Wish me Luck

Early October was a real bad time for showbizzle. We missed our launch by three weeks. The website sucked — full of bugs, terrible navigability. We were uploading four original videos a day that no one was watching. They were, like us, watching the Obama campaign and the meltdown on Wall Street, but those who did venture onto the website panned the quality of the videos,  not most of which were written and directed by my daughter, Lindsey.  Actually, they never panned the writing - just the production, the editing, you know, the things that I was primarily responsible for. That works wonders for the family dynamic, let me tell you.

Six months later, we sent this out to our showbizzle cast:

“Showbizzle Finds Its Voice”

Lindsey did two days of ADR work in January playing Janey.
159 videos have been re-voiced.
We have 23 weeks of programming.
We relaunch sometime in March.
It’s all good. A total upgrade.
We’re back from the dead. Here’s the opening.
http://showbizzle.blip.tv/#1797446

Anyway, back in bleak October, back when we were running for cover, I wrote a piece for potential backers called “The Origins of Showbizzle”. Here’s how it started.

When Disney announced in late 2005 that they were selling episodes of “Lost” on iTunes while the show was still in its initial network run — in other words, sold directly to consumers  prior to a traditional syndication deal being put in place — I realized that the television industry that I knew no longer had a workable business model. I concluded that ‘branded entertainment’ — where programming, in effect, is subsidized by one, identifiable sponsor as it had during television’s formative years in the 1950’s — might be a more feasible way to pay for entertainment programming.

This afternoon I have my first meeting with a national brand. Is this when it starts to get real?

Wish me luck. I’ll keep you posted.

Can Script Writing Really Be Taught?

Let’s hope so - because I have signed on to teach a writing class for the UCLA Extension Program for Spring of ‘09.  Here is the course description followed by a “writer’s statement” in which I am asked to articulate my approach to the craft.  I was tempted to just write ‘make sure the check doesn’t bounce’, but I thought I better save something for the class. Here’s my question for you: Would any of you sign up for the class if you saw it in a course catalogue?

Writing for television has never been more confusing. The audience is fragmenting into smaller and smaller niches. The economics of broadcasting are in decline. There are fewer viewers to go around due to online social networks, video games, and the demands and distractions of the digital age. This is not necessarily a bad thing because in an industry desperate to find anything that works, the opportunity for an emerging talent to create and develop original series concepts has never been greater. This course challenges the emerging writer/storyteller to find his or her own distinct voice by creating an original single series premise and developing it into a structured, scene-by-scene outline that is ready to go to script by the end of the course. By focusing on the outline process, we move away from a reliance on dialogue and instead focus on how to integrate character, story, structure, point of view, and tone into a satisfying, readable document that clearly reflects the writer’s creative sensibilities. Scripted series developed for the class do not have to be geared toward primetime. Cable, PBS, internet, digital media, and animation are all viable outlets for creative expression and each has a distinct market place. In order to maintain a “professional” atmosphere, students are encouraged to factor in commercial and production considerations from the outset. Students are expected to complete written course assignments and pitch their ideas in class. By the midpoint, students should begin writing their outlines. A final outline is due at the end of the course. Enrollment limited to 20 students. Prerequisite: X 430.4 Beginning Writing for the One-Hour Drama: Building the Story and Outline, X 430.6 Beginning Writing for Half-Hour Comedy: Building the Story and Outline, or equivalent.

Writers write. That’s what makes us different from those who don’t write, can’t write. Writers write because how else can we justify the conversations going on in our head, or communicate imagery and meaning and funny stuff through the written word? Writers don’t have so many options. That’s why writers write when they are walking the dogs, swimming laps, waiting for the street light to change-even while sleeping, especially while sleeping…for that is when the subconscious gets the chance to take over the creative process and kick into problem solving mode without being distracted by the demands and diversions of the day.

But the subconscious can’t turn on the computer for you, or give you a format to express yourself. That’s where a formal writing class can be useful. To have assignments, and a schedule, and a relationship with a peer group-not to mention an instructor who has been in the trenches, and is willing to give you some honest feedback and a different approach to the craft of screen and tv writing.

If by the end of a 10-week session, an emerging writer has more confidence in his/her narrative voice, a better sense of narrative structure, and a more realistic take on where their talents and skill sets might lie, than I can go back to sleep and let my subconscious do what it likes to do.

