Behind the Scenes of "Exes & Ohs"

coming up for air...

2008-09-16T03:59:00.001-07:00

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while... okay, in a LONG while... ;-)

I've been doing my best to keep up with everything, and my apologies to those of you who keep checking here only to find the same old information. I don't suppose it will help to say that I'm just now coming back up for air after an intense (and challenging) couple of writing months? Or that my brain has been fried? Or that the dog ate my homework? Okay, okay, ya got me: I don't have a dog.

So here's what happened... at the end of July, we got notes. Notes are a usual thing you get whenever you turn in a draft of anything, be it the overall arc for the season, an episode beat sheet, a script, or the lovely little haiku you composed about global warming (note to self: network execs are way too busy to fully appreciate the glory of first-draft haikus on global warming). In a perfect world, the notes get less significant - and there are less of them - the more drafts of something you do and the farther along you are in the process. So, for example, the first draft of a beat sheet may (and probably will) get you significant notes that cause significant story and/or scene changes... by the time you write the first draft of the script, the notes are typically not story-changing but are focused more on character, story clarity, tone, etc... and then by the time you've done several drafts of a script, the notes are mainly dialogue polishes. Sounds perfectly do-able, right? Aaah, I can almost hear the birds chirping in my happy writing wonderland...

Except that we don't live in a perfect world...

In an imperfect world, all the execs are doing their absolute best to get us notes as quickly as possible - but sometimes things get in the way. Usually, those things are not a huge deal. For example, maybe you turn in a draft of a beat sheet but one of the execs who needs to give notes is on set for another show, or is traveling, or is buried under piles of paper in their office waiting for Search & Rescue to come save them. It would be nifty if you, the writer, could simply kick back with a margarita and your TV remote and just relax in your barcalounger until that executive is able to give his or her notes... but with preproduction deadlines looming and eight scripts to write, you don't have that luxury. So, you forge ahead with all the notes you do have - and then incorporate the new notes from the recently-rescued executive once you get them. See: Not a huge deal.

Except then there are times when the imperfect world is experiencing a full moon and mercury is in retrograde and toilets start flushing the opposite way and the hot water tap delivers cold water and some of the key executives have been - for reasons completely beyond anyone's control - unable to weigh in on any of the documents you've turned in until you're months into the project, with several scripts in progress, and the rest of the beat sheets in development. And then you get their notes... and the notes are significant enough that you have to go back to square one on your scripts... and on your beat sheets... all the way back to the characters' loglines in some cases... with only a month to go before the start of preproduction... and that's when you take a moment with your blankie, and you cry...

So, that was the world I marched into at the end of July. I'll be honest, it's been pretty stressful. No margaritas in my barcalounger... lots of coffee (yes, with vanilla creamer)... and a lot of missed sleep... The good news is that the overall arc of the season didn't change - meaning, where each of the characters starts the season and ends the season is exactly the same - but the paths they take to get there... their individual storylines that make up each episode... much of that was out the window.

But let me also say this: If this situation isn't exactly ideal for the writers, it's definitely not ideal for the executives either. Because when the writers have to go back to the drawing board on the first scripts of the season, the same preproduction deadlines are still looming... and the execs are waiting... and then all of a sudden the writer's fast and furious pace causes the executives (who, as you may remember, were just barely found by Search & Rescue) to be buried under a whole new pile of scripts and beat sheets and first drafts and rewrites... and then we need their notes to be able to continue moving forward... And did I mention this isn't the only show they're working on?

So now you're probably thinking to yourself: Yikes! It sounds horrible! The season must be a mess! Michelle must be in an asylum wearing one of those scary-looking white jackets! The executives must be bald from pulling their hair out! What will happen to Jen? What will happen to Sam? Will Chris and Kris ever stop dressing alike? And Crutch? And Emmy? What will happen to the 5-foot tall beaver mascot at the Beever Cafe? And...???

Never fear, friends... Things are actually in good shape - and getting better every day. Billy and I have been keeping an insane work pace, churning out new scripts and beat sheets at a speed that even makes our heads spin. The network pushed our start date by 2 weeks, which means that preproduction officially started yesterday (instead of two weeks ago), giving us that much more time with the scripts. And the changes we've made to the stories and scripts have been really, really good... For as challenging as the last few months have been, I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to have made all these changes because the season will be all the better for it. Not that what we were doing before July 30 wasn't good. It was. We loved the stories we were working with. But hindsight is 20/20, as they say, and I think being forced to go back over everything with a different eye has really helped us pull everything into focus (wow - a lot of optometric analogies there!).

Anyhow, so that's where we are now... and where I am now. The production offices are up and running. Key crew members are starting their work. Episode 201 is being distributed around the office later this morning. Casting for recurring characters is underway. I'm already starting to wear my EP hat for production questions/concerns. And everyone is excited to get going. Including me.

Of course, there's still A LOT to do on this end before I can relax with that margarita... one more first draft needs to be written, a lot of rewriting needs to happen, and I haven't even thought about packing yet! But it's coming together... and getting a little easier with each passing day... and now that you've read the rough stuff, I'll share with you a very funny story of something that happened to me at my absolute low point in all this. It's very Jen-esque...

But you'll have to wait for the next post for that story... because if I keep typing, I won't have any typing-energy left for episode 208 later this morning... and I have writing to do!

More soon - I promise!

another vlog going up soon - and a quick update

2008-07-23T08:50:00.001-07:00

I'm about to leave for my work day, but thought I'd let you all know that a new vlog (#3) will go up on the afterellen site probably within the next day or so... also, I'm currently uploading vlog #2 to youtube now that it's been archived on afterellen.

Doing the vlogs is a blast for me, and I hope you're enjoying them. The new installment is all about the writing process and what phases we actually go through from ideas to scripts over the course of a season.

For those of you who are unable to see the vlogs, here's the update as to where season 2 stands as of today:
SCRIPTS: the network has several scripts in various stages (first and second drafts) that they're currently reviewing
BEAT SHEETS: the network has two beat sheets that they're reviewing, and we're going to send them two more today (these are all second, third, and fourth drafts)
STORYLINES; all the basic storylines are set... we all know where each of the characters is going this season; now, with the remaining beat sheets, we're just finding the specifics of the characters' journeys

That's about it from this end... now, one more chug of coffee (with vanilla creamer, of course!) and I'm off!!

Until next time...

youtube

2008-07-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to share the exciting news that I've posted my very first youtube videos! (yes, I've joined the technology revolution a wee bit late... but thanks to my Mac, now I can actually do things like that)

If you haven't seen my youtube page, click here.

I'm going to be posting my "Exes & Ohs" behind-the-scenes-of-season-2 video blogs on youtube every few weeks. These are the same vlogs that I'm doing for AfterEllen, so I'll put them on youtube once they are archived on the AE site.

Hope you enjoy!

type, type, type

2008-07-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

Every time I realize that I haven't posted in a while, I think "oh, it's only been a week or so..." And then I look at the actual date of my last post and am shocked and horrified to realize that it's been closer to a month. Yikes! I have to get back on the regular posting bandwagon! As soon as I'm done with this update, I'll put a post-it note on my desktop to remind me.

In my defense, I've been doing stuff. Ya know, writing season 2, filming vlogs for afterellen, appearing in commercials for psoriasis medication and mood enhancers... that kind of stuff. ;-) The vlogs you can see for yourself by clicking here. As for the writing, it couldn't be going better!!! Billy and I spend all day every day working through the stories, the beat sheets, the scripts... doing revision after revision... and every revision just gets better. It's definitely not a fast or easy process (in fact, my most recent vlog was all about the brain-sucking few days I had recently), but it is the process and I'm really proud of how everything is turning out. I obviously can't tell you anything specific about the stories - but I will say that if you were a fan of season 1, you'll love season 2 just as much... and probably even more!

The thing I can be specific about is what my schedule is like these days (it's riveting - try not to yawn): I'm usually at my computer early in the morning getting a jump on the day; then Billy and I meet up either in our Logo office or in our office-away-from-the-office by 10am, where we talk story and type, type, type our way through breakfast and lunch, then we leave at about 6 or 7pm, at which point I go home and catch up on whatever I missed during the day of typing. It's a very do-able schedule right now, and I'm enjoying it immensely because once pre-production starts up it's going to get incredibly busy... as you know if you followed this blog during season 1 (and as you'll discover if you follow me through season 2).

As for what it means when I say that I "type, type, type"... well, the best way to explain that is to tell you what I've done in the past week. Let's see... last Friday, I sent three scripts off to the network (one was a new draft; the other two were second drafts). Monday, yesterday, and today were spent talking through and revising two beat sheets (a "beat sheet" is basically a detailed outline of the story, and from the beat sheet you write the script). I sent those two beat sheets off this evening, so tomorrow and Friday will be spent talking through and revising two more beat sheets. I'm hoping they'll be ready to send off by Friday evening - but if not then, then they'll certainly be ready for Monday. Once they're in the network's hands, then it's time to get started writing a first draft of another script.

There's always a cycle of writing/rewriting on this end and reviewing/noting on the network's end. We'll keep re-working the beat sheets until they're solid and approved by the network; then we use the final beat sheets to write drafts of the scripts, which we keep re-working until they, too, are solid and approved. But I should add that saying a particular script is "done" doesn't mean it won't change again... it's more of an ongoing process until the day you shoot the material. There are always little tweaks that need to be made due to production-related issues (for example, if a scene is supposed to take place in a submarine but you can't actually get a submarine for the shoot, so you have to set the scene somewhere else). Once you've shot it, then the story changes again in editing... but that's a whole other post...

As for the season 2 writing schedule, we're on track to have all the scripts written and in solid shape before we head up to Vancouver (which is good because it would be impossible for me to write scripts and act in the show at the same time!). I'm really having a blast doing this... in case you couldn't already tell. :-)

Let's see, what else can I tell you? Well, I'm still addicted to vanilla coffee creamer... I'm beyond thrilled to be back working on another season... and I appreciate your patience with how infrequently I've been posting. But I just stopped typing to put the post-it on my desktop, so hopefully I'll remember to do this more often!

Until next time...

season 2 is well underway...

2008-06-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

Not much to report these days because almost all of my time is focused writing season 2 of "Exes & Ohs." It's going really, REALLY well... I couldn't be more excited about the storylines, the directions the characters are going, and how it's all coming together. I know it's a long wait between seasons - but I promise you it will be worth it!

You might notice that I said "almost all my time" is spent on XO season 2... I have been working on a few other things on the side (but don't worry, they haven't time away from my work on the show). The most exciting thing is that I've brought my video blog back to AfterEllen! The first installment should be up this week. I'm planning to do a couple of vblogs every month so you can watch the making of XO season 2 as it's actually happening. I'll take you into the writing room, up to Vancouver for pre-production, onto set for production, into the editing room for post, and then all the way through to the premiere and beyond. It's going to be a blast!!!

In other insanely exciting news, I was selected as one of Go Magazine's "100 Women We Love." HOW COOL IS THAT?!? If you want to check out the article, it's available online... just click here. A huge thank you to the folks at Go Mag for including me in that amazing list...

And last, but certainly not least, one of my most recent commercials is now on the air. If you want to check it out, you can also see it online by clicking here. My Barclay's Bank and Comcast commercials should be on the air soon, if they aren't already.

Time to get back to writing! More very soon...

season 1 DVD update (if you're having trouble ordering)

2008-05-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

I've heard that some of you are having difficulties ordering the DVD through LOGO, possibly due to stocking issues on their end (which is annoying for you, I'm sure - but isn't completely a bad thing, because it means lots of people are buying their "Exes & Ohs!").

If you're unable to order through Logo, please try through Amazon. They seem to have plenty in stock.

Happy watching!

SEASON 2!!!!!!

2008-05-21T10:14:00.001-07:00

It's official!!! We were picked up for a second season of "Exes & Ohs"...

HOORAY!

HOORAY!

HOORAY!

Below is a copy of the official press release that just went out... If you want to see the special "message" video, click here.

I'm so excited, I can't even tell you... It's such a privilege to get to do this show, and the fact that the network and the viewers want us to come back for another season is a tremendous compliment.

To all of you who have supported this show, all I can say is: THANK YOU.

Thank you for watching on tv, thank you for downloading the episodes, thank you for taking the time to contact Logo and Showcase with your feedback, thank you for emailing them to ask for a second season, and - especially - thank you for your kind thoughts and words of support throughout this process. I'm looking forward to posting about what goes on in the making of a show's second season (and yes, I'm sure it will involve epic amounts of coffee and vanilla creamer). And more than anything, I'm looking forward to delivering a kick-ass season 2 that you will all enjoy.

Again, thank you.

--------------

LOGO GREENLIGHTS SEASON TWO OF EXES AND OHS WITH SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM STARS MICHELLE PARADISE AND MARNIE ALTON
Greenlight news comes on heels of release of Exes and Ohs: The Complete First Season DVD

New York, NY – May 21, 2008 – Through a special video message posted by Exes and Ohs stars Michelle Paradise and Marnie Alton at Logo’s AfterEllen.com, Logo today announced the greenlight of season two of Exes and Ohs, the first-ever scripted comedy about lesbian friends and relationships for a basic cable channel. The eight-episode, half-hour scripted series – based on the short film The Ten Rules: A Lesbian Survival Guide – will premiere in early 2009.

The announcement, made by series creator and star Michelle Paradise and co-star Marnie Alton, is now available for viewing at AfterEllen.com, the nation’s top-ranked lesbian-themed website, which helped propel Exes and Ohs’ first season success through video blogs about the show and a powerful community of fans who shared in the show’s experience. The news was announced on the heels of the availability of Exes and Ohs: The Complete First Season DVD at retail stores and at the shop at LOGOonline.com.

Exes and Ohs follows the adventures of Jennifer (Michelle Paradise), a documentary filmmaker and her search for Ms. Right, telling the story of lesbian survival in life and love in Seattle, WA. Jennifer tries to keep up with the high-drama dating world, fulfill her creative ambitions, avoid the danger of professional and romantic complacency and embrace the “rules” of lesbian life, love and community.

Jennifer is surrounded by a group of close and diverse friends: Sam (Marnie Alton), was Jennifer's first love but is now her fun-loving, commitment-phobic ex-girlfriend; long-time partners in love and business Chris (Megan Cavanagh) and Kris (Angela Featherstone) are trying to run a home-based pet accessory enterprise while overrun by pets with whom they’re too in love to give up for adoption.

Exes and Ohs will air on Logo's 24/7 television channel and significant features will be available at AfterEllen.com, home of the exclusive Exes and Ohs video blog and the largest and only community of Exes and Ohs fans. Exes and Ohs Executive Producers are Michelle Paradise, Lee Friedlander, Billy Grundfest and Blueprint Productions (Noreen Halpern & John Morayniss).

- MORE -

ABOUT LOGO:

Logo is the world’s leading ad-supported cable, satellite, online, mobile and digital entertainment network for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) audience, from MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B). Launched in 2005, Logo’s cable channel is in more than 33 million homes across the United States and is complemented by a federation of online properties, including LOGOonline.com, AfterEllen.com, AfterElton.com, 365gay.com, DowneLink.com and NewNowNext.com. Logo’s content is distributed across all leading download-to-own, streaming and mobile services. The most influential brand for the most influential audience, Logo provides a mix of original and acquired entertainment as well as news, social networking and community building that are authentic, smart, fun, entertaining, and inclusive. Logo joins MTV Networks' roster of popular and highly targeted brands which include MTV, Comedy Central, VH1 and Spike TV.

ABOUT MTV NETWORKS:

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. MTV Networks, with more than 130 channels worldwide, owns and operates the following television programming services – MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION, MTV2, VH1, mtvU, NICKELODEON, NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT, NOGGIN, VH1 CLASSIC, LOGO, MTVN INTERNATIONAL and THE DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV NETWORKS, a package of 13 digital services, with all of these networks trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks connects with its audiences through its robust consumer products businesses and its more than 100 interactive properties worldwide, including GameTrailers.com, IFILM, Neopets, Xfire, Y2M, and online, broadband, wireless and interactive television services. MTV Networks also has licensing agreements, joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its programming services can be seen worldwide.

CONTACTS:

Steven Fisher
Logo Communications and Public Affairs
212.654.3035
steven.fisher@logostaff.com

Ashok Sinha
Logo Communications and Public Affairs
212-654-3042
Ashok.sinha@logostaff.com

Nashville - long, long overdue

2008-05-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a bit crazy, for reasons you'll soon discover... (hint, hint - check the blog for a big announcement tomorrow!). So I've been incredibly remiss in writing a Nashville recap.

First of all, I'd like to thank the amazing folks at the Nashville Film Festival who were so kind to me - especially Nancy, who spent 5 whole days making sure I was having fun (I was!) and got everywhere I needed to be on time and in one piece.

Nashville is absolutely gorgeous... If you've never been there before - which I hadn't - you simply must go. Green trees everywhere, lovely people, an awesome music scene, and for the coffee lovers among you, a really cool coffeeshop near one of the universities. I don't remember it's name off the top of my head but if you're in the area, definitely ask for the place with the Nun Bun. A number of years ago, a cinnamon roll-ish type of pastry came out of the oven looking like Mother Theresa and a legendary story was born (especially after Mother Theresa asked them to stop using her name and likeness - but, in fairness, it wasn't their fault that the bun looked like her!). In any event, great little place... check it out.

But I didn't go all the way to Nashville to check out Nun Buns. I went there to make a few appearances and to do a panel discussion entitled "Actor Turned Filmmaker" (which as you might imagine was about actors who have turned into filmmakers).

One of my first "duties" was attending an event at a winery... yes, I lead a very, very difficult life. ;-) The winery is owned by the "Brooks" in Brooks & Dunn, and apparently I was talking to him and didn't even know it. Chalk one up for what happens when you go to the country music capitol of the world and don't do your homework on country music. Thankfully, they didn't put me on a plane and ship me home... instead, they still asked me to sign a guitar that they were going to auction off for charity. Here's a picture of me doing the signing:

And here's a picture of the signed guitar (my signature is near the top of the photo next to the guitar strings):

Yes, in the middle is AL GORE'S SIGNATURE!!!!!! And WILLIAM H. MACY'S SIGNATURE!!!! How cool is that? If they ever see that guitar again I'm sure they'll be saying to themselves: um, who's Michelle Paradise? Thankfully, I always carry DVDs of the show with me wherever I go... (kidding!) ;-)

Later, I also got to have dinner with the amazing Patricia Neal:

She was gorgeous and charming and it was a thrill for me to get to meet her.

