker rooms and sunny skies...

So this is what I was doing yesterday.

That would be the B.C Lions locker room and those would be some of my crew getting ready to shoot 25 'coaching' segments with the DB coach for the Lions.

The good news is the footage looks amazing.

The bad news is the audio is unusable.

The SFS point is this:

When faced with disaster, focus on the positive.

The positive is that I framed all the shots (which were then tweaked by my DP and my Editor who were on-set with me) but I, as a Director should, decided where to put the camera.  And there's an insecurity thing going on there 'cause you're just not ever really sure that you've got enough of what it takes to really be great at what you do.  There's no way your framing is going to be as cool as someone else's.

But it was.

It looked great.

And the proof is in the photos.  See, I took the reference shots with my digital camera--a technique I learned from my first DP (shout out to DA)--and what made me so very happy today when I saw the footage was that what the on-set cameras were 'seeing' was what I'd blocked with my still camera. 

Not such a big deal, granted, but my strength has always been storytelling and working with actors, I'm not primarily a visualist.  So to be slowly gaining traction re: where I decide to put the camera is very gratifying and is proof that all the shots I'm taking of friends and family are paying off in my working life.

The point is--do the little things you need to do to get better at what you do even if it means doing them very slowly and very marginally at first in terms of your 'improvement rate'.

And yes, the unusable audio means a re-shoot.  The joys of our business.

In others news.  I spent an hour this afternoon doing this...

Yup', flying an R44 helicopter.  

Hardest thing I've ever done mechanically/physically.

And scary and fun as all get out.

See, you've got two pedals that keep the thing flying straight (like an arrow) through the air and because of the way the rotor spins the thing wants to keep turning right so you're always fighting the right hand urge with left pedal input.  Then you've got the collective which adds power and lift.  Pull up and you add lift, push down and you descend, but on the end of it there's a twisty bit, like a motorcycle throttle except vertically-oriented, that controls throttle.  Then you've got the cyclic which is the 'stick' that controls pitch and yaw and climb and dive and roll and the whole thing's so sensitive that if you 'think' it, it does it.

Well, lemme' tell you, trying to fly that thing is a piece of work.

Today I tried 'hover work' for the first time and if I hadn't had my instructor with me I'd have crashed the thing for sure.  It's like nothing I've ever done and SO fun.

So why, you're thinking, in the midst of my wildly busy schedule am I making time to fly helicopters?  Well, it's because a strategic partner of ours owns it and loves to share his things and his love of adventure with the people in his life.  Seeing as I'm slowly working my way into the edges of his life he's decided to get me flying.

How do you refuse an offer like that?

You don't.

The SFS point here is that, when offered a chance to do something you find mildly horrifying yet slightly exciting, and when said offer comes from someone you're working to build relationship with and for whom you have some degree of respect you must swallow your fear and take the leap.

This is how you endear yourself to people and coworkers and bosses and such.  You embrace life--in small measure--in the way in which they embrace it.

We all love to share our life experience with others and when you allow people like that to share theirs with you it opens relational doors you could never force open on your own.

So, take that flight friend.

And finally--I'll try to write some on this tomorrow--I'm getting ready to fly to L.A this coming week to interview--among others--Fran, 'The Nanny' Drescher, Robert, "O.J's Lawyer" Shapiro, Cory, "The Goonies" Feldman, Robert, "Crystal Cathedral" Schuller, Jillian, "NFL on FOX" Barbieri, Liza, "Entertainment Tonight" Gibbons and nine others.

We're shooting at the Beverly Wiltshire and the price for the shoot is spiraling out of control to the point that, the week of November 4th (after I pitch our new dramatic TV series--for which I just cut the first half of a 'mock trailer' which is looking awesome...) I'm going to have to sit down and find a way to re-jig our entire enterprise to compensate for the overages.

But the celebrity faces should help us place my show in the U.S and that's a risk worth taking.

Like flying a helicopter, or framing your own shots for the first time.

Oh the wildness of a life less ordinary.

I've been popping advil like skittles but it sure beats near-bankruptcy.

T

For the babies and for you...

(ten hours or so since I sat down at the laptop and still writing them shows but I just found this quote to insert in one of the episodes and thought it so wonderful that I had to send it to my wife and to you...)

