XIII

Hello there! It's your favourite neglectful blogger. I always promise to update often, but it never happens - but then quality is better than quantity though, isn't it? ISN'T IT?

It's been about 7 months since my last update, and I'm no longer on Transporter, though that show is (apparently) still shooting. Well, not shooting right now exactly, because they're on hiatus. But regardless, neither I nor the writers I was working for will be on the show when it returns from torpor. Transporter was a really great experience, and I worked with some fantastic writers, but sometimes a production has other issues.

However, this happened to come at a perfect time - about 2 weeks after the hiatus started, my daughter Ava was born! So I was able to be around and help my wife in the first months of my daughter's life, which was just amazing. And if you thought you didn't have time to write before - try having a baby. For the first 6 weeks I couldn't even think about sleeping, never mind writing. I have no idea how people go to work right after having their first. I couldn't have done it. But after 6 weeks, Ava started actually sleeping at night, we became more accustomed to her rhythms, our lives started returning to (somewhat) normal, I could think again (as much as I could before, anyway), and I got back to writing.

One of the most invaluable things about working with TV writers is that they will sometimes read and give notes on your scripts, and then you're getting professional notes from people that actually write for TV for a living. I asked a couple of writers I've previously worked with if they could read my pilot, and they did and gave me excellent notes, and so far they seem very happy with the direction that I've taken the re-writes, so I'm going to start re-writing ASAP.

And about two weeks ago I was starting to get the itch to go back to work, and by a stroke of luck got hired as Script Coordinator on the second season of the Canadian series XIII! It's on Showcase in Canada, and M6 in France. It doesn't have a US broadcaster yet as far as I know. However, the showrunner is Roger Avary, the co-writer of Pulp Fiction, and he's a really nice guy (as is everyone else on this show), so I think this is going to be a really great experience. Hooray for sane shows!

Well, that certainly changes things.

My wife is pregnant.

I don't normally write about my personal life on here, because I try to stick to the topic of breaking into the TV industry, but I'm going to change that at least for today, because I think this does have to do with my career, as this little fact will very much affect it (along with every aspect of my life). Holly's actually quite along at about 5 months (the baby is due in November). This is something that is nerve-wracking for anyone, I'm sure, but it's certainly a frightening prospect as a writer, and especially as one that is still trying to, you know, get paid to be one.

Saying that, I am VERY excited. But that doesn't make it any less frightening.

As far as I'm concerned, as long as I continue seeing progress in my career, I'm not too worried. And right now I'm still working on The Transporter, and this contract will go all the way until the end of November, right in time for the baby to be due! It's also likely that I won't get another job until early 2012, seeing as the Toronto winter is slow for productions, and that will give me some time off to get to know the baby and change some diapers.

One disappointing aspect about the impending baby is that I will lose my beautiful, writerly office. I was so excited when we bought this condo because it had an extra room, and I bought a nice new desk and set up my writerly books and writerly pens and painted it a writerly forest green. I tried to explain to Holly that a little baby doesn't actually need their own room because they're so small you see, but she just locked me with her laser eyes and told me that wasn't going to happen. Then I said," but you can use my desk as a change table!" and she laughed and laughed and laughed. So I suppose I'll have to find somewhere else to write. And buy a bigger house when we can afford it.

One of the writers on The Transporter, Joseph Mallozzi, writes his own blog and details our production exploits on it. I told Joe that Holly and I were having trouble deciding on a name, and he took it upon himself to hold a contest where his readers will pick a name through a poll:

The contest

The finalists

The winner!

So, uh... thanks Joe! I'm sure Holly will be excited that we have one less thing to figure out.

In other news, my pilot Merely Mortal was taken to the Banff TV Festival a couple weeks ago by the production company and they apparently got some interest on it! They're sending out materials now.

As well, excitingly I'm involved with the creation of the web content for The Transporter, working with a producer, Sasha, that has been hired specifically for the project. We were originally going to have both webisodes and an online game for Facebook, but unfortunately due to budget constraints we had to nix the webisodes, which is disappointing because I was going to write them. But I am looking forward to working on and writing for the game. We've already been brainstorming about it and there are some fun concepts that could work. I'm definitely interested in video game writing, so this should really be interesting!

The Transporter Writers' Room

I've had the pleasure of being able to sit in the Transporter writers' room and see the writers break story over the past week. I'd never been in a proper writers' room before, so it was quite interesting to watch the Writers (Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie, Alexander Ruemelin, Rob Cooper and Carl Binder) work their magic. By "magic" I mean efficient story breaking, as well as a massive amount of poo poo and penis jokes.

