Movie Blog: The Day I Became a Show Runner

The only reason there is a blog article at all this week, is because I am out of bed at 6 am to take a conference call with Los Angeles and the person I'm supposed to talk to isn't around to take the call. If it wasn't for these unexpectedly free minutes, I really wouldn't have had time to write an article this week. Sunday morning (this morning, when I'm actually working) I would have dashed out a short apology, and that would have been all... simply because my life is very, very busy now.

This is my life at the moment, all early morning phone calls and international time zones. This is my life because in the middle of Wednesday I finally got the phone call I've been waiting for... and the answer was, Yes. Which is phenomenal news.

However, because this is the media industry, what "Yes" really means is more work. Not just a little more work, but a lot more work. In the course of 24 hours, I have gone from being a writer with a script and a show bible, to being an Executive Producer and show-runner.  I now have six hour-long episodes of drama to create, budgets to stick to, production logistics to sort out and a whole heap of other things that I really don't have the time or the brain power to talk about at 6 am, when I still haven't finished my first cup of tea of the day.

The experience I am having at the moment is the break that most writers dream about... and surprisingly, it has come together in precisely the way I first envisioned when I started filmutopia.

The basic premise of filmutopia was that scripts are not just creative endeavours, but that they are also the template for a product, just like any other. Fundamentally it was about the idea of the writer as entrepreneur, as opposed to writer as employee. That it was possible to combine artistic integrity and business sense, that there isn't a trade off between those two positions.

One of the reasons that I have railed against screenwriting gurus, is that I genuinely believe that writers, like entrepreneurs, have to learn to think for themselves. The script is the template for a product. That product has to be the kind of product people want to buy. However, desirable doesn't mean "just like everything else," it just means desirable. When a writer only cares about competence, they'll miss the bigger picture which is desirability.

It's like the iPhone. Ever since the iPhone first came out, I wanted one, I desired it... and, eventually, I got one. The iPhone wasn't a product like all the other phones, it was the result of one company's desire to reinvent the PDA. As far as I am concerned, script writing is exactly the same kind of entrepreneurial process. The ultimate goal is to create something everyone wants to watch. Rather than being mundane, that kind of drama is often exceptional.

Of course, like any business, it also being at the right place, at the right time, with the right product... in my case, that is exactly what has happened. Of course there are still hoops to jump through. That is the other lesson, there is no such thing as a final definitive and absolute yes, there is only "Yes, you may approach the next hurdle."

Right, this call still hasn't come through, I think I might grab a nap.

One thing I haven't worked out yet is whether now that my main work is for TV,  should I rename this "TV Blog," instead of "Movie Blog?" Presumably, if I did, I'd have to write every article whilst wearing a frock, which if I'm honest, works for me!

I've just reread this week's article, I think it can be summed up in the sentence, "Huzzah for me, I was right all along, I told you so." Trust me, I am at least as surprised by that as you are.

Oh, hello, the person I'm supposed to talk to this morning (Saturday) is free. Here we go. First meeting of the day. Fetch me more tea!

keep writing and viva la revolution

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog