Archive for the ‘Hollywood’ Category

So, I gave myself a little free reign and slept in a bit this morning. Jacob was off to his job – it’s his Friday – as he work. So, I gave myself a little free reign and slept in a bit this morning. Jacob was off to his job – it’s his Friday – as he works Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and has the rest of the week off; and I had put in more time than expected on that copywriting gig (Thanks again, Jason!) which was a nice surprise and a good boost (plus there looks like they’ll be more work to do – which is perfect.)

I digress within the digression. I’ve been trying to get up at 8:30, but its been more like 9:00 or 9:30. What I’m trying to get away from is the 10:00 wake-up, which is what I let myself go until today. I’ve also resumed walking, now a bit in the afternoon, to get a break from the computer and get some sunshine/exercise in and to listen to my audiobook/This American Life because I’m not in the car much these days.

ANYWAYS (finally, woof! Sometimes the tangents within the tangents are a little taxing, aren’t they?) I awoke and grabbed my handy-dandy, don’t-know-how-we-existed-without-them iPhone, as I do now every morning, and checked my email before pulling myself up for some apple-cinnamon Cheerios and toast (Hey, I’m out of English Muffins, which reminds me….) with some iced coffee. So, I turn off my alarm – which is on my iPhone, too. (I mean everything’s on that thing!) and lo and behold if there isn’t an email there that goes a little something like this:

Hey Guys,

I got your emails from **** (Ed note: Jason & Doc’s Agent) It was so great meeting you a few weeks back.  I just wanted to reach out and tell you how much **** ( Ed note: Her Boss the Producer) and I enjoy your writing and that we’d love to find something to work on with you in the future so definitely expect me to be bothering you guys with projects.  Thanks again for coming in!

Talk to you soon.

This being from one of the Execs and her Boss whom we pitched to recently with our latest TV idea. And though they passed, we had heard they loved us and the door would be open, but that was it. Until the email today. Which was a nice boost. Which meant we had taken a nice little step forward. This was further emphasized when the above message sparked an email conversation between the Exec, Jason (as he was moving, nonetheless!) and myself (before I could have any breakfast or iced coffee, but not from bed) that seemed to go on for an hour and a half maybe? The Exec asked what we were interested in working on in the future. We asked what her company mandate (the types of scripts they’re interested in doing most of all/are actively hunting around for)  is on the feature side. We chatted on that a bit which evolved into her asking us to return to their office for a meeting to discuss features this coming Monday @ 4.

Which is exactly what we had hoped would occur, reasonably speaking, from our meetings. We hoped , and tasked ourselves, with making fans – which we apparently did with this Exec. Now we’ll go in and have more of a general meeting where we’ll pitch some feature ideas, but they’ll also talk about what they’ve got optioned or purchased (books, magazine articles, ideas they have themselves) and we’ll discuss possible fits for an assignment hopefully of some kind, or they’ll spark to one of our existing ideas and we’ll go across the studio lot and pitch it to the Studio Brass.

BOO-YA!  GO. TEAM!

Yes, a lovely way to start the day. We figure this should please everyone @ UTA as it shows (again as Jason reminded me) a) progress under their guidance, and b) demonstrates value in our pitching skills along with our material, which means that when they do send us out there are benefits – like making fans – who may open the door to unseen assignments, business/creative opportunities.

More and more I am mesmerized by the education in how Hollywood really operates, since I left school! Sure, UCLA really prepared me to take advantage of the PHD program Jason and I find ourselves in right now. It’s amazing. There is no way on GOD’S GREEN EARTH that you could do this – start a career – from anywhere but here. NO WAY. If you were able to accomplish that, I would wager my last dime that it was a result of sheer dumb luck, or the person had been here previously (This is the untold portion of the GRAN TORINO screenwriter’s legend. He actually worked and lived here for quite some time, before leaving for Minnesota where he wrote and then sold his script through his CONTACTS here.)

Why do I say this? Because, there’s so much misinformation swirling around this aspect of the journey and the more and more that we take each gradual step these days, the fact that there’s such a deep schism between hard reality and The fantasy that’s sold in the many books, screenwriter’s conferences, et. all which I used to look to for facts like countless others out there. This isn’t a Mike Tyson fight people. There’s no thirty second, first round knockout. This is Muhammad Ali, Rumble In The Jungle, gotta last the whole fight type of fight. Which means you gotta be there every step of the way. In the ring. Taking your shots as you deal some out, bit by bit, too.

As I look about, read the trades, and pay attention to what’s going on as best as I can, I witness this reality in all of its myriad guises. I love it. And am frustrated by it. As well as depressed some days and just bewildered other days. Or exhilarated. But there’s no sense in railing against how it is. You may not want it to be that way, but it just is – and has been long before you came along.

Best bet is to learn those rules, master them, before you start even having the slightest glimmer of the thought that they should not apply to you. Because guess what? Even then, they still do.

I think as long as their are emails like the one above every know and again, I can make my peace with that and work (though I’m not perfect!) towards setting aside any thoughts otherwise.