"If I had my child to raise over again I'd build self-esteem first and the house later.  I'd finger paint more and point the finger less.  I would do less correcting and more connecting.  I'd take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes.  I would care to know less and know to care more.  I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.  I'd stop playing serious and seriously play.  I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.  I'd do more hugging and less tugging. I'd see the oak tree in the acorn more often.  I would be firm less often and affirm much more. I'd model less about the love of power and more about the power of love."

                             

                                         -Diane Loomans (allgreatquotes.com)

[and in other news, re: my trip through 'H-town' earlier today, in the midst of it--and it got much worse before it got any better--my executive producer called to tell me our ratings have more than doubled in the last month, so there's often something to be grateful for even in the midst of the heat...]

T

All 'H' breakin' loose...

Yes, it's true, that's a 'picture' of hell--and the coolest one I could find on short notice--and all of it is breaking loose in my world right now.

1) I'm in a 800 sq ft condo with my four kids and my wife in rainy Vancouver.  And I'm real glad they're here but I'm also...

2) Supposed to be writing 25 episodes of one of my talk shows to be shot this weekend and doing that with my wife and kids around will be a first-time thing 'cause I'm usually here doing this alone so we'll see how that goes.

[the upside is it's 'pizza and movie night' tonight with me and the wife and the kids and our tiny condo has a HUGE flat screen TV so that's going to be awesome...]

3) My staff is having a very hard time (for very real and authentic reasons) getting all the interviews pre-shot in time for me to write the 'thematic structure' for each episode which means, in effect, that I have to 'fake it'  2/3's of the time imagining what the conversations are going to be like-- (I've given them a direction to pursue but I need to know the 'in point' the 'out point' and the duration) --how they start and end and how long they'll take which means I have to 'pretend' I know how long all our studio segments have to be which...

Is a friggin' nightmare.

4) We're in our typical 'fall renewal cycle' which means I have to re-do the budgets on our series to a) allow for the worst-case scenario (an eventuality I don't even really want to contemplate even while planning for it) and b) write another version to allow for the best-case scenario which involves near alchemy in terms of projecting costs and creative choices months in advance...

5) My editor just got a call from a guy from whom he's subleasing a room and the guy (who just so happens to be someone I fired) told my editor that he doesn't want me to come by and edit in his space which DRIVES ME CRAZY 'cause the guy's cool to take the money from my editor that comes from me but won't allow me into his space?!?  Ridiculous.  I'm so incensed about it, you have no idea.  

6) My director on another series we produce has been on his honeymoon so can't do A THING to lock down the 101 details that still need to be locked down before we go to shoot in L.A later this month.  He JUST called me today, even though he had told me he'd be back on the 13th, so waiting to hear from him has nearly driven me to leap off our condo balcony.  I'm not hatin' on the the guy--I care deeply about him in fact--but it's been tough to breathe and 'wooosaaahhh...' in the midst of needing solutions NOW that I just can't get and it's right that I can't get them 'cause getting married and having a honeymoon IS more important than this and I've always believed and practiced that.  But I'll be knackered if I didn't add 101 new grey hairs waiting for his call...

Oh and there's so much more (like a dramatic series pitch that needs my attention or planning for my wife's birthday tomorrow AND directing 17 episodes...) but that's enough for now.

I guess the SFS point is:

Look, if you want to do something outstanding (and I 'get' that the exact definition of what's 'outstanding' and what's 'pedestrian' is rightly up for debate...) with your life you're going to have to be willing and able to tramp through the (however many there are) circles of hell to get there.

Or as they say...

If you can't stand the heat, go be a bus driver.

T

Angels and Demons and the fall...

So this is pretty cool.

On November 4th I'll be pitching a new dramatic TV series to a major network.  We're actively in the process of getting the presentation done which means working with Optix Digital in Toronto and a team of writers who don't know yet that I'm working with them.

What I mean is, I'm planning a story meeting with them but haven't actually booked anyone yet. I'll get to it.  The problem is, there's so much happening right now that I'm well and honestly stuck between the fact of having daily 'tasks' that need taking care of and strategic 'work' that has to be done or else I'll quickly find myself in the place where I don't have any more 'tasks' to take care of.

It's like this each fall.