But I promise I did more than just socialize... and I have pictures to prove it! The "Actor Turned Filmmaker" panel went really well... it was packed, the audience was engaged, and my fellow panelists had a lot of smart advice to offer. Here are photos of me and my fellow panelists, Vincent D'Onofrio, Joey Lauren Adams, and Robbie Benson:

And here we all are with casting director extraordinaire, Laray Mayfield:

Laray also arranged for an INCREDIBLE concert in a venue appropriately called The Basement (because it looks just like a basement). It's small... I think it holds 120 people max. Now, I may not know much about country music, but I sure as hell know who Lyle Lovett is - and how lucky I was to get to see him and the other musicians in such an intimate space. It was a once-in-a-lifetime evening, for sure. This was the night before I left and I'm so happy I was in town long enough to be able to see it...

(note: The photos are terrible because I took them with my camera phone...)

Jessica Mayfield opened the show. She had a really cute stuffed owl that she brought on stage with her, but sadly you can't see it in this photo:

Lori McKenna and Mark O'Reilly followed. He was playing backup for her, but then did one of his own songs called "The Volunteer," which was about American soldiers. It's one of the most beautifully written songs I've heard...

And, of course, the man, Lyle Lovett. He performed with John Haitt and Tony Joe White. They were all great together, taking turns with singing and then occasionally playing with one another. I wasn't familiar with John or Tony (or Lori, Mark, or Jessica) before this evening, but I'm going to check them out after seeing them...

Wow, have I put enough photos in this post??? ;-)

If anyone from the festival is reading this, thank you again... As you can see, I had a great time - and I really enjoyed getting to speak on the panel. I hope the people who attended got as much out of it as I did.

Another post coming tomorrow... and you won't want to miss it!!

exciting news!

2008-05-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm working on post about my fantastic trip to Nashville and will have that ready soon (including pictures!). But in the meantime, I wanted to share two pieces of really exciting news...

EXCITING NEWS #1 - AWARD NOMINATION!

I've been nominated for a New Now Next award in the "Brink of Fame: Actor" category! The awards are based on votes received, so if you think I'm "on the brink" then you can vote for me by clicking here.

The awards will be broadcast on Logo on Saturday, June 7, so you can find out then if I won - or if I should instead consider a career as a professional mud wrestler (nevermind that I can't wrestle).

EXCITING NEWS #2 - XO SEASON 1 DVD AVAILABLE!

The season 1 DVD of "Exes & Ohs" is now available for pre-ordering! The release date is actually May 20 but if you want to be among the first to get yours, you can pre-order via Amazon or Logo.

(FYI: the DVD is less expensive on the Logo site)

Ft. Lauderdale recap

2008-04-18T11:44:00.001-07:00

This is a bit belated, but I'm back from Ft. Lauderdale and am happy to report that my very first trip there was a smashing success. I got to hang out at the pride event, meet some of the Logo folks, and the best part: I got to meet a bunch of Ft. Lauderdalians!! (Ft. Lauderdidians?) Point being, it was a great time.

To all of you who came up to say hello: THANK YOU!! I had a blast at the event and it was so much fun to meet you, take pictures with you, and hear your feedback about the show... I hope you all had a great time as well.

On a sidenote, my cohort at the event, Paolo from the Big Gay Sketch Show, can be described in one word: FUNNY! And sweet and charming, as well... so I guess that's more than one word after all. If you haven't seen BGSS yet, do check it out. Some of the clips are available on the Logo web site. It's so, so funny.

And on another sidenote, Ft. Lauderdale is simply beautiful. Look at that water! The trees! The lovely spring rain! Well, you can't see the lovely spring rain in the photo - but trust me, it was there...

(this was the view from my hotel room - I know, I know, what a terrible place to stay, right?) ;-)

And finally, because I simply have to treat myself to room service at least once whenever I stay in a hotel, I also took the opportunity to photograph the cute mini-Tabasco that came with my breakfast. You'll also notice a cup of tea next to it... it was yummy.

(in case you're wondering, the answer is: no, I didn't put the Tabasco into my tea)

I'm leaving shortly for Nashville and am really looking forward to the trip. I will try to post from the film festival, so stay tuned for that.

Also, I have a really funny - well, funny to me - anecdote about being an actor in LA LA land, which I will try to post later today. Here's a two-word sneak preview: Clone Wars. ;-)

More soon!

UPDATE: An anonymous Nashvillian (Nashvillonian?) wanted to know what I'd be doing out there in Nashville... Well, other than taking random photos of small Tabasco bottles, I'll be on the "actor turned filmmaker" panel and at a couple of evening events. See you there!

Dinah recap - and some upcoming events

2008-04-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

Whew... I'm back, I've recovered, and I got to keep my fashion show outfits!!! Thanks, Peeler! :-)

The Dinah Shore weekend was a blast. I performed with some of the gals from "The Big Gay Sketch Show" (who are hilarious!) during the Ladies of Logo comedy hour, did an all-improv show with the ladies of afterellen (including the lovely Marnie, who plays Sam in XO), made some announcements at the pool, pretended to be a supermodel during the fashion show, did a bunch of interviews, and stopped for a lot of photos.

Oh, and did I mention, I got to meet: PAT BENATAR!!! She was the headlining performer on Saturday night and absolutely, positively rocked the house with her performance. She was amazing! AMAZING!! The only way I can manage to pull together half her energy is when I'm loaded with coffee.

That said, I'd like to add that my day is starting off quite energetically, thank you very much... Maybe not Pat Benatar energetically - but behold what I have right next to me on my desk:

If you pick up your computer monitor and turn it upside down, you'll notice that the coffee is actually smiling at me... Cheery, isn't it!

Okay, back to the Dinah - because I would be completely remiss if I didn't also mention that the thing I loved most about this past weekend was getting to talk to people who had seen "Exes & Ohs" (last year, the show wasn't out yet and most people hadn't even heard of it). It was just so great to get that feedback in person... everyone we met was friendly, positive, and incredibly respectful. It was such a pleasure to be there, and I really hope we can return next year...

As for me, I am about to start packing my bags because I've got two really cool events coming up! This Sunday, I'll be at the Ft. Lauderdale pride event... and next weekend (I don't know the days yet) I'll be at the Nashville Film Festival. I've never been to either city and am really excited to visit! Hopefully I'll remember to do a better job with photos so I can post them here... :-)

Once I'm back, I'll be gearing up for the GLAAD media awards on April 26. "Exes & Ohs" is nominated for best comedy series alongside “Ugly Betty” (ABC), “Desperate Housewives” (ABC), “Sarah Silverman” (Comedy Central), and “The War at Home” (FOX). Um... WOW!

Then on May 20, the "Exes & Ohs" season 1 DVD comes out!!!!! I can't give you details yet, but trust me when I say that this will be an exciting release... with super-cool bonus materials... and you will want to mark it on your calendars!

May 20 is also the day of the NBA draft lottery, and I'm currently weighing my options. Should I leave the entertainment business for a career in professional basketball? I don't know. I just don't know. It's a really tough decision.

I need another cup of coffee. I have to think about all this...

greetings from the Dinah!

2008-04-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Good morning, all! And greetings from he Dinah Shore Weekend in always-sunny (and always windy) Palm Springs. I've been having a fantastic time out here... I wish I had a bunch of pictures to share but sadly all my grand ideas of taking photos and maybe some videos went right out the window because I've been so busy. But this morning, I was able to take a lovely photo of where I'm writing from:

And here's what I get to look at when I'm not staring at my laptop screen:

Rough life, huh? ;-)

Sadly, I have to get going (another full day ahead) but I will write more later and give you all the scoop on what's been happening out here - and how I managed to make it through the fashion show without falling on my head.

Have a great day!!!

travels

2008-03-30T14:33:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting in the San Francisco airport waiting to catch a flight - which is, sadly, delayed - but the good news is that the delay gives me a little extra time to post about why I'm here...

I came up to the Bay Area a few days ago to speak to students (writers, directors, actors, etc) at the Academy of Art College with Megan Cavanagh. We sat on a stage in a theater that was filled almost to capacity (wow!!!) and we answered questions from the moderator - and then from the students - for over two hours! We covered everything from how Megan got into voiceover work to how "Exes & Ohs" came to be to what would be our dream roles as actors. We both had a great time and everyone at the Academy of Art was incredibly kind to us... Hopefully the students got as much out of the evening as we did - and hopefully we'll get to come back again sometime. If anyone from the Academy of Art reads this: Thank you. :-)

So now I'm headed back to LA LA land to get ready for a couple of upcoming trips... Next weekend is the Dinah Shore Weekend in Palm Springs, then I'm headed to Ft. Lauderdale for their pride event. Woo hoo! But don't expect me to "woo hoo" audibly anytime soon... I have no idea what happened, but my voice slowly started to crackle and squeak into silence yesterday and it's completely gone today. And when I say completely gone, I mean completely gone. As in all I can do is whisper, gone. So if any of you see me at the Dinah and say hi to me and all I offer is a polite smile and wave in return, don't take it personally... it's not that I'm refusing to speak to you - it's that my voice is still refusing to speak.

Of course, if the folks at the Dinah don't provide me with ample vanilla creamer, green M&Ms, and an Evian water chilled to 63.7 degrees, then I very well MAY refuse to speak!!!

Just kidding. ;-)

That's it from here... stay tuned for more updates. I'll bring my laptop to the Dinah with me and will try to do some posts from there. Who knows, maybe I'll even be able to upload some photos!

XO update

2008-03-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

The title doesn't actually mean that I have new news to report (believe me, when I do, you won't be able to miss it - I'll be really annoying and put it in all caps with lots of excited exclamation marks)! :-)

But since a lot of you have been asking about the show, I wanted to give you an update with the information I have so far:

SEASON 2?
No announcements have been made about a season 2 yet, but we all have our fingers crossed that we'll get to bring you more adventures of Jen and the gang. We'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to come back to Logo and Showcase - and any other channel in the world!!!

DVD
The rumors are true: The "Exes & Ohs" season 1 DVD will be released on May 20. Hooray! And a little birdie told me there will be some really cool DVD extras, too...

I'll have more info about availability in the U.S., Canada, and around the world as May gets closer - but in the meantime, feel free to write to Logo to let them know where you are and that you want the DVD! I know that it may seem like the networks are so big and can one email actually make a difference... but believe me, they read your emails - and they listen.

WHERE YOU CAN WATCH
If you've missed any episodes - or just want to see your favorites again - you can catch us on Showcase every Thursday at 9:30pm EST (yay, Canada!). For episode information, check out the "Exes & Ohs" Showcase site.

We're not currently airing on Logo, but all the digisodes, interviews, and behind-the-scenes goodies are still available on Logo online. If you haven't seen them yet, definitely check them out! Megan and Angie (aka Chris and Kris) bowling is something not to be missed... :-)

MEET THE CAST
I mentioned in my previous post that I'll be at the Dinah Shore Weekend in a few weeks... but what I forgot to add is that some of my fellow cast-mates will be there, too! It'll be a lot of fun. We'll be doing a bunch of stuff with Logo and AfterEllen, most of which is still top-secret. So if you're there, be sure to stop by and say hello.

That's about it for now... but please keep checking back here for updates and ramblings. Until then, have a great week, everyone!

wow, this is a long overdue post...

2008-02-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

Thank you all for your patience - and for the messages you've sent just checking in and saying hi to me. I really appreciate it. And rituximab, my apologies for leaving the same old stuff up on the blog for you to read after work... Bad Michelle, bad! I could offer a million excuses, from the slow/painful death of my old laptop to the lingering chest cold that's been lingering a few weeks too long - but let's just be honest: I need to get back on the ball!!! So here I am, on the ball. :-)

So let's get the ball rolling with a bunch of updates...

--------------

First, some FANTASTIC news:

"Exes & Ohs" was nominated for a GLAAD media award as Best Comedy Series! We're in absolutely amazing company, as you can see from the list of nominees:

Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Exes and Ohs (Logo)
The Sarah Silverman Program (Comedy Central)
Ugly Betty (ABC)
The War at Home (Fox)

One word: WOW!!! :-) It's an incredible honor to be included in that category and it just says so much about all the work that everyone did on the series: our crew, our actors, our network execs, the entire Logo team... Everyone poured their hearts into this project and I think it really shows. I couldn't be more proud of what we've accomplished - and the nomination itself feels like a huge win for all of us...

If anyone from the GLAAD nominating committee is reading this blog, then please accept this huge THANK YOU on behalf of all of us for this recognition...

--------------

Shifting gears a little, how about some PR news:

In case you haven't seen it yet, I'm featured in the current issue of Curve Magazine (it's a really nice article). If you don't get Curve where you live and are just dying to see what pearls of wisdom I might have to share, you can order the issue via their web site by clicking here.

Also, I'm going to be a guest on Fruit Salad radio at 7:45pm (PST) this Wednesday night! For details, check out the Fruit Salad web site.

And last but certainly not least, yours truly will be making oodles of appearances at the upcoming Dinah Shore weekend - including participating in a fashion show!!! I know... "yikes" was my first thought, too! ;-) For information about the weekend, you know what to do! (click here)

--------------

What else:

I've been spending a lot of time working on a new project that I'm really excited about and proud of. I think I've alluded to it on the blog before (or on my web site - I don't remember which). I still can't say much about it right now - but I expect that in the not-so-distant future I'll have some really good news to report on it... Keep your fingers crossed for me!

--------------

And on a personal note:

I'd like to take a moment to encourage all of you to recycle any electronics (televisions, laptops, cell phones, iPods, etc.) that you no longer need. There are a lot of places that offer recycling - but sadly, many companies simply ship the electronics to developing nations where they end up in landfills or along rivers and roads, polluting the local environment and exposing people to toxic chemicals. There was a great article about this in a recent National Geographic, if you'd like to read more.

It takes a bit of research to find "green" electronics recycling, but those companies are out there. A great place to start is GreenDisk. All of the material that GreenDisk collects is reused or recycled. No hazardous materials or obsolete components go overseas to be processed or disposed of.

Apple also offers free "green" recycling of iPods and cell phones (any cell phone - not just iPhones). Click here for information. They also have recycling programs for other Apple products.

And in case you're wondering: Yes, my sad, dead laptop is being recycled in a "green" way at this very moment... :-)

--------------

I guess that's about it for now. Thank you all for continuing to read. And please keep checking back here for new posts... I promise they'll come more regularly!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

(and a special p.s. to the anonymous teen for his/her comment post... thank you so much for commenting, and I'm really happy that I could help in some way...)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2008-01-01T18:29:00.001-08:00

Of course, the New Year is always a great time for reflection... and that's exactly what I've been doing. I can't believe that when the year started, we'd just finished shooting season 1 of "Exes & Ohs" and all the footage was sitting in the editor's computer just waiting to be assembled into episodes. Now, as 2007 has come to a close, our first (and extremely well reviewed!) season has also come to a close... and my fingers are crossed that we'll soon get to bring you a season 2.

I've written so much about my experiences along the way that it would be redundant to do some sort of recap of all that happened in 2007, so I won't. Instead, I will simply say thank you.

Thank you for reading this blog. Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback, questions, and words of encouragement. I may not always be able to post - or to respond - as quickly or as often as I'd like, but every time I get an email that someone has left a comment, it makes me smile. In a business where there are often more downs than ups, this kind of support really and truly means a lot.

I had no idea when I started this blog how much it would ultimately mean to me, and how grateful I'd be that I had a record of the struggles and triumphs along the way. I recently had the opportunity to speak to a couple of screenwriting classes at the Academy of Art college, and the experience reminded me how (not so many years ago) I, too, had sat in front of "Hollywood" folks asking questions about how they get to do what they do. Back then, being a working writer/actor felt so very far away. Yet now here I am, doing just that. And it's wonderful for me to get to look back through this blog and remember this part of my journey...

Of course, I don't include everything in here - I've really just focused on those things that relate to the show - but moving forward, I'm sure I'll include other projects as well. We'll see... Hopefully, you'll continue to come along on this journey with me. And hopefully I'll continue to make it interesting for you to peek through my little window into this wacky world of Hollywood.

I'll keep you posted about a possible season 2 of "Exes & Ohs" - and on the other projects I have in the pipeline. So please keep your fingers crossed for me on all of that, and continue to check back here for updates.

In the meantime, just let me say (again): Thank you.

And may 2008 bring you all the happiness your heart can possibly hold.

MP

happy holidays!

2007-12-25T07:59:00.000-08:00

I'll put up a longer post later this week, but for now I just wanted to wish you all the happiest of holidays, whatever holidays you may be celebrating... I hope you enjoy your time relaxing, visiting family, friends, and loved ones - and please travel safely out there.

Thank you all for being so supportive of me and my show. I can't tell you how much it means to me...

And congratulations to all of you who are proud new owners of Beever Cafe shirts!!! Enjoy them - but wear a scarf if you happen to be in a snowy climate. Oh, and for those of you who remember waaaaay back in the day when I wrote a post about working on a design for something in the show (I referred to it as a "bunny in the green, green grass" because I couldn't tell you the actual thing we were designing)... yes, that was the beaver of the Beever Cafe. :-)

More in a few days!

Beever shirt update

2007-11-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

Thank you to the anonymous poster who let me know that she/he couldn't get a Beever Cafe t-shirt shipped outside of the U.S.

I did some checking on your behalf and was told that - at least for the moment - overseas shipping isn't something that Logo is set up to do. Unfortunately, that doesn't help you with your t-shirt needs... so I have two suggestions for you:

1. If you have a friend in the U.S., you could ask your friend to order it for you and send it to you.

2. If you don't, then please write to Logo to let them know where you are and that you want a Beever Cafe shirt. If enough people contact them, then they'll know there's a demand and they may be able to find a way to accomodate.

I hope this helps... and I really appreciate your patience. I know a lot of you who read this blog (and the afterellen blogs) live outside the U.S. and Canada, and it must be incredibly frustrating that you can't see the show and can't buy a t-shirt, even though you want to. I'm talking with the folks at Logo about all of this on a regular basis and I know they're working to make everything available worldwide - but in the meantime, please keep sending them emails to let them know where you are and what you want. It really does help, and they really do read them.