If you’re out there, on this crazy journey, too, do yourself a favor. One I wish I would’ve done years ago, and put aside the delusions, see it for what it is and approach it accordingly. The headaches and heartaches from pounding your head against it just isn’t worth it.

I’ve got a birthday party in an hour (Happy Birthday, Laurapalooza!) so let’s get right to it:

- Been watching THE WIRE a lot lately. I had taken a break after season two. A break that lasted almost a year. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I was so blown away and wanted to savor the experience of watching it the first time. I hope to some day write and produce a television show that is a tenth as brilliant, real, incisive, brave, and chilling. The layers of it and its ability to introduce new characters while slowly expanding the reach of the narrative is unbelievable. I’m at the start of season four and I can honestly say that no show has ever touched THE WIRE’s level of complexity and feeling of unflinching reality.

-On the flip side of that, looks like BOSS is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water with HWY 61 and PH. His agency, the biggest and most powerful in all of Hollywood, sent it to four heads of cable networks and they all passed – unwilling supposedly to do anything with politics with or without PH attached. It appears that we won’t be getting it back any time soon, either; which is baffling and frustrating – though it didn’t get us to where we are for now. We haven’t reached the end of the road completely, but we’re just about there. I’ve been told that unless someone comes to HWY 61 and PH and says: “Yes, we absolutely want to do BOSS” it won’t get pushed anymore and PH has definitely decided that he doesn’t want to go out and knock on doors/pitch it, which is ultimately what the “no’s” thus far are telling us what the project needs to get off the ground. It’s a tough spot as we share representation now. Apparently, they’re going to push it to the backburner for now and consider what else they may want to do with it. Which will mean nothing, in the end. Hopefully, down the road, it will be like a MAD MEN which was rejected and then filed away by Matt Weiner for eight years, until he had success and could do it.

- Looks like I may be getting some good copywright freelance work coming up (Thanks Artichoke Artisans!) Along with a few other things hear and there, I feel like – thanks to move – I’ll be able to tread water and maybe even break into copywrighting a bit more as I search for a teaching gig of some kind. I may do some extra work here and there to fill in the gaps, or maybe look for a Writer’s Assistant gig on a show.

-Very excited about the newer, cheaper AppleTV (is it ITV now?) and that it will be capable of streaming Netflix as well. Let the movie streaming revolution begin! Say good-bye to DVD’s!

- My niece Ellen was at her first Fighting Irish football game today as she’s at Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, her mother’s alma matter, for her freshman year. The last time I was there was in college for a game with the Keefe’s. But I watched part of the game today, thinking back to my visit to see Claire there, when I believe I was in junior high. Here and her friends tried to sneak me in the student section, but I got bounced. Luckily, once I got in on my regular ticket, they found me and walked me into the section, which was packed with students. I still think of that visit and being in autumnal South Bend as the iconic collegiate experience. I remember we went to the pep rally and it all seemed as College should be.  I hope Ellen had a blast and is finding her place in the new community she’s in as well as her older sister, Emily, has at Villanova in Philly.

- Caught part of an episode of House Hunters International today. Saw a couple buy a COMPOUND with four small homes on it for two million in FIJI. Compound hopefuls be ready – we may forego Malibu/No Cal and decamp to Fiji. They had a private beach. It was slick. I’m thinking one hit TV show and five million and we might be able to buy a town.

- Been having very in-depth dreams lately. Like I’m almost conscious in them. But, I’m not remembering them when I wake up. What’s up with that? At least let me remember them. Their might be good material in there.

- My beloved Redbirds are imploding as I type. It’s pretty painful to watch. It’s like a NASCAR accident, not some mere stumble. A full on metal and fire, blown tires, hitting the wall implosion. I have long been a fan of Tony LaRussa’s hard charging (i think) brilliant managerial style. He is one of the greatest in-game generals and strategists ever in the game; but it may be time to give The Secret Weapon the chair and see what he can do with it. I think the team is not responding. We definitely have to 86 Mark McGwire as hitting coach and suck it up on the ownership side and raise the payroll to $120 million a year.

- New Arcade Fire album The Suburbs? Brilliant! Check it out. Now. No, I’m serious. Check. It. Out. You won’t regret it.

- Need to get back to work on my play and start in on my new one.

- Best meeting of the week – in terms of wow, we’re in a Hollywood office? Definitely Gran Via Productions, which was in Century City, near CAA. It was on the 16th floor of this office building located within the larger company WALDEN MEDIA (they did The Narnia Films, among many others.) When we walked up to the reception desk, it was hard to not notice to the right an enormous prop from the latest Narnia movie, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER – the mammoth, ornately carved wooden Ship’s Helm. It was rather impressive. Then we sat in their lovely lobby, where they had a large flat screen (naturally) playing their various films on a loop. Great way to wait for the meeting to start.

- And the best water award goes to….Brillstein Entertainment Partners. When we sat in the lobby and were asked by the receptionist if we wanted anything, shortly after the expected reply of “water” out came a lovely lady with a silver butler’s tray, polished to a high sheen. She set the waters down on lilac colored leather coasters. The water proved to be a cut above the rest – crisp, cold with ample ice in the glass. (Jason promptly awarded it the best water award after the meeting.)