I call it 'pitch and budget season' 'cause it seems like every October-December involves endless hours at this here keyboard creating concepts and treatments and pitches and the budgets to back them up.  We burn the candle at both ends and on the sides right through 'till (typically) the week before Christmas when we find out what next year is going to hold for us production-wise.

My poor wife.

Every year the same thing, this race to an uncertain finish line.

I keep telling her that, even though we barely notice it, every year gets a little better than the last.  A little bit more money, a little bit more fun, a little bit less pressure (always the same, and typically more stress) a lot more opportunity, a lot more at stake.

That's why they call life a 'race'.

Anyway, back to the series...

I don't want to give away too much but it'll be pitched as a thirteen part series, loosely based on an idea from a script we optioned last year.  It'll follow a 'family' of fallen angels as they go about their task of killing people.

That's right.

They're part of the 'legion', the subgroup of celestial beings tasked with visiting death on the humans.  

There's a lot more to it, but not for this blog, at least not yet.

I'm hoping our concept art and the presentation to support it makes a strong impression on the network execs.  As you can imagine, getting money from network execs is like (insert your favorite 'blood from a stone' quip here...)

And here's the part that's SFS-worthy...

My executive producing partner and I are spending money to get this pitch ready.  Real, actual, not-insignificant money that we worked extremely hard to earn.  We're spending the money and a whole bunch of uncompensated time to put this pitch together.

And we have no guarantees that the network will buy it.

But we feel passionate about it and are convinced that it'd make a rockin' series.  We LOVE the potential of it and are committed to pursuing it.

And so here we are, in the middle of the fall, getting our balls out one more 'gain, getting ready to hang 'em out there and take our chances with failure.

Because we believe.

And that's the part that might be useful for you today.  

What's that thing that you feel passionate about and convinced of to the point that you're willing to risk your life/time/resources/reputation for?  What thing in your life is good and glorious enough that you'd court failure to see it live?

Are you doing that thing?  Pursuing it?  Is every day a day you feel you could've used six more hours to push the thing that one step further ahead?  Do you get up at night to write RTF notes to yourself because the ideas just won't stop coming?

If that's you and you're there, good on you, keep at it, push it, pursue it, don't give up.

If you read that and know that you're not there, and if you feel that longing that says you'd love to be, well then, do whatever it takes to put yourself in the situation where that kind of reckless living becomes the norm.

Find the situation where faith is possible.

T

From mountain peak to street level...

So I'll get to some good and proper SFS-certified blogging tomorrow-today being Canadian Thanksgiving and all I'm all but off the grid all day.

I thought this shot would be a good placeholder for today though, in case you were visiting looking for a Monday 'fix'.

That's the 'fam' up at the peak of Whistler.  You can see the actual peak marker in the top right hand corner.

We rode the gondola, twenty-five minutes, to the top.  Had lunch.  The kids threw snow at each other.  I took some shots.

T'was a good day.

We're now in Yaletown in a tiny condo right in the heart of it all.  Yesterday was sunny and gorgeous--we spent most of it walking.  Today is more typical; we are a cloud.  The mist/rain is coming sideways.

You should see the stares we get walking the sidewalks of this most chic of neighborhoods.  It's like the aliens have landed or something.  Great conversation starter though.  We must have had seven or eight cordial conversations with strangers yesterday, just because of the babies.

"Are they all yours?"

Every ten minutes.

"Yup they're ours."

Then once we had them in bed, Niki and I sat down for some Sunday night Thai (our tradition) and, at nine o'clock, turned to channel 10 and there I was, ranting about immigration and justice and dignity and strangers in a strange land.

My show was on, and we got to watch it on a 50 inch flat-screen.

It looked good.

It was interesting.

My show in its home market.

Which leads to the very small and simple point for today: whatever it is that you do (whether you're a preacher or a filmmaker or a government worker or a  __________ ) make sure you do whatever it takes to experience your work where it 'lives', meaning, go to where the average people are and consume with them that thing that you create for them.

So go listen to someone else preach.  Watch other people's shows and films.  Sample another restaurant and get ideas for yours.  Go hang with a family bigger or smaller than yours and watch how they raise their kids.  Go spend a day in another department.  Watch another photographer work.  See how he works the mitre saw.