I promise to keep you posted if I get any new information for you. Until then, I appreciate your support and your understanding...

Thank you! Thank you!!!

photos, photos, and more photos

2007-11-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

The title of the post says it all! Since this will be a bit of a slow week here in the U.S. because of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, I thought it would be the ideal time to post all the photos from all the events I've done recently... Enjoy!

POWER UP AWARDS EVENT
On the red carpet smiling nicely...

But finally, unable to contain myself!

All the Power Up award recipients on the red carpet - and acting respectably... ;-)

With my friend, the fantabulous Michelle Wolff...

THE OLIVIA CRUISE
Thank you to the lovely and talented Cheryl Mazak for taking these photos and being kind enough to send them to me for the blog!

Me and Megan Cavanagh with our "Exes & Ohs" O's...

This time, with X's...

In between photos, cracking each other up!

Don't we look very Hollywood-ish and fancy?

With Judy Dlugacz, President and Founder of Olivia...

PORTLAND FILM FEST
That's me with the awesome Logo marketing/events guru, Chris Wagley (left), writers/columnists Lipstick and Dipstick, aka Gina Daggett and Kathy Belge (center), and Yvonne Behrens, Portland LGFF Operations Manager (right)

If any of you happen to have photos from any other events, feel free to send them my way and I'll happily post them here...

Have a great week!

Beever Cafe shirts

2007-11-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

Good news, everyone! You've been asking for them... and Logo has delivered! That's right, I'm talking about Beever Cafe shirts!!!

To order yours, click here!

Enjoy!

fear not, faithful viewers!

2007-11-07T09:29:00.001-08:00

Episode 5 will be on Logo (and on iTunes and Amazon) next week!

This week was originally scheduled to be a repeat episode for U.S. viewers. I'd actually gotten the memo about that quite a while ago... but sadly, my brain appears to be full so I forgot. :-)

Sorry about that.

But episode 5 of "Exes & Ohs" will return next Monday as usual. I don't know if Showcase is going on this same schedule, so I have no idea if those of you in Canada will get a new episode or a repeat. I guess it will be a surprise!

Thank you all for your excitement and support of "Exes & Ohs." I appreciate it!!!

long time, no post...

2007-11-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone... and thank you all for your patience during my travel absence. In the past month, I've been from the west coast (San Francisco, Seattle, Portland) to the east coast (NY) and on an Olivia cruise that took me from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta - all in the name of "Exes & Ohs!"

But I'm back - and today I'm giving you a recap, a what-now, and I'm answering some of your most recent questions. That's a lot to do... so let's get started!

RECAP
-- In SF, Seattle, and Portland, I got to screen the first two episodes of the show and then answer audience questions... I also filmed one of my afterellen video blogs from my hotel room in Seattle. If you'd like to check it out, click here.

-- In NY, I did radio appearances on the "Ryan & Caroline Show" (ClearChannel Radio) and the "Derek & Romaine Show" (XM Satellite Radio), was interviewed for the NewNowNext Noise video blog, and I got to meet and thank all the talented folks in Logo's NY offices who have helped to put "Exes & Ohs" on the map (and on the air and online). And, of course, I appeared at a Go Magazine event with Margaret Cho and The Cliks!! Here's a photo of all of us together:

Oh, and did I mention that my entire NY trip was only a day and a half???? Whew! I'd have stayed longer, but I had to leave the next day for...

-- The Olivia cruise! I went with Megan Cavanagh (who plays Chris) and we had a great time. Our screening was a HUGE success! We were originally supposed to do it in the ship's screening room, which seats maybe 60 people. When Megan and I first arrived, it was about half full. Then, in the middle of us saying to each other that we really hoped more people would arrive, we turned around and saw that the room was filled... and then standing room only... and then a line out the door!! There were so many people that we had to move our screening to the large theater, where Lili Tomlin had performed on the first night!! It was fantastic... And the folks at Olivia were very kind and took great care of us.

WHAT NOW
Now I'm back home - and back to work! What does that mean? Well, I'm continuing to do weekly "Exes & Ohs" video blogs for afterellen... they're usually posted on Tuesday mornings and you can check them out on the afterellen site.

I'm also working on a new television project, meeting about some acting projects, and I have a couple of other things in the works that hopefully I'll be able to tell you about very soon... And, of course, I'm getting ready for this Sunday's Power Up awards!! I'm very proud and excited to be one of this year's recipients...

YOUR QUESTIONS... ANSWERED
To: Anonymous, who wanted to know how many episodes are in this season.
There are six. In the U.S., episode #5 airs tonight (in Canada, it airs on Thursday). There's no hidden 7th episode... so after you see episode 6, that's it for now. We're keeping our fingers crossed for a second season. As soon as I know, you'll know!

To: Nico_lette, Francyne, Blue, and other readers around the world who don't get the show where they are.
Thank you so much for writing - and I'm sorry you're not able to see the show yet... I've let the folks at Logo know that I'm hearing from you, and I know they're working on making the show available outside of the U.S. and Canada. In the meantime, please send them an email and let them know who you are, where you are, and that you'd like to get "Exes & Ohs." That information will help them a lot! Also, just so you know, the afterellen site does recaps of the show every week that are simply hysterical! So until you can see the show, you can at least keep up with the storylines...

To: Janice, who wants to know when I have time to catch my breath.
Fortunately, I've asked several friends to breathe for me and they've been doing a great job at it, so I'm fine. ;-)

To: Anonymous, who wants to know if I can get Showcase to post additional episodes of "Exes & Ohs" on their site.
Sorry, Anonymous... I wish I could help you, but sadly my tremendously impressive superpowers always seem to be gone the minute I wake up. ;-) However, YOU - yes, YOU! - have your own tremendously impressive superpower... email! The folks over at Showcase are very nice and they appreciate viewer feedback on their shows. So feel free to contact them and tell them that you'd like to see more of "Exes & Ohs" on their site. In the meantime, the great news for you is that you can see all the webisodes on the Showcase site (and on the Logo site as well). A webisode, by the way, is basically a scene that wasn't included in the actual episode that aired on television. So enjoy!

Thank you all for continuing to read this blog and follow along on my journey with me. We've been getting great responses from viewers and critics alike about the show - and I couldn't be more proud. I'll come back later this week to share some of our reviews with you but in the meantime, enjoy the show!

And if you like what you're seeing, please take a moment to let Logo know. The viewer feedback means a lot to them - and to us.

questions answered... a video blog... and an appearance with Margaret Cho and the Cliks!

2007-10-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

I have some questions to answer, a video blog to announce, and an appearance in New York very soon... so let's get started!

First of all, to those of you who can't see "Exes & Ohs" in certain parts of the world - I'm so sorry to hear that. :-( If you can't access the show via Logo, iTunes, or Amazon because you're not in the U.S. or Canada, then please, please send an email to Logo and let them know you want to see the show where you are. The more they hear from you, the better!

Also, a few of you had questions about Beever Cafe t-shirts... I don't know if Logo has any plans to sell them, but please send them a message and let them know you want them!!

While the show is on the air, I'm going to be doing a weekly video blog for the afterellen web site. Here's a link to my first one. They'll be posted every Tuesday at www.afterellen.com. And the best part: You can watch them wherever you are in the world!!!! YAY!

And last but certainly not least, I'm going to be doing an appearance next week with comedian Margaret Cho and supercoolband The Cliks. If you're in New York, come on by and help support a great cause!

Happy watching!

greetings again, Canada!

2007-10-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

We made our Canadian premiere last night on Showcase... If you're in Canada, I hope you were able to see it - and that you enjoyed the first episode!

ON THE AIR!!

2007-10-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

"Exes & Ohs" is finally on the air - and I couldn't be more excited!!! I'd meant to post on Monday, which is when we premiered on Logo, but the day was so crazy (as was yesterday) that I haven't had the chance. Thanks for your patience!

Monday was such a great day... it started with an in-studio appearance on the Frank DeCaro show where I got to wear nifty headphones and sit across from Frank's fabulous co-host Doria Biddle. All the radio interviews I've done thus far have been via telephone, so this was my first in-studio. It was a lot of fun. And then the day ended with a cast/crew/friends screening party at a really cool venue in West Hollywood. We took over the entire upper level and the place was packed. I think there will be some photos soon on the Logo web site , so feel free to check there. As you'll see from the photos, it was really great for all of us to get to share the premiere night with our colleagues, friends, and loved ones.

This has been such an incredible journey for me... after early two and a half years of working on this project (not counting the time on the short film), it's now finally on the screen. It's been a labor of love for me - and for everyone who's worked on it. I really hope you all enjoy it.

For those of you in Canada, I hope you'll be watching on Showcase on Thursday night!

For those of you in countries other than the U.S. and Canada (like the very sad Francyne), I have one other suggestion... try downloading via Amazon.

If that doesn't work, then please contact Logo directly to let them know you can't get "Exes & Ohs" and you want it!! Many of the videos on the Logo site aren't available outside the U.S., and apparently that's true of iTunes as well. But the more they hear from you, the better! Hopefully they'll have some suggestions for you.

By the way, that contact link is also good if you've seen the show and like it... the folks at Logo love viewer feedback!

Thank you all so much for your support. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it... and I look forward to having much more to write in the future.

great new promo spot - and a little secret

2007-10-04T22:51:00.000-07:00

Logo recently started running a really cool new promo spot for "Exes & Ohs." I've posted it on my home page so you can check it out... and please also keep checking the Logo XO page for even more content!

Just a few more days to go!!!

And if you can't wait - then I'm about to share a little secret with you that will make you REALLY happy: "Exes & Ohs" is already available on iTunes! Yep, that's right, you can download the pilot episode for FREE right now! So if Monday is too far away, then check it out! I hope you enjoy. :-)

coming to SF!

2007-10-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

Greetings, San Franciscans! If you're out and about tomorrow night, why don't you come on by Mighty! at 119 Utah Street. I'm going to be making an appearance starting at 8pm - and screening the first two episodes of "Exes & Ohs!" For more information click here.

Hope to see you there!

one week to go!

2007-10-01T08:25:00.001-07:00

One week to go until the October 8 premiere of "Exes & Ohs" on Logo!!

As a reminder, we premiere October 11 on Showcase.

And episodes will be available on iTunes the week of October 8, so be sure to check them out and download your favorites!

In the meantime, I've got some radio interviews coming up if you'd like to listen in:

** Oct 3 - 6:15pm PST - Lesbian Lounge, which streams over the Internet (so, presumably, you can listen in wherever you are in the world!)

** Oct 8 - 10:15am PST - Frank DeCaro Show on Sirius Satellite Radio

More info, updates, and news coming very, very soon.... :-)

p.s. A big thank you to Nico, who showed me how to do the links so that the new pages appear in pop-up windows rather than forcing you to leave the blog! Slowly but surely, I'm getting the hang of this technology thing!

good news, New Yorkers!

2007-09-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

You have the chance to see the first two episodes of "Exes & Ohs" before they air!!!

Cattyshack (249 4th Ave. in Brooklyn) will be hosting a screening on Thursday, October 4. The event is from 6-9pm and it'll be a blast! For more info, click here.

Stay tuned to the blog for more updates and info on the show...

And as for the update on me, well, it's just as busy as ever. In the past 24 hours, I've done interviews, had meetings, helped put some super cool promotional plans into motion, finished a new project - and I've done it all on just one cup of coffee!

Wow. Hold on a moment. Does that mean what I think it does? Could it be? Could it be true that everything I am, everything I do, I really owe to: Vanilla Coffee Creamer?

Whew. That's a mind-boggling thought. Excuse me while I go ponder that over a second cup of coffee.

XO home page on Logo!

2007-09-25T11:10:00.001-07:00

Good news! The "Exes & Ohs" home page is now front-and-center on the Logo web site. HOORAY!

There are video clips, photos, character bios, show summaries, cast and crew interviews and lots of other cool stuff - so check it out! And when you're on the video page, make sure you scroll all the way down so you don't miss anything.

And if you like what you see, click here and make sure you let the folks at Logo know. They LOVE viewer feedback - and so do we!

Enjoy!

cool things last week

2007-09-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of a delayed post, but I did a couple of really cool things last week that I wanted to make sure I shared on the blog...

On Tuesday, I went to the Advocate's 40th anniversary party - which was amazing. If you're not familiar with the Advocate, here's a link to their site. They've covered some incredible stories over the years and have been consistently at the forefront of reporting on and bringing to light LGBT news and issues. It was a privilege for me to be invited and to get to walk the red carpet with the likes of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, T.R. Knight, Katherine Heigl, John Amaechi and XO's very own Heather Matarrazzo. And I'd be lying if I didn't also mention that I had a great time. :-)

Then, bright and early the next day (well, not too early), I had my photo shoot! It was fantastic... and I'd like to give a huge shout out to the incredibly talented photographer, hair stylist, and makeup guru. I hope you'll take time to visit their respective sites. Their work is gorgeous.

The shoot wasn't just great because of the photography team or because I had such a good time doing it. It was also great because it was a "first" for me. If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you've been able to follow along with some of my other firsts... first series of my own (that's an obvious one), first red carpet event, etc. And last week's photo shoot was a first because it was the first one I've done for a specific magazine!

"But wait," you say. "I've seen photos of you and the cast in magazines before. What about those?"

Allow me to explain... Logo has a bunch of great photos that were taken during the huge gallery shoot we did while filming season 1 (if you're new to my blog, you can read all about it in the December 2006 archive; the posting date was Dec. 2). Logo provides them to journalists and online/print publications who are doing pieces on or about the show... so those are the photos you've seen thus far. But sometimes, a publication will want to do its own photo shoot to accompany a feature or cover article, and that's what I got to do last week. So, very soon, my brand-new-never-before-seen-and-unlike-anything-else-I've-ever-done-before photos will go to print, as will the article. Yay!

Thanks for sharing this new "first" with me - and I'll definitely let you know when that article will be available on a newsstand near you...

2 weeks to go!

2007-09-24T07:13:00.001-07:00

Don't forget! Exes & Ohs premieres on Logo TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY!!! Hopefully Logo will have our web site up soon... so stay tuned.

And we premiere on Showcase TWO WEEKS FROM THURSDAY!!! Check us out on the Showcase site by clicking here.

It's so exciting!!!! :-)

new XO ad

2007-09-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's one of the new ads for Exes & Ohs!

"Exes & Ohs" gets an official home page on Showcase!

2007-09-20T18:32:00.001-07:00

Showcase has just put up its official "Exes & Ohs" home page! To check it out, click here.

As you'll see when you visit the link, Showcase already has several episode synopses posted (for those of you who can't wait to know what the first few episodes are about!) and - very soon - they'll also post some great video content. What that "content" is, I can't tell you... so you'll just have to keep checking back! :-)

They were also kind enough to post a link to this blog, so going between there and here will be easy!

As a reminder, we premiere in Canada on Showcase on October 11. Woo hoo!!!

greetings, Canada!

2007-09-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hello Canadian readers! Just a quick post to let you all know that "Exes & Ohs" is now on the Showcase web site. To check out the series overview, click here. To read the first episode summary, click here.

As a reminder, we premiere on Showcase on October 11 at 10pm. Woo hoo!

3 weeks to go!

2007-09-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Nico, for being my official counter while I've been away from the blog... but I'm back! And there are only 3 weeks to go until the U.S. premiere of Exes & Ohs!!!!!

Mark your calendars, set your watches, and get ready for the show that's been over two years in the making... and almost two years in the blogging. As a reminder, it premieres October 8 on Logo; October 11 on Showcase; and it will be available on iTunes somewhere around one of those times.

Logo has just started running ads for the show on the Logo home page. They'll also be putting up an official Exes & Ohs home page toward the end of this week. And soon, there will be myspace pages for the show and all the characters. I'll keep you posted on all of that.

In the meantime, the promotional stuff that I'm doing is also heating up!

-- Last week, I filmed a promo piece for an upcoming AfterEllen thing (sadly, I have to say "thing" because I can't tell you what it is yet - but I'll let you know when I can). It was a blast and you'll get to check it out online very soon.

-- Over the weekend I had a great interview for an upcoming article. Hopefully, the writer finds me more fascinating than I find myself. ;-)

-- Last night, I attended the "Out at the Emmys" viewing party at East/West Lounge where I did the red carpet, got pictures taken, did some interviews, and had a lot of fun feeling very fancy.

-- And this coming week, I've got a few more interviews, a photo shoot, some industry meetings, the Advocate 40th anniversary party (and its red carpet), and then I'm going to top it all off with a hot bath and a long nap...

On a related note, I've been confirmed for a couple of appearances... none of which have been officially announced yet so I can't tell you where/when. But suffice it to say that in a few weeks I will be somewhere, doing something, with some people, to help promote the show. How's that for vague?

So stay tuned for more info! It's coming fast and furious these days...

Go magazine preview

2007-09-17T07:53:00.000-07:00

Go magazine did a little preview of "Exes & Ohs"... to check it out, click here!

Go Magazine article

2007-09-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

My interview as one of Go Magazine's "17 Red Hot Entrepreneurs" is now available online! To check it out, click here.

updates galore!

2007-08-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

A couple of quick updates for you today...

In the "interview" category: My interview with Alison Bechdel has been posted to the Velvet Park web site. Enjoy!

In the "wow" category: There's now a Wikipedia page about me!! Can you believe it? Thanks to Josiah for finding me interesting enough to write about... :-)
(the check is in the mail, Josiah)

In the "personal appearance" category: I'm now officially confirmed to be on board Olivia's 100th anniversary cruise to the Mexican Riviera in October! Shuffleboard on the Promenade Deck, anyone?

And finally, in the "I promise" category: That longer post is coming soon!!

interview about Power Up award

2007-08-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

I was recently interviewed by Tracy Gilchrist from LesbiaNation about my Power Up award. She wrote a really lovely article about me (thank you so much, Tracy!) and it's now available online. Click here if you'd like to check it out.

I'll keep you posted as other interviews/articles come out... and you should definitely keep looking for them because the PR train is going full steam ahead for "Exes & Ohs!"

Only a month and a half left until the premiere!!! Can you believe it???

And on a complete sidenote, I realized I've been posting a lot on all the stuff that's happening - but it's been a while since I've done a post about what my day-to-day life is actually like these days... so check back here soon. Once I'm done with my spa session and remove the cucumbers from my oh-so-relaxed eyes, I'll have my assistant's assistant write up a new post about that on my behalf. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe I hear my masseuse calling...