I think that’s all for now, folks. Have an excellent and safe Labor Day!

I’ve got a birthday party in an hour (Happy Birthday, Laurapalooza!) so let’s get right to it:

- Been watching THE WIRE a lot lately. I had taken a break after season two. A break that lasted almost a year. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I was so blown away and wanted to savor the experience of watching it the first time. I hope to some day write and produce a television show that is a tenth as brilliant, real, incisive, brave, and chilling. The layers of it and its ability to introduce new characters while slowly expanding the reach of the narrative is unbelievable. I’m at the start of season four and I can honestly say that no show has ever touched THE WIRE’s level of complexity and feeling of unflinching reality.

-On the flip side of that, looks like BOSS is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water with HWY 61 and PH. His agency, the biggest and most powerful in all of Hollywood, sent it to four heads of cable networks and they all passed – unwilling supposedly to do anything with politics with or without PH attached. It appears that we won’t be getting it back any time soon, either; which is baffling and frustrating – though it didn’t get us to where we are for now. We haven’t reached the end of the road completely, but we’re just about there. I’ve been told that unless someone comes to HWY 61 and PH and says: “Yes, we absolutely want to do BOSS” it won’t get pushed anymore and PH has definitely decided that he doesn’t want to go out and knock on doors/pitch it, which is ultimately what the “no’s” thus far are telling us what the project needs to get off the ground. It’s a tough spot as we share representation now. Apparently, they’re going to push it to the backburner for now and consider what else they may want to do with it. Which will mean nothing, in the end. Hopefully, down the road, it will be like a MAD MEN which was rejected and then filed away by Matt Weiner for eight years, until he had success and could do it.

- Looks like I may be getting some good copywright freelance work coming up (Thanks Artichoke Artisans!) Along with a few other things hear and there, I feel like – thanks to move – I’ll be able to tread water and maybe even break into copywrighting a bit more as I search for a teaching gig of some kind. I may do some extra work here and there to fill in the gaps, or maybe look for a Writer’s Assistant gig on a show.

-Very excited about the newer, cheaper AppleTV (is it ITV now?) and that it will be capable of streaming Netflix as well. Let the movie streaming revolution begin! Say good-bye to DVD’s!

- My niece Ellen was at her first Fighting Irish football game today as she’s at Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, her mother’s alma matter, for her freshman year. The last time I was there was in college for a game with the Keefe’s. But I watched part of the game today, thinking back to my visit to see Claire there, when I believe I was in junior high. Here and her friends tried to sneak me in the student section, but I got bounced. Luckily, once I got in on my regular ticket, they found me and walked me into the section, which was packed with students. I still think of that visit and being in autumnal South Bend as the iconic collegiate experience. I remember we went to the pep rally and it all seemed as College should be.  I hope Ellen had a blast and is finding her place in the new community she’s in as well as her older sister, Emily, has at Villanova in Philly.

- Caught part of an episode of House Hunters International today. Saw a couple buy a COMPOUND with four small homes on it for two million in FIJI. Compound hopefuls be ready – we may forego Malibu/No Cal and decamp to Fiji. They had a private beach. It was slick. I’m thinking one hit TV show and five million and we might be able to buy a town.

- Been having very in-depth dreams lately. Like I’m almost conscious in them. But, I’m not remembering them when I wake up. What’s up with that? At least let me remember them. Their might be good material in there.

- My beloved Redbirds are imploding as I type. It’s pretty painful to watch. It’s like a NASCAR accident, not some mere stumble. A full on metal and fire, blown tires, hitting the wall implosion. I have long been a fan of Tony LaRussa’s hard charging (i think) brilliant managerial style. He is one of the greatest in-game generals and strategists ever in the game; but it may be time to give The Secret Weapon the chair and see what he can do with it. I think the team is not responding. We definitely have to 86 Mark McGwire as hitting coach and suck it up on the ownership side and raise the payroll to $120 million a year.

- New Arcade Fire album The Suburbs? Brilliant! Check it out. Now. No, I’m serious. Check. It. Out. You won’t regret it.

- Need to get back to work on my play and start in on my new one.

- Best meeting of the week – in terms of wow, we’re in a Hollywood office? Definitely Gran Via Productions, which was in Century City, near CAA. It was on the 16th floor of this office building located within the larger company WALDEN MEDIA (they did The Narnia Films, among many others.) When we walked up to the reception desk, it was hard to not notice to the right an enormous prop from the latest Narnia movie, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER – the mammoth, ornately carved wooden Ship’s Helm. It was rather impressive. Then we sat in their lovely lobby, where they had a large flat screen (naturally) playing their various films on a loop. Great way to wait for the meeting to start.

- And the best water award goes to….Brillstein Entertainment Partners. When we sat in the lobby and were asked by the receptionist if we wanted anything, shortly after the expected reply of “water” out came a lovely lady with a silver butler’s tray, polished to a high sheen. She set the waters down on lilac colored leather coasters. The water proved to be a cut above the rest – crisp, cold with ample ice in the glass. (Jason promptly awarded it the best water award after the meeting.)

