Digging In
Tonight marked the official end of Summer Writer’s Camp. Jason made the call that he would have to stay on the west coast for the duration, so he returned home to Topanga and had the house sitter depart. (Sorry Darby, Lyric, Ollie, and all on the East Coast!) On my end, I called in the cavalry to ensure a smooth road through the move next week and this initial slate of meetings. In other words, we put aside the belief that there will be a significant lull anytime soon, and dug in for the long haul. We realized that we’ve got a lot of work to do – to get ready for the meetings, to get ready for what might come after, to wrap up some of our side projects, and to develop new stuff. We feel the more we hustle, the sooner we can push through to the next stage (That’s the theory we’re sticking with, at least.) We know the one thing we can control in this whole tornado of activity is how hard we work, so we decided to go all in on the hard work. Double down and look for those split aces, if you will.
Sad to see Jase go, though I’m sure he’ll be relieved to sleep in a real bed. It’s been a week since he flew in, late Tuesday night, and we had the big meeting on Wednesday. So hard to believe its been a week. Feels like ten, but then again it also feels like just yesterday. All in all, its been a strange out of time experience. For seven days straight it was all movies, meetings, food trucks, and writing; with a few social events tossed in for celebratory purposes here and there. We worked through a rewrite of the Chinatown in the Desert feature, wrote the first draft of a short film that we’re getting paid to write (For a 3D shoot and with a heavy Special FX budget), wrote the treatment for a screenplay we’re doing with a Junior Creative Exec at Sam Raimi’s company, and started trimming down (30 pages have to be cut) a pilot we wrote months back and need to get ready for the meeting with the TV Agent next week. That’s a pretty heavy attack. I actually feel like I’m missing something, too. Which is nuts.
We have a phone meeting with the JCE at Sam Raimi’s Company tomorrow at 12:30 to discuss the treatment. We start in on a feature for a young, up and coming director who’s about to graduate from UCLA. We’ve been working on the story for a year, almost, developing it, working out the kinks, making it strong. We booked the meeting with the TV Agent next week for Thursday. We’re waiting on word from our Feature Agents about our spec scripts and whether we’ll go out on a blitzkrieg of meet and greets, or try and package one of them to sell, or write something brand new altogether. We even had lunch with a good friend, and up and coming writer-producer at the Disney/ABC lot the other day. This is all just the next seven days, or so. Somewhere in there we have to prep a TV pilot outline that we have for the TV Agent meeting as well, and I’m sure we’ll hear notes back on the rewrite of Chinatown in the Desert feature.
Pretty crazy, huh? By no means do I think it’ll always be like this. I only lay it out, so that one day I can remember this time in my life; because it feels so fast moving, right now. It strikes me that we’re at this final push to get to the top of one mountain. One we’ve been on for years. By no means is it the last mountain; or, by no means is it about climbing mountains so much. The top of the current mountain will be working and getting paid at the same time, possibly signified by membership in the Writer’s Guild, which is the Writer’s Union here. That will come with our first job, which should come as a result of the impending meetings. I’m not talking about getting rich, or out of debt completely, even. I’m simply talking about earning insurance coverage through the Guild, and enough of a payday to keep writing. Liftoff essentially. To achieve that, we have to give ourselves over to the work and the momentum and ride that boost, to climb the last bit and get to the top, so we can finish the beginning of this journey and settle into the next phase.
I hope that all makes sense. It’s a fun time. One that feels like its okay to have tunnel vision, to be consumed by the work in a good way. But, it’s also disorienting and nerve wracking at times. Heck, it might always be nerve wracking, actually. Who am I to say? The interesting thing, and some that know me well will laugh (hopefully), there is no preparation for this sudden explosion. You could study the business, study other writer’s paths in – go ahead, it still won’t prep you. I don’t even know why exactly, but as someone who maniacally researches and preps and studies as much of the business as he can, nothing I read or studied before shined a light on the experiences of the past week. None of them. You’ve gotta learn on the job, as it happens. I suppose that’s what a PHD is.
One of the last things we did for Summer Writer’s Camp is head back over to Venice and The Brig, which is a bar on Abbott Kinney, with a parking lot next to it, which is a home base of sorts for Food Trucks. We headed over to catch our new favorite, The Buttermilk Truck. This is where we went last week, Wednesday night as we waited for word on how the big meeting went and grabbed dinner from The Comfort Truck. It was very Suberian (Howard Suber) ending (Completion and Return.) While The Comfort Truck makes these awesome beef sliders, they aren’t anywhere near The Buttermilk Truck, which gives the Grilled Cheese Truck a run for its money.
Here are some pictures to prove it:
The Elusive Buttermilk Truck at The Brig in Venice, CA
On the left is the world's greatest Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich (With Sausage) and on the right are The Buttermilk Truck's infamous Red Velvet Chocolate Chip PANCAKE bites with a Vanilla Pastry Cream on top. Commence drooling....now!
Close-up on the biscuit breakfast goodness. Gotta go sausage though, bacon fans. Trust me.
Jason boldly inquiring about the make-up of the mysterious Hawaiian Breakfast sliders, which some food bloggers claim is the only way to Buttermilk, though I'm holding out for the extremely rare pumpkin croissant.
A big perk about the Brig parking lot is the long bench where you sit, often with others, and eat your food truck treasure. Other places, you might have to get back in your car; or wait and drive someplace more conducive to picnicking, like Santa Monica Beach.
Back of the Buttermilk Truck and a peek at the kitchen area.
A Hot Dog truck, which was sharing the parking lot with The Buttermilk Truck. We were hoping for King Kone or The Sweets Truck, but no luck.
Then this is one of the Calbi Trucks, which is Mexican food, arriving as we walked away.
That’s about it for tonight. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!
(Oh, yeah. I had my FINAL dental appointment today. Every thing’s finally done, that needs to be done. Whew!)
I can’t look at these pictures any more, I keep having to wipe off the screen!
I miss those trucks. They don’t have them in west grove, PA.
When you come out west, next, Colin, make Jason hunt down the Buttermilk truck! It is heavenly….