Hopeful progress

[breakinglight11]

Bernie and I have another meeting on the books with that producer lately I've been in contact with. As you may recall, she loved my Adonis script but said it wasn't possible for her do anything with it right now, and asked me what else I had. For that, Bernie and I whipped our Mrs. Hawking TV pilot into shape and sent it along. Her response to that was positive as well; she liked it and wanted to set up a meeting to give us notes. That is encouraging; as I was told recently, if an exec just gushes about how much they like it, that means they can't make it, but if they just tell you all the stuff they want to change, it means they actually have an interest in doing something with it. So that seems like a good sign (and now that I think about it, is borne out by my experience with the two pieces I've given her.)

Our meeting is set for Skype on July 9th. I'm excited but nervous. I'm prepared for critique, but it's always a scary prospect to have a piece that's your baby possibly get ripped apart. I am trying to stay open to whatever, especially since maybe there's a chance that will help it get produced. But also, I want to have something else in the trickbag to show her in case she asks what else we've got.

To that end, Bernie and I are working on a new pilot, something both a little less personal and maybe a little more commercial. Basically it's a heist show telling a techno-corporate-espionage version of Robin Hood-- when a spoiled trust fund baby is framed to take the fall for corporate malfeasance, his whole life is ruined and he is forced to go on the run to avoid prison. At first he's out for revenge, but eventually learns how people's lives are ruined by corporate greed and manipulation, and forms a crew of guerrilla activists who work to bring down the corporation for justice. We're hacking a pitch and hopefully a full pilot script together in time for the meeting. I'm hoping that it might be a little easier to sell, and because it's not quite so emotionally dear to me, I'd be more open to making requested changes.

Anyway, I'm hopeful. Having a project and an opportunity in front of me helps my mental state, and helps me stay positive about the trajectory of my career.

Comments

[offside7.livejournal.com]

I'm always in favor of more Robin Hood stuff! That sounds fun.

[qnmark.livejournal.com]

Question: how useful is it to make your heist show protag a trust fund baby? Is it something that's easier for you to write, or does it give him special skills (e.g. he knows random things about rich people), or does it make him more relatable, or what?

[I have a chip on my shoulder over TV/film not being good at depicting effort, and preferring heroes who were born into wealth, e.g. Batman, over ones who worked for it. Feel free to ignore me.]

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

To give him the farthest distance to travel. When he's framed everything will be taken away from him, so he won't have those resources for the series. So he will go from spoiled, selfish, and useless to having to learn to deal without all that privilege and to learn to care for others. He won't be like Batman because of that.

[qnmark.livejournal.com]

Ah.

Another question: what kind of pacing are you going for? I feel like the same concept could generate very different shows, depending on whether it's episodic, or a season arc, or a Buffy-style half-arc, etc.

[jducoeur]

as I was told recently, if an exec just gushes about how much they like it, that means they can't make it, but if they just tell you all the stuff they want to change, it means they actually have an interest in doing something with it.

Reminds me of Dr. Brainard, the historical-dance researcher who really got the SCA into dance. As I learned, getting yelled at by her was a real compliment, because it meant that you were good enough to be worth pushing higher. If she thought you were hopeless, she'd just be blandly nice to you.

And the Robin Hood story sounds like it has a lot of potential, not least because it's rather timely -- I could totally see a story like that catching the zeitgeist well. Fingers crossed on it...