I mentioned yesterday that my chat with Ken at the Madison writers conference represented something of an epiphany and maybe that’s worth a little elaboration.
My goal was to tap Ken’s experience and expertise to answer some questions and suggest the most effective way to proceed with the several projects that are on my plate and related to each other: ARC (the novel), ARC (the two screenplays based on the novel), “Baby Shoes” (the anthology of filmed shorts), “Andy” (the movie), and “Andy” (the TV series).
He offered some discouraging words, among them that an unproduced writer out of Evanston, Illinois is really not likely to: 1) be made showrunner [“they’ll get someone experienced to do that and they won’t want you around”], 2) sell a screenplay with a budget north of $100 million, 3) capture the interest of a producer in an odd project like an anthology of shorts.
So I asked him which impossible mountain I should try scaling first and that’s where the epiphany came in. He said, “That project of the TV series is interesting. Even though selling it as a TV series – selling it cold – probably can’t be done, you should think about writing some of the episodes as short stories.”
I’ve been thinking about what would be in the “bible” for the “Andy” show and what sort of themes the various episodes might tackle and that fits in so closely with telling short stories. Not sure to what extent it has been done before but from the outside it just seems an eminently logical first step.
So thank you Ken.
As a post script, he also said, “You should write the pilot – it’s a good exercise.” I have also been thinking I would need to write the pilot in any case so once again his comment and my inclination lined up. Thanks again.
Ken’s website is escriptshub.com. It’s an interesting place and worth more than a few minutes banging around over there to see what he has to offer.
My goal was to tap Ken’s experience and expertise to answer some questions and suggest the most effective way to proceed with the several projects that are on my plate and related to each other: ARC (the novel), ARC (the two screenplays based on the novel), “Baby Shoes” (the anthology of filmed shorts), “Andy” (the movie), and “Andy” (the TV series).
He offered some discouraging words, among them that an unproduced writer out of Evanston, Illinois is really not likely to: 1) be made showrunner [“they’ll get someone experienced to do that and they won’t want you around”], 2) sell a screenplay with a budget north of $100 million, 3) capture the interest of a producer in an odd project like an anthology of shorts.
So I asked him which impossible mountain I should try scaling first and that’s where the epiphany came in. He said, “That project of the TV series is interesting. Even though selling it as a TV series – selling it cold – probably can’t be done, you should think about writing some of the episodes as short stories.”
I’ve been thinking about what would be in the “bible” for the “Andy” show and what sort of themes the various episodes might tackle and that fits in so closely with telling short stories. Not sure to what extent it has been done before but from the outside it just seems an eminently logical first step.
So thank you Ken.
As a post script, he also said, “You should write the pilot – it’s a good exercise.” I have also been thinking I would need to write the pilot in any case so once again his comment and my inclination lined up. Thanks again.
Ken’s website is escriptshub.com. It’s an interesting place and worth more than a few minutes banging around over there to see what he has to offer.
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