I think that’s all for now, folks. Have an excellent and safe Labor Day!

There was a lot more lat night that I wanted to get into, but wasn’t able to due to the late hour and my general tiredness. So let’s dive right in with this pick-up post.

We did indeed have our second to last pitch for TV pitching season today @ Parkes/MacDonald as I mentioned. To recap, because it was a great week for who we were pitching to, the companies we pitched were Brillstein, Gran Via (Mark Johnson’s company,) and Parkes-MacDonald. All are good companies with lots of muscle who responded to our reps presentation of us and our sample (BOSS.) We pitched well this week. Better than last week for sure. We thought we did pretty good last week, but in retrospect and after our conference call with our TV team the other day, which was kind of a halftime review of how things were progressing so far, it’s clear the adjustments that Jason and I made really tightened and elevated our pitch.  We’re still waiting to hear from everyone this week as to there initial reactions and if there’s interest to pursue our idea further. That being said, and I think I covered this last night a bit (without looking back ) Everyone last week passed. Which isn’t unusual. There are hundreds of pitches on the TV side at this time of the year and a very select few get ordered to script. We’re not completely out, but the genral tone of the conference call seemed to indicate that we were not going to get this pitch across on this round. Which if this does indeed turn out to be the case, because its healthy, I’ll admit is pretty damn disappointing. But, about par for the course being that we’re new, unknown writers and our pitch is on the edgier side of things.

That isn’t to say that the pitches weren’t success’ in what they needed, ultimately, to accomplish which was get our name out there and get us some experience walking into those major league rooms and presenting our idea and our talents in a fun and entertaining way. The idea being that what we did was plant seeds with each person we met with. And that these seeds will bloom in assignments or other pitches or whatever down the road. According to our team, we were shone in every room we went into. With one producer going so far as to say he could tell “that we will be major stars.” Every door is without a doubt still left open, according to our agents, who set the meetings and do the check in to get the “meeting behind the meeting” after it’s over. We made a bunch of fans and that’s what it takes. Ultimately, I feel as we walked out of the pitch today, both Jason and I could look back over the two weeks and see just how much we had learned.

We do still have word on the three to come in from this week and one more pitch to go; but from there it looks like the TV side will quiet down for a bit. On the feature side, though, it appears (hopefully) they are finally ready to rev up to full speed and get us out there. We also have one of the three screenplays that we started for young producers or directors at our level before we signed with the agency, that is believed to be ready to go out to possible actors, production companies, and directors in an effort to get it into production. So, hopefully, in September we’ll have a bunch of generals with feature people and then this script will go out and one or the other or both will make headway. The big thing that Jason and I are fighting – beside the obvious material concerns of finances – is the psychological of wanting that first break to come in. Not so much for the money it may bring, but more so to cement our representation team in place. To justify all their hardwork and time spent on us. Because even though there are those tough times of silence, when we’re out there like we have been the past two weeks we are in near constant contact with them – especially our manager, but also the agents, and when we contacted our feature guys they got back to us within a couple of hours – which is not typical for those of us who haven’t made them money yet and established themselves with an assignment or sale yet. Part of this psychological pressure stems from the horror stories we’ve heard through school about peers signing with a major agency right out of the gate, but because something didn’t happen for them the first time out with an idea or script, they weren’t dropped so much as they were set adrift, with phone calls not returned and material not read, that sort of thing. Kind of dropped, without being told they were dropped and their careers started to stall because of it. It’s something you definitely feel some concern over. You’ve got to produce or there isn’t room for you.

So, here we are at the end of round two, a lot of lessons learned. Our work cut out for us. Still in the game. Still feeling extremely fortunate.

**Editorial Note (Haven’t these been fun!): I began this post last night, then got so tired I had to lay down, promptly passed out, and didn’t wake up until six a.m. Thus the delay. And promptly proving my point about the tension wearing you thin, but not even realizing it because its so ongoing. Lasting for days basically. Partially, that’s more to do with us getting started, no being used to it, and caught in that initial nether region between jobs and making some kind of living as a writer. There’s that tension, too. The not knowing where it’s headed at the moment. As well as just life and its many unexpected left turns and curve balls – like my car’s brakes needing to be fixed immediately. But, ultimately, despite what sounds like a lot of tension and uncertainty – which on one level it is – it’s also just living and being and how life unfolds. It’s not forever or even necessarily a problem, its just the process of chasing your dreams. Which is a total gift to be able to do every single day.****

~We return you now to the previously interrupted blog post!~

Well, I had fully expected to blog yesterday, but I think all the tension and stress caught up with me. I passed out super early and slept hard through the night, almost oversleeping my meeting this morning. It’s kind of strange – you think to yourself: :It’s only a forty minute meeting. Sometimes early in the day. How can I be so wiped out?” But, then you consider the anticipation and building adrenaline before it. The meeting itself which is when your most “on.” And then waiting for the phone calls to follow after, while we debrief and try and figure out the plan for the next day, then meander back to our regular lives, constantly checking the phone for emails or calls. I’d say the real tension lays in waiting after for some kind of word on the meeting, itself, from your reps who, theoretically, have spoken with the execs/producers about how you did and what they thought. Waiting for that one call, we’ve decided, is the most tense part and can go on for all hours of the day.

