I'm back!!

For a minute there, it looked like I wasn't coming back. Everything was amazing. I learned a lot, met a lot of great people and was even invited out for coffee by the VP of Current Programming at CBS! I had amazing day at the Pitchfest. I pitched my scripts and myself to 19 different production companies. I got a lot of positive feedback and one script in particular was requested by about 10 different companies. Though that sounds like good news, it's just the beginning. Here's the life of a pitched script:

At a development company, the process starts with someone reading it and deciding if they like it or not. If they do, they ask for a rewrite. After 2 or 3 rewrites, the person pitches it to their boss. If their boss likes it, more notes and more rewrites are done. Once everyone thinks the script is perfect, they try to sell it.

If a production company likes it, they don't have to worry about selling it, they are the ones deciding if they want to buy it. I've only got one production company interested and it's in Canada. That company is in the process of pitching the idea to the people in charge to decide if they want to read it at all.

So for the places that actually requested scripts for me, I decided that I should get them professionally polished. These script ideas are the first screenplays I've ever written. In fact, the most popular idea was the first idea I wrote. Most people say that screenwriters don't produce quality work until their fifth or sixth idea. So, based on notes from a professional, I'll do some rewrites and send my final drafts out in a few weeks.

The best news of trip was a development assistant who said he'd go to bat for me for a production assistant job, but I'd have to start next week. Every single executive I spoke to said that if I want to break into the field, I need to work as an intern for free. The fact that I had an opportunity to interview for a job that actually paid something made me feel like I should take it. I probably dragged my feet a little too long though, because I haven't heard back from them.

I've made some definitive decisions and I will be sharing them in the next post. Don't turn that dial, we'll be right back :-)

Writing Projects

As an admissions counselor, June and July leave me with the most free time of the year because most people don't look for college during these months. Theoretically, it is the time that I get to have normal social and fitness schedules and plan vacations.

I made the decision to cram as much writing as I can in June and relax in July. Because of the Pitchfest and some contest deadlines, this seemed like a good idea. Initially, I planned to write a spec script for Glee, work on preparing pitches for my feature scripts and work on revisions for all of my completed drafts throughout the month.

Then, I learned of a new contest to write an original half-hour pilot for a contest for Spike TV. Out of the blue, I was invited to participate in a secret writing project through a website that reviewed my earlier contest submissions and decided that I was a good writer. I felt like I couldn't pass up that honor, so I wrote new content for that contest.

When researching companies that are going to be at the Pitchfest at the end of this month, I learned that Agape Media is going to participate. Agape is a mega-church in LA that is rooted in New Thought. My spiritual center is closely aligned with Agape and one of my screenplays has some strong New Thought elements. In addition, they are probably the only the production company in the world that actually accepts submissions. Therefore, the screenplay I'd like to pitch to them must be a lot tighter than it is now.

Based on new work and information, I have decided to give my pitches and screenplay revisions top priority for the remaining 15 days in the month of June. After starting my spec for Glee, it felt like an incredibly daunting task to have a good draft by June 30 for a contest deadline. I will be taking a television writing class at Columbia this fall, so I will write that script during the fall semester.

I will spend July on the pilot for Spike and on the relaxation that I promised to myself all year. Within the last year, I have taken two screenwriting classes, a television class, several writing workshops and bootcamps and a spiritual foundations class all while balancing extra work, family, community and volunteer commitments. I think I deserve July.

I'll be taking the bus to Memphis to meet my girlfriend's family during the July 4th holiday and I'll be spending a long weekend in Lake Geneva with my family shortly afterward. I plan to watch at least one full season of the television shows Breaking Bad, Party Down, The Guild, Battlestar Galactica, Damages and Six Feet Under. I heard they're good, and I will be posting my opinions about them as the excitement unfolds.

The next post will include more information about my finished projects. I should have contest results from my secret writing project very soon and I will certainly provide updates about the Pitchfest. Stay tuned!

Network Bidding for the Emmys

So I know I promised I'd share more about my writing projects in this post, but right now, I don't feel like talking about them so I'm going to go on a new rant about the Emmys. Right now, the networks aren't really feeling the Emmys. They have to pay licensing fees and production costs and the benefit doesn't feel worth the expense (Hollywood Reporter).

The intended benefit of the Emmys are to bring more attention to the networks' shows, but the Emmys haven't improved the ratings for recent winners. Looking at Emmy-nominated shows, it is easy to understand why.

I'm not saying the shows suck, they're awesome. However, Americans don't like awesome television. Americans really like crap. There's a reason that the MTV Movie Awards exist and that they're talked about amongst regular people far more than the Oscars. MTV is fun and features movies and actors that people actually know and like. If MTV had a television award show, I'm sure it would be the same way.

The show would actually be entertaining, including skits featuring the Jersey Shore cast, America's Top Model judges and other stars and cast-offs from crappy reality shows, and feature characters from shows the 18-49 crowd watches, like Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother and Glee.

Granted, Glee can currently change things in the world of the Emmys next year. Critics and regular people like it, so if there's some good stuff from Glee, the show's ratings will probably benefit. But my point is that the Emmys are suffering from the same disconnection with the people that the Oscars are. Until the networks start producing fictional programming that attracts the 18-49 crowd and the Emmys become just as fun as the programs themselves, it's going to continue to go down the toilet.

Even if the Emmys were highlighting shows that the American public was actually watching, the award's show format is pretty boring. I feel like it's essentially the same format since the inception of awards shows. MTV award shows work because they constantly have to switch things up to get the attention of their demographic. I'm not saying that Jon Hamm should fall naked from the ceiling onto Charlie Sheen, I'm just saying the Emmys could stand to mix things up a little. Have Beyonce perform with the Glee kids. Or better yet, just invite Kanye and have him present an Emmy to Courtney Cox after beating out Tina Fey and see what happens.

Screenplay

So the story begins when I started my job at Columbia College Chicago. I was working downtown and needed to take public transportation to work every day. Though I have tons of music on my iPod, I was getting bored and had an idea to start downloading the podcasts. After doing a search for "television", I found Pilar Alessandra's "On The Page" podcast.

At first, I just downloaded the episodes that featured guests that we television writers and executives. I found the podcast relevant, informative and entertaining so I downloaded more. Through the podcast, I learned that the lines between television and film writing are quite blurred. She had guests that were television and screenwriters who were writing for the Hallmark Channel, ABC Family and Disney.

After listening to these podcasts, I was inspired. I didn't have an idea for a screenplay, but I decided I would write one. Over time, an idea came to me. One day, I sat down and wrote it. I wrote an entire screenplay in one day. But I didn't know what to do with it. I decided to register for a screenwriting class at Columbia, since I have such a handy dandy discount.

I wanted to use the screenplay I had already written, but the teacher said we needed to start with a brand new idea. My first assignment was to write six loglines for a script I might like to write and that sparked a brand new idea. This screenplay was much more difficult for me to write and ended up taking me the entire semester, as opposed to one day.

Close to the end of completion of my screenplay, I had the opportunity to take a rewriting workshop, held at Columbia, by the one and only, Pilar Alessandra. I was so excited to meet her. The workshop was super helpful and I was lucky enough to horn in on her plans to meet some other people at a bar. While talking about my screenplay idea, she suggested that I go the Pitchfest this summer because my idea was so timely.

So here I am, getting ready for the Pitchfest in three weeks. I have a lot of other writing projects to complete before the end of the month that interfere with my preparation process. I'll be ready to share more about those in my next post. Stay tuned.