Whatever it is, make sure you take a moment to get to street level, and sample your work there.

And if you find that what you're doing is connecting...

Be thankful.

T

In the mountains...

Last time we were here it was just Nicole and I.  We'd stumble out of bed at 10:30am or so, throw on some sweats, and shuffle over to the nearest Starbucks; before we had them anywhere but in British Columbia.  We'd sit there sipping our lattes thinking and chatting some about what our life might end up being like.

Fast forward ten years...

And you get the same square in the same village with the same girl except now she's holding your youngest son, and the both of them are smiling like they've not a care in the World, the sun and the fall colors agreeing with them. 

Then as Mommy and the babies window shop--and 'shop' they did stopping in store after store after store--Daddy wanders up-village a block or two and see this...

Pretty nice right?

I think they call it the Garibaldi range, the family of mountains of which Whistler and Blackcomb are a part.

That's where we've been kicking it the last couple days.

Whistler...

And every bit of enjoyment is payback for the five hour flight then three hour drive (they're rebuilding the sea-to-sky highway for 2010) with four kids.

They were great though.

But the reason I'm blogging on this--other than that the shots are bound to look cool on SFS's black background--is because of the 'moment' when I came out of the village Starbucks with four kids' hot chocolates in my hand, and a pumpkin scone, and a piece of low-fat banana chocolate chip cake for the six of us to share.

It all washed over me then.  The passage of time.

It feels like yesterday that it was just Niki and me.

And here's the point.

Everywhere we looked today we were surrounded by our peers.  The ski-bums and ski-bunnies. Aussies and Seattle-ites and young Canadians, all congregated here because it's a time warp.  A resort destination where adventure-buffs come to while away their youth.

But the thing is, your youth is fleeting.  You're going to blink and it'll be gone.  And you'll either be looking scruffy and unwashed, sitting in the Whistler Village square scratching at three days growth, staring at young women's lululemon ensconced bums passing by or you'll be strolling with your babies wondering where the time's gone and thinking your wife's bum looks mighty nice in them lululemon pants...

And sure, those ski-dudes spend some wonderful days--I'm sure--up on the glacier, riding unblemished snow and loving life and I'd love to be them for a day or two, not a care in the World, all of life a playground.  But then I'd hear my wife's voice in my head, "What do these people do that they can buy three hundred dollar jackets and designer boots and high-fashion sun glasses and tights?"

"Well, they've got no kids and no car and no house and..."

No life.

I mean, they've got a life.  A fun life.  

But it's a certain kind of life--one that has certain kinds of rewards.

And I'm all for it, if it's what you want.

Just make sure you don't get so entranced by the 'lure' of a certain way of life that you don't take the time to really think about who you've been made to be and what that means in terms of the life you ought to be pursuing.

'Cause them mountains are so gorgeous you could blink and spend a lifetime up here.

But life would be going on down in the valley.

And you gotta' know where you're meant to be.

That's all.

Be where you're meant to be.  Know it.  Love it.  Live it.

T

Me n' the boys...

Once in a while your dreams do come true...

My whole life I dreamed of having two boys.  Dreamed of taking them with me to watch pro-football games.  Dreamed that they'd love it, love me, love each other.

That would be Daddy and Sammie (front) and Jordie (back) at the Argos/B.C Lions game this past friday.  

See?

There is hope.

Once in a while you have a day that's pure and good and glorious and wonderful in and of itself. It leaves nothing to be desired, leaves no stone unturned, it fair sparkles in its perfect happiness.

That was my Friday.

And that's the thing for you to keep in mind today, friend reader.  Sometimes dreams come true.  Sometimes.  And that 'sometimes' is the reason we keep getting out of bed every day.  We know, deep in the core of us, that though today might be grey and lonely and tough, 'tomorrow' is coming.  

I know that can sound corny and Disney-fied.  I get that.  The thing is, if the hope of a brighter tomorrow sounds that way to you, my fear is that you've become embittered and jaded.  And the 'you' I'm referring to is, of course, me.  I find there's a need to keep checking and re-checking my soul/inner compass for weeds and darkness.

Seems to me you can choose to live a life that's hopeless or a life that's hopeful.  It's almost like there really are two sides to the coin when it comes to a worldview.