(just kidding, of course - it's actually just my cat meowing for more food)

More soon, though!

premiere date!!

2007-08-19T12:03:00.000-07:00

Drum roll please....

Set your calendars, folks! The official premiere date for "Exes and Ohs" is...

OCTOBER 8 (U.S.) - on Logo
and
OCTOBER 11 (Canada) - on Showcase

For those of you who want your "Exes & Ohs" to go (or if you're not in the U.S. or Canada), the show will also be available for download from iTunes at the insanely low price of just $1.99 per episode! That's right... for less than a cup of coffee, you can follow the adventures of Jennifer and her best friends as they survive singlehood, couplehood, and each other.

But wait! There's more!

If you act now, you can also get this handy dandy onion slicer!

(Whoops. Sorry, wrong pitch - you'll have to get your onion slicer elsewhere).

But seriously, there really is more... :-)

Make sure you're also checking the Logo web site for news and information about "Exes & Ohs," including webisodes, cast interviews, and a lot of other content that you probably won't find anywhere else.

And the best part of the iTunes and Logoonline options (get out your pen, Francyne!) is that you can get your "Exes & Ohs" fix from anywhere in the world! Of course, it will also help to let the folks at Logo know where you are... that way, they can work on bringing our show - and other Logo shows - directly to you. To contact them, click here.

Of course, keep checking back here so you can get the behind-the-scenes scoop on what's happening now that the show is done and the promotion train is chugging!!!!

sneak peek at "Exes & Ohs"

2007-08-13T15:39:00.001-07:00

There's a new wikipedia entry about "Exes & Ohs" that will give you a sneak peek at the series, the individual episodes, and the actresses who appear in the show. If you'd like to check it out, click here.

Happy reading!

new web site design

2007-08-05T14:18:00.001-07:00

It's time for the unveiling! Click here to see my new web site... :-)

(huge thanks to Jenny and Mehdi from Alin Design for all their amazing work!)

new interview available online

2007-08-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, Live Video interviewed me and Marnie at L.A. Gay Pride while we made an appearance at the Logo booth. Here's a picture of us from that day, in case you missed it:

The Live Video interview is now available online. If you'd like to check it out, click here.

Oh, and just so you know, the interview starts with Logo's "Curl Girls," who were also interviewed while at the Logo booth. So you get two sets of interviews for the price of one! How fun is that?!?

Alison Bechdel interview

2007-08-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I did make it home alive from Comic Con... it's just been such a busy week that I haven't had time to post about my interview with Alison Bechdel. More on what's happening in my world later (and there's A LOT to report, folks!), but for now let's move on to all things Alison.

The interview went great! We chatted about everything from her comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, to her book, Fun Home, to how she felt about being nominated for three - yes, three! - Eisner awards. In case you're not familiar with the Eisners, they're the equivalent of an Academy Award or an Emmy Award for the comic community. A hearty congrats to Alison, who won for Best Reality-Based Work.

The interview will be posted on Velvet Park sometime soon. I don't know exactly when, so keep checking their site for updates.

Oh, and by the way, at the end of my interview, Alison turned the tables and interviewed me! So be sure to check Velvet Park for that, too.

In the meantime, here are some photos from after the interview. The lovely gentleman in the second photo is Kent, from Velvet Park. Enjoy!

upcoming interview...

2007-07-24T09:47:00.001-07:00

Only this time, I'll be the one doing the interviewing!

I'm happy to announce that this Friday, I'll be at Comic Con in San Diego to interview Alison Bechdel for Velvet Park. In case you don't know Alison's work, you should definitely check out her site. She's an incredibly talented artist/cartoonist/writer whose bestselling graphic novel "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" won oodles of awards - including #1 Best Book of the Year from Time.

Check back here for updates after Friday. And I promise, I'll come up with something better to say to her than: "Um, hi, I love your work." Even though that's true. :-)

responses...

2007-07-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

Since I'm waaaaay overdue for a "response" posting, I went through your most recent comments/questions and have responded to some of them directly below. As you can see, I've written much more than necessary... but hey, I'm a writer, I'm allowed. ;-)

That said, here we go!

To Janice, who wondered if the Julie Goldman celesbian special was ad-libbed: Yes, it was. But the fact that you found it funny is disturbing to me. I mean, I wasn't trying to be funny... I was just being myself. And then that horrible, mean, inconsiderate Julie didn't even have the brand OR temperature of bottled water that my lawyers had specifically outlined in my appearance contract. Not to mention what went on behind the scenes that you didn't see. I don't want to go into it, but let's just say that my coffee arrived WITHOUT vanilla creamer - and my assistant's assistant's assistant had to remove the red M&Ms from my candy bowl for me because someone on Julie's end dropped the ball. I'm preparing a breach of contract lawsuit against Julie for $10 million dollars (for pain and suffering), but please don't let that diminish your enjoyment of the interview should you choose to view it again...

To Nico, who commented on my blue-ish tint in the photo from the Logo booth: I've been trying to hide the truth for so long, Nico... but you found me out. Okay, I admit it: I'm blue! Not "blue" as in "depressed," but literally, physically, blue. And you were right... it's because I wasn't breathing. Truth be told, I try to breathe as little as possible here in L.A. Have you seen the air quality? It's horrible. Horrible. I flew back into LAX a few weeks ago and could see the brown haze covering the city. Yuck. In fact, I've only breathed once in the last day and a half. It makes me a bit dizzy at times, but at least my lungs are still somewhat healthy. Thankfully, the blue tint to my skin goes away with the magic of PhotoShop. So you just wait until Logo starts releasing pics from our various photo shoots. I'm going to look as though I breathe regularly!

To Viv, who was wondering about Suzanne Mara, from the original short, "The Ten Rules": I haven't seen her in quite a while, but the last time I did she was doing great. She's an incredibly talented (and genuinely nice) person, so you picked someone good to be a fan of! :-) As for why the actresses in the series may be different from the ones in the short, there are many answers to that question. In some cases, the original actresses were already working on other things; in other cases, the character itself went in a different direction. I think you'll love the cast of the show as much as you loved the cast of the short... so be sure to tune in! I'm happy to hear you're so excited about it - and I'm excited for you to see it.

To Anna, who was concerned that I'd actually lost my marbles and turned my character into a CIA agent: Never fear, Anna, I was totally kidding! Jennifer is still Jennifer... Sam is still Sam... and Chris and Kris are still Chris and Kris... The series is set in a new city (Seattle instead of LA), there are some new characters, and I had to change Jennifer's last name for legal reasons (more on that in another post)... but the spirit of the short is definitely in the show. And since I wrote the episodes, you can rest assured that I wouldn't do anything weird or crazy with the characters you've come to know and love. So if you loved "The Ten Rules" then you'll love "Exes & Ohs" too!

More responses soon, so keep the questions and comments coming, folks! I appreciate all the feedback... Thank you, thank you!

the update

2007-07-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

At long last, the update on the Diana Cage show... Essentially, I can give it to you in one word: GREAT!

I had a lot of fun talking with Diana about the genesis of "Exes & Ohs," what's changed from the short film to the series, what it was like shooting in Vancouver, and why (SPOILER ALERT!) I made my character, Jennifer, a CIA assassin who infiltrates the Seattle music scene to apprehend a rogue double-agent masking as a DJ.

On a sidenote, the interesting thing about doing a radio interview is that it's like having a normal phone conversation, except that you know thousands or millions of people are listening in (no pressure!). When we did the interview, I was at home, Marnie was on her cell outside a restaurant, and Diana was in her studio in New York. Ah, the power of modern technology...

But back to the interview... So, other than the Jen-is-a-CIA-agent revelation (which was totally my fault and the network will kill me for letting it slip out), we didn't talk about any plot specifics. Diana was careful not to ask - and Marnie and I were careful not to mention - anything that might actually be a spoiler. So the good news is that Diana has asked us to come back on her show after "Exes & Ohs" airs so that we can talk specifics and spoilers! YAY! Stay tuned for more information about that.

And stay tuned right here for another post very soon. You've asked questions, made comments, and I think it's high time I respond to some of them...

But before I end this post, I'd like to give a hearty shout-out to Diana, Kathy, and the rest of the team at the Diana Cage show. Thank you for having us - and we look forward to talking with you again soon!

breaking news!

2007-07-09T13:48:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be interviewed tonight (along with the fabulous Marnie Alton) on the Diana Cage Show on Sirius OutQ Radio around 9:15pm PST! If you have Sirius, be sure to tune in...

And if you don't, then check back here for an update of how it went!

poster pics

2007-06-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

Bad Michelle, bad Michelle! I completely forgot to post my photos from gay pride in Los Angeles a few weeks ago!

It's still a bit too early for Logo to start the big promotion push for "Exes & Ohs," but they did have us come to the Logo booth and make an appearance... and they had posters! Woo hoo!

Pics are below. The first is the logo booth from afar... the second is me and Marnie in front of our poster... and the third is me and Marnie with two of the Curl Girls in front of a different poster.

The images were taken with my camera phone, so they're not the greatest - but enjoy anyway! :-)

someone thinks I'm amazing, despite being a bronze popsicle-head

2007-06-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

Breaking news: Power Up has selected me as one of their 10 amazing gay women in showbiz for 2007! If you'd like to see a blurb about it, click here.

The award is cool because in order to even be considered, you have to be nominated by at least two people... then Power Up selects the recipients from all the nominees. Nominations are anonymous so I have no idea who thinks I'm amazing, but I'm certainly grateful and excited about it!

Oh, and when you click the link to read the article, you'll be able to enjoy a truly frightening press photo of me. A little advice for any of you who are planning to walk a red carpet in the future: When you have your makeup professionally done, and you plan to wear something sleeveless, make sure the makeup artist takes the time to blend your face color to your actual skin color. Otherwise, you'll look like bronze popsicle head on top of a white stick. Oooh, perty! ;-)

interview on Velvet Park

2007-06-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

An interview that I did at the Dinah Shore Weekend with Velvet Park magazine is now online...

You can check it out by clicking here. Look for my name in the list to the right of the video window.

Happy watching!

what now?

2007-06-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

That's a great question. Now that "Exes & Ohs" is done, and given that the official promotion train won't really start chugging until August or so, what now? What am I doing? What have I been doing? And why on earth has it taken me more than a month to post?

Good questions all...

And to answer those questions, here's a brief recap of the past month and a half in the life of Michelle Paradise:

1. I signed with a literary agent and a manager. Representation is critical in this business and I'm happy to now be working with these guys. They're great. Team Paradise, as they like to call themselves, is - at this very moment - strategizing ways to help me conquer the world. Which means, stay tuned... :-)

2. I've been working on a feature script that my reps are really excited about. You may have heard the adage "writing is rewriting." It's so true. If you're a writer who hates rewriting, my suggestion would be to find another career. Fortunately, I'm in the right career because I love it... which is good, because I've been doing plenty of it. I can't tell you much about the script - but I'll hopefully be able to give you some good news about it very soon!

3. I've also been writing a new tv pilot... that's top-secret too, but it won't be for long!

4. I hired a web guru to redesign my web site. If you haven't been to it yet, check it out now because in the next month or so it'll look completely different.

5. I got new headshots. My old headshots were great but they were... well... old. As in a few years ago old. Actors typically get new headshots every few years and so it was time for me. Honestly, I don't look much different today than I did a few years ago, except that my hair's a bit longer now. Oh, and I just got five new eyebrow piercings and a tattoo on the tip of my nose. But other than that - and the collagen I just pumped into my lips - I look exactly the same. The headshots turned out great, by the way. They will all be featured on the new web site so you'll get to see them soon.

6. And last, but certainly not least, I sat down this morning and wrote this post, which is very happy-making because now I can take the note off my desktop reminding me to write a post. :-)

More soon!

Julie Goldman celebrity interview

2007-05-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

There's a fun new feature on the afterellen web site, starring the hysterical Julie Goldman. She does celebrity "interviews" and I was quite happy to be one of them! And now, of course, we're dear dear dear friends... just such close friends... so dear... (if you have no idea why I'm going on and on, watch the interview and it will make sense)

If you'd like to see my interview with Julie, click here.

To check out Julie in "The Big Gay Sketch Show" on Logo, click here. Her turn in the "Honeymooners" is classic!

Happy watching!

pics from red carpet

2007-04-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to the fabulous Jennifer Kennedy. She's an LA-based photographer who has done headshots for me (and other actors I know) and was shooting the GLAAD media awards. The other day, she emailed me some of the photos from that night, which I'm posting here for your viewing pleasure.

If you need a photographer - or know someone who does - I'd highly recommend checking her out. Here's a link to her web site.

Enjoy!

Me and the lovely Marnie (who plays my bff Sam)

Me, solo

And yes, I know, I need to actually show teeth next time... :-)

walking the red carpet for "Exes & Ohs"

2007-04-16T18:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the GLAAD media awards here in Los Angeles, and yours truly was invited to attend as a guest of Logo. It was only my second red-carpet event for "Exes & Ohs" and I just realized today that I didn't post a blog about the first red-carpet event, which was for the Logo/Time Warner launch party. Whoops! Sorry about that...

So, below is my first official "Exes & Ohs" red-carpet blog entry. I hope you enjoy. And, by the way, if you're not familiar with GLAAD, please do visit their site to learn about the incredible work they do.

Okay, so the red-carpet blog entry... Well, first of all, I should state for the record that there's a difference between just going to a red-carpet event - and going to a red-carpet event as "talent."

[Sidenote: The sentence structure fanatics among you might have bristled at my using an adjective as a noun. But in Hollywood, people can do whatever they want - including magically changing adjectives to nouns - and so in this usage, "talent" is actually a noun. Calling someone "talent" (noun) has nothing to do with whether or not the person is actually talented at something... Rather, it's a generic category that can include actors, musicians, reality tv stars, sports heroes, or anyone else you might recognize from the big or small screen.

Jennifer Aniston? Talent. Jake Gyllenhaal? Talent. TR Knight, Ben Affleck, Martina Navratilova, Lance Bass? All talent (and all at Saturday's event, by the way). Former Reality Show Star Extending 15 Minutes of Fame? You got it... Talent. Michelle Paradise? Yep. I'm "talent" too.]

Okay, so back to the red-carpet event... When you go as non-talent, there's usually a VIP pre-party that you may or may not be part of, then there's the event itself (in this case, the GLAAD awards ceremony), then there's a dinner (which is sometimes part of the awards ceremony), and then post-event parties that you also may or may not be part of. You get dressed up, stress about what you're wearing, hope you look nice, make your friends tell you how nice you look, and then at some point you relax and by the end of the night you realize you've had a pretty great time all in all.

When you go to a red-carpet event as "talent," it's a little bit different. As talent, you're taken to the VIP event through a separate entrance so that you can walk the red carpet (which really is red most of the time, in case you're wondering). It sounds quite glamorous, walking the red carpet, and in some ways it is... and in some ways, it's not. On the red carpet, you stand in front of a line of photographers, all of whom are jockeying for the best position, and before you can ask "do I have lipstick on my teeth?" flash bulb after flash bulb is going off at your face, quite literally blinding you. And really all you can do at that point is pray that there's no lipstick on your teeth because after the event, these photos are posted online for all the world to see and use (for a fee). If you're famous - or infamous - the photos might even be included in People or Us Weekly (at which point you'd better hope that you weren't one of the fashion donts of the evening!). :-)

Of course, I'm neither famous nor infamous at the moment, so I got to do the red carpet without having to worry about where my photo might go (in fact, I think you'd be lucky to find it even after an exhaustive search, which means that if I did have lipstick on my teeth, no one will ever know... whew!).

Let's see... what else? Well, after the red carpet stuff, "talent" goes to the ceremony, dinner, etc. with everyone who is not "talent," the only difference being that as talent you may have better seats. Or, at least, you're guaranteed to not be seated in the back of the Kodak Theater behind a post. Then at the end of the evening, you get a lovely gift bag.

The GLAAD awards are nice in that all the attendees - "talent" or not - get gift bags. All the gift bags were the same, which means that everyone (yes, everyone) received, among other things: a DVD, several CDs, a bottle of olive oil, a bottle of diet soda, a 3-day pass to a snazzy gym, a gift certificate for brunch at a snazzy hotel, a large brochure for an expensive car, a small brochure for the same expensive car, two different brands of green tea, a magnet, a pen, several magazines, a Starbucks gift card, a baseball cap, some over-the-counter sleeping pills, and an unusually large bottle of personal lubricant.

No, I'm not joking about any of that.

So, now that I've taken my gift bag home and removed the lipstick streak from my teeth, what have I learned about attending red carpet events as Logo talent? Well, I've learned that it's basically the same experience as attending when I was not a Logo talent... You get dressed up, stress about what you're wearing, hope you look nice, make your friends tell you how nice you look, and then at some point you relax and by the end of the night you realize you've had a pretty great time all in all - and an even better time when you realize that since your show isn't even on the air yet, no one really knows who you are... which means that no one bothered to take pictures of you dancing on the tabletop wearing nothing but your new baseball cap. Whew indeed!

Dinah recap

2007-04-04T09:50:00.000-07:00

The Dinah Shore weekend was a HUGE success!! I had a fantastic time, did a lot of work, and really got the word out about "Exes & Ohs." Thank you to all who attended - and to all of you who are attending vicariously by reading this blog.

What did I do all weekend, you may ask? Well, let me tell you... My weekend consisted of appearances, press interviews, photo shoots, and on-stage announcements where I got to do things like introduce the very talented musician Sarah Bettens. I also filmed some hysterical (if I do say so myself) material for use on the Logo web site. You'll have to stay tuned to the site to see those clips, but I'll give you a little hint: A couple of them involve me and some very surprised strangers...

One of the most exciting events took place on Sunday in the Logo Lounge (a really cool hang-out space set up by Logo with huge tv screens, tables, couches, and a bar). There, I got to screen the "Exes & Ohs" opening credits - and the first few minutes of the pilot episode!! It was such a thrill for me to finally get to show off some of what we've all been working on so hard for so long... and it certainly didn't hurt that the event was packed! Also, my Q&A that followed, which was scheduled to last 15 minutes at the most, ended up going at least twice as long! It was great to see the enthusiastic response our show is already getting. Yours truly took photos and signed autographs afterward - and hey, I even got flashed by someone wearing a bikini and two strategically placed Logo pasties!