The process is quite simple. One at a time, the writers will pitch story ideas, and try to get the others excited about the idea. They may reject the ideas outright, or just not be crazy enough about it and move on. Eventually, ideally, one of the ideas hits a note and the room really responds to it, and starts riffing on it. Other writers say "yeah that's great, and how about then the genetically enhanced monkey genius turns on the time travel device and sends Frank back to the age of the dinosaurs" (that is actually the plot of the pilot, so I'm sorry for letting that one out of the bag). Once they find an idea they really like they write it down on the whiteboard, and start hammering out the acts, beat by beat. In Transporter's case, we have four acts (though apparently they're just for us because all the networks will ignore our act breaks), so a person (normally the writer that will end up writing the episode) stands up and writes down the beats of each act as the writers' room develops it. And they do that for each episode. Then one of the writers goes off to write the first draft.

They had already broken and started writing 7 of the scripts before I ever started on the show, so I didn't get to see those get broken. Since there will be 12 episodes in the season they have 5 more to break. In the past week they broke two of those episodes, which Carl and Alex will now go off to write.

In other news, the production company that optioned my pilot Merely Mortal is going to start pitching it to broadcasters in a couple weeks, and will be taking it to the Banff TV Festival next month! For those of you that don't know, Banff is one of the biggest and most influential TV festivals/conferences in Canada, so this is very exciting. And now I'm starting to think of ideas for episode #2 and #3, and to write treatments for those episodes, so they can show them to those prospective networks. So the next couple months should be really interesting!

First optioned script!

I have reached another important point in my writing career - I have optioned my first script!

That is, it's my first option, but it's also my first pilot. Merely Mortal is a one-hour comedy/action/drama. It's still in the very early stages (I just signed the option agreement at the end of last week), so I'm not going to name the production company just yet, but it is an established Canadian production company, with quite a few feature film and TV series on the air.

Of course, that's great but it's not the end of the grind. An option basically gives the production company the "option" to produce it within a set amount of time. In my case they have 1 year, but they can renew the option for several years after that. Now the production company will go to networks and attempt to pitch it to them. If the Networks want it, then we can go forward with development. If not, then... not. And that's really all I know about the process right now. So this should be interesting! I have heard that they are thinking of pitching it in the US, which is pretty exciting.

This past weekend I also finished my new pilot, Garrotte, which is a western with a twist. I'm really excited about it and the people that have read it really seem to like it. I'm rewriting it now but am planning on sending it out to my agent and then production companies within a week or two.

As for my job on the Transporter, it's going quite well! I'm really enjoying reading the scripts and working with everyone here. What's not to like? The show has fast cars, guns, naked girls and ... what was I talking about?

Job done! New job!

Well, I'm now finished on Awakening. We wrapped just over two weeks ago, and now they're going into post production. Hopefully they'll get picked up, it's a great show and the cast is awesome (one of which was Titus Welliver from Lost, Deadwood, Sons of Anarchy). It was a great experience working with Bill Laurin and Glenn Davis, who are two great writers/EPs, and nice people to boot!

I've now somehow lucked into another fantastic job, in record time from ending my last contract. In the past two weeks I interviewed for, got, and started the job as Script Coordinator/Writers' Assistant on another show, The Transporter, for HBO/Cinemax. Yes, it's based on the movies that starred Jason Statham, and no he won't be the star. First of all, I'm really excited because it's a series! I've worked briefly on other series, but never for the entirety, and I've never been able to sit in on the writing room while they're breaking story, which I'm really excited about. Also, most other shows I've worked on are American, and with US shows the problem with being a Script Coordinator or assistant is that you will never be in the writing room, because it's in LA, so normally your education is limited to what is outside that room. For aspiring writers, such as myself, that's the downside to working on US shows. But since Transporter is a Canadian/French/German co-production, is being partially shot here and is an English show, the writing room is in Canada, and I get to sit in on meetings and watch how it's done. Very exciting! I will try and share what I learn about the story room process.

I'm working with three writers, Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie, and Alexander Ruemelin. Joseph and Paul are from the Stargate franchise (another movie that was turned into a series), and Alexander is a German screenwriter. They are all hilarious, really nice and are all dorks just like me. I can tell this is going to be fun. I don't actually know how long this contract is going, which is also nice - so far I've been working on short term contracts because they've been mostly pilots, TV movies, ect. Actually being there for the writing, prepping and shooting of 12 episodes of a series will be a nice long run, where I can learn a lot and also not have my wife nag me about getting a more regular job. Also, I've read the first few scripts and the outlines for the first 8 episodes, and this show is going to be awesome. I'm excited to work on it, which I think is important.

Last week was my first week, and as the office hasn't officially opened yet, it was pretty relaxed, as everyone is still in the process of adjusting to the office and developing a rhythm. I find that every production office has it's own, and it takes a bit to find it, but once it happens the office really kicks into high-efficiency gear as everyone knows what and how to do their piece of the puzzle. I really like that aspect of it, the only downside that I've experienced is when you're working on a pilot and create a really great rhythm, then it's all over after 1-2 months. I'm interested to see what happens when you take that and transfer it to a longer period of time.