 

The Last Time My Agent Called My House

I was packing for a much needed/all too short R&R in Hawaii last week when my cell phone rang.  I checked the caller ID. It was my agent. I checked it again. WTF? Doesn’t he have anything better to do? Isn’t this call five years too late?  I let it go to voice mail.  Figured I’d call him when I’m good and ready — in other words, right after I checked in with my therapist.My agent was once a major player in the TV business with a client list and a record of packaging hit shows that was the envy of his peers.  These days he’s riding out a contractual obligation until his yearly agency pay outs become a distant memory.  For years, we have been mostly communicating by e-mails so I wouldn’t have to listen to him blaming me for not being more commercial, or for  pissing off some executive back in the day who refuses to hire me now, or having to endure the sound of his frustrations and his narcissistic take on the world.

I called back at the end of the day. We spoke for less than a minute.  He’d be e-mailing a pilot script from a family oriented cable network to read - not because I was being offered a job, or that there was any interest in me running their show. He just saw the subject matter - teens and sports — and thought I would be right for it.  (Given that my agent has no discernable memory left, I can’t be sure he remembered that I wrote a number of scripts about athletes over the years).

I was prepared to detest the script by virtue of the fact that someone else got paid to write the exact series I created and could not sell 12 years ago, but also because my daughter (the same one with whom I created showbizzle.com) was not treated in an especially professional manner (lame, indecisive notes, misplaced documents, cavalier attitudes) by this company’s development executives during the course of the pilot she wrote for them last season.

Anyway, here’s what I wrote to my agent after taking a quick read of the script.

This is a very good premise and a surprisingly effective script — characters well delineated and complex, hardly any cliches or flat lines of dialogue. The writer clearly did her research…To me the success of the series will hinge on taking enough time to shoot the gymnastics in a way that engage fans of the sport — and to keep the dialogue and character development “real”. Thank you for letting me take a look.  I would be a very good hire for them on whatever level — though I am not expecting anyone will take a moment to seriously consider me.

I didn’t want to like the project. Didn’t want to acknowledge that the producers and the networks might know what they were doing after all. And I don’t know if it is a sign of maturity, or resignation that I didn’t check my e-mail or my phone for messages the week I was catching waves in Oahu.  Didn’t have to.  I knew there’d be no message waiting for me upon my return.  Years ago, I would take this as proof of his indifference or, giving him the benefit of the doubt, I might rationalize that he does care and was just trying to spar my feelings - even though I knew the feelings he probably was trying to salvage were own.

I’d like to think that if someone offered me a show to run tomorrow I would pass to concentrate on showbizzle.com which is still in search of a brand to finance the next round of production for virtually no money, but loads of creative control. ..but we never really know what we’ll ultimately say or do - especially when there is a message from your agent asking you to call him.

Being A Showrunner In The New Depression

When I read that ABC wants to bring back “V” a failed mini-series from the 1980’s, I figured I would be writing my second consecutive snarky piece about the decline of network television which would end, of course, with a shameless, but seamless plug for showbizzle, the website and digital series, I co-created with my 24 year old daughter Lindsey about being in your 20’s in Hollywood.

 

Then I come across this headline in the weekly Ad Age Digital and knew I would be going in a different direction.

Web Series Still Struggle to Hold on to Audiences

Survey of 50 Top Web Series Finds Loss Of 64% From First Episode To Second

Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  A seemingly scary set of statistics for a man about to re-launch a website in March, at considerable expense I might add…

….but the cool thing about showbizzle — and why I keep hoping these downer numbers might not even apply to us — is by releasing 141 two-minute videos from 37 different actors, on a daily basis, over a 23 week span, we are trying to break some ground here, create a new paradigm for digital story telling , build a community as well as an audience through contests (where winners will be paid to perform on the site) and our college outreach starting in March.

One of our early slogans was “Showbizzle: We’re Different - and We Like It Like That“  And maybe that being different, being willing to experiment with the form in a time when many are too timid to take creative risks, we will be able to survive the Great Depression of ‘09. Why not? Why shouldn’t Showbizzle. We’re making cheap, escapist, entertainment, a diversion from the uncertain and the grim. That makes us in sync with the times, right?

And, hey, I get to produce the show. That’s what a showrunner does, right?

www.ShowBizzle.com