Anne Stockwell (editor of The Advocate) was at the event and posted some photos from the Q&A online. If you'd like to see them, just click here. On that page, you can also view some of her other photos from the Dinah - and you'll see what a terrible, terrible time she and all the other attendees were having this past weekend... ;-)

As I find out about other photos/interviews from the Dinah, I'll post them here for you to see.

But for now, it's back to work! We have episodes to finish, music to choose, sounds to listen to, and a never-ending stream of FedEx packages to sign for! Woo hoo!

off to Dinah

2007-03-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, the title says it all... I'm off to the Dinah Shore weekend in just a few hours! I'll be doing quite a lot while I'm there, including some things that may eventually end up on the Logo web site (so stay tuned!).

But before I go, I wanted to address the questions from Francyne and Nico, who are wondering if they'll be able to see "Exes & Ohs" in England or the rest of Europe. The short answer is: Most likely. The longer answer - as in, "how?" - I don't have a definite answer for just yet. However, if you're on iTunes, you'll notice that many of Logo's shows are available there for download. There's no word yet on whether my show will eventually be there, but that's one possibility. Also, Logo has made some of its other shows available via DVD, so that's another possibility.

Ultimately, the best way to ensure that you'll be able to see the show somehow is to write to Logo, let them know where you live on this lovely planet of ours, and tell them that YOU MUST HAVE "EXES & OHS!" (well, maybe skip the caps or they'll think you're yelling at them) You can contact them by clicking here.

And on a sidenote, it's very exciting to me that I've finally figured out how to create a link within my blog. Woo hoo! In fact, I'm having so much fun that I'm going to put more up here... Want to visit my web page? Or my myspace page? Or maybe you just need a kitten fix. Isn't this fun?!?

Okay, clearly, I need a vacation. Hmmm... where to go? Oh, what the hell, maybe I'll just go to Palm Springs. It's always so quiet there, so relaxing... It'll be just me, a good book, the cactus plant near the pool...

And five billion lesbians. :-)

opening credits!

2007-03-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

Good news! The afterellen web site wrote another blurb about our show - and they put our opening credits up on their web site! I copied the code so that you can watch the credits from here too. Just click the "play" button below...

To see what afterellen had to say, go to http://www.afterellen.com/blwe/03-16-2007

And, of course, you can always let the folks at Logo know what you think about the credits (personally, I think they did an amazing job). They LOVE to get feedback about their shows... even shows that aren't on the air yet. You can contact them at http://www.logoonline.com/about/contact.jhtml

Enjoy!!!

another appearance added

2007-03-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

One more event has been added for yours truly at the Dinah!

Check it out at http://www.afterellen.com/dinah

Another post will be coming soon, I promise...

let the promotion train start chugging!

2007-03-07T15:57:00.000-08:00

Yep, you read that correctly... the promotion train has officially started chugging! Which means that yours truly has been scheduled for her first gig to promote "Exes & Ohs."

I'll be at the Dinah Shore weekend at the end of March participating in oodles of activities along with some of the gals from another of Logo's upcoming shows, "Curl Girls." I'm also happy to report that my dear friend, actress Michelle Wolff ("Dante's Cove"), will be at the Dinah as well.

For more info on the event (and to see the first official "Exes & Ohs" cast photo to be released), visit http://www.thedinah.com/saturday.html

Woo hoo!

ADR

2007-02-27T14:06:00.000-08:00

ADR. Automated Dialogue Replacement.

Occasionally (or rarely) also explained as:
Additional Dialogue Recording
Another Dialogue Re-do
Appropriate Dialogue, Revisited...
Again, Dialogue Recording?
Aren't (I) Done Re-Speaking?

However you want to explain the acronym, ADR is a given in an actor's life and those who tell you they absolutely love that part of the process may be smoking something illegal.

Just kidding... it's not that bad. :-) ADR can be fun, actually. It can also be slightly frustrating and a little embarrassing as well... depending on what scene you're working on. Fortunately, I got to experience fun, frustration, and embarrassment in my ADR session yesterday for episodes 101, 102, and 103.

If you're not familiar with ADR, here's the deal. You (the actor) go into a soundproof room and stand in front of a small podium that has on it a list of all the lines that you need to re-record. There's a lot that the post-production folks can do to fix and clean up dialogue, but there always seem to be at least a few lines that need to be re-recorded in a sound booth. Why, you ask? Well, maybe you were shooting the scene outside and airplanes were flying overhead right when you were speaking. Or, you filmed the scene inside a studio but the scene was shot MOS (which means they intentionally didn't capture any sound). Or, you were filming in the studio, which is soundproof, but the tiny microphone taped to your skin was rustling against the inside of your shirt.

So, for whatever reason, you have to do ADR. And there you are in the soundproof room standing at the podium and in front of you is a large microphone. The engineer running the session plays the snippet of the scene for which you need to re-record your dialogue, and you watch yourself on screen as you say the dialogue. For example, let's say the scene is of you haggling over the price of a car with a sneaky car salesman and the brilliant line "Come on, Toyota Man, you can do better than that price!" is the one you need to re-record. Standing there at the podium in the sound booth, you'll watch the 5-10 seconds of the scene leading up to that line, then you'll hear three loud beeps, which serve as your signal that the line is coming up. As soon as the beeps stop, you say the line into the microphone, trying to match what you're saying with how your lips are moving on screen. On smaller bits of dialogue, you can get it in one or two takes... but if your character was flustered, taking pauses, or speaking in an irregular pattern, then you can see how parts of the process might be a bit frustrating. Fortunately, our post supervisor and the ADR guru were both fantastic to work with - and very patient with all the actors who came in yesterday (including me).

Now, I think I maaaaay have mentioned that ADR can also be a bit embarrassing at times... Did I? Yep, I did. How or why would it possibly be embarrassing, you might ask? Well, let's consider a different example. Let's say you filmed a love scene. But since there was no dialogue in the scene (it was lovin' only) and since the director was directing you as the scene was being filmed, the scene was shot with no sound. Guess what that means? Ten points if your answer was ADR!

Yes, folks, shooting a love scene or makeout fest with no sound means that later, you get to go into the ADR booth and watch yourself in action on a VERY LARGE screen - with the engineer and the post supervisor watching you. And, as if that weren't embarrassing enough, you then get the unmitigated joy of making scene-appropriate sounds (referred to as "moans and groans" on the ADR list) into the microphone and trying to synch those sounds with what you're actually doing on screen. Sound like fun? Thinking about trading in your day job to become an actor? Seriously, ya just gotta laugh....... Which I did.

I'll have another ADR session in a few weeks for episodes 104, 105, and 106, so I'll let you know if anything else interesting happens. In the meantime, stay tuned for more updates!

from editing to sound spotting to home!

2007-02-26T22:39:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to report that I'm finally back in the smoggy heart of LA LA land after nearly a month up in Vancouver for editing. I've been catching up on my life (and my mail) and happily taking a little bit of a break after weeks of 14+ hour days/nights. The insides of my eyelids missed me. :-)

But never fear! I'm fully recovered... so let the updates continue!

As you may have guessed from my previous editing post, I absolutely love the editing process. There are those people who go insane after staring at second-by-second (or shorter) snippets of a project - but I am not one of those people. I really had a great time and learned a lot. And what happens after editing, you ask? Well, let me tell you... Once an episode has been approved by the network, it's considered "locked," which means that no more picture changes are made to it after that point. But there's still much more work to be done before it's ready to go to air.

The next part of the process is called sound spotting. In sound spotting, you go to a sound studio and sit in a room with a group of sound and music experts including the post-production supervisor, the music supervisor, music editor, composer, sound designer, etc. Our intrepid network executive was also part of the process and joined us by phone. So, with all these people sitting in chairs, on couches, or leaning next to the door frame, you put the "locked" episode into the DVD player and watch it scene by scene. At the end of each scene, you stop the DVD and everyone talks about what's needed for that scene in terms of sound or music.

Which brings us to something you may not know... most of the sounds you hear in a movie or television show are actually added after the fact. For example, if you're watching your favorite crime show and the good guy shoots the bad guy, the shotgun sound is an effect put in by the sound designer. Same with car crashes, doorbells, steaming teapots, and birds chirping overhead (unless you're lucky enough to be filming somewhere where the birds chirp on cue). Music, obviously, is also added later - as is (less obviously) music that the characters listen to as they kick up their heels on a dance floor or drive in their car.

[On a sidenote, shooting dancing sequences is particularly weird if the scene you're filming has dialogue because since the sound folks need to record the dialogue, you can't actually play any music for dancing - so everyone's moving around in silence to whatever beat is going on in their head!]

Speaking of music (and then I promise we'll get back to the sound spot), here's another thing you may not know... There are actually different categories of music that you'll hear in a movie or tv show. "Source" music is what the character listens to through a radio, CD player, department store speaker system, etc. "Score" is what plays over a scene that gives the scene some sort of emotional oomph, like the symphonic swell when the hero conquers the villain or the squeaky/eerie music when the girl in the nightgown goes down into the basement to check out a sound and you're yelling at the TV that she's an idiot and should go back up and call 911 (which she can't do because the phone lines have been cut, of course). There's also what the music folks lovingly call "scource," which is when music that you'd expect to be "source" actually plays as "score." So, the next time you're watching two long-lost lovers run toward each other on a beach as some Coldplay anthem makes goosebumps on your arms, you can stand up and announce proudly: Scource! (Of course, your friends will hate you for ruining the moment, but here's hoping they're a forgiving bunch).

Anyhow, so all of this ties into the sound spot because after watching scene, we'd discuss what kind of music would be most appropriate (score or source), what sort of sound effects might be necessary, and - in one of the strangest parts of the post-production process - how much "walla" might be required for the background. Yes, folks, "walla" is an actual thing that people do. People who are trained in the art of "walla" sit around in a room talking, and then that sound is taken and put into the show so that it sounds like the background actors (in a restaurant, for example, or a cafe) were talking when you shot the scene. Like music, sound effects, etc. "walla" adds a layer and a texture - and you'd definitely notice it if it were missing.

You'll never watch anything the same way again, will you?

Welcome to my world. :-) Anyhow, so that's sound spotting. Watching the episode scene by scene, giving notes and taking notes, and doing that for all six episodes. And then, once the sound spotting was done last Friday, I came home! Woo hoo!

And here I am now... but it's not done yet! We're now focused on the specifics of music and sound choices, which means: receiving lots of CDs from our music supervisor with sample song choices for certain scenes; watching quicktime files of specific scenes with sounds put in; and, soon, watching quicktimes with our composer's creations in them. It's really amazing to see it all coming together so well. It really looks and sounds great.

I can't wait for you all to see it...

alive... and well... and editing...

2007-02-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

Has it been a month already??? Yikes... sorry about that folks. I've been eyeball deep in episodes, scenes, beats, transitions, music cues, sound cues, sound effects, visual effects, graphics, and - of course - caffeine. :-)

All of which is to say that I've been editing.

Well, I haven't been in the editing room the entire time. It's been about 2 weeks now. Before that, Billy, Lee, and I spent many hours planted on my couch watching the directors' cuts of each of the episodes and taking notes. Now, in case you didn't know this, I'm a Capricorn... so "taking notes" actually means pages and pages of timecodes, comments, suggestions, changes, etc. - all of which I then spent more hours and hours typing neatly into an editing document for each episode (maybe I'm also part Virgo... hmmm... ). We brought these documents into the editing room with us and worked from them as the editor did our cuts of each of the episodes.

By the way, if you've never been in an editing room, it's quite an experience (and, parenthetically, one I never get tired of - I really, really LOVE editing). So here's how it works: The editor sits at a desk in front of two very large computer monitors, one nicely-sized television monitor, and a keyboard that has colors and symbols on the keys instead of letters and numbers.
-- The television monitor to the right is where you watch whatever the editor plays back for you... the newly edited scene, the finished cut of the show, etc.
-- The computer monitor to the left shows all the files that the editor could ever possibly need in order to edit the show... all the dailies, his cuts of each of the episodes, the directors' cuts of each of the episodes, bunches of songs and sound effects, etc.
-- The computer monitor in the middle is where all the action is. On the top half of the screen, there are two boxes side by side. One box shows the scene he's currently working on; the other box shows whatever new thing he might include in that scene (a different take of an actor's performance, a song, etc.) On the bottom half of the screen, there are different audio and video "tracks" that the editor can choose from as he works. So, if your scene has an actor smiling but you wanted a reaction of the actor laughing, then the editor deletes the "smiling" version from the video track and puts the "laughing" version in its place. But what if your actor laughed too loudly? Well, then the editor goes to the audio track, lowers the volume for the laugh, and voila: A quieter laugh! Hey, do you want the actor to laugh while surrounded by a menacing green glow? The editor adds a video effect. Concerned that the quieter laugh now doesn't quite fit with the menacing green glow? Pick up the microphone, record your own menacing laugh, put it onto the audio track to match the actor's moving mouth, and voila again: Instant menacing laugh that matches menacing green glow!

Of course, I'm making it all sound incredibly simple... and it's absolutely anything but. Good editing really is an art - and fortunately for us, we have an amazing editor. I never cease to be amazed by what he's able to do. He can craft a moment where none existed. He can raise or lower the emotional intensity of a performance, depending on what we need for the scene or the episode. He can create moods, establish timelines, make something funnier, make something more poignant. He can rewrite an entire scene just by the way he cuts it. He makes one scene flow to the next. He helps bring the writer's and director's visions to life. Editing is another layer of the storytelling process - and an incredibly important one at that. And, on a sidenote, I'm learning so much that will inform both my writing and my acting... which is a lovely bonus for me.

So next time you watch your favorite tv show or see a really great movie, look for the editor's name. And give a shout-out to the unsung heroes of storytelling, won't you?

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get some sleep... I'm editing in the morning!

one more answer...

2007-01-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

...to one more very interesting question:

Q. What if I choose not to have a tv? Will Logo make the show available on iTunes?
A. Logo seems to have put a lot of their original programming on iTunes - including their other original scripted series, "Noah's Arc" - so I'm guessing that they'll at least seriously consider it. I don't know for sure, though... so don't quote me on that. You can, however, quote me on this: "Have a great weekend everyone!"

happy new year!

2007-01-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome to 2007!

I'm just getting back into the swing of things from the holidays so there's not much to post right now. However, there is a little blurb about us in Variety that you might be interested in reading: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117956482.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

I didn't even know anything had been written about us until some of my friends gave me the good news. Thanks, friends! And thanks also to Janice and some of my Logo-watching family members for giving me the heads-up that Logo is running some sort of new promo commercial featuring Exes & Ohs (and yours truly). That's so exciting! I can't wait to see it...

We'll be heading back to work soon to edit the various episodes, so stay tuned for updates about how that process is going. In the meantime, here are some answers to a few of your frequently (and recently) asked questions about the show:

Q. How many episodes are you doing?
A. Our first season will be six episodes. After that (fingers crossed that there will be an "after that"), who knows!

Q. When will Exes & Ohs be on the air?
A. Great question. And it deserves a great answer, but unfortunately I don't have one yet because Logo is still working out the scheduling for their 2007 season. As you've probably read, they have a couple of new shows coming out this year in addition to ours, which means they have quite a lot to consider on their end (and that takes a bit of time). But networks always love viewer feedback and I'm sure the folks at Logo would be incredibly happy to hear that people are already getting excited about a show that's not even on the air yet!!!! :-) Their feedback form is at: http://www.logoonline.com/about/contact.jhtml

Q. Will the show ever be available in Europe? If so, when?
A. Another great question that I can't answer (wow, I'm 0 for 2 today - no gold star for me). But maybe the folks at the network would have an answer for that. The link to the feedback form is above. Plus, I'm sure they'd love to know that people in other countries want Logo too! Kudos to them!

Q. For those of us who don't get Logo, when will the show be out on DVD?
A. If Logo does decide to put our show out on DVD, it probably won't be available for a while because I'm sure they'll want to air it on tv first. So please don't start holding your breath or you may turn an uncomfortable shade of blue while you wait. ;-) Check back in with me (or Logo) once we're on the air and maybe there will be an answer to this then.

If you're a regular reader, you probably already knew some of those answers... so feel free to walk around in the world feeling extra good about yourself today. If you're a new reader, don't worry: you, too, can feel extra good about yourself today because now you're much better informed than your friends... What a great way to start the first week of '07 - with all of us feeling extra good about ourselves! Group hug, anyone?

Stay tuned for more happiness soon...

thoughts on acting (and a few fun stories)

2006-12-27T12:38:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays, everyone! And a happy almost-New-Year to you as well!

I actually started drafting this post several weeks ago while I was still in Vancouver, but then with all the craziness of the final days of shooting, then the travel home, then the getting-back-into-my-regular-life-in-LALAland, then the travel for the holidays... well, you get the idea: it was a bit busy and I never finished writing it. But here I am now, and the time off in between when I first started it (12/8) and today (12/27) has actually been good for a bit of reflection on my chosen subject matter: Acting.

I realized that I'd written quite a lot about being a creator, EP, and writer on this show... but not as much about being an actor. And I also realized that if you're not an actor or friends with an actor (kudos to you - you're among the sane), then you may wonder what actors do other than memorize lines, get Botox injections, and spill their innermost thoughts and feelings on national television as they sob uncontrollably into their slightly-chilled bottles of Evian.

Well, obviously, I can't speak for all actors, but I can share with you some of my experiences while shooting "Exes & Ohs." And just to clarify, none of those experiences involved Botox or telling Oprah about my 27 stints in rehab (though I did drink a bottle of slightly-chilled Evian one time).

Okay, so let's explore the "color" option of this blogger dashboard as you put yourself in my size 10s and we walk through what it's like to be an actor:

You wake up early and get home late:
Most mornings, the van picked us up anywhere between 5:30am and 7:00am (my earliest pickup was 5:24am). Most evenings, my fellow actors would be back to the hotel around 7:00pm-ish (though I'd stay in the office after shooting doing other work for the show). Of course, if you were only in a few scenes, you'd be be picked up later in the morning or taken home earlier in the day or evening. But if you were in all - or most - of the scenes, you'd be on set for the day. On a sidenote, I just have to add that this schedule was absolutely lovely for the actors because we only did 10 hour shooting days. On an hour-long show (ours is 1/2 hour), actors are on set sometimes 16 or more hours in a day! Not to mention how long the crew is there! Whew...

