So the Bible has been agreed and it's ready to go.
Except it's not going anywhere. Not yet anyway.
My previous project has just gone out top another five or six prodcos, that makes around fourteen or fifteen altogether and covers most everyone with a decent chance of getting something made or offering work on their own current projects.
So far I've heard from ONE, yes ONE of those prodco's with a fairly generic pass. But the Summer is slow. Always is. With that in mind my agents have suggested that sending another project to those prodcos before I hear back on the first one might be 'distracting' to them
In some circumstances I'd say 'Bollocks, get it out there for Christ's sake. It's doing no good gathering dust on your desk'.
But not in this case. I agree with them. For several reasons.
Their reason is pretty good. If only to avoid the perception that I'm spewing out brain farts left right and centre. But there is more.
Many of the prodcos my previous project went to have either never read my original work before, or read it so long ago that the same personel are no longer there. If they like what they see they may well invite me in for a meeting. If they were very interested in the project they would already have been making option noises, so this is in effect a pitch meeting. 'What else have you got?'
I'll be able to tell them about Project X. Live! One on One. Much better than yet another spec Bible.
Also I've had several options before with just a Bible. Few prodcos are willing to shell out for a script though without network backing. And network backing is harder to get without a script to show them. Catch 22.
Project X is a little out of left field, so in this case I'd feel more comfortable with a script attached to it. Putting the Bible going out on hold gives me time to write it.
I've got a meeting with a big prodco this week. Quite frankly I've been in and out of this big prodco like a pimp's dick and nothing has ever come to fruition. But this is with a former script editor on a show I worked on. She's now a producer at big prodco and has always been a champion of my work.
I've got two projects to pitch her and another fermenting as we speak. They may fly, they may not. But you never know.
Shower, shave, haircut and onwards!
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11 years ago
16 comments:
Hi Dave, you mention bible quite a few times. What exactly do you have in your bible?
Cheers.
Hi Dan
My Bibles basically consist of the basic premise for the show, Biogs of the main characters and their interactions and maybe storylines for six episodes. The storylines aren't essential but I find them useful in convincing prodco's that the idea has legs.
I try to make it as much of a 'selling' document as possible in that shows the 'potential' of the series in terms of character arcs and series tone.
Hey Dave...thanks for visit - gotta get kids to school...back in a bit
Thanks Dave.
I read somewhere that some prodcos ask for ideas beyond the first series when they meet with you i.e. what happens in episode3 of series 3 - to see if an idea really does have legs.
Obviously this wouldn't be laid out in a bible because you're selling an initial idea, but do you have this in mind if (and hopefully when) you get a meeting?
I guess it depends on the project, but say for a comedy series, a writer would hope to see beyond just one series and therefore have an idea where things would head in the future?
Dan what I do is have an overall arc in my head about where the ongoing series are heading rather than any specifics.
So to be honest anyone asking me what happens in Ep 3 series 3 would be met with a blank stare. Luckily that hasn't happened yet. lol
But I have been asked 'Where do you see series 2 going?' on several occasions.
It kinda depends on the type of project. In comedy for example, Only Fools and Horses can go for years with no real major changes in the direction of the show except 'Rodney gets married to a posh bird and leaves his roots' or ' Del becomes a family man'
There's a couple of seasons of comedy right there.
The key to recurring ....anything [mainly serial drama and comedy] is to create characters and put them in situations that are non-finite. Casualty. The Bill.
The longeivity of a series however depends more on on how finite the initial premise is.
Spooks I see as being an infinite premise.
Hustle I see as being a finite premise.
Man on man...
"Don't get it right, get it written."
"This isn't a production drsft. It's a selling draft."
Gold from the working tv writer. I'm linking you up in the sidebar.
Hey, just the fact that you were able to discern what was bumping for you is a testament to your abilities. Most can't separate like that. That's the experience shining through.
And the soon to be ex wife and maintenance beckoning talk... let's just say it hit really close to home. My condolences...
Hi Will
I also enjoyed your blog. Schmucks tried to tell me how to sidebar but I am pretty much computer illiterate. Hence the barren space.
The 'Don't get it right, get it written' adage I find can work
both for and against me depending on the circumstances.
If I'm on a tight deadline and stuck on a scene then it definitely works for me.
But as a personal preference, and I stress personal, I don't like major rewrites of a first draft of my own stuff. I like a decent first draft with some [possibly major] tweaks because if I read over a completed first draft and it strikes me as being awful then I can lose faith in the project.
Luckily I caught Project X in time.
Having just figured this stuff out in past month or so - I'll take a stab.
Go into Blogger account, into Template, scroll down near the bottom to just past the sidebar heading and you should see:
http://EDITME" etc.
Basically take that and make it look like:
...as example, or whatever link you want - the URL goes in the front half, and the blog title in the second half - between those < > thingees.
Note: there were some little things at head and tail of above example in Template but I wasn't able to post comment with them in -so leave them in, don't delete to mirror example exactly.
Then just copy and paste your way down adjusting for each link.
Save template changes
Republish Index
And that should do it.
That said, it took me a bunch of tries to figure it out and Blogger Help is sort of helpful, but see if that works for you.
hmmm...comment edited out the examples I tried to cut and paste in
Perhaps I have a 'too much blue'editor installed Will. lol
I truly am a cyber idiot.
But there are some great blogs I want to point people to and don't want to do it in the form of a 'one hit' blog.
So give me a month or two and I'll get my head around it.
Dave
Here's something I posted on someone else's bog when they were having problems...
And the first version had code examples that had blog go "Yeah, right... sod off!"
Log on as usual. Instead of pressing ‘Posting’ to add a new blog, press the Template tab (between Settings and View Blog)
A window of code will appear in the bottom half of the screen.
Scroll down almost to the bottom until you find a section called Links with three lines of code that have Google News and Edit-Me in them.
Replace the full news.google.com web address – everything between the quote marks - with the address of the page you want to link to. Remember to include all forward slashes where relevant, so it’s better to copy if from the browser, http and all and paste it in.
What you want to call the link replaces ‘Edit-Me’
If you have more than three, simply copy and paste a new one underneath as you go.
If you have a lot of links and want to divide them up in sections, copy and paste the whole section from “h2 class...Links” down to forward slash Main Or Archive Page.
Then, like renaming the links themselves, you can rename the Links section title.
In the next couple of lines of code down are Previous Posts and Archives if you want to give them alternative names.
Hope this all helps.
Paul
Paul, any post with 'sod off' gets my immediate attention.
That's how I feel about computers generally.
I will give links at some stage, I promise.
I feel your pain. I had that same problem with my last manuscript. I nearly pissed myself with joy when it was bought. ;)
Thanks once again. Interesting stuff.
yeah...what Good Dog said.
Dave,
Glad it helps. Although ignore the references to Google News because your blog doesn't have that default link. It's the Edit-Me you're after.
And you can always do a preview of the template to see that you're on the right track.
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