BUT….

My sleepiness lately, aside, things have been progressing just as they should – which would mean they’re progressing WONDERFULLY. No offers yet, of course. That would necessitate a different kind of entry here! Rather, I’m just about dead certain we haven’t (in the three meetings so far) left the room in worse shape than when we walked in. Actually, I’d say all three times we left the room in better shape – either slightly, or alot. That means we’re doing all that we can do and we’re doing it well. Fans are being created. We look promising in the room and I think these folks that we’re pitching to, I think they’d be glad to work with us when the time and project is right. We’ve had the chance to get into the rhythm of the game, make in pitch and post pitch adjustments, see those adjustments pay off in the next pitch getting tighter and better, and gained that invaluable confidence that comes from doing and learning as you do.

First of all, for two great posts on the experience so far check out Jason’s extremely well-written blog: Chasing Mist here and here. It’s a great blog overall (and I’m not just saying that b/c he’s my writing partner!) So, check it out regardless. But those two posts really get inside the experiences we’ve been having this week and present a vivid portrait of it.

This is a great quote from the end of the second post:

“But whether or not this meeting results in a sale, for me what I’m most pleased with was our ability to pinpoint what needed improvement, and then act on those strategy changes. And it was great to see results.”

As I mentioned, this is the blessing of having multiple meetings. But, the trick is to be able to read the meeting/room and make those adjustments. After going through it, I could see it being easy to say to one’s self: “Hey, I/we pitched awesome. They just didn’t get it or it’s not for them. let’s move on, we just need to do the same exact thing until we find someone who gets it or wants it.” Which is a terrible mistake. You’ve got to be able to detach and reflect, which doesn’t (unfortunately) come naturally. Thankfully, we some good training (Thanks UCLA!), the power of the partnership (which really helps, b/c when one stumbles, the other can leap in and help them out. Collaboration, being able to listen, not getting lost in the details – these are the elements that have benefitted us most this week, and will continue to benefit us going forward as long as we keep them firmly in our sights.

Essentially here’s the break down on the meetings:

Meeting No. 2: Was at a big time management/production company. They’re responsible mostly for a bunch of feature franchises, but have a TV development division and a first look deal at CBS/Paramount for TV. They’re looking for a bigger presence in the TV world and so we went in to pitch our little idea. As we’ve both written already, that first one Tuesday felt much more like we were just getting our feet wet. Well, in light of that, this one felt much more “Game On.” Which was awesome. The Exec we met with was super down to earth, seemed like he had a kind of Mid-western feel to his personality, which was perfect for us. We sat down. Seemed we all connected in the preamble/chit-chat and then launched into the pitch. We had identified some adjustments  after the first meeting, but put them into play on day two and really saw great results – which was what needed confidence wise. This exec went so far as to pitch what they could do at the company with our idea, where they could take it, some out-of-the-box ideas, too, which were great – very inventive for what channels might be interested. He felt, also, we’d be great for their feature division and then we all discussed graphic novels and Transmedia properties – which are big now (Stories that can be told across major mediums – TV, Films, Graphic Novels, Games, Online, etc…) It was a truly great meeting. I think our best so far. We haven’t heard back from the Agents on this one yet – which means they haven’t spoken to the Exec yet; but we’re DYING to hear from them on how he felt about the idea and us.

Meeting No 3: Was really good to – in that one we finished really, really strong. It was at a younger skewing Management/Production house who get more into “branded” entertainment. They have a first look deal at 20th Century Fox for TV, seemed to be a largely comedy skewing place, but were interested in drama and I think had developed some previously. We were supposed to meet with both VP of TV development, but only one could make it. They had swanky offices and everyone was young and hip. The guy we met with was great, too – very laid back, very casual. So, unlike No. 2 which felt very business, and No. 1 which felt old hollywood, this one felt much more new hollywood/world wide web/cutting edge informal than the others. We had a long, long intro. Jason and the Exec had some shared spots back on the east coast that they chatted about. We talked our background. He talked his and the companies history/back ground pedigree. Then we got into the pitch and asked some good questions, which we were really together on and answered strongly. It was interesting – whereas No.1 got hung up on a perceived campiness in the idea,  No 2. loved the grittiness we highlighted, but was a bit concerned and raised questions on the physical production issues that might crop up and how that could be addressed at the writing stage, then No. 3 was into the characters and had specific questions about how the different characters would relate with each other, the more soapier elements as he put it. All completely legit avenues to take the idea (some, to us, way better than others.)  No. 3 by the end was a toss-up. Good meeting, definitely clicked , as with the others; but hard to tell if he was truly interested in the idea.

We did have our Friday meeting pushed to next Wednesday, which is a bit of a bummer, but not surprising. We also booked two more meetinsg with big companies – one that is run by the Producers who used to be head of Dreamworks and work as Spielberg’s producers; and the other is at a company run by a former studio chief. So, the intensity is rising and we’re getting more opportunities to meet people, get our name out there and possibly sell this idea or lay a great foundation to get jobs as staff writers.

