The main reason I was busier than expected while out in San Francisco was that I had the great news that my TV show concept had been very well received by the powers that be. There is now every chance well be shooting a pilot in Canada as early as next year. This took a little time to digest. A good single malt helped.
I had to go back and look at exactly when it was I first put the pin into the board on this particular idea and it turned out to be July. So in just over 4 months we went from what was going to be a comic book to an almost fully realised science fiction TV show. I feel another drink coming on just thinking about that.
In that time I sold the concept (my first TV sale) and was taken on board as creative lead - not only for Slingers but several shows for the same company. Speaking to friends who work out in L.A. this isn’t the kind of thing that happens everyday and at least one of them has probably stopped speaking to me.
I’ve been lucky to be working with people who also embrace the JFDI philosophy which is why I think we’re so far ahead in such a small space of time. It’s similar to the way I’ve been working for that last year or so in social media and once again the learning curve has been a lot of fun to navigate. What’s also been interesting is spotting the problems that traditional television production hits and routing around them in the same way I advise old media to do when embracing new media. The results so far speak for themselves. Right now we’ve not only fleshed out the show through 3 projected seasons, but also have two spin off shows conceptualised - I feel we bring a lot to the table and that’s the main reason we’ve got so far. I’ve been complaining about TV and film for so long now that it feels good to finally get a chance to push some of my ideas in the right direction and have them taken seriously.
It also seemed very natural to spend an afternoon sitting in the sunny garden of our apartment in San Francisco working out the details on another show and then working on the pilot script while drinking vodka at 35,000 feet.
So I guess for the next 18 months or so I’m a TV writer.
I think this counts as my first day back in the UK feeling close to human. Combination of jet lag and jet lurgy has kept me in a kind of dull stupor that also ran through yesterday’s conference call. Thankfully I didn’t have much to add to the conversation aside from how incredibly pleased I’ve been while watching everyone pull together on Amplified08. I did some of the initial groundwork getting the thing going and a tiny amount of admin, but then people like Joanne jumped in and just ran with it.
The timing couldn’t have been better as being out in California (part vacation part working on something else*) meant I couldn’t do an awful lot. In fact I’m still sorting through all the email that Amp08 generated while I was away. I’ll be dealing with that today and getting at least one new post up on the blog after I’ve caught up with all the new stuff on the wiki…
Only a few days to go and we can start planning the first Amplified09 session. February is looking good I think.
And I’m now feeling much less likely to fall asleep on my feet. Amazing what a 12 hour nap can do...
It’s the final day in San Francisco. Good trip. Nice combo of relaxing, catching up with friends and a little work.
Should be back here in the new year I think. Also, Canada is suddenly looming… more about that on the other side.
Normal service resumed by Monday I reckon…
Awesome photo by Tara (although I snatched it from Irina’s Flickr stream - that’s her, me, Jess, Stuart and Toby talking bollocks outside the Big Umbrella anniversary party where we had been kindly invited by Giselle and Gavin- stage two of a fun fun night).
When people ask me why I’m so keen on pulling random people together and breaking down as many barriers as I can I’m always a little taken aback. Then again people also think I’m mad for trying to keep up with all the people I follow on Twitter too. The thing is I have no idea where the next interesting project or idea is coming from. I have certain people in my circle who generate some fascinating concepts and sticking close to them means it’s a safe bet my life won’t get too dull anytime soon. But I’m also interested in the stuff that seemingly comes out of nowhere. The Black Swans if you like.
Like everyone else I have no clue as to where the next one is coming from, but I do know that it’s vital to keep as many routes in and out of my own echo chamber open as possible. My favourite example of the benefits of this is, like all the best stories, perhaps not entirely factually correct.
But it should be.
In 1966 Robert Wise shot a movie called The Sand Pebbles partially in Hong Kong. It’s a movie well worth checking out if you haven’t seen it. Now the story goes that this was the first chance for local stuntmen to see up close how the Hollywood crew put together fight sequences. Wise also left behind the Panavision cameras he’d used there and his Chinese assistants went on to start up their own film companies once the Americans had moved on.
This combination of new ideas, skills and technology lead to a new martial arts boom in the late sixties and early seventies. It lead to Bruce Lee.
Before that Akira Kurosawa was influencing Sergio Leone who in turn gave us Clint Eastwood who gave us Unforgiven. Go back before that and you can pencil in the Westerns of John Ford as one of the main influences on Kurosawa. And if he’d never have made Hidden Fortress I doubt Star Wars would be around today.
So would Uma Thurman have kicked so much ass in Kill Bill if Robert Wise had chosen to film The Sand Pebbles in a more controlled and less risky studio environment thirty seven years earlier?
We’re still experiencing those ripples today and that’s what I love about mixing things up. The potential is huge. Risks, failure and looking foolish are all part of the same game, but pass quickly. Without others taking those risks maybe I’d have never got to see a Jackie Chan movie. Imagine that.
I think risks are worth taking and looking foolish is simply part of being human. The exciting thing is none of us knows how we’ll influence each other in the next 18 months. Ain’t that a kick in the head?
Things are starting to slip as I get closer to getting on the plane. Missed the (self imposed) UK deadline of midnight by an hour or so with this one. I have if anything too much footage of these guys. Hard to trim it down:
Tomorrow I have to get in town an hour or so beforeTuttle then have more Amplified 08 stuff to handle before going off to a fireside chat with Sarah Lacy before Stu arrives (did I mention he’s coming to San Francisco with us?). Then the whole packing nonsense. Maybe a hair cut. Somewhere in that I’ll get another VloMo post up.
November is going to be a great month. This time next week I’ll be in San Francisco (which should help me mix up the VloMo content) and when I get back we have Amplified08. This last week has been spent mostly on that but I did have time to fit in a few meetings regarding some very cool stuff for 2009. Some of this as usual is under NDA and may never see the light of the day, but I did get to nip into Channel Four.
The timing was perfect as Charlie Brooker’s Dead Set had just started and so amongst other things we chatted about this new TV show - I watched the entire thing again last night and consider it the most vital thing on British TV in recent history. It picks up the social commentary that Romero used to be so good at and pushes it hard through the back of your skull and out of your eyeball. Highly recommended television.
It also allowed me to have some fun with my second VloMo post:
