Development

Heads up for those who don't know, I'll be posting I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell related posts on the official site from here on out. With what frequency I'm not sure, but it's nice to have another outlet to encourage me to keep on writing. Here, I'll stick with other things going on in my life, not the least of which I'm going to start talking about today- reality TV. 

Interestingly enough, I don't watch much reality TV. I mean I've seen some, I know the formula, but the most consistent "reality" stuff I watch is on the Discovery Channel. Man Vs. Wild, very rarely a Mythbusters (although I HATE HATE HATE their episode structure, pisses me off to no end). However, I'm developing a reality project I like quite a bit. It's certainly not revolutionary, but there are aspects of the show that I think make it a viable project. (And, if I'm lucky, it's going to involve some travel. An added bonus.) 

Obviously, I'm not going to be posting plot points here. What I'd like to talk about a bit is the idea of the "gatekeepers" in Hollywood. I'm lucky in that I have connections in various areas of Hollywood (even ::gasp:: oustside of Tucker). In talking with them, it has become very clear to me that there is no one person who can simply grant you a greenlight on a project, at least initally. 

At one production company I've been speaking with my process will go something like this: make initial pitch to contact, contact discusses with development team, development teams gives okay, Greg goes in and pitches to development team, development team discusses and offers changes (at this point, the project might not resemble anything that I pitched), then if the development team signs off, I would pitch to their "Executive Producer." If he likes it, then we finally go out to the networks and see if anyone on their end likes it. 

How long does this take? Who knows. I'm barely at step one. I have a pitch that I like, and now it's a matter of getting to the decision makers. And that means finding ways through the gatekeepers. 

Alternatively, you can try and use "connections" to start at the top and push downward. In my case, this involves friends of friends, contacts etc. Ideally, I'd prefer to do this. We'll see how it all pans out. 

My being 22 and trying my hand in all this is a bit daunting. However, I possess something that even the mightiest network head needs: content. And it is this all important factor that gives me some encouragement. 

Yesterday I ran my outline by Nils. He had some superb suggestions, nearly all of them I implemented in a revised draft I sent out this evening. However, what really caught my eye was this: 

I would definitely watch this.

And that's a good reason to keep slugging on.