If you're sick, you don't call in sick... unless you're practically dead:
Production schedules are tight, as are production budgets. Schedules are made in advance, so by the time you're ready to shoot an episode, you know exactly what scenes will be shooting on what days for the entire episode (1/2 hour shows might take 4-5 days per episode; hour-long shows around 8 days per episode). You also know what camera equipment will be used on what days, what actors will have to come in on what days, what props will be needed when, etc. All of which is to say that any last-minute changes to the production schedule (such as an actor calling in sick) are a BIG deal... and can cost the production a lot of money, as you might imagine. So, you go to work no matter what.

For example, about halfway through shooting, I got a nasty (and coughy) cold. So I spent an entire weekend holed up in my hotel room with lozenges, tea, and no talking allowed. The day I went back to work, I was in absolutely every single scene we were shooting that day. But thankfully, the fact that I spent almost the whole weekend not-talking saved my voice for the most part. Then, on set, one of our fantastic ADs followed me around with a pot of tea the entire day so I could sip it in between takes and not lose my voice mid-shooting. Thank you Tingey!! (Tingey is his nickname) I also spent the following weekend in my hotel room as well, since my cold was still lingering. That's when I splurged on the aforementioned slightly-chilled bottle of Evian...

You do the same thing, in basically the same way, many, many times:
One day, I did a scene where I had to run into an office. The first take, I missed my mark (by an inch or two) where I was supposed to stop... plus, my scarf accidentally fell on the ground. The second take, something happened with the camera. The third take, we got an odd shadow on my face and it took a few minutes for our DP and camera gurus to make the appropriate adjustments. The fourth and fifth takes were good, but the director was making adjustments to the reaction given by the other person in the scene. The sixth and seventh takes were also good. So, of seven takes, the director probably had three or four to choose from in the editing room. BUT, that was just from one angle - then you often have to turn around and do it all over again from another angle! Which is exactly what we did... :-)

Or, you do the same thing, with adjustments, just once or twice:
The same day as the office scene, I had a short scene with Marnie (Sam) and the director was using two cameras to shoot from different angles at the same time. We did one take and the director loved it, so she gave us some slight performance adjustments, which we did in the second take. And that was it! Two takes and we were on to the next scene!

You may have just enough time to learn someone's name before doing a love scene with them:
"Hello, I'm Michelle Paradise. And you are? Great, nice to meet you. Okay, well, there's the bed... guess we'd better take our robes off and get in." Yep, that's about as sexy as a love scene gets (fortunately for me, my scene was with an actress I'd already worked with several times, so I didn't have to ask her name before hopping in the sack). And if you think I'm kidding, let me just walk you through the behind-the-scenes of a love scene. It starts in your trailer, where you look at your "wardrobe," which consists of a flesh-colored tube top and tiny flesh-colored biker shorts. After giggling at the thought of wearing a tube top, you put it and the shorts on and then spend a few moments staring at yourself in the mirror thinking things like "No one should ever have to be seen in this outfit" and "Ah, this is why tube tops went out of style." Then you tie your robe around you, put your feet into some cozy shoes, and walk to set hoping that the breeze beneath the robe won't be too cold. You walk onto set, where you and your scene partner (in her robe as well) wait for the set to be cleared so you can rehearse (robes on - no actual kissing) with the director. Once the director is happy, she calls in the DP and camera and lighting folks to watch the rehearsal. Then you leave set for 20 minutes or so while they get everything ready. When they're ready to shoot, you come back on set, take off your robe, and you and your tube top and your biker shorts climb into bed with your scene partner and her tube top and her biker shorts. Oooh, sexy! ;-)

[On a sidenote, love scenes are so "sexy" that in between takes and setups, one of the camera guys was actually reading a magazine in the room! Two women are practically naked in bed together and he's reading a magazine... and it's not because he's gay, folks! Now that's saying something! ;-) ]

Love scenes are typically shot on what's called a "closed" set, which means that the only people in the room with the actors are the people who have to be there in order to get the shots: camera, sound, etc. There are maybe 5 people in the room instead of the usual 15 or so. Anyhow, so then from the monitors, which are in another room, you hear the director yell action... at which point you do the scene (kissing, cavorting, and all) while trying to ensure that the sheets are covering the tube tops (more challenging than it may sound), that you're not blocking the camera with your head (also more challenging than it sounds), that you're respecting your own space and that of your scene partner's (you're not actually having sex, after all), and - above all - that it looks and feels realistic on camera so that the audience will believe what they're seeing. After the take, the director yells cut and comes in to give direction. That's usually when she also tells you that despite your best efforts, one of the tube top corners was showing... and, guess what, the audience doesn't want to see the back of your head when they could be looking at your scene partner's face. Oops.

So that's take 1. Please refer to the section above entitled "You do the same thing, in basically the same way, many, many times" for an idea of takes 2 and beyond. Needless to say, it helps tremendously to have a fantastic scene partner, a thoughtful director, and a respectful crew. Fortunately, I was blessed with all of that... :-)

You get to explore a range of emotions in the course of a day:
On the day we shot the aforementioned love scene we also shot another scene that, emotionally, was at the opposite end of the spectrum. There were also days where one scene would require anger or hurt and the next scene would require laughter and fun. Remember earlier when I complimented your sanity at choosing to NOT be an actor? Now you understand why... ;-) But as an actor, I have to say there's nothing more challenging - and more exhilarating - than getting to run the gamut of emotions. It's one of the reasons we do what we do. Or at least, one of the reasons I do what I do. I love it!

You get to play characters that are really like you, or sort of like you, or nothing at all like you:
Fairly self-explanatory... please see the challenging/exhilarating/fun comment in the previous section.

Well, I think I've rambled on long enough for one post. Stay tuned for more updates in the new year as we move through post-production, into publicity, and then onto the airwaves!

Thanks for continuing to read and comment... Have a happy ending to 2006 everyone!

fun on my day off...

2006-12-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

So I'm here in my hotel room and having such a great time on my day off because... guess what I get to do????

I get to listen to two CDs full of super cool music (courtesy of our music supervisor) to help choose the opening theme song to our show!!!! And then, after this, I'll be listening to composer CDs to help choose a composer for our show!

This is not a bad gig, folks! :-)

Now, back to the music...

winding down...

2006-12-08T13:07:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read that correctly... we're almost done up here - with shooting, anyway. The day before yesterday, we shot the big season finale where Jen is abducted by a UFO being flown by Elvis, making a special beyond-the-grave appearance. Oh, geez... I just realized that's probably top secret. Okay, please don't tell anyone that I told you what the finale is. The network wouldn't be happy about that, especially since scheduling a real live UFO landing AND Elvis' resurrection on the exact same shooting day was such an undertaking... you have no idea... but definitely worth it. We're sure to get big ratings off that once that episode airs!

But now that the UFO has flown away and Elvis has left the building, we've just wrapped two of our actresses (one main character and one recurring character) for the season and they're headed back to the places they call home. The rest of us will be wrapped this coming week. But we all love this project - and one another - so much that we're refusing to talk about the end in the hopes that if we ignore it, we'll just get to keep working even when there's nothing left to shoot. ;-) Point being, we all really enjoy working together and are looking forward to doing it all again... hopefully very soon.

In the meantime, we (the EPs) are finally getting to see some of the finished product! We've just gotten director's cuts for episodes 102 and 103 and should have 104 shortly, which we're looking forward to seeing. Once we finish 105 and 106, that director will do her cut and we'll then have a seasons' worth of episodes to work on in a completely different way! We're really excited about that... And no, we don't know the air date yet, so you'll have to stay tuned (just like me).

I realize I've spent more time writing about the writing and executive producing than I have about the acting, so check back for another post soon about what it's like to be an actor on a show... Until then, have a lovely day!

past the halfway mark...

2006-12-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

Greetings from our no-longer-top-secret shooting location of Vancouver, where we're finally coming out from under one of the biggest snowstorms the northwest has seen in a long, long time! Don't worry, though... it actually works quite nicely for the show!

Speaking of which, we've officially passed the halfway point!!!! 102, 103, and 104 are "in the can," as they say, and we've just started shooting 105 and 106. I can't tell you anything about the stories, obviously, but what I can tell you is that everything looks absolutely gorgeous... you heard it here folks: this is going to be one helluva show. Our DP is phenomenal, our directors are phenomenal, our main cast and guest cast are an incredible bunch of actors, and everyone on the crew - from production design to costumes to lighting to the ADs and so on - is so talented and lovely to work with. It's been such a wonderful shoot thus far... and as I watch the dailies, it's clear that all of that comes through in what we're going to put on screen.

(Explanation: "Dailies" are the DVDs given to the network execs, executive producers, and director so they can watch the scenes that were shot each day)

It's so exciting to see it all start to come together... Really, when I think back to the short film that started it all, I couldn't have envisioned that where the series is going would be so damn good. I'm really excited for it to get on the air so everyone can see it!

In addition to the everyday joy of getting to make this show, we've also (already!) launched into what will later provide the materials for publicity for the show. As you've seen, the network has already sent out a bit of a press release to announce that we're in production... and a few days ago, we had our big gallery shoot!

(Explanation: A "gallery shoot" is a day-long event where you bring a professional photographer to set to take billions of photos of the cast... the photos are later used for anything and everything that the network may need in order to promote the show).

The gallery shoot was a lot of fun... made more so courtesy of Heather and her iPod. At one point, I was having my picture taken as the Muppets were singing in the background. :-)

So that's all the "facts" of what's been happening up here... but I suppose I should also share a bit of what it's been like for me, as I've gotten that question more than a few times... Well, it's been extremely busy and the hours have been quite long, but I have to say that there's NOTHING else I'd rather be doing. I love acting, I love writing, I love being an EP, and I love that in the course of a day I get to flip between all three of those hats. Along the way, I've been learning a lot and I have to say I'm quite proud of the work I've been doing. We haven't even finished shooting the first six episodes yet and I'm already so excited by everything that I can't wait for the network to order more episodes! Obviously, that's a long way off (let's just focus on the present for now, shall we?), but when that happens (she says, fingers crossed) I'll be like a kid in a candy store to get to come back and do more writing, EP-ing, and, of course, acting... Folks, she's found her triple calling! :-)

Anyhow, that's all the news from here. Stay tuned for more! And now, I'm off to prep my scenes for tomorrow...

p.s. You'll notice that I've finally changed the name of this blog to reflect the new title... but don't worry, the blog itself isn't going anywhere! So keep checking back here for more updates!

the press release... and the title!

2006-11-17T11:33:00.000-08:00

The network has done the official announcement of our show... which means I can now do the official announcement of our title!!!!

Are you ready? (drum roll please)

The show will be called..... "Exes & Ohs" :-)

Below are two of the pieces of the press release that I've found.

One reads:

MTV's Logo has ordered six episodes of Exes and Ohs, a scripted comedy about lesbian friends and relationships, from Blueprint Prods. Based on the short film The Ten Rules: A Lesbian Survival Guide, production begins this week in Vancouver and will premiere in 2007. Exes and Ohs follows the adventures of Jennifer (Michelle Paradise), a documentary filmmaker, and her search for Ms. Right in Seattle, WA.

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Another (available at http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid39487.asp) reads:

Logo begins production on lesbian sitcom

Exes and Ohs, the Logo channel's new lesbian comedy series, has begun production in Vancouver, Canada, network president Brian Graden announced Thursday.

Exes and Ohs follows the romantic entanglements of Jennifer (Michelle Paradise) and her gay pals in caffeinated Seattle. One of those friends is Crutch, a wannabe rock star played by gay actress Heather Matarazzo.

The sitcom is based on the short film The Ten Rules: A Lesbian Survival Guide. Paradise, Lee Friedlander, Billy Grundfest, and Blueprint Productions serve as executive producers on the show. The six-episode, half-hour series will premiere in 2007. (The Advocate)

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I guess that means our shooting location is no longer a "secret," so I can now feel free to mention that, yes, we are in Vancouver... and, yes, it's raining again. ;-)

And now, back to work!!!

shooting, day 1

2006-11-13T06:17:00.000-08:00

Wow... um.... quite a "little" gap between production and shooting where Someone (we won't name names - no blame here) didn't update her blog AT ALL!!!!

Thank you all for your patience.... It's been quite busy on this end. The past 2 1/2 weeks have been filled with script rewrites, interviews, hirings, meetings, meetings, and more meetings. It's been absolutely fantastic! I love doing this more than I can say... this (being an EP/Writer) feels like I've found my perfect niche in the Hollyworld. And today begins my other perfect niche: Acting!

Yes, folks, today is the very first day of shooting!!! I'm so incredibly excited that even though it's now 6:15am and I should be taking the towel off my head so I can get downstairs for the van by 6:30, I just had to come online and write a little post to share my happiness with all of you. :-)

But I can't be late, so I'll sign off now and take care of this little towel-on-head issue... More later, I promise! Stay tuned!

This is going to be a damn fine show... I can tell you that for sure!

pre-production, day 1

2006-10-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

If I'd had the energy to post yesterday, I'd have told you all about the craziness involved in trying to write scripts at the office before racing home to pack, then cutting short the packing to implement more script notes, then racing to the airport to catch a flight, then flying into the night only to land in a place with cleaner air than L.A. (sorry, I can't say where we are) and then being whisked away to the hotel - cats in tow - where I will be living for the next few months. But by the time I got here and got settled, all I could do was unpack and go to bed. So you'll have to do with that Reader's Digest version of my day yesterday.

But here we are and our first full day of pre-production is behind us and it's been a bit of a whirlwind as pre-production and production always is. But in case you don't believe me, allow me to share with you my schedule from today:

8:30 - 9:00... picked up at hotel and whisked (a lot of whisking going on around here) to our production offices, where we finally met some of the people we've been talking to over the phone for the past month; they're all quite lovely

got settled in offices until...

9:30 - 10:45... interviewed potential assistants with Billy and Lee; we met some really great people and hopefully one will start very soon

wrote in our free moments until...

11:30 - noon... interviewed costume designer

wrote, wrote, wrote until...

1:00... lunch at desk while writing a mini character bio for our production team

1:30 - 2:00... interviewed second costume designer

2:00 - 2:15... "interview recap" meeting with team

2:30 - 3:30... walked around sound stage (conveniently located beneath our offices) with production designer

wrote, wrote, wrote until...

6:00... left for dinner with Billy, Lee, Pam (our network exec), and one of our producers

7:00 - 9:00... an excellent dinner, I must say

And now, here I am, back in my hotel room and writing, writing, writing in this blog. The day seemed busy - but I'm assured this is nothing compared to how busy it will get. :-)

It's all great by me, though... this is really exciting! And a lot of fun. So stay tuned for more updates! As for me, though, I'm going to stop writing, writing, writing now... I'll have plenty of that waiting for me in the morning. ;-)

please don't scream, Dad...

2006-10-12T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Michelle Paradise and I'm a Rules-a-holic.

(chorus of: "Hi Michelle")

I'd like to explain my absence from everything in my life (including this blog) except for the show I've been working on... ya see, we're under this incredible time crunch to get all the scripts written before we leave for pre-production and...

Blah blah blah. You don't care. I don't care. I'm bored of hearing myself talk (well, in this case, type) about deadlines and time crunches. You know it's time to put down the script and go to your blog when your dad tells you that he's so sick of staring at the same vanilla coffee creamer picture on the front page of the blog site that he's given up coffee entirely. And he's ready to scream. So I guess it really is time to post something new.

I'll give an update in a moment, but in the spirit of posting something new (and preventing my dad from screaming), I will now share something I've never shared before. I've never shared it before because it's never happened before. I will share: This Very Moment.

At this very moment, it's 5:27pm PST and I'm sitting in my MTV office which, by the way, has not changed IN THE SLIGHTEST from the picture I posted when I first moved in: fugly green chairs, white walls, 'n all. I have a candle burning on my desk (one of those 99 cent ones from the grocery store). To my left is a nearly empty bottle of water, a nearly empty cup of coffee, and a note reminding me which calls I need to return when I leave here and get into my car. The hideous flourescent lighting is off (as it always is) and my soft-white lamps are on (as they always are). To my right, propped against a desk lamp, is a fun cartoony book called "The Writer at Work," which was given to me as a gift from Bill's wife. Even just looking at the cover right now made me giggle. I'm listening to the less-than-soothing sounds of thumping, clapping, cackling, snorting, and bellowing from the folks who recently moved into the cubicles and offices near the foosball table and are, I'm guessing, currently taking a break from whatever production has been silencing them for most of the day. My neck is sore from hunching over my keyboard today. And I just took a break from typing this to look up at my whiteboard which has a note on it that I cannot share because it's related to a story beat in episode 4. And I just looked at all this I've typed and had the sudden realization: I'm not James Joyce. This isn't "Portrait of the Artist as a Young-ish Woman." I should stop typing about This Very Moment.

So, now that That Very Moment is over, I'll give you the brief update on where we are with the show:

-- Yes, the writing continues (102, 103, and 104 are now officially working production drafts and we're almost done with a first draft of 105!).
-- No, we don't have a title yet.
-- No, I haven't toilet-papered anyone recently.
-- Yes, that was me on the Enbrel commercial (good eye, Janice!).
-- No, we don't have a title yet.
-- Yes, pre-production has officially started (we've already hired some of our key crew and they're off doing things like scouting locations, prepping sets, etc.).
-- Yes, that means that the meetings have also officially started (today was a light day - only one!).
-- No, we don't have a title yet.
-- Yes, I have more than enough vanilla creamer (courtesy of my friend John, who sent me a 2.11 quart container of it... I have it on my desk and everyone is jealous of me).
-- No, the network didn't settle on a title in the time it took me to type all this.

Whew... I think that's pretty good for a new entry, don't you? Dad, what do you think? ;-)

vanilla creamer update

2006-09-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

At the suggestion of my dad - and to prevent poor Janice from standing on a street corner collecting spare change on my behalf for the "vanilla creamer fund" - I took the bull by the horns (as Jen's best friend Sam would say) this past weekend and got my own vanilla creamer coffee supply.

Here's a lovely photo for you to enjoy:

(excuse the annoying flash burn on the box - I'm not smart enough to prevent that)

The box is sitting happily in my desk drawer and I got to break it open this morning while I was working on act 2 of episode 103. The vanilla coffee goodness (or perhaps it was just the caffeine) gave me so much oomph that by the end of the day I'd finished a first draft of episode 103 AND a rewrite of episode 102. Damn, that's good stuff...

