As long as you've got a kitchen...

(wasn't inspired to blog today, then I saw that I've added new readers in South America and Europe so I thought I'd do it for them...)

Life is pretty simple, right?

You need clothes 'cause unless it's 'time', it's usually good to have your naked body covered to say nothing of the fact that's it's minus 21 degrees in our home town right now.

(nine degrees in Vancouver though...)

You also need somewhere to sleep where, ideally, it's not going to snow or rain on your head. So, typically a roof over the head is a nice thing.  If you have a roof that's going to stay the same for a while, meaning you don't have to move too often, all the better.

And, under that roof, you need to have some way to cook things and something to cook.

You got those covered, chances are, you can build a life.

Same thing with a Church and/or a TV show or a movie.

With a Church, you got to be able to give your people an 'experience' of worship that reminds them that God is alive.  Week in and week out, if you do more than a 'sing song' you'll probably be okay.  Add to that a kids program that's actually fun for the kids in your community so that they don't give their parents a hard time every Sunday when it's time to go to Church and you'll find that your Church probably grows.  And if you actually preach the simple truth with passion and conviction and honesty...

Well then, you can build a Church.

With a TV show it's all about consistently delivering something people want.  A show that takes them away for a half hour or an hour and puts them somewhere (in their heart and mind) 'other' that's nicer, or better, or more interesting, or moving than their normal.  With TV it's all about the 'grind'--being able to churn out episode after episode of 'goodness' on-time, on-budget through working with talented people who've bought into a vision (usually yours) that's got legs.  If you can rise to that challenge...

Well then, you can build a TV series.

With a movie it's all about story at first.  A story that moves, that captivates, that takes you away to a place you want to see brought to life for the screen so that it will connect to the lives of millions of people.  Once you get the story it's all about assembly.  Assembling the money and the people (who get paid with that money...) to turn the thing into reality.  Then it's about being able to do it--being able to work your ass to the bone until it's done.  Then it's about getting the thing to market and stewarding the thing, for seven years or so.  If you're man enough for that...

Well then, you can make yourself a movie.

See, it's not 'complicated'.  A Church needs the power of the Gospel alive in it.  A TV series needs to be comfy like an old sweater.  A movie needs to move.

And a life needs a kitchen.

Do you have what you need?

('cause until you do, chances are, you're just running in circles...)

T

A new world...

Oh man, I miss my wife...

It's the nighttime that's the worst.

So here are those concept art pieces I said I'd post...

That's the catacombs beneath Central Park where the Angels have carved holes in the walls to keep the scrolls they've been writing since the fall.  They write the scrolls because, in the fall, their memories were damaged.  They have no clear recollection of what happened to them. They're trying to piece cosmic history back together so that they can learn what happened and in the hopes that they might figure out their destiny 'cause some of them still hope for redemption...
He's planting a sapling he took from the outskirts of Eden in the wilderness that will one day become the North American continent.  The sapling is the first tree in what will one day be Central Park in the heart of New York City.

Pretty cool.  Can't wait to pitch it.  Hope they'll want it and that, before too long, I'll find myself on a green-screened soundstage with a desert foreground and fans and billowing sand and an actor about to plant a tree in it.

I hope.

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

The man is back...

That would be me.

"Oh so humble Mr. Cantelon..."

(yeah, yeah...)

Not, 'The Man' like "I'M THE MAN" just 'The Man' like I'm a man who's back.

On TV.

Pretty cool.

Shot the first thirteen episodes of 'THE DAILY: weekend edition' which is a weekly talk-television series I'll be producing/hosting starting September 7th, 2008.  We'll follow '60 Minutes' on Sunday nights, which is a pretty huge lead-in, and take a look at one of the issues featured on 60M except that we'll examine the issue from the spiritual side of life.

We had some pretty high profile guests this past week including the former Minster of Finance.  

The most fun I had was Thursday when I got to shoot all the wraparounds, the openers, transitions, closers etc.  Basically, I got to stand in front of the camera and do one of the things I do best...

Talk.

Pretty exhausting stuff though. See, I'd underestimated the time it'd take to write the shows and so found myself at the desk at 7:ooam Thursday writing straight through 'till 3:00pm when I raced into the studio, got made up, and started shooting.

Straight through 'till midnight.  

After two days previous of filming and writing 18-hours a day and a week before that racing the clock to get ready and two weeks before that racing the clock to re-write a script (that I just got back from my editor RIPPED to shreds...).

I will say that the crew had some kind things to say about what I was doing.  It was quite humbling to get feedback like that.  See, it's been a while since last I stood in front of the camera--2004 in fact.  So, to find that I still 'had it' to some small degree was very relieving.

Also, it was cool to be back 'speaking' to an audience.

I don't talk about it much but I do miss preaching.  I've been settling into a place of honesty where I'm slowly embracing who I am and what I do.

I'm a husband, father, communicator.

I always knew this, I've just been finding that I'm settling into my role as husband and daddy more than I ever thought possible.  I've always really loved my wife and loved being married but will admit that transitioning from 'happy go lucky newlywed with no kids' to the world of Daddy-dom was more than a little shocking.

Eight years later and I feel like I've really settled in.

And with the communicator thing, I'm turning the facets of that over and over in my mind as I fly between the coasts seeking to find the honest truth about who I am and what--specifically--I'm meant to do.  (Preacher? Writer? Producer? Director? Actor/Host? Motivational speaker? What kind of 'mix' of all six?)  The whole 'your days as a preacher weren't a waste-of-time and you still have plenty of time to make-it in showbiz despite your Church-detour..' conversation is one I will admit to hearing in my head on a regular basis.

(and I'm aware of the 'there is no waste' Kingdom-economy thing and don't really mean 'detour' but I will admit the phrase occurs in my head by times...)

See, you think you're someone or something, and the things you think are loaded with baggage. Expectation, the need for approval, the pressure of what you've always done, peer pressure, what brings you money, etc.

The key is to shine the light of suffering and joy and experience on that 'thing' you've been called to do and see what winks back at you.  Then you look at that spark and see what kind of fire it ignites. Then you see if you can't roast some hot dogs over it and feed 'em to your kids.

Point.

Is what you do the 'thing' you're meant to do, and if it is, to what degree?  At what percentage of 'optimum' are you operating?

I don't think you ever hit 100% but the idea, I think, is to get closer and closer as you age. The goal being that as you get near 65 or so you should be 'expert' at your craft.

(it's, of course, right around then that most people up and retire, but my sense is that retirement is for dead people, so whooha to getting, being, and staying expert...)

Each step is a good step.

Anyway, I'm feeling deeply grateful to have another shot (this is my third time around with my own TV series) and with more resources to hand than I've EVER had before. In fact, I'm sitting in the studio right now blogging while my staff shoots one of the series I'm in charge of.  I'm supposed to be writing tomorrow's episodes--which I'll get to after this--but I figured before that I'd eat some fried chicken (yup' we've got a whole u-shaped table stocked with food outside the control room...) sit on the floor a bit and watch my hosts work, then head back here, write for you a bit, then get to back to work.

One profoundly thankful man back at it and hopefully for a good ten-year run or so this time.

T