Friday, March 17, 2006

It's Been That Sort of Week


Yes, friends - it has been that kind of week. Upside down and crazy and really a pain in the arse. (Photo courtesy of Warren Ellis who got it from Modblog).

Heard that I won't be writing the comic book adaption project after all. The producer has a director who has his own writer. I don't understand it all myself, but we'll see exactly what happens. Nothing is set in stone yet.

A movie that I'm setting up needs a kickstart. I'm going to take it to a another name horror director to see his interest. My first choice's people have not gotten back to me - despite a great initial meeting - so we all lose. It's past their deadline so I have to move on.

Isn't moviemaking fun?

Got myself into the thick of things over at Denis McGrath's house, talking about Canadian television. I've watched a bit of it lately as I'm trying to open my perspective of how television and movies are made. I'm breaking a lot of assumptions (some I've made, some from others) and structures and looking at how it could be put together in a new way with new financing, new distribution, new subject matters and storytelling techniques. Canadian tv is a new animal for me, and I've not yet put my finger on its pulse. What I have seen though (Charlie Jade, ReGenesis, Falcon Beach, Forever Knight, Lexx) has made me want to see more. I'm not in love with it, but I want to ask for a second date.

Side note: Lest anyone think I've been picking on the Canadians lately, understand that I've been watching British and Japanese television as well. If any of my Austrailian readers (Grubber? Where are you, man?) want to recommend the cream of their crop of shows, I'm listening. I've seen shows shot in Austrailia, but I can't recall seeing a strictly Oz show.

In regards to media, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel here, just stay ahead of the hairpin turn that I see media heading toward. My "staying ahead " will manifest itself in a couple of ways, none of which I'm ready to talk about quite yet.

I have a couple of films on my desk that I have to screen. I'm looking at repping them to a couple of distributors. One is a documentary that features a subject near and dear to my heart. The other is a low budget crime thriller. Both need work, and I'm not sure whether or not I'm commited enough to see them through. It would be a shame for the doc not to get seen though. Decisions, decisions...

There have been - will be a few bright spots this week:

I am going to the Wizard World LA Show this weekend and will shake a few hands and introduce myself. If anyone else is headed there this weekend (I'm going on Sunday) feel free to drop me a line and we'll somehow hook up at the LA Convention center.

My partner and I signed a new PR client. You've seen his work on Jeopardy, Saturday Night Live and Letterman. With our help, you're going to see a lot more of him.

On Saturday, I have a meeting to further discuss going out with my pitch for Bug-Eyed Monsters. What has been interesting is how it has changed throughout the pitching process (location, characters, motivations) while still maintaining that quality that inspired me in the first place. I have already received a lot of help from the scribosphere (I don't want to name names, but you guys know who you are) and "thanks" are spread all around. Now I am teaming up with someone to get the project in the door at the places that can get it launched big. It definitely means I need to bring my "A" game and put the shoulder to the wheel.

I could use the exercise.

1 comment:

Grubber said...

Here! (waving hand a back of crowd, close to the bar).

Just put up a post with an article relating to TV show development in Oz......the Canadians think it's bad. One of the major networks here slashed their development (for drama) budget from about $1m to $100K......I am thinking of taking in those notepads with some stick drawings and flicking them really, really quick, and tell them that is my fully shot pilot......how do you reckon I'll go? :)

Shows?

Get your hands on Frontline, that is a great show.

Drama's, well I'll tell you what has/is popular so if you get your hands on it you can see what they are watching.

Blue Heelers (cop show in country, think NYPD blue, chewing hayseed). Early stuff was interesting, but lost it a long time ago for me.

McLeod's Daughters...some of it is alright, the views are great. They do have a lot of the male sense of humour and traits down pat for this show.

Police Rescue and Water Rats were popular, but never did much for me.

We seem to be good at mini-series and sketch shows. Drama tends to be hit and miss, and I think they try and achieve some sort of mix between US gritty drama's and Ozzie culture. Blue Heeler's didn't it just tried to be Australian. The ones that don't last seem to try that combo.

We don't seem to do well at sitcoms either. This gives a fairly decent shot at explaining why, even though he can't spell Jerry Seinfeld. http://members.ozemail.com.au/~imcfadyen/situations.htm

Any other Aussie's reading such as Konrad, Xander, and Dog feel free to jump in and call bullshit on me.
cheers
Dave.