And, as this is probably one of the more useless posts I've ever made, I'll cut it short and sign off now...

progress report

2006-09-06T23:33:00.000-07:00

Never fear, dear readers: I have not been absent from the blog because I've been buried with projects that require corporatetechnospeak (well, I have done some of that). But most of what I've been doing is writing for the show.

Which leads to never fear, part 2: The creative juices are flowing and are completely unaffected by the "day job." In fact, I can say with absolute certainty that none of your favorite characters will start talking about networking issues or IPv6...

That's the good news. The other good news is that I have some updates to share on a number of fronts. The Capricorn in me will now take over and present those updates to you in the form of a progress report, categorized by subject matter:

"RULES" PROGRESS REPORT
by Michelle Paradise

Title
Yes, we're much closer to having a title... but no, we don't have one yet. I can tell you, however, that it is NOT one of the following:
-- "Jennifer Likes Rules And Has Discovered Ten of Them"
-- "Jennifer's Heterosexual Marriage Woes"
-- "Lesbian Sluts from Hell"
-- "Happy Days"
-- "MASH"
-- "The Cosby Show"
Actually, we would have chosen one of the last three... but wouldn't you know it, they'd already been used. So, as soon as a title makes it through all of the various departments and clears legal - and, of course, as soon as the network gives us the okay to share it - I'll post it here! Stay tuned.

Scripts
Several days ago, we turned in our first completed script! It's for episode 2 and we've just gotten notes back from the network... we expect to be able to finalize (or mostly-finalize) that script by the end of this week. And on a complete sidenote, here's a bit of "inside" info for you that you may not know: TV scripts are "numbered" according to the season and the episode. So, for example, a script for season 1, episode 2 would be referred to as script #102. In the future, I will probably refer to scripts by number like that... so now you'll know what I'm talking about. :-)

And now that you're in-the-know, I can also give you the updates on the other scripts... as mentioned above, we'll be doing rewrites on 102 this week. We've also started writing the script for 103, the beat sheet for 104 has been approved, we're finishing up on the beat sheet for 105, and we're going to work on the beat sheet for 106 this week as well. Is your head spinning yet? Mine is! ;-)

Production Schedule
The specific details are still being worked out, but we're scheduled to shoot this November and December!! Can you believe it!! It's coming up fast... What else can I say about this except to repeat that it's coming up fast... Yikes! And yay!

Office
The fugly green chairs are still there, the walls are still blank, and my desk has not been moved to the other side of the room. So, basically, my office still looks exactly as it does in the picture I posted a few weeks ago because yours truly has been too busy writing to make any changes to it. Oh, actually, I take that back. I do have a new candle on my desk. And the whiteboards have new doodles on them, courtesy of Bill.

Vanilla Creamer
Please don't repeat this, as I enjoy my freedom and don't want to ever experience life behind bars. But I must confess that the coffee creamer situation is so bad that I have actually gone upstairs (twice!) to the second floor where our offices used to be, and have stolen creamer packages from their kitchen! No, they don't have vanilla creamer up there... they have hazelnut. But let me tell you, given the alternative, hazelnut is an excellent option.

And before you judge me as the sneaky thief I am, let me just ask this: What else was I supposed to do? They drove me to it! The kitchen on our floor doesn't have vanilla, hazelnut, or even non-flavored creamer! All they have is the powdered kind! (I believe I'm repeating myself... I think I already mentioned that in a previous post... forgive me... all those chemicals are going to my brain). Today I brought my own creamer from home. I can't work like this! How am I supposed to work like this???? Dammit I'll be in my trailer!!!!

Foosball
Okay, well, I'll come out of my trailer long enough to give you the foosball update: Bill and I played once. And I beat him. :-) In all fairness, though, my game-winning point came from sheer luck. I had no idea what I was doing.

Hmmm... actually, I think that's it for the progress report. If I've missed anything I should have updated, just let me know and I'll be sure to take care of it in the next post.

Until then, au revoir!

double "day jobs"

2006-08-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

Did you hear the one about the actor who was "discovered" while running errands and landed a role on a hit TV series within a year of moving to LA? Or the one about the writer who got his script to the right person and sold it before even graduating from college?

They sound like jokes... but they're not. Things like that actually happen. But consider those stories the exception (the BIG exception) rather than the rule. Much more often than not, actors, writers, and other creative types toil away at a variety of "day jobs" that pay the bills, while spending all other hours working for free on projects that feed their creative fires... all in the hopes that this will lead to that and everything will pan out and you'll get the big break that will let you do what you love for a living. It usually takes years. And sometimes, it never happens...

Fortunately, this has led to that for me and I'm now working on a project that I love and getting paid for doing it. But I haven't dropped my day job just yet.

What? Michelle has a day job? I didn't know that!

Yes, it's true. But where some of my creative compadres substitute teach, wait tables, sell real estate, or turn tricks on Sunset Blvd (just kidding) to make a living, I work with hi-tech companies as a corporate communications writer. She doesn't just write creatively, folks - she also writes corporatively. ;-)

How I got into this line of work is a long story... and as for how long I've been doing it, let's just say it's been long enough that I can carry my own in conversations about network lifecycles and the benefits of a converged infrastructure; and if you just can't sleep at night wondering why federal agencies are scrambling to migrate to an IPv6 network backbone, I'm the gal who can explain it well enough to send you off into dreamland...

I really love the work I do with my corporate clients. And, of course, I love the work I'm doing on this still-unnamed television show for Logo. But I have to admit that having a lot of work on both fronts can be a bit much. These past few weeks, while I've been working on beat sheets for episodes 2-6, I've also been writing an article, a white paper, a solutions overview, and a quick reference guide for my corporate clients. My brain has had so much back-and-forth between the creative and the semi-technical that my eyes have crossed...

The good news is that my eyes are slowly but surely uncrossing: I'm now in rewrite mode for my corporate work, the beat sheets are nearly done, and soon I'll be able to start focusing on the actual scripts for the show. With a bit less on my metaphoric plate, I may even be able to post a bit more frequently! (she says hopefully, yet still reserving the right to take that statement back) Fingers crossed! :-)

And now, back to work...

at last... pictures! (but no title)

2006-07-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

Chalk this one up to the fact that I'm learning as I go...

In my last post [which was well over a week ago - so, no, you didn't misunderstand the English, Nico, but perhaps I need a refresher course... ;-)] I confidently announced that we'd have a title for the show in about a week. Well, as you may have guessed, that week has come and gone... without a title. We've had many discussions about possible titles and the network is in the process of clearing a few of them with their legal department, but the choosing-the-title process is a bit more complicated than I realized. And it's not necessarily done once a particular title has been cleared and selected. Apparently, until the network really begins to market a show, they can still modify the title... and sometimes do, depending on their needs. That said, I'll still let you know when we have a title - but don't get too excited about it until you start seeing the posters, billboards, or magazine ads... ;-)

But I do have something that you CAN get excited about... that's right, folks... I have pictures!

First, let me introduce you to the Loft Building - it's one of the three MTV buildings in Santa Monica. Our offices are on the first floor, which looks like this:

You can't see it very well, but my office is along that hallway in the center of the photo... the last green door on the left. Billy's is next to mine and Lee's is next to his. As before, we're all in a row.

You'll notice that the walls aren't pink and purple down here on the first floor. Only the lucky folks on the second floor (where our offices were before) get the pink and purple walls. Now we get pressed wood walls with lots of posters on them - as you can see from the U2 and Hives posters in the picture. I haven't decided which is cooler: pink and purple walls or pressed wood walls. If you have an opinion, feel free to share it... but please keep in mind that we're not moving back up to the second floor anytime soon, so if you think the pink and purple walls are cooler then I'll just feel bad. But don't let that influence you at all. ;-)

As I mentioned above, there are posters all over the walls on the first floor... and yes, there's also one on the wall just outside my office:

I'd like to think that having this right outside my office door makes me cool... but I could be wrong.

But I'm not wrong about the foosball table! Now this IS cool... and it's right outside our row of offices. In case you're not familiar with foosball, I took a photo of the table too!

The aforementioned U2 poster is on the wall behind it.

And now, for my actual office. Please keep in mind that since we've just moved in (and since Billy and I still spend a lot of time at Good Earth, so we're not in the office that often), this is the "undecorated" version:
Unless, of course, you consider a whiteboard with a calendar on it to be "decoration." Which I don't...

And last, but certainly not least, a special photo-explanation for Francyne, who has been patiently reading all about my vanilla coffee creamer triumphs and woes - without any idea what vanilla coffee creamer actually is.

Well, Francyne, vanilla coffee creamer is kind of like 1/2 and 1/2 - but it doesn't actually have any dairy in it. It's basically a bunch of chemicals made to taste like vanilla and you add it to your coffee and it tastes oh-so-good. The kind you can buy in the grocery store must be kept in the refrigerator... but the kind they have in the MTV kitchens are in little plastic packages that come out of a box with no refrigeration necessary (I know that should scare me, but it doesn't).

When I was in the offices yesterday, I discovered - to my utter horror - that the kitchen only had regular Coffee Mate and not the vanilla kind that makes me smile... I was disappointed. And as you can see from the photo, even the Coffee Mate itself was disappointed at being the "regular" flavor and not the "vanilla" flavor...

Oh well.

And now that I've spent waaaay too much time posting photos, it's time for me to get back to work. We're in the process of "breaking" the second episode right now - which means we're taking the characters' storylines for that episode and weaving them together into scenes. No dialogue at this point... just a bullet-point list of what happens with each character in each scene in each act. I love this stuff!

synopses, bios, and... a title!

2006-07-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

Television is an interesting world. Getting the "greenlight" to do a show is one thing... telling the world that you've gotten a "greenlight" is another thing.

In our case, we got the "greenlight" weeks ago, but the network hasn't officially announced our show in the press yet. There are a million factors that determine how/when a network will make such an announcement (most of which involve timing and getting the most possible attention for the show and the network). So while Billy and I have been off working on story ideas and character arcs, LOGO has been figuring out those million factors - both for our show and for the other shows they're picking up.

And the good news is, we're about to be officially official!

Of course, before we can be officially official, someone has to write the press release... and before that someone can write the press release, he/she needs three key pieces of information:
-- A synopsis of the show
-- Bios of the key people involved in the show
-- A title for the show

The first two were relatively easy to deliver. The third, however, has been quite a process...

We can't use the same title for the show as I'd used for the short film ("The Ten Rules: A Lesbian Survival Guide.") because then we'd be limiting the entire show to just ten rules... and that would be boring. We also can't use the logical variation of that title, "The Rules," for legal reasons. So, we've had to start from scratch to come up with a brand new title.

Billy and I have submitted at least 25 different possible titles to the network (we've come up with many more that we didn't submit). These proposed titles are making the rounds of our show executives as well as a number of other high-level creative executives at LOGO. There's a veritable executive pow-wow going on behind the scenes right now... meetings, emails, discussions, points, counterpoints, etc. And sometime next week, we'll get on the phone with our execs and discuss the titles they like, the titles we like, and together we'll all figure out a name for our show.

So be sure to check back here next week to find out what it is (I'm excited to find out too!). I'll also post a link to the official press release once it's sent out... :-)

back to the office

2006-07-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

I guess the folks at the Good Earth restaurant finally got sick of us hogging their tables for hours on end and asked the powers-that-be at LOGO/MTV to give us our offices back... because we're moving over to the pink and purple walled building tomorrow!

Personally, I haven't minded working from restaurants, coffeeshops, and home... and I may even miss those 6 1/2 hour marathon sessions over breakfast and lunch at the Good Earth (no, I'm not joking - that's how long Billy and I were there today)... but it will be nice to be back in the office again. There's something official-feeling about having the badge, the parking access, and the never-ending stash of vanilla coffee creamer. :-)

Of course, the change in location won't affect the day-to-day work we're doing. We'll still be up to our eyeballs in story. It's been great! A lot of long, hard work... but this is the kind of work that will make the script-writing process faster and smoother. We've already figured out the basic character arcs for the first season, so now we're working on the broad strokes of each character's storylines for each episode. One of our meetings tomorrow is with the execs so they can give us their feedback on the character storylines we've already turned in (the other meeting is with a few of the people who will be doing the day-to-day production work for the show). Once we get the execs' feedback on our stories, we'll make any necessary changes, get their approval, and then launch into the detailed outlines for each episode. We're making progress!

So please keep checking back here for updates... I'm having a blast with this entire process and I can't wait to write more! Perhaps I can even be persuaded to send pictures of the pink and purple walls... ;-)

story, story, story

2006-06-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

That's what I'm up to my eyeballs in these days: Story.

What will happen to Jen in season 1? Where will she start and end? Will she get what she wants? Will she get what she doesn't want? What about her friends? What do they want? Will they get it? Who will be dating? Who will be single?

And of course, the two most pressing story questions:
-- Will it make sense, from a story perspective, if aliens come down to earth halfway through the 4th episode and turn our lovable heroine into an evil anti-Jen?
-- And will it be believable, from a character perspective, if the evil anti-Jen jumps out of a plane in the season finale with a parachute, a "family-sized" package of Charmin, and a diabolical plan to toilet-paper the entire city just as rain clouds are rolling in?

Important Note: Please don't repeat any of the above information to anyone. I'm telling that to you, my faithful readers, in the strictest confidence. It would be terrible if the world at large knew of the alien invasion and Jen's "evil" side before the show even got on the air! There would be no suspense... no drama... no reason to tune in! So I thank you in advance for your discretion.

Anyhow, back to the point - which was about story stuff. And the point I was trying to make (before I got sidetracked, as I tend to do) is that there are so many questions to ask and so many possibilities to consider when you're figuring out what could happen in the life of a character...

Slowly but surely, I'm finding the answers.

One of the most important things I've discovered is that if you listen hard enough, the stories seem to tell themselves. When you start with solid, layered characters, then it's not so much about trying to "create" somewhere for them to go... it's more about "realizing" where they're telling you they need and want to go. That's why character work is so important. In my opinion, if you don't know where the story should go - or if you're banging your head against a wall because breaking down the story is proving to be so difficult - then the reason is because you don't know your characters well enough.

There. That's my 2 cents on writing for today. For those of you who aren't writers and don't care what I think about writing, my apologies for having bored you.

Let's get back to something more interesting about story: How the process works.

The process now is much the same as it was when we were working on the pilot. Billy and I talk about where we think the characters are going, I write it up, and we send it off to the network. Then we talk with them, get their feedback, and incorporate their notes into the next draft. Once we have a high-level summary of where the characters are going this first season, then we'll break it down into a high-level summary of where the characters are going in each individual episode. Then we'll work with the network on that, and then break that down into a detailed summary for each episode... and from there I'll write the actual scripts.

It's a lot of work and there's a lot to do. Winter (when we're shooting) may seem like a long way away... but it's not. From my perspective, with 5 scripts that need to be written and approved, winter is right around the corner. And that said, I hope you'll excuse me now because I really need to get back to work! :-)

GREENLIGHT!!!!!!!!

2006-06-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

That's right! "The Rules" is officially coming to LOGO!

Pop the champagne, blow a bubble, run naked through the sprinklers... it's time to celebrate! :-)

The network picked us up for 6 episodes the first season. We're scheduled to shoot this winter and then we'll hopefully be on the air by spring of next year. So you'll have to wait a little bit until you can see what we've been working on this whole time, but it'll definitely be worth it!

And what happens now, you may ask?

Well, tonight, I'm going out to paint the town!!

And then starting Monday, I'm getting back to work. The next few months will be a lot - A LOT - of writing, since we're starting from scratch on the rest of the season's scripts. I will, of course, continue to update the blog so you can follow along with the progress (notice I've already taken out the word "possible" before the words "television series" in the subtitle).

So here we go! Let the rest of the adventure begin!

Thank you all for your comments and for your support. I really appreciate it.

Have a great weekend! I know I will!

and p.s. to "MsBeeCharmer," I wrote about the history of the project on the very first posting I made... I hope that answers your question... if not, post again!

picture lock! (and now we wait...)

2006-06-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

Picture is locked!!!!

What that means is that we've done the re-shoot and all the editing... and as of now, no more changes will be made to the pilot. At this very moment, the post-production folks are making it look extra pretty and it will go off to New York early next week. Then we wait...

But that's the big-picture summary. Here are the details:

Last Friday (June 9) we did the actual re-shoot. Everything was great! We were in and out of the location on time, all the performances were fantastic, and both of the scenes we shot (a new opening and a re-do of a previously existing scene) felt like they were making a huge difference to the overall tone of the piece - even as we were shooting them. The network executives were all on set the whole day and they were really happy with how everything turned out... as were we.

This past week has been all about editing. Our editor spent Monday and most of Tuesday locked away in a room on the 2nd floor of one of the MTV buildings taking all the footage and putting together a cut for us. Billy, Lee, and I went in on Tuesday afternoon and worked with the editor until after 11pm making adjustments. The next morning (Wednesday) the network execs reviewed the cut, then we went back in and made more changes based on their notes. Yesterday (Thursday) was all about working with the music supervisor's choices and laying in the new music. And as of today, we're done.

Done.

As in: This is it.
As in: There are no more re-shoots in our future.
As in: We either get a yes or a no.
As in: We'll know very soon whether we're making a TV show or going back to our individual drawing boards.

So how am I feeling at this point, you may ask? Honestly, I feel GREAT. I'm really proud of the work we've done and how the pilot has turned out. The show feels classy, substantive, interesting, funny, heartbreaking, and it looks amazing. I feel more confident about this project than ever and I think the Big Boss who ultimately makes the decisions is going to love it. I really do. Something came together during the re-shoot and the editing that wasn't there before... and if you'll forgive me for sounding a bit stereotypically Southern Californian, the "something" that came together felt almost magical. Like it all just fell into place. We first noticed it on set, then felt it again in the editing room when it became crystal clear what needed to stay and what needed to go, and the fact that the network notes were relatively minor - even from the first pass - is something that we all (including the network execs) felt was a great sign about how the project was progressing.

But I digress.

And at the end of the day, it's not up to me anyway... so please send out good vibes on our behalf. As soon as we know when the pilot will be presented again, I'll let all of you know. And shortly thereafter, we hope to get some excellent news... :-)

my comment posts to you...

