CASTING CALL for Back to Normal Trailer

I am officially "casting" for the "Back to Normal" trailer. There are no speaking parts other than Police Chief James McCloud, just visuals. I am looking for people who look similar to the following photo (click to make it larger):
Basically I still need:
1. Redhead (long hair) female...age 25-40 years old.
2. Well-built bald male, tattoos would be a plus. age 25-40 years old.
3. African American female, college age-ish.
4. Asian-American female 25-40 years old.
The filming will take place in mid January. It will take approximately 3 hours. One day only, in Cape Girardeau.

TRAILER Pre-Production

The snowball known as the "Back to Normal" trailer is quickly accelerating downhill (but that is downhill in the good sense--meaning "gathering natural momentum.") I have planned out, at least tentatively, most of the shots in a rough order, along with some voice-over bits and pieces of text, here and there.

I have begun basic storyboarding as well, I just wish I had more time to devote to the artwork, but at this point--function is triumphing over form. As long as I understand and can remember what I mean, the quality of the artistic elements can be diminished.

TRAILER AUDIO--Because the Sound is 95% of the Picture

I have taught Digital Media for nearly 14 years now, having started the program at the Career & Technology Center just at the turn of the 21st century. Of all the myriad topics that I cover in my two year program, one holds a special place in my heart: AUDIO.

As I think back to my days of University training, I remember well the first day of AUDIO in my video production class. The instructor, Dr. James Dufek, had written on the board something to the effect of "Audio is 90% of the picture." We walked in, sat down, and he just stared at that, and then back at us. Almost awkward silence...but I can tell you that his closed lips conveyed more information in that moment, than any other period of typical lecture.

We got the point.

AUDIO is super, hugely, very, necessarily, immensely, indescribably, totally, and well...really important.

If the images are the glove, then the audio is the hand INSIDE the glove, giving it life, depth, reality and emotional impact. I have carried the import of that day ever since. Now, as a classroom teacher myself, with a fresh batch of eager, impressionable students arriving each Fall--I carry on that proud tradition. (Actually I IMPROVED upon it...no offense to my mentor-professor, but now I teach that it is 95% of the picture)

Now that I am working on the trailer to help promote the "Back to Normal" TV show concept, I have spent the last 3 days finding just the right audio to license for this project. I have acquired 3 different pieces (mainly from www.audiojungle.net) and have been mixing them in Adobe Audition. I want this trailer AUDIO driven, and I am planning the shots AFTER I have nailed down the sound...the sound will drive the shots, their pacing, and their transitions.

Here is the current iteration of the audio (without the voice over pieces and other sound effects) to whet your appetite for the full trailer:

CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO(it may take awhile to load)

The Gaffer Says.....YES

STOP THE PRESSES---this just in:
Professional Gaffer Timothy Hawn has just agreed to be the gaffer for the "Back to Normal" trailer.

I am thrilled by the addition of such a proficient and experienced lighting tech to our growing crew. Tim has worked on major films such as Django Unchained, Gone Girl, GI Joe II, and a host of others.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1457297/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

I met Mr. Hawn while Gone Girl was in production in Cape Girardeau, and I immediately knew that the future would be bringing us together once again.

Trailer: The Visual Marketing Piece Takes Shape

A trailer. A teaser. A sizzle-reel. 

This was the recommendation yesterday from my good friend and true filmmaker, Jeremy J. Ford (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2301263/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1). Jeremy, originally a native of Cape Girardeau, moved to Hollywood and found employment on just about every reality TV show, and at one time even worked for MTV.

But, on Friday, December 20, 2013, Jeremy was giving me some advice on how to promote "Back to Normal." He had read the pilot, he knew the overall concept well, but he said that good ideas are sometimes lost because people have a hard time visualizing a concept, especially busy people.

Jeremy told me to make a trailer, a teaser, a short but powerful video marketing piece that would visually demonstrate the energy, the conflict, the mood, and the complexity of the show concept.


Within hours, my head was already spinning. Ideas and shots and music and styles were racing through my media-saturated-mind, and I did what every person does when they are caught up in the creative moment: I grabbed the nearest thing to write on and began gushing out shots and ideas...on a paper towel. Here it is:

Let's just hope that these ideas get ABSORBED by the right network, production house, or agency. 

