Always learning...

So I'm always learning.

Today I'll be scouring the above book as I prepare for 1) a story meeting tonight 2) a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday of feverish writing 3) a post-audio session Tuesday night and 4) a Network pitch Friday.

The book is all about creating dramatic TV series'.  This next step (providing it actually 'happens'...) is an interesting one for me since most of my 'show business' work has been in talk television series production with one produced feature film under my belt.

So with this new project I'll be mixing my years in talk-TV with my love for the narrative form.

I was reading an online resource the other day, one of those sites that claims to help writers 'make it' in TV, and noticed something about the 'checklist' they'd provided re: the steps necessary to getting your own TV series on the air.

Among the 'must-haves' listed:

1) Strong, long-standing, working relationship with the Network you're pitching to.

2) A proven track-record.

3) A great, or at least 'catchy' concept.

4) An infectious passion for the project.

And the thing that struck me was that I have all those things.  Very strange to find myself in that position.  I remember, like it was yesterday, deciding in 2002 that I was going to start writing for the screen.  I remember buying Syd Field's 'THE SCREENWRITER'S WORKBOOK' and reading it once like a book, a second time with a pen taking furious notes, and a third time doing the exercises and, like he said, I ended up with my first screenplay by the time I'd finished actually working my way through the book.

The script was called 'THREE NIGHTS AT SEA'.  I'll try to post a shot of it for you.

I also remember, Summer 2004, saying to my Dad that I thought it was time to make my break into directing.  Two winters later (Feb 2006) I was on-set directing my first feature-film from a script I'd written.  By that point, 'THE STORM' was the sixth or seventh feature-length screenplay I'd written.

Two years after that, just last month in L.A, I sat in a distribution meeting on said film and I may have some interesting news to report on that front very soon.

The Network that I'm pitching on Friday is one I've had a working relationship with, off and on, for ten full years.  It's only now that I'm in the position, after all of the above, where I have even a snow ball's chance in Cabo of this pitch being anything other than a colossal waste of time.

I was reading on Wordplayer, a wonderful screenwriting community, another post on how 'hard' it is to break into screenwriting.  Terry Rossio (genius screenwriter of 'Alladin', the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise among so many others along with his writing partner Ted Elliot) was, again, saying that if you ever want to actually see your story made you basically need to become a director.

I believed that ten years ago.  It's very funny to be in the place today where it looks like that's starting, just starting mind-you and very tenuously at best, for me.

And that got me thinking, as it often does, about you.

What do you want to do?

Do you already 'know' the gatekeepers in your industry?  Have you been 'part' of their mix for a certain number of years?  If the answer is 'no' then you need to put yourself in that position now so that a few years from now you'll be able to answer 'yes' at which point you'll need to be sure that you...

Have the track-record to back your dreams up.  This doesn't mean you need to have done what you're looking to do, at the highest level, 'cause if you'd already done it you wouldn't be knocking on that door now would you?  So don't assume you need to be a 'pro' to get that gig. You do, however, need to be able to demonstrate that you have the proven ability to follow-through.  One of the problems with 'dream making' is that almost anyone can have a dream that they're passionate about.  Very few people have the ability to stick with and to that dream for a decade or more to see it birthed.  The gatekeepers will need to know they can trust you to follow through on whatever tangible investment it is that you're hoping they're going to make in you and they're only going to even start considering giving you that investment if...

Your concept is catchy.  This means you have to have something they want.  Something that's similar to what they know (historically) 'works' in their arena but still different or unique enough that they feel it'll have a chance to punch through all the pop-cultural 'noise' out there. You'll know your concept is catchy when you can't sleep at night 'cause the ideas keep coming and when everyone you tell it to responds with a 'Wow!  When can I see it?  That sounds GREAT!'  When even your classically taciturn business partner gets excited about it (something he NEVER does...) you'll know you're onto something.  Your final test is your wife.  If she thinks the thing's got legs (and mine still thinks it's a bit confusing but worth pursuing...) then you're good.

And if you get that far you'll have demonstrated that you have an infectious passion for the thing 'cause you'll have gotten all the above people excited about the thing you're thinking of birthing.

Needless to say, all of the above is true of launching a TV series or making a movie or planting a Church or starting a business or launching a new venture at work or taking that new job, whatever.

It's just important to realize that we're involved, here, in a process and that process is really the whole point.  Whether the pitch is picked up or not, whether your idea gets off the ground or not, the process you have to go through to get to the point of acceptance OR rejection is a process that will leave you the richer (as a person) for it and more able to impact those around you in a way that's hopefully a couple of degrees up from vacuous.

You get 'depth' or 'weight' as a person by doing the things you're dreaming of.  There is no such thing as wasted effort.

T