The photo above is from my shoot a few weeks ago for my pilot, Music Academy. We filmed for 2 days in 6 locations to create a teaser version of the script as the final piece of our pitch package for studios. The 2.5 minute teaser trailer will be edited within the next month.
The Long Game
This production project took nearly 100% of my focus over the last couple months. But the work of creating it started 8 years ago. Yes, I know that may sound extreme. Was I really working on it starting 8 years ago? Well, as like to say - my subconscious began writing a TV show 8 years ago. I started coming up with story ideas based on my own experiences working at Santa Monica Academy of Music as voice teacher. The setting seemed perfect for a dramedy. I tried writing a story outline, but eventually realized that I didn't really know what I was doing, and that my own experiences were not particularly captivating. I had been writing for 20 years, but had never tried to write a TV show! I enlisted one of my friends, Michael Wohl, who teaches screenwriting, to coach me. So every 3-6 months we would meet and he would give me critique sessions. I did a lot of reading as well, and would get feedback from other writers that I know. It was a slow simmering side project, but I still didn't BELIEVE it would amount to anything. About 5 years ago, I was at a career crossroads. That thing about belief was pretty big for me, in a few areas of my life. Deep down, I didn't believe I could be as successful as an artist as I did when I was more naive. Not sure if something 'happened', or if life just happened, or I partied too many years away and then suddenly woke up at age 40 in a mild panic.
There have been a lot of Michaels in my life. The next Michael was around the time of this mild crisis - Michael Dolan. I ended up on his email list after he had sold Music Connection Magazine and became a Career Consultant for artists and entrepreneurs. After getting his emails for about...a year, I finally picked up the phone and set up a session. To this day, I still meet with Michael Dolan, who does his best to keep me on track, and to unearth my beliefs. If you yourself are interested in having an opinion or help with your career as an artist or entrepreneur, his website is: http://jmichaeldolan.com/
Around 2014, I began to shift into not only taking my teaching craft and business to higher level, but to see myself as a Pro Artist. It is no surprise that that was the year I booked my first network TV co-star role, on Criminal Minds. Music Academy: The version that is the currently the 53 page pilot, is saved version 122. This doesn't mean that I re-wrote the entire script 122 times, but it does mean that there were many many many revisions, some of them giant such as combining two characters into 1, or re-structuring story-lines. And many were minor, such as creating a more multi-ethnic inclusive feel to the show, simply by changing character descriptions, names, and language. To be clear, my next screenplay won't take 8 years to write (probably). In this case, it was on the job training - learning to write while developing the concept and story, and continuing to draw from my life along the way. I've literally become too old to play the character I intended as a vehicle for my acting, but that's okay. It's the long game. Some things are good as long games. Some should be short games. Like the small steps, the hard pushes, the classes, the deadlines, the daily walk and enjoyment of each day. To play the long game, you have to lock in on your objective with the certainty that it will get done. It's always running in the background like a computer subroutine. It's on autopilot in a sense, and it doesn't care what anyone thinks. Sometimes you have to remind yourself that it's there - that why new age things like vision boards and such can actually work. I have a picture of the music academy Logo on a bulletin board in my kitchen ; it's been up there for 3 years. I see it every day. This isn't a lipstick on the mirror kind of thing. I prefer a more mellow approach. And I don't own lipstick.