Getting a Gaffer

A trailer is an opportunity to put your best shots forward, aligned with carefully crafted audio, to create an emotional response that can say nothing else but....."YES!"

With that in mind, I need the lighting to be top-notch. This trailer will (hopefully) be seen by powerful people in Hollywood and New York, these type of people see high-end lighting everyday. If the lighting for my shots looks amateurish, or indie-only-quality, then I may have missed a crucial opportunity to help sell the show.

Tim and Melissa Hawn

I sent a PM to lighting guru Tim Hawn today, asking him to give me a quote for two solid days of shooting for the trailer. Tim has an impressive list of movies that he has done lighting for, including Django Unchained, Secretariat, GI Joe II, and Gone Girl (here is his IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1457297/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1)

I know that he will be willing to help, but I'm not sure if I can afford him. I don't want to make this enterprise a charity, but, I'm sure my kids won't mind eating mac-n-cheese for awhile (in order to pay for a good gaffer)

Here is an funny and impromptu interview that I shot with Tim Hawn on-location with Gone Girl when they were in Cape Girardeau:

EPISODE 2: A Very Awkward Second Date

"Improvement" is one of those terms that has many metrics. You can IMPROVE in terms of quality, you can improve in terms of price, you can improve in terms of efficiency. When it comes to "Back to Normal", even if there hasn't been an improvement in quality of writing, there has definitely been one in terms of SPEED.

Pilot Episode: 21 months to finish (630 days)

Episode Two: 10 days

Mathematically speaking, that's about a 98.4% improvement (of course, this says nothing about quality).

Even though the amount of time doesn't reflect it, composing the second episode was MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more difficult than the pilot. In the pilot, the world was new, fresh, and all possibilities are the table, it's the first date, so to speak---the start of a new relationship.

But the second episode is a VERY awkward second date. But why? The answer is not so obvious, but it makes perfect sense once dissected. The pilot is the beginning, anything goes, and by the THIRD episode, the viewers should know all the characters, understand the basic plot, conflicts, and goals of the major players.

But then there is the second episode. It is the middle child, it is the demilitarized zone, it is that semi-lucid state between deep sleep and slamming the alarm clock at 6:00am. The second episode is an awkward and difficult tale that must be told, and told well. The home audience is still coming off of the pilot, they understand many things, but they do not know the characters and conflicts well enough to just jump into the first big challenge for the group. They are still getting to know and feel comfortable with the setting, they are still building love for heroes, and disdain for the villains.

So what do you do in the second episode? Technically, you still build it like every other episode sans the pilot. The order is predictable:

Group faces a new problem
Group tackles the problem
Group apparently loses the battle
Group revives to overcome (or do they?)

Episode Two needs a magical blend of "difficult challenge" + "character development on speed". The audience needs to meet and develop impressions of all major players, white hats, black hats, and those unpredictable gray ones, at an accelerated rate, especially in a show like this with over a dozen major characters.

With an episodic serial like "Back to Normal," it is crucial to introduce all key players in the first couple of episodes, and then avoid the introduction of any MAJOR new heroes or villains until well into the first season. If you are constantly introducing new and significant characters, it makes it difficult for the audience to connect and feel comfortable, safe, "at home," in this new world you are building for them.

Obviously there needs to be new challenges, new obstacles, new setbacks--each episode--but these need to be within the constraints of a known and familiar environment, filled with known and familiar people. Think of Gilligan's Island, an enormously successful show, it had nearly 100 episodes. Yet think about it, after the pilot, no new major characters were ever introduced again....ever. It started with 7, it ended with 7.

So, I finished the "second date." It was difficult, it was awkward, I was nervous, I was uncomfortable. But, at the end of the date, I think we're finally ready for that important third one, I think the bridge from the first meeting to the "let's go steady" phase is a success. I think, wait, no...let me rephrase that...I KNOW she likes me.

I have no marriage plans just yet, but I am looking at rings.

First Printed Screenplay of "Back to Normal"

I finished the first draft of the pilot episode of "Back to Normal" today (October 15, 2013). It is one of the many milestones of this adventure that began about 4 years ago. In January of 2009, Ron Pokracki (pictured above, right) and I were driving to a video shoot in the heart of the Bootheel of Missouri and the dialogue that would eventually crystallize into the "Back to Normal" