And this is our first edition! Yay!
Instigated by Shawna over at Shouting in the Wind, this week’s topic is:
TIME CAPSULE — This topic is actually a 3-parter. First, recount your journey in screenwriting up to this point in time. Second, tell us where you are on your journey now. Finally, for the really fun, creative part — blog as if it is one year from today. What has the past year of your journey been like? What has changed? Be as realistic or not as you like — it’s your time capsule! One year from now, we will revisit our time capsules to see how we did with our predictions… Your post can be as long or as short as you like — the most important thing is to have fun with it!
My travels have been well-documented on this blog, so I’ll just give you a TL;DR version.
I created A TV Calling over five years ago to chronicle both my love for and odyssey towards television writing.
In 2010, I was finally able to move across the world, to Los Angeles (from a little town called Paris). That is, after winning the green card lottery (Serendipity? Fate? Who the hell knows). It is true that in the months following my arrival, I wasn’t able to blog as much as I used to. I went from pretty much a post a day to less than one a month. Fortunately, I’ve jumped back on the horse this year. I’ve also been working on my own writing (of course). As you saw last week, I’ve even decided to experiment with distributing some of that work online (through Star Trek: Terran).
In the few years I’ve been here, my professional experience, like anyone’s in Hollywood, has been full of ups and downs. One thing did not lead to another.
For me, “looking back” on such a short and recent period of time (in the grander scheme) seems hard to do without seeming pompous (rather than reflective), so I won’t expand. It has been frustrating at times, to say the least, but also rewarding, thanks in large part to the friends I’ve made along the way. We’re all our own worst critics, and measuring what I’ve accomplished to what I want(ed) to accomplish is more than a difficult task.
So, where to next?
Simply put: A writers’ assistant position on a show within the year; AKA the most coveted job in TV land.
(By the way, if you’re in a sharing mood and have potential leads, you should totally contact me! ;) ).
At the end of the day, this is an ongoing adventure. A journey. I could make another trite analogy–something about a race and marathon–but we all know the point already. When it comes to this industry, there’s only one quote that sums everything up: “Never give up, never surrender.”
A TV Calling blog entry from an alternate future: September 24, 2014
It has been ten years since Oceanic Flight 815 crashed and I’m still stuck on this goddamn island!
As I’m typing this, I’m wearing my Memoto camera. It’s awesome living in the future, where I have the technology to log my life. If only we had ways to transcribe, status-update, or even tweet about it in the days of yore. We were just a bunch of cavemen back then.
I miss Breaking Bad, but I’m glad I’ve found a worthy replacement in the fresh NBC series, Cop M.D.
A ground-breaking criminal/medical procedural featuring Christian Slater as a cop who goes undercover as a surgeon in a Boston hospital to root out a secret drug-trafficking operation. He also struggles with alcoholism, has a shaved head and scruffy beard, so you know he means business. Literally. They created his character to fit the network’s larger business plan of bringing the edgiest characters from five years ago. Classic NBC.
I’m glad they picked this over that Wizard of Oz-inspired drama (not that one, the other one. No, the other other one).
Now that I think about it, I don’t even know why I’m writing about this show since everyone has seen all the amazing ads that aired during the August Emmys.
In fact, I’m sure Cop M.D. will get the post-Super Bowl spot in February. They know people will chime in for this stuff.
Where was I? Oh, my life.
Good time were had by some.
Being in the room = best thing ever. Just being able to sit there and observe the process from the inside is, well, amazing. And, yes, everyone is still impressed with how fast I type things. What can I say, I’m like a writing machine. Tom Jones is on the verge of making a song about me.
I’ve had a good run with my spec, in that it didn’t make it into any of the fellowships (0.40% chance of that happening anyway).
I’ve begun work on an epic adventure feature involving space and time. But I’ve had this idea for a really cool pilot, so I may put both projects on hold and write a one-act play instead. Looks like I’ll be creatively busy for the foreseeable future.
Write on.
Amazing! And I’m clapping gleefully. Thanks, Alex. Now I really do need to raise my game. :)
mine’s up
Hey there! Just read through this post as well as posted my own. Very much a newbie to this particular blogroll set up by Shawna. Been fun to read everyone’s stories. Thought I would pop in and introduce myself. I don’t comment nearly enough on peoples’ blogs anymore, and I’m hoping this post series will get me out of my shell, so to speak.