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

Editing, editing, and more editing...

Oyyyy....

This is my life right now.  The picture tells the story.

That's the truth behind all the fancy movies and TV shows you love to watch.  A couple guys (sometimes more, almost never less) locked in a basement or a bedroom with a 'Final Cut' system arduously, painstakingly, never-endingly working their way through crafting an episode or a film--making something from next to nothing.

As I pulled up to my editor's place yesterday (or was it the day before?) I had this moment where I realized that if I am to be successful in this new phase of my life (the producer/director phase) I had better get used to spending endless hours in edit suites.

(seriously, I'm fantasizing about what kind of leather couch I'm gonna' put in my suite once I 'make it'...)

And it's not like I haven't put in my time already.  Dude, I was supervising edits back when all we had was online reel to reel...

Yes, I was your friendly neighborhood tyrannical teenaged producer.

But seriously, this is where we live.  Sweating it out, hour by hour, working working working to try and find the best way to say a thing or show a thing.  Fixing things that don't work, making things up when there's no way to fix it, endlessly trying to keep ourselves entertained and fed long enough so that we'll be able to finish the race.

Sounds an awful lot like the dozens of hours your average preacher spends each week, alone in his office sweating blood to try and come up with a sermon that's worth the salt.

I often wonder what it is that drives people like that to do what they do.  I mean, you've got to be pretty possessed and absorbed to fritter away endless hours of your life in a dark room while the rest of the world chills at the beach.

And I guess, when it all comes down to it, I already answered my question...

They're possessed.

Of a passion, a drive, an ambition, a need to tell a story or tell THE story and tell it right.  Tell it in such a way that it connects, makes a difference, impacts the audience, turns darkness to light.

That's why we put up with day upon day of pizza and coke (with a little bourbon thrown in from time to time just to keep it 'live'...) and night upon night of late to bed and morning after morning of early to rise--because we love to tell the story.

No amount of money or fame or respect or praise would be enough to compensate you for the pure drudgery of doing this part of the job.

You've got to do it because you must.

No other reason will do.

'Cause it's just the editor and the pizza and you.

T

The view...

From up here, is pretty nice.

Wouldn't you say?

That's what you see looking out of my hotel room in Vancouver.

At least when it's not raining.

Back home now after 'the week of doom' last week basically working around the clock to get the first 25 episodes of THE DAILY: with mark & laura lynn shot and rough edited.

I feel like I'm still recovering.

I didn't really talk about how the shoot went, so here goes...

Monday to Thursday was non-stop editing, locked in a basement with my homee Russell Greene laboriously, and I do mean LABORIOUSLY going through every interview segment our on-location team had shot.  We had to decide what portions of each segment were useable (some more or less than others) then lock the time, decide on the theme, figure out how I was going to transition to and from said specifically-themed clip, makes sure all the clips fit the required time, the write all the intervening content to transition to and from the clips and create ancillary content to fill in the gaps where the interviews were too short.

Boring you yet?

Yes, that's how talk TV is made--slowly, painstakingly, laboriously.

Russell and I ate good pizza, lots of brownies, drank bottles and bottles of coke and occasionally spiked said coke with some whiskey he'd just gotten from his cousin.  Once the whiskey hit the system we cranked the 'snoop' to really get the mood into a more positive mode.

All to help us edit.

Then Friday hit--first shoot day.

I slept o.k the night before.  As I said many times to my wife on the phone in the days leading up, "I don't think (after directing my first feature-film) that anything will every really stress me out ever again..."  Didn't sleep GREAT though, just good enough to not be dead the next day.  I think I finished writing around 3am then slept 'till seven or seven thirty then hit the studio.

We only had a half day that first day and I had conservatively hoped we'd get five shows done allowing us to only (ONLY?) need to shoot twenty the next day.

We got one show.

ONE.

So, at the end of that day, before heading back to the edit suite then home to write again 'till 3 or 4am I called Niki to tell her I'd be staying longer.

Meaning she'd be home alone with four kids for an extra three days...  

The crew and cast and production team out there were kind enough to agree to come in on Sunday so that I wouldn't be stabbed by the Network bosses for screwing their new series before it had even begun.

Day two was light years better.  We got eight show done (I'd been hoping for nine) which left us only sixteen (16?) to do on Sunday.

I had been planning to keep things pretty 'loose' for the talent, preferring not to put them on teleprompter (a glass screen that goes in front of the camera lens off-which most TV people read things someone else has written for them so that they'll look smart/witty/funny/heartfelt/insightful, etc...) and allowing them to freestyle their lines for the most part with minimal direction from me.

My whole early career as a TV host, that's how I did it.  Freestyle.

Well, it didn't work.  At all.

So, Friday night I burned the mid-night oil and wrote all the segments for my hosts for Saturday and totally changed my 'freestyle' ideas to allow them some time to 'riff' (chat back and forth) with each other, based on their areas of interest/history/talent etc.

It was like night and day.

They were loose, able to focus on performance, not stressed.  Just 'on'.

So, I continued doing that, writing for them, bantering with them so that they'd have things to riff on, and generally working to their strengths instead of asking them to rise to mine.

Duh...

(I can be really stupid sometimes...)

Our staff (Shout out to Canadace, the Shaw team, Russell, Greg, Lynn, Lawrence, Geoff, Lindsday) just ripped it up, working their tails off to do their jobs to beyond the fullest extent to help make the whole thing happen.

And it did.

And it looked great.

And had substance and spirit to it.

The kind of 'mass media' my business partner and I are in the business of making.

I start editing tomorrow, and am very excited to deliver the first five episodes to the network on Monday.  I think they're going to lose their minds.

I'll make a point to pop some of our work up on youtube and post a link here in the coming days so you can see the stuff we're doing.

Peace,

T

Oh man, oh man...

It's 1:30am Vancouver time which is (gasp) 4:30am my time though, I must admit, I'm currently perched somewhere between the two time zones.

I just wanted to note that show business is sometimes fun and sometimes glamorous but then again show business if often just plain difficult and not for the weak in body or mind.

I've just finished working for today, not 'cause the work's done--I could easily go another three hours in order to be 100% ready for tomorrow--but because I'm done.

Can't go no mo'.

I started working at 7:00am--eighteen and a half hours ago.

How you like them apples?

That's day four of a seven day stretch.

Ooyyyy...

T

ps: set looks cool though, don't it?  And that's the actual set, not the digital rendering...