2006-05-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hi folks... not much to report right now since everyone's just getting back into the swing of things post-Memorial Day. So I thought I'd check out some of the most recent comment postings and then comment back to all of you while I'm waiting for something project-related to happen. Sounds like fun, huh?!? :-)

Well, if not, feel free to ignore the rest of this posting... but if that does sound like fun, then read on!

To Janice: No, I wasn't kidding about the orgy sequence in the bathtub. Well, okay, I was... how'd you guess? Am I that transparent??? I hope you're feeling better, by the way. The surgery-recovery process sounds like a nightmare. Keep your spirits up! It'll all be better soon and before you know it you'll be driving your car and toilet papering your neighbors houses once again!

To Nico: Help! I'm grasping at straws here... dredging up the toilet-papering thing (which I mentioned in a post far too long ago for it to be funny anymore) in a sad attempt to make Janice laugh. Say something funny, will ya? Oh, and in answer to your earlier question, yes I will happily work in Europe - but only if I get to toilet paper a very large castle. (see...I just can't let the toilet-papering die!)

To Alana: I'd already listened to your music and you have quite the voice! Keep singin'!

To Henchman #4: The someone in Sam Scribner's writing group was me, actually. But thanks for checking in about that... You didn't think I was trying to steal someone else's story idea, did you??? Sam would stick his hand down from heaven and swat me for that. And now I'm curious to know which of Sam's proteges are you...

To anyone else who's been reading my blog: Thanks for doing so. I appreciate all the support.

Until next time...

tick tock tick tock

2006-05-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

Let the countdown begin to the re-shoot! It's a mere 2 1/2 weeks away and things are starting to speed up. Here's the latest as of today, categorized for your reading pleasure:

MEETINGS
There are always plenty of on-site meetings during the pre-production process, and today marked the official start to Re-Shoot Pre-Production Meeting Season. Our first meeting was today out at MTV and it went very well. We went over what's already done, what still needs to be done, who's been hired, who needs to be hired, and what the various deadlines are for completing everything. On a sidenote, the meeting also included a bowl of candy with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which made it even more of a success in my book. :-)

SCRIPT
As of today, the scripts for the scenes we're shooting are (almost) finalized! The "almost" part means that our network execs are happy, we're happy, and now begins the other approval process, which involves running the scripts by various legal departments to make sure that we're not using any names, words, situations, etc. that can't eventually be aired. I suppose at the end of that process, we'll probably be forced to remove the huge orgy sequence which is supposed to take place in a bathtub full of jello featuring naked porn stars who curse repeatedly... but oh well. You win some, you lose some.

CAST
The actors we need are all available for our re-shoot date. The only trouble we had was getting the star of the show (the difficult-to-deal-with Michelle Paradise) to commit to the re-shoot date because she kept whining about wanting a huge trailer and how she'd only drink Evian water chilled to 67.1 degrees and if someone didn't remove the damn blue M&Ms from the bowl she was going to hurl it across the room... but we gave her a Valium and she's fine now.

ME
In case you're wondering, I'm doing great, thanks... and no, I'm not on Valium. ;-) I'm very much looking forward to the re-shoot, the re-edit, and the re-submission to the Head Honcho. I feel great about this project and I'm happy to be working on it again.

Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned for more updates! And in the meantime, have a great (and very safe) holiday weekend...

the post-meeting post (or: the game plan)

2006-05-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

Well, we had our call with the network execs on Friday to go over our new scenes and the re-shoot budget... and then I revised the scenes over the weekend and turned them in yesterday... and then we had another call with them today... and soon I will be revising the scenes again... and all I can say is: Whew!

The great news is that everything is going well, we're all excited to be working on this, and we're getting close on the scenes!

The other great news is that we now have an official game plan!

Our re-shoot date has been set for June 9. Between now and then, we'll be writing, working on any pre-production stuff that LOGO needs us to do, and getting ready to shoot. After that, we'll spend a week or two in editing, then the network execs will re-submit our pilot to the Head Honcho, and then we'll wait for him to watch the revised pilot, be totally blown away, and give us all Lamborghinis as "congratulations, you got the pickup" gifts...

Okay, well, we probably won't get the cars. ;-)

So there you have it! And now, back to work...

I'm baaaaack....

2006-05-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, before I launch into an update, I should probably set the record straight about my long absence from posting. So, here goes:
--I haven't been in jail as punishment for toilet-papering someone's house.
--I wasn't abducted by aliens and taken to another planet.
--I didn't win the lotto and run off to live in a villa in Spain.
--I didn't skip out on my taxes and run off to live in a tent in a country that doesn't have an extradition agreement with the U.S.
--I didn't quit the blogging business.
--I didn't quit the entertainment business.
--I'm not recovering from sex reassignment surgery.
--I haven't been spending days scouring the city for vanilla creamer.
--I haven't been painting the walls of my office pink and purple as an homage to the MTV building.
--And I'm not going to bore you by continuing this list to include any other things that I haven't/wasn't/didn't do in the 3 very long weeks since my last post...

The sounds of silence you've heard coming from my blog (assuming you have one of those software programs that reads web pages aloud to you, that is) have been because there hasn't been much to report.

We worked on the new scenes that we need to shoot/re-shoot for the pilot, those scenes are in the hands of the network execs, and now we're just waiting. We were supposed to have a meeting with them on Monday to go over their notes, discuss the re-shoot budget, etc., but they had to reschedule... and so now we're trying to have the meeting with them on Friday instead. I think we'll have a much better idea of when we'll be moving forward after that meeting. So I'll have something more to tell you about the progress of our project after that.

And what have I been doing while we've been waiting? Glad you asked...

Well, I shot another commercial a week ago! Soon, in addition to watching me hawk Duracell batteries, PNC Bank services, and Flintstones vitamins, you'll see me on tv talking about how I no longer have plaque psoriasis. :-) For more info on the commercial, feel free to check out the "news" section of my web site.
Note: In case you're wondering, no, I've never actually had plaque psoriasis... but I think I do quite a convincing job in the spot... which is probably why they hired me...

I've also been working on a few more of my own projects (a television series pitch and a feature film script). And I skipped town for a few days on a little vacation, which was quite nice and much better than being in jail, getting abducted by aliens, or painting the walls.

But enough about me! Who cares about me! What we all really care about is bringing "The Rules" to LOGO... and as soon as I have another update on the progress of that, I'll definitely let you know. In the meantime, make sure you get LOGO from your cable provider. That way, when (she says deliberately) we get picked up, you'll be sure not to miss us!

More soon. In the meantime, have a great day! And thank you all for your continuing support...

another response to a comment post...

2006-04-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

I just saw a post by "Mania" asking what I do when I lack inspiration...

Well, Mania, let me be honest with you: The idea that I ever lack inspiration is laughable. Ha ha! Hee hee! Ho ho! In fact, it's so funny that I... I...

Ummm... uhhhh.... hmmm... wow, I have no idea how to end that joke... whew.... that's a toughie... okay, let's try again...

In fact, it's so funny that I... that I...

Okay. Well, I guess I do lack inspiration from time to time. So let me try to answer your question...

Some people call lack of inspiration "writer's block;" I call it a sign that I need to shift something. So, that's what I do when I find myself out of ideas: I shift something in what I'm doing. Sometimes that means putting the issue or question aside and moving on to a different part of the story/script; other times that means shutting off my computer altogether and doing something that has nothing to do with writing (such as: going on a hike, reading a magazine, or toilet-papering someone's house).

Point being, I find that banging my head against a metaphoric wall generally isn't helpful... but giving my brain a break really is. And then the answers and ideas end up flowing much easier because I'm not trying to force them.

Anyhow, Mania, I hope that answers your question.

And just in case you're wondering, the toilet-papering someone's house was just a joke. I haven't done that in years. Okay, that's a lie. I did that last night but unfortunately, in the dark, I didn't realize that it wasn't a house I was papering... it was the local police station... and then I was arrested... and, well, that's another story altogether...

the drawing (or, rather, writing) board

2006-04-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, we're back at work on "The Rules" pilot presentation! Yours truly has been spending her time writing, re-writing, and re-re-writing a new scene while the rest of the team figures out budgets, schedules, and things of a non-writing nature. Personally, I'm happy to be focused on the writing. :-)

Unlike our experience putting together the original version of the pilot presentation, this time we are not in the hallowed halls of the MTV building; we're working from our respective homes. So instead of staring at the pink and purple MTV walls, being reprimanded by building security for having candles on our desks (okay, I admit it: I was the only one reprimanded), and listening to the same tranquility-inducing CD on repeat for days on end, I'm at home looking at my soothing earthtone walls, enjoying an obscene number of candles blazing away on my desk (actually, there are only two), and listening to the same tranquility-inducing CD on repeat for days on end...

Instead of random visits to my work office by various production folks who want to discuss the winking bunny in the green, green grass, I get random visits to my home office by a meowing cat who wishes I'd brought home the winking bunny in the green, green grass for her to play with (instead, she has to make due with a stuffed mouse and some catnip)...

And instead of mid-day trips to the local corporate eatery, I take mid-day trips to my kitchen (during which I'm generally followed by the aforementioned cat, who prays every day that I'll make a tuna sandwich)...

All of which is to say that this experience is different... and still quite wonderful. We're all excited about the opportunity to do some things that will make this project better (and, yes, more sell-able to the Powers-That-Be). So stay tuned for updates!! I'll have more soon. But now, I must go. I'm sure there's a candle that needs to be lit. Or a cat that needs to be fed.

a brief detour to the proverbial drawing board...

2006-04-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

First of all, thanks to all of you for your continued support and good wishes.

And now, the update! We had a lengthy call with the network today and the good news is that they love what we've done so far. They're still very excited about our project, but they've asked us to go back and make a few changes to the pilot before they make their final decision. This will involve writing and shooting a new opening scene and re-shooting a couple of existing scenes. Then we'll edit it all together, work with them to incorporate notes, and they'll present that revised version to the Powers That Be for the final decision.

So, we've got some work ahead of us... but it's all good and, in the end, I think the show will be much better for it.

In other words, stay tuned... because more pre-production, production, and post-production updates will be on their way soon!!!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some scenes to write! :-)

the waiting game...

2006-04-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

Wow, it seems I've got my own blog-like version of a chat room going here! I hope you're all enjoying meeting one another. :-)

I'm sure the suspense is killing you... but unfortunately I have nothing to report yet. But as the waiting game continues, I want to thank you all for your continued good wishes and crossed appendages. On behalf of everyone involved with this project, all of that good energy and goodwill is much appreciated. We're hoping to know something by next week... so please put up with the cramped fingers and toes until then. I promise to post any news as soon as I get it!

In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!!!

no news yet...

2006-04-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

No news yet, folks!

We're hoping to hear by the early part of this coming week... so please continue crossing appendages and speaking to the universe on our behalf. :-)

Stay tuned....

2 days to D-Day

2006-03-29T15:59:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-03-15T10:01:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-03-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

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...

editing... round 1

2006-02-21T23:01:00.000-08:00

Well, folks, the first official producers' cut of the pilot presentation has been completed... and network notes have been delivered!!!!

After many, many hours in the editing room last week, including a marathon 12-ish hour day with 5 of us (Billy, Lee, Barry, the asst. editor Nate, and myself) alone in a room together (it's a damn good thing we all like each other and get along), we finished our cut on Friday--along with a proposed series arc and proposed season 1 storylines--with literally 2 minutes to spare before everything had to be sent off to FedEx for shipping. Whew!

Thankfully it was a holiday weekend this past weekend, so we had an extra day to recover before coming back into work this morning. The execs, on the other hand, took the weekend to watch our cut and make notes and they were ready for a meeting with us by mid-day today!

The meeting went VERY well. They really liked our first pass, which is fantastic! The other great thing is that all of their notes are, as Billy would say, "eminently do-able." In other words, the changes we need to make aren't things that we're tearing our hair out over... rather, they make a lot of sense and can be taken care of relatively easily (though they will take time, of course). And, in a sign that we're all on the same page, some of their notes were also thoughts that we, individually, had after re-watching the first cut on our own over the weekend.

So now we're back in the editing room again... all 5 of us consulting notes, swigging coffee, and eating way too many munchies courtesy of Barry's snack shelf. This part of the process (the editing, I mean...not just the munching of munchies) is a lot of fun, I have to say! I really like editing and I can't wait for our next cut to be done!!! We expect to have a new version to turn back into the network by the end of this week. And then, more notes; then a new cut followed by more notes; and then the final cut. We're getting close!!! Stay tuned...

in the news...

2006-02-15T22:48:00.000-08:00

A couple of friends emailed me yesterday to congratulate me and to tell me that they'd seen me (and The Rules) mentioned in the news!! Apparently, LOGO put out a press release announcing that four shows, including ours, had been given the greenlight for development.

To clarify, a greenlight for development is different than a greenlight for production. The former means they'll pay you to develop the project and create a presentation piece, which is what they'll use to decide whether or not they want to pick up your show (that's what we're doing with the pilot presentation). The latter means they want you to make your show for them and they intend to air it on their network (that's what we hope to have happen at the end of the day).

It's so exciting to see our project mentioned in places like the Hollywood Reporter and the Advocate... very cool. If you want to see the blurbs, check them out here:

Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/television/brief_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001996301

The Advocate: http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid25435.asp

By the way, the info on the Advocate is slightly incorrect (Girl Play was a film Lee directed that I wasn't involved in) but everything else is good! :-)

oh, the glamor...

2006-02-15T22:22:00.000-08:00

It's been a few days since I wrote a post and you're probably thinking to yourself: "Oh, the glamorous life of those who create TV shows... she's probably out breakfasting with TomKat, lunching with Spielberg, jotting notes on napkins while having tea at the Ivy, and then rushing off in her brand new Porsche to have dinner with and pitch a feature script idea to Brangelina."

And if that's what you're thinking, you're damn close. Except for the TomKat, Spielberg, Ivy, Porsche, and Brangelina parts... ;-)

Actually, as I'm sure I've mentioned, I've been spending my days holed up in my office with Billy watching VHS tapes of every single moment of every single thing we shot over five days and taking notes. By the time we finished yesterday afternoon, I literally had about 15-20 pages of my legal pad scrawled with timecodes, comments, stars, exclamation points, and the occasional coffee stain. Tedious is really the only word I can use to describe the process of watching dailies... but it was all definitely worth it. Because when we went into the editing room today for the first time to give notes on Lee's cut of the pilot, we were totally prepared. The work we'd done enabled us to go moment by moment with them and suggest alternate takes of certain moments (if necessary). And it definitely helped us watch her cut with better-trained eyes, which will only make the finished product even better.

So, no, I haven't lunching with famous folks at famous places... but I have been lunching with my partners in a non-descript editing room (thanks to the Fabulous Mister Joe, who brings takeout to the editing room for us). And I have to say that the more work we do on this, the more excited I get! Lee's cut looked good when Billy and I first saw it, and it's looking better now, and it's only going to get better as we get notes back... It's collaboration at its finest, folks. And really, who needs "glamor" when you have this??? (and no, that's not a rhetorical question... I'll take this any day of the week)

Bye for now! :-)

response to a comment post

2006-02-11T20:22:00.000-08:00

Apparently my family, friends, and the vanilla coffee creamer providers at Viacom/MTV/VH1/LOGO are not the only ones who read this blog, because someone posted a comment the other day asking what it feels like to wait as the folks at the network determine the fate of our project.

Well, first of all, thanks for asking! Second of all, thanks for reading!
(or should I say thanks for reading and then thanks for asking??)

Either way, the point is that I'm happy to respond.

The thing is, we still have a lot to do right now and so it doesn't yet feel like we're in waiting mode... Lee is spending her days with her temporary husband (as she calls our editor) working to put together her director's cut of the pilot presentation. Meanwhile, Billy and I are going through every single moment that was captured on film during our 5 day shoot. With hours a day, every day, still devoted to this project, there's a way in which the outcome still feels like it's partially in our hands. After all, we're determining the shots we choose, the angles, the takes, the way one scene flows into another, etc., and so the quality of the finished product is something we can control. Of course, the LOGO execs aren't kicking back in barcaloungers and sipping mai tais as they wait for us to finish... they're still actively involved. In fact, we have three full rounds of reviews with them before the final final will be ready to go to New York.

But then, of course, we will wait. And what will that waiting feel like? Wow, it's hard to say... At the moment, I'm still working so much that any kind of nervous anticipation doesn't have time to sink in. In fact, the more I see of the dailies, the more confident I am in the quality of the project we've created...

However, I'm also acutely aware that my opinion isn't the one that counts at the end of the day. Fortunately, though, the people who are making the final decision aren't the type of people to take it out on others if they miss their morning caffeine fix. ;-) They genuinely care about their network, their programming, and this project... And that's good news for us, because we know that this project will be judged on its merits -- not on a whim.

I'm sure I'll feel a bit anxious once it's out there in the world and out of my hands. But I also feel this odd sort of calm around it all that I don't quite know how to explain (and that I don't expect to change). It's kind of a "whatever will be, will be" feeling... Perhaps it comes from the fact that I've worked on this on and off for so long. I mean, 8 years ago, when I first developed the concepts and characters that would become the short film that would become this pilot presentation, I had no idea where any of that would lead. I could never have imagined this. And now that we're here, I can't imagine how it won't continue... Here's hoping the network agrees!

what now?

2006-02-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

So what have I been up to since the end of shooting, you may ask? The answer: dailies, dailies, and more dailies!

I've been spending a lot of time looking at dailies and picking out which takes are my personal favorites... In the meantime, our editor (the amazing Barry) has been hard at work on his cut of the pilot presentation. Lee is going to be working with him starting tomorrow and by early next week we should have her cut. Then Billy and I will give our notes. And when it's all said and done, we should have our final version to turn into the network execs by next Friday. Hooray!!!

And what am I doing when I'm not watching dailies, you may also ask? The answer: stories, stories, and more stories!

Seeing what the actresses brought to their roles has inspired me to re-think where some of the characters were going to go (and what they were going to do) over the course of the first season, and so I've been brainstorming new story ideas. It's been a blast. I've realized how much the casting process really plays into the story process. When you write a character just out of your head, you may write her one way... but then seeing the qualities that the actress possesses (and which of those qualities she brings to her role) can shift the way you create that character from episode to episode. It's fun...

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm heading back to that fun... :-)