2 days to D-Day

Yes, folks, that's right... just two more days until D-Day ("Decision" day, that is). Please keep your fingers and toes crossed for us on Friday morning when, in a conference room on the upper floor of a large building in the heart of Manhattan, our network executives and their bosses will finally present our pilot presentation to the Big Boss, who will make the final decision about our show. We could get the news as early as Friday afternoon... or possibly we'll have to wait until Monday... so you may need to keep crossing your appendages over the weekend, which may interfere with any plans you may have to do things like drive a car, dial a phone, or eat. But hey, it's worth it, right! ;-)

Check back here for updates... as soon as I get the word (well, as soon as I get the word and I'm near a computer), I'll post with -- hopefully -- excellent news!

But in the meantime, you may be wondering what the hell we've been doing... Have we been twiddling our thumbs waiting? Staring at the pink and purple walls of the MTV building? Have we run out of vanilla creamer?

The answers to those questions are no, no, and yes-and-no.

As for the thumb-twiddling, we haven't had time because along with the pilot presentation (which, obviously, has already been shot and edited), the network wants to present some sample storylines for where the show could go in its first season. So yours truly has been spending lots of time bouncing around ideas with Billy, writing them down, sending them to our network execs, getting notes back... then bouncing new ideas, writing them down (along with revised versions of previous ideas), sending them off, getting more notes back... etc. Which basically means that I've had no time to twiddle because I've been typing. Which is a good thing, because I'd much rather be typing than twiddling.

As for staring at the pink and purple walls, we left our offices in the MTV building about a week and a half ago when we completed the final tweaks on the pilot presentation. Since then, "going to work" has consisted of taking my laptop to various restaurants and coffeeshops where they don't mind writers hanging out for hours on end... When you walk into a place and no longer need to look at the menu, you know you've been spending a lot of time there. When you walk into a place and the server immediately brings you your drink order, you know you need to start getting your mail forwarded there. ;-)

And as for the vanilla creamer, the "no" of the yes-and-no means that somewhere there's still a half-full box of vanilla creamer just waiting to be placed in the kitchen of our new offices and as soon as we get picked up and move into our new offices, we will once again have access to it... The "yes" of the yes-and-no means that since we have not yet been picked up, we currently have no offices, and therefore we have no access to that half-full box of creamer. The horror!! Fortunately, I'm a resourceful gal and have discovered a brand new invention: grocery stores. So at least I have vanilla creamer in my home (if not in my various restaurant-offices).

So there you have it. The scoop on what's been happening in the very long time since I last posted. Thank you to those of you who have made comments to these posts... it's nice to know there are folks out there who are rooting for us.

And on that note, I'd like to end this post by giving a "shout out" (as the kids say) to Janice, a freqent blog-reader, contributor-of-comments, and wisher-of-good-luck. Happy belated birthday Janice!!! I'd offer to sing the "happy birthday" song for you, but trust me when I say you should be grateful that blogs are sound-free... Cheers!

Now start crossing those fingers and toes everyone! :-)

nearing the end of the road...

Three words for you: Picture is locked.

What do those three words mean, you may ask? Well, it means that we're done editing... no more changing scenes, tweaking moments, or adding music. Barry and Nate are doing their technical magic right now so that the finished product will look great and they should be done by Friday. Dave and Pam will then take a look at it one last time to make sure there aren't any unexpected glitches in the DVD, and then we'll send it off!!!! Yes, to New York. Yes, for The Decision.

And in the meantime, we'll wait...

I have no idea what the waiting will feel like, except that it won't feel much like waiting since I'll still be working on story ideas for season 1 and beyond. In fact, in order to not focus on the waiting part, I'll probably be focusing a lot on the writing part... :-)

We have our offices in the pink- and purple-walled MTV building through the end of the month, so I'll probably still be at work quite a bit (which will also make it feel like not waiting). But really, let's face it, we'll be waiting...

Now that we're near the end of this long road, I have a moment to look back and I can say in all honesty that it's been an amazing experience overall. I've learned a lot and the opportunity to go to work every day and be creative has been a dream come true. I'm so proud of the work I've done on this presentation--and proud of what my colleagues have done--and I know we have so much more in us that audiences would respond to... I hope we get that opportunity. Think happy thoughts for us. We're about to start waiting...

a long overdue update...

Okay... okay... it's been a while... I know... Several weeks, in fact, since I last put up a post. I'd like to say it's because I've been vacationing in the Bahamas but in my posting-absence, I've actually participated in several other rounds of producers' cuts and network notes sessions. Let's just say that we've recently spent more time with our editor than with anyone else on the planet.

But you don't care about that! You want an update! You have questions! What's the project status? Who are the actors? What music are we using? Do we still have vanilla coffee creamer?

To make things interesting, I'll answer all of those questions (and perhaps others you haven't asked) in reverse order...

First, the coffee creamer: I'm happy to report that Mr. Joe still has a box of single-serving vanilla coffee creamer packages on his desk for our use--and only our use. I emphasize that point because in the past, when the creamer in the kitchen got down to frighteningly low levels, there were some (I refuse to name names...or provide descriptions in the event that I don't know their names) who gazed longingly from their coffee cups to the tempting box of creamer on Joe's desk. There were others who even dared to take action, sneaking into Joe's cubicle to swipe a creamer or two. But Joe caught on to their schemes and he now comes to work every day with his 12-gauge, cowboy hat, boots 'n spurs, and a package of chewing tobacco. No one has tried to swipe creamer from us since.

And that, my friends, is just one of the reasons we love Joe.

Second, the music: We've been using a variety of music in the presentation... some I brought in, some Lee brought in, and some came through the music libraries that are available to LOGO/MTV. They range from artists on smaller indie labels that you may never have heard of to some things you may be quite familiar with. Our execs are also looking at the possibility of having a music supervisor help us out a bit for this presentation. We'll see. But regardless, we're going to have some great stuff in there! You'll have to stay tuned for what that stuff is, though... because at the moment I can't give details.

Third, the actors: Well, our cast is pretty diverse in terms of their experience... some faces you'll recognize from their work in other projects; some you won't. As for the "names" you may know, well, Megan Cavanagh is rejoining us (she played one of the characters in the original short film). We're also working with the incredibly talented Heather Matarazzo. If you check either of them out on imdb, they'll definitely look familiar to you. And of course, you know me. Or, at least, you should by now, or why the hell are you bothering to read this blog? ;-)

Finally, the project status: Today, we finished our fourth (yes, fourth!) round of edits. This version is being burned to DVD at this very moment for tomorrow's review by our network execs... The things we've been changing lately have been at the "tweak" level (looping lines, cutting time, changing takes, etc.), which means they're happy with how the basic story stuff is coming out, which means it's pretty close to being done! Any changes after this version will be our last, since our delivery date is next week...

Yes, you read that correctly. I can't believe it either!! As of next week, we'll be done. Finished. Totally.

And then the waiting will begin.

Whew...