This man storms into the coffee shop and starts yelling at us, “You guys are like fucking zombies just sitting here!” Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. I mean sure, we heard the explosions too, but what are we supposed to do about them? They’re still going off. Not sure where. Closeish methinks.
Just finished a meeting with Rob. He’s heading out thisaway. Moving and everything. Funny. I was just talking about him last night to Frankie and company. Told the story about how it was a conversation with Rob that sealed my decision to move out here. Now he’s doing the same thing.
Easy Over is humming along. Rhonda did a budget for the episode I wrote. $116,000 before deals. Not bad. I wrote it with an ear to the budget. Four sections of one main location. Saves on unit moves and lets us spend our money on time with the cast – which is ultimately going to make or break the show.
The highlight of my last 24 hours was a table read with The Family. That’s what I’m calling Frankie and my housemates. We sat around a table with four laptops and read both episodes of Easy Over. Megan and I were the only trained actors around the table (if I can call myself that). Everyone else was just everyone else, reading whatever role I assigned to them. What a hoot! They loved the scripts. Laughter. Drinks. More laughter. It was after midnight when we finally wrapped things up. We decided that this will be a weekly thing from now on. I still have four scripts I can present to the group. Leach is writing one. After that I’ll either have to write more, or start presenting scripts from other writers. Gotta keep that train going.
Rob said he’s going to introduce me to his agent. I’ve also taken Ian’s advice and started researching the largest production companies in town. He thinks people will want to meet me, based on my resume. If I make 40 phone calls and line up 10 meetings, I’ll be laughing. Hopefully it’s as easy as that sounds.
Unlike Regina, figuring out who the big fish in town are, is somewhat NOT straightforward. There is no list or directory that’s easy to track down. After hunting through the bowels of Google for 30 minutes, I decided to hit the Canadian Media Fund website. Every show I want to work on, will have received funding from that organization.
Jackpot. Not only can I discern who’s doing what from the funding results, but I can gauge the size of the production budgets based on the amount the CMF contributed. All I did was look at the Q4 results for productions based in Toronto, and THAT took me 90 minutes. I still have three fiscal quarters to go and I’m already getting a feel for how vast the industry is here.
It’s taking some getting used to. I’m in the heart of the Canadian Film Industry here. I feel like a desert wanderer who stumbled upon Niagra Falls. Everything is here. Everything is a subway ride away! I can bump into the story editor from a big series. I can drop in on seminars by world class filmmakers. I can line up meetings with the biggest companies in this industry. I can attend cultural events and shoot free tequila with fellow writers in an Irish pub.
I can do a table reading with The Family.
The Mind of Jarrett 