So there you go. More later!

***Okay, a bit of explanation. This should’ve been posted last night. But after writing and saving it b/c I knew I’d be too tired to write it up after unwinding in the hot tub and watching some episodes of The Wire (which was a first – the writing and saving for posting later.) So guess what? I was too tired. I fell fast asleep before I could remember to post it! So, here’s yesterday’s news, today. More on today’s happenings, later on!*****)

It’s been a long, but good day. Jason and I had our meeting, at Warner Bros., @ 10 A.M. It went just about how we thought it would, which was wonderful. It’s such a relief to have that first one in the rear view mirror, but have another right away tomorrow. Such a different feeling than the one meeting, this is it, no one to post-mortem with after.

By that I mean both my writing partner, but also our reps – who were there for us today just as you’d hope. Spoke to our manager before the meeting. He settled the nerves, put me in a great frame of mind for the meeting. Then later in the day, we got a call from both agents who had spoke to the producer about the pitch and sussed out from him how it went for him, what he thought, etc…

As expected, it doesn’t look like he’ll bite on this idea. He wasn’t gelling completely with it. No big surprise. Jason and I felt that in the meeting. He was great in the room. Really funny, kind, asked some great questions, was truly engaged. But, we made some choices in how we presented the idea in the pitch and he didn’t gel to one or two of those choices. He focused on those in his questions. We answered well, stayed at the right, high octane energy, answered everything he asked in kind.

This is exactly what I was getting at a bit last night. This is why it’s so great to have multiple meetings and why that feels the most of all, so far, like the real deal. Nothing is desperate, dire, all or nothing. You pick your approach. You go in and delver it with enthusiasm and passion. That’s all you can control. The rest is out of your hands. The goal? To create a fan of the work and you. To give a good meeting and at the least, leave the door open after if they’re not interested. If they fall for the idea or script or you, then great – a deal gets made. But if you focus on that as the only definition of a productive, fruitful pitch? You’ll drive yourself crazy and grow desperate quickly, which will further shut you out. This is something Jason and I talked about, at length, and something all of our reps – before and after – stressed independent of our having the conversation. Jason really crystallized the thought of it this afternoon and it totally revamped my view of pitching and meetings. Made it all so much less stressful.

And that’s exactly what we did today. The producer/exec loved us. Loved the idea, but was concerned about those one or two things. He said he’d think on it for a night, but our agents expect him to pass. BUT, more importantly, he’s now a big fan of Latshaw/Pedrolie. He told our agents (as they related to us) that he thought we worked extremely well together, we were polished, had given the idea a tremendous amount of thought – all the basic attributes he wants to see in writers he might hire down the road and will be more than happy to hear from on their next pitch. This made our Agents extremely happy.

So, altogether an promising first day in the trenches. Can’t wait to get back into it tomorrow!

Call it the Corona Del Mar effect. I say I’m gonna do something on the blog, but there’s an unplanned  twenty-four hour delay. It’s the relaxing atmosphere Stags and I cultivate when we’re together. That and the sweet ocean breezes. That helps, too.

Here we go. Tomorrow we have our first pitch. Jason and I are a bit jittery – but that’s more over getting in there so we can do what we do and get a feel for the rhythm of the real game. Tomorrow’s is at Warner Bros. Studios with the producer of Grand Torino, among others. The meeting was bumped up to Ten A.M. so that the man with his name on the door could join the pitch. That’s a good thing. Any time the steps between you and the actual decision makers are cut down, so much the better. This would be our agents or manager probably at work. I’m would bet my bottom dollar there’s some kind of connection. I know we share the same law firm, so that’s something. Anyways, instead of pitching to a CE (Creative Exec,) who then in turn pitches your idea to her Boss, who’s either the head of her department or company (in this case its company,) we get to leap frog to him directly now. The reason why this is better is that he might have a discretionary fund for development from the studio as part of his deal to park his company exclusively on their turf and provide for their pipeline. Which means, if he did (it’s not a given, but it’s a possibility), that the head of the company could lock up the idea with a paid option or outright purchase, before taking it to the studio. That sort of thing. Regardless, it’s one piece in the telephone game of pitching, which means less relying on someone else to regurgitate your idea in just the right way. Got it? Good. Here we go:

-THE WIRE, people. Watch it. All of it. Man, I should’ve listened to my brother years ago. THIS. IS. THE. GREATEST. SHOW. EVER! It’s almost too much to handle. Deadwood’s a close second, tied with Six Feet Under. But, NONE, of them touch The Wire. NONE! I’m on season three. It’s blowing my mind how rich, detailed, and authentic this whole story and characters are – not to mention how they slowly and perfectly grow the world of the story from season to season. Of course, when it’s Denis Lehane, Richard Price, and George Pelicanos on your writing staff, you’re doing good as far as crime writing goes.

- My second niece is off to college. Which, honestly, makes me feel kind of old. Sounds like she’s doing quite well from what I can tell on facebook. Her sister is a Junior and their younger sister, my goddaughter, just turned 16. They are all getting too old too fast. It’s not fair.

-We booked another pitch for next week today, which was great. It’s with a non-writing Co-Exec Producer on Breaking Bad. That’s pretty good.

-We’ve got five pitches total right now. Which, I think, is just the first set. Or, I would guess it is. What do we know? We’ve never actually done this before.

-The thing I’ve been dwelling on, savoring even, all day is this: In the past, if I scratched something together, it was usually to get one person possibly interested. One person who, as a long shot, MIGHT be able to make something happen. In other words, the very few times I got into this situation, it was a do or die situation. That one person or nothing. Tomorrow, walking into the first pitch their will be four more right behind it. None of it is do or die in the moment. We will get better as we go through the first run of pitches. We may be great tomorrow, but we’ll then become unbelievable. It’s strange, but this feels, despite all the rest of advancements this summer, and even before, like the biggest career advancement yet. This is exactly what we wanted when we were struggling with the deal that ultimately didn’t go through. This is really all you can ask for as a writer in this town – the chance to take your ideas to the market and  to write. We’re doing that. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

-Ten years ago was the most pivotal time of my life as I struggled through the biggest change in my life ever. A change that is still having an incredibly profound effect on my life every single day. I’m beyond fortunate to be here, in this city, just enjoying the sunshine and my friends, let alone to be in the midst of my greatest dream – living that, too. I don’t quite know what to say actually. There were many nights – long, hard ones – where I thought this was just not a possibility EVER. Not in my life. To be here. Well, I feel like I died and went to heaven. Thanks to all the angels that have carried, and continue to carry me here.

- Cardinals looks like they found their bats. A little help from the SF Giants and we might just climb back into the division race. One way or the other, it’s shaping up to be one helluva stretch run!

Okay. I’m gonna catch another episode of The Wire. Then I gotta catch some zzzzz’s. Big day tomorrow!

I’ll get the Saturday Review and Randoms up tomorrow – a little late this week. I’m done in Corona Del Mar (and none too soon!) with my old pal, Stagger Lee. I just have to say I love that dog more than words can say. He seems to be in fine shape and was quite excited to see me when I arrived. I know I was. Seriously, I hope to have such a steadfast canine companion one day.  I’ve got a special place in my heart for Stags, that’s for sure.

Thought I would interrupt our regularly scheduled program to share a bit of an update. Sure enough, after Jason and I became a bit concerned that we had entered some kind of weird stand still and didn’t know if we had done something or not to get us there; things suddenly perked up on Friday. In fact, they got down right crazy for a bit. Essentially we have four pitch sessions scheduled for next week. One on each day, starting Tuesday and going until Friday. All at wildly divergent times and all over L.A. – The Warners Lot, Beverly Hills, Culver City, and Santa Monica. All with legit television production companies – the company that did The Sopranos and does Curb Your Enthusiasm, for instance.

So this is it – we’re stepping up to the plate and going live. It’s no longer about trying to get into a position to sell something and getting paid to write. We are finally in that position and will head out to see what happens. It’s truly just a first step in what will be a long road, but it’s exciting to think the impetus for the meetings and work has shifted. It’s no longer the audition, now it’s time to put on the show!

Here we are. Getting settled in Culver City/Palms and the new pad. Making my way in this crazy, mixed up business. Officially an M.F.A. It’s all a little weird still. I was just talking to a friend and classmate, who I hadn’t seen in awhile. He’s been out since winter quarter and went to New York this summer, as part of a festival, to stage a play of his – himself. He’s in the same, weird financial in between state that it seems those that are just graduating and getting some interest/work opportunities/rep meetings are all in. Too busy to really commit to a real job, but not really getting paid anything, at all – yet. I was relieved to see him because I had heard through the grapevine he might take a gig in D.C., which is one of the places he worked prior to coming west. Instead, he came back because it seemed like the wise thing to do. Anyways, we commiserated over the strangeness. I would say that the common theme is that its not a very comfortable position to be in. This is largely due to the fact that you have no clue where the whole endeavor is headed, or how long it might take to get there, and speeding the process up is mercurial at best or wholly out of your hands, normally. Yet, it can be exciting and it can all see like it’s about to come through – that elusive corner will be turned and you’ll be working….as a writer….just as you dreamed for so many years.

Anyways, suffice to say you keep your head up high, you work hard, you keep your expectations low, but your hopes reasonably high, you stay in touch and don’t isolate too much, you ask for help when you need it, and you look at each day as exactly that – a day in which anything can happen, but, when you close your eyes, you get to start all over again.

All right. That was a waaaay longer introduction than I expected. So, without further soapboxing, let’s get down to it! It is Friday night, after all.

-I’m going to say this once and try and leave it alone after that. How in the name of all that’s holy did David Freese incur a season ending ankle injury, on a heretofor uninjured part of his body, on a rehab assignment in double A ROUNDING THIRD BASE?!?!?! It’s like this kid has turned out to be the boy in the bubble! I’m afraid if the wind blows too hard when we visit Wrigley he might break a bone or blow away. It’s just unreal.