So many of the people I meet in the arts and in professional ministry come across as deeply jaded and embittered.  I understand why.  Maybe your life/career has beat you down to the point that you've all but lost your joy, all but relinquished your right to hope for a brighter day someday in the future.

Life is like that.

Thing is you're not just a human/animal.  Regardless of what you believe about life/God/the universe I would hazard to guess that even on your darkest days you can spot the difference between us and a polar bear, us and a horse, us and a silverback.  

There's a sparkle in the eye of the human that says it knows, deep down at the core of it, that there is a future worth living for, that all is not lost, that hope does--in fact--spring eternal, that sense will be made of this mess sooner or later.

That dreams do, in fact and after all, come true.

Someday, somewhere...

It's been said that three things remain at the end of it all and those three are faith (the stubborn belief in something 'more' beyond the unseen...) hope (natch) and love.  In it's original context we're told the greatest of these is love and none of us would dispute that, but for today, the most needfully memorable of these is...

Hope.

Springing eternal, flashing like sunrise, blazing like fire, booming like thunder, across centuries, galaxies, relational divides, making your stories soar and your sermons worth the paper they're written on, turning your job from mundane into magical, making your wife a princess, a lover, a dancer, a mother, a girlfriend, an icon, turning your kids into princes and princesses, heirs of a kingdom that is here and not yet, recipients of your love, of your largesse of a piece a pizza and an ice cream cone and two tickets to the game.

Hope.

Write your stories with it and lace your sermons with it and live your average everyday life by it...

And you just might be alright.

T

The midnight oil...

This is me and my director, Karl Richter, working on editing 11pm the day before we had to deliver our last special to the network.  Niki and I drove in to downtown, grabbed a quick bite of dinner,  then walked to Karl's.  Once there, my Niki hung out with his Niki (Karl and his Niki get married tomorrow, yay Karl!) and Karl and I took a look at what we had and what we needed to do.  The idea was that we'd shoot some things right then and there as filler but by the time we'd finished figuring out what to do I had to drive my Niki back home 'cause our baby sitter was only good 'til 9:30pm.

The point is this.

When my Niki heard I was going downtown to meet with Karl she asked if she could come too.  She just wanted to spend some time with me 'cause I've been traveling so much.  And here it is.  I knew that if she came it'd make things way more complicated but I could tell she really wanted to so I didn't hesitate, told her 'sure' and there we were several hours later with the complications setting in.

So, I drove her home (a 45min drive) dropped her off, kissed the babies, then drove back (45min) to Karl's, shot the stuff, then (at 11:30pm by this point) drove home (45min) to have a glass of wine with my Niki and...

See?

T'was all worth it.

All so the girl could spend some time with the boy.

Yes, it made things complicated but also lovely.  We had a great drive downtown, talking, catching up, just hanging out.  Dinner was awesome--though the grilled cheese sandwich had some crazy chic fussy cheese in it that made it a little more hip than I typically prefer--and my wife felt like she was more important than my work.

And she is.

It's just that our actions don't always reflect the way we feel about our "Niki's".

That's the trick to building a successful marriage, family, AND career.

You'll never have a happy wife or kids if your job comes first but most people, in order to succeed, have to put their job first.

My thought has always been, "Well, I can't and won't sacrifice my wife and kids on the altar of my job so that means most of the people I'm pitted against will be able to worker longer hours than me so that means I have to 1) work smarter 2) work faster 3) leverage my talent better and 4) bring a higher level of focus to the table.

Otherwise I won't make it.

So idea for today is to remind you to put your wife and babies first and then do whatever it takes to pour yourself into what you've been called to do to the point that you can 'compensate' for 'stilted priorities'.

(and only stilted people would call our kind of priority structure stilted)

Y'heard?

Tonight or tomorrow I'ma try to hit you up about the craziness that's happening right now on the TV/Film front.  There are some papers supposedly (!) being signed and some dramatic TV series workshopping that's supposedly (!) supposed to be starting.

But the main deal in the household today is that I'm taking my boys to an Argos/B.C Lions game tonight 'cause my host Mark Washing (DB Coach for the Lions) hooked us up with tickets and enough orange and black swag that my boys and I are sure to get beat up tonight.

I'll make sure I get some good shots for you.

Peace,

T