Putting the Show back in the Bizzle

What I like about producing original content for the digital world is that if it doesn’t work out you get to throw up your hands and insist that your website/start-up/show was in Beta mode the whole time — and then, with one click of a mouse, poof, all is forgiven, and you get to start over again. Not cancelled, demeaned, and quickly forgotten which mostly happens when the network/studio/money guys pull the plug on a prime time endeavor. No. Showbizzle gets to have a second chance - a Beta-induced relaunch in the spring of ‘09. Early March. Our videos have been remixed, revoiced, repurposed, and broken down into 23 weekly 10-15 minutes segments. That’s a lot of ff****ing segments. That’s a full season. That a show. No wonder we have been asked to be featured as part of the Beta launch for Zillion TV this February. There’s that Beta word again. What a concept!

For months I have been describing showbizzle to anyone who would listen as “scripted entertainment that could pass as a reality show, in the form of a fictitious daily video blog - for the purposes of creating a social network.” We swapped out social network for community back in October once we figured out that providing services and opportunities for members were of more value than introducing them to their next bff.

To this end showbizzle ‘09 will have cool contests where members get paid to perform as well as an outreach to university theater and drama programs where cash prizes will be given to students performing our monologues in addition to performing their own material. But at the end of the day showbizzle is a show - not scripted entertainment — and I think we lost sight of that as we grappled with malfunctioning technology, unprofessional behavior from our techies from texas, and our own feeble marketing and publicity efforts.

Hopefully, in ‘09 showbizzle can hook up with a brand, and that we generate more traffic and that members start reading Janey’s blog and respond all her new voice-overs — but no matter what happens it’ll still be about the show.

showbizzle…not quite showbusiness…and a lot more fun…

Have a happy, merry, happy - and we will be back in January.

www.ShowBizzle.com

Peer Recognition

“South of Nowhere”, a half hour single-camera high school drama produced by a third-tier Viacom cable company and family-friendly ‘tween’ producer Tommy Lynch, probably had no business ever being made. The license fee was inadequate, the intrusive network executives over at the N (also known as the Noggin) practiced group think (and seemed more interested in social engineering than creative expression), and the production company…well, its heart was in the right place, but given its anemic budget, its uneven storytelling, and it’s unrealistic approach to production, the creative bar was set fairly low by the time I was brought in to produce its third season in early ‘07.

What made “South of Nowhere” special, however, was the realistic/sensitive/groundbreaking way the show depicted teenage sexuality by focusing on two LA high school girls - the good girl from the Midwest and the wild child of a rock star - who develop a mutual attraction and become a gay couple. In its first two seasons the show did receive two consecutive best show nominations by GLADD, the Gay Lesbian advocacy organization, but that was mostly for its courage in tackling the subject rather than its stellar execution.

I still think the most apt definition for a producer I ever heard is that a producer is someone who knows a writer - and that was certainly true in the case of “South of Nowhere”, a show that couldn’t really afford a staff of writers if it ever wanted to pay for a guest star, or build a viable set, or even venture out on location for a day or two.  So my first and only call was to Arika Mittman, who had no produced writing credits yet had a trunk load of wonderful spec scripts and who had spent a lot of time on staffs as a script typist or a writers’ assistant - including being my assistant on Dawson’s Creek.  

Did the network/company let me hire Arika without any resistance because her sample was outstanding, or because she happens to be gay?  Doesn’t matter, does it? What matters is she was the only writer on staff and was given the creative latitude to function as a supervising producer. Together we collaborated on scripts, convinced skittish execs that our story ideas would not offend anyone’s pc sensibilities while being entertaining (and affordable), and most importantly, navigate through some fairly convoluted office politics. Arika came up with some great story ideas too - especially the one where the “good girl” decides to ‘come out’ to her much loved but homophobic/judgmental grandma at her 18th birthday party in the course of defending her heretofore homophobic mother’s parenting skills.

Yesterday, Arika received a WGA Nomination for Best Children’s Program - a program which hardly anyone saw because The N never had a real marketing or publicity budget. I am very proud of her - and truly hope that being recognized by her peers will help jumpstart her career. This is a very talented woman who in a different era might be the network head of Daytime Programming, or be creating her own TV shows, but who can’t seem to land a staff job in these economically pressed times.

If you want to see some of Arika’s work (and gay teens aren’t your thing), check out showbizzle.com for which she wrote all of Maxine, Dustin, and Billy’s vignettes. She did some directing too.  Like I said a producer is some who knows a writer - and it’s a good thing I know Arika Mittman.

Showrunner Sanctuaries

There are two different kinds of producers - the producers who like writers, and the producers who detest us. The ones who loathe writers mostly started out wanting to be writers, couldn’t write, so instead developed their bullying skills as an outlet for their career frustrations. The supportive producer, on the other hand, is more the exception - and chances are they are either female or gay - but that’ll be for a different post.This post is about the two different kinds of writer/producers - those who write, and those who do everything in their power not to write. In this camp we have the procrastinators, the poseurs, the drama queens (they thrive on deadlines and stress), the compulsive talkers (you know, they keep talking about what they are going to do instead of just doing it), the hypochondriacs, and the worst category of all - the creatively blocked writer who is getting paid the big bucks to be the final “typewriter”, yet finds himself/herself stymied, and panicked, and moments away from a deadline.

This is when the showrunner goes into survival mode in search of what I call a sanctuary - an executive hiding place behind closed doors where the pressure can be put off for a few crucial hours as the showrunner regroups while pretending to be busy.  Here are a few of the top hiding places, uh, sanctuaries for the terrified.

Casting: the showrunner can sit in on pre-reads, spend hours looking at every audition tape (not just the one the casting director marked) for every random guest cast. Or they can sit around and waste time making nasty comments about the poor schmoe who just auditioned - and feel superior while remaining in total denial.

Editing: the showrunner can throws a hissy fit claiming that he/she can’t watch the rough cut unless all the music tracks have been laid in. Then hours are spent looking for the right song cause its much more fun being a music supervisor than breaking story.

The Sound Mix: Most showrunners just go for the layback, a two-three hour commitment, but the blocked writer/producer can claim that he/she didn’t like the way the mix sounded on the air last episode - and spend hours fussing with the levels.

Industry Functions: An HRTS schmooze fest at the Beverly Wilshire is always good for 3 hours out of the office. What better place then a free lunch to try to line up your next meal ticket - instead of hustling back to the office to write the climax scene that in ten minutes, of course.

Budget Meetings: UPM’s (unit production managers) are always looking to trim the fat out of their already scrawny budgets, so go into their office and go over all the line items. It’s easier to cut a department budget instead of cutting the three page scene that’s two pages too long and shoots in ten minutes.

Bed: When the going gets tough, just go to bed. Why not? Worked for Aaron Spelling.

In fact, every self-absorbed showrunner scheme described here to avoid the hard work of writing scripts has been witnessed by your humbled blogger during the course of his humble career. I must confess that I tried to hide out in an executive sanctuary this summer while producing the videos for Showbizzle.com with my daughter Lindsey, but she knew where I lived. Not fair.