One of the writers, Joe, also has his own blog, which is updated much more than mine. I will try and take a page from his book and attempt to update more frequently. It should be an eventful experience, so I'm sure I'll have quite a bit to write about!

Update! What whaaat?

Well I'm long overdue for an update, so I sincerely apologize.

Since we last met, I've continued working as a Script Coordinator, PA and Producer's Assistant on various shows (Blue Bloods, The Yard, Covert Affairs). Right now I'm working as the Assistant to the Executive Producers/Writers on a new pilot for Warner Bros. and the CW called Awakening, about zombies. Zombies! I may have got the job because in the interview I pointed out that at my wedding, 4 of the 7 speeches mentioned my love of zombies. Not even kidding. I just started last week, but everyone here seems really cool so far. The writers of this US show are from Toronto and still live here, so it's good to know that's possible. That's my ideal situation, to work in LA and live in Toronto.

As for my own writing, I wrote a spec of Fringe, and have been writing a one-hour drama pilot, of which I'm about 3/4 finished through the first draft. My agents have been actively getting me meetings and sending out my scripts, and I've been getting a few nibbles. It's nice to get some kind of confirmation that things are going forward in your career, even though there hasn't been any solid, you know, cash money yet. It's an interesting/frustrating/satisfying place that I'm at right now. I have an agent, I am getting meetings, people are liking my pitches/scripts/ideas, and I've been getting really close to writing gigs, but haven't got one yet. One show my agents were trying to get me on said they thought I was a good writer, but they wanted someone that's not quite as "junior". Meaning, that I don't have enough credits yet (or any, to be precise). It is frustrating, because how is a writer supposed to get experience if no one gives them a chance? It makes it so much more difficult when Canadian shows don't have to hire on at least 1 fledgling writer like American shows have to. But, I know that it's just a slog and you have to keep going. If you're good enough, eventually someone will take a chance and you will make it.

Saying that, I might actually have some big news soon, though I don't want to jinx anything. I could potentially have an update on that in the next week or two. We'll see!

Why the hell does *that* guy have an office?

Contract completed! And, second imdb credit acquired!

I have finished my job as the Script Coordinator for the CBS Pilot Blue Bloods, and (so far) it seems like I did it without any major fuck-ups. Which is all I can hope for, really.

To be honest, I think I did a good job. And I think that was because I was fast, since I knew my way around Final Draft so well. The writers would essentially hand me a printed script that they had scribbled all over in pencil, various things crossed out, and entire scenes written in the margins of the page, and my job was to first decipher their handwriting, and then enter it into the script in the correct format. So it's also a good thing that I know screenplay format like the back of my hand (thank you Screenwriter's Bible!). I'd quickly put it all in the script, print it out and hand it back to them, and we'd go through this again until they were satisfied. Then I'd release the pages to the crew in the correct revision colour. If there were minimal changes (less than 50% of the pages) then I'd just release pages and people would, for example, put the blue pages in the white script. However, if the changes were major, (more than 50% of the pages) then I'd release the script again as an entirely new colour. Most of the time it was an entirely new colour. There was effectively a brand new script released every three days.

I also dealt with clearances. CBS had hired a research company to double check names of people and organizations, and I had to stay on top of it all to make sure that we had cleared every name by the time we started shooting. We only picked the names of the major characters (Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg's characters) the Friday before the first day of principal photography (which was on Monday). You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to pick a name. It has to be a name that there's either no one in the country with that name, or more than 3 people. Because if there are two people, they might sue you, especially if your character is morally bankrupt.

I started out working in the production bullpen before the writers arrived in Toronto, and I basically was a glorified PA for a couple days. Then when the writers arrived, I found that I was too far away and asked if I could use the office of the Executive Producer, who wasn't arriving for a couple weeks. Thing was, that this was one of the nicest offices on the lot, with big windows and a large mahogany desk. So when the director came by (who directed most of the entire first season of Dexter), he took one look at me and then asked the assistants outside the door, "who the fuck is that guy?". And they said, "oh that's the script coordinator". But that didn't go over well because the director's office did not have a window. Later, I moved into another spare office to be close to the writers and once again every person that passed, including the director, asked "why the hell does that guy have an office?". I even had a couch. I was told that is not the normal script coordinator experience and I shouldn't expect that next time. It was good.

So it was a great experience, I got to work with two of the best writers in the business, witnessed their writing process first hand and made some great connections. Obviously it would be ideal to work on a show that continues shooting in Canada (it's unlikely that they'd bring me to New York as a mere Script Coordinator), but now I know I could handle the job on any show since this was a particularly busy and intense one. That's the drawback of being part of a Canadian crew on a US show - if the US show gets picked up, you probably don't. But as a writer, the experience and contacts are invaluable.

For now, with my new found freedom, I'm going to continue writing specs (I've finished my Fringe spec and am just tweaking it before handing it over to my agent).

Oh, and I'm going to the gym. Film catering is evil; one should not have cake after lunch every day.