-If it weren’t for Adam Wainwright, I think the redbirds would be having a much, much different season. Waino is indeed Bueno.

-Jacob and I are watching DEADWOOD. He’s never seen it and I’ve only seen it once, when it aired. It’s been fascinating to watch it again. Man, did HBO screw up, or what, when they took it off the air prematurely? The show is beyond brilliant. Milch truly outdid himself and so did the actors. I’m floored by two things – first of all, Milch dumps every spark for the ENTIRE SERIES into the first four episodes. It’s amazing. There’s one major event, that in my mind I would’ve sworn before watching it, that it had occurred in season two. I mean I would’ve bet good money. Season two, Doc? Try episode two! My jaw was on the floor. I had no recollection it had come that early. I was blown away.  (And I’m not the only one, I was talking to a writer-friend the other night and he’s rewatching it to and had the same reaction)

-We have a lot of projects in play right now. Lots kind of hopping around. It’s nice to have this TV stuff vaulting ahead of the pack. It’s all pretty cut and dry, which is good. But it would be lovely to knock some things off our plate. One thing I think we’re learning is that once something gets on your plate? It’s really hard to get it off, even if it’s going nowhere.

-Jacob’s a big fan of THE LAST WALTZ, too. That means he’s really good people.

-We have a pretty kick-ass apartment. I wake up and can’t quite believe how well it all worked out, and we seem to be falling into a good rhythm. I have to say I was against Culver City when I first moved to L.A. for some reason. The one time I had visited years earlier, I had stayed with a friend in Culver City; but never got a good grasp of the place and it seemed real scattershot – one block was cool, the next was rough. I could get that in Chicago, I wanted something different. But, Culver City is pretty awesome. It helps our apartment is so excellent, but downtown Culver City, while not huge, has some neat restaurants and bistros and cafes. It’s got a good feel to it. And, the Albertson’s? The best grocery store, I’ve seen in years. I was actually surprised. It’s a vast place. It even has some bulk foods like whole foods. A-Ma-Zing!

-Did I tell you about the new Swell Season record yet? Well, why aren’t you listening to it right now! The new Arcade Fire’s pretty good, too. Though it’s early.

-I’m a notoriously bad unpacker. Like I leave boxes unpacked for months after a move. It’s a really bad habit. SO, here’s a reminder to myself to push through and finish the job this weekend. There’s hardly anything left and I’ll be a happier man if I do.

-We’re thinking about getting some plants. We get great light and we’ve got some perfect spots for them. Any suggestions? (Preferably low maintenance, but not cacti!)

-Can you believe David Freese?!?!

-I’m quite excited that I’ll be doing more cooking here at the new joint. I’ve already busted out the risotto witch is my fast and easy dinner – through some chicken and peas in there, or beef, some parm and away you go. But, over the long haul, we’re talking BBQ, we’re talking Slow Cooker, we’re talking the whole nine yards. Which is good. It’s been awhile. Plus, it’s the type of place where I could have some friends over and it would be comfortable. (I owe some folks some home cooked meals.) We’ve even got enough room and seating to have movie nights for a select few folks.

I think that’s about it for this week’s edition of randoms. Be good to yourself. I’ll be back to regular posts tomorrow.

Forgive the baseball analogy, but it is summer and I couldn’t resist.

I was going to do a long, catch-up kind of post, covering a wide ranging array of topics; not limited entirely to the new Swell Season record (amazing), our new apartment, the fact that I finally unpacked ALL of my books, the fact that I have far too many books; but don’t rightly care, writer’s group, life in C City/Palms, all things UTA, and something else I thought was really important at Literati this afternoon.

Alas, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for that post; or something vaguely resembling it.

We had our conference call meeting today with UTA and our TV Agent. We were joined by another, new TV Agent on the call. We’re not entirely sure why, but we were happy to have him. Also our manager was on, Jason and Me. That’s five people. Not a simple conference call. Lots of awkward silences as people tried to not talk over each other (I’m pretty bad at that, honestly.)

The purpose of the meeting? To discuss our new show idea, which is still in the early development phase (there’s only a ten page pitch document on it, currently.) We had verbally pitched it when we met our Agent last week. She asked for all the documents on it over the weekend, and another pilot we’d written. Then we got notes via email on Tuesday, which were extremely helpful and were asked to turn around a rewrite by Wednesday night, so everyone could read the latest and greatest draft of this new idea’s pitch document (logline, tone, world, franchise, characters, arcs, pilot treatment, etc…) to decide if it was time to take it out to Producers, and sell it, or if it needed more work.

The verdict?!?!

Green means GO!!

Yup. That’s right. Out we go. First to Producers (Showrunners or Non-Writing Executive Producers who oversee shows) and once we get one on board we go to the Networks and pitch the show for next fall 2011. We are actually going out there, backed by UTA, with an idea. Pretty damn cool! We’ve worked real hard to get to this place. Sure, we’ve had little, fringe opportunities here and there in school. But not anything this legit or big, with the full push of a major agency to the major networks and production companies.

So, even though it’s a first step in another long, hard process; we’re excited/relieved/bemused because we’ve never taken this particular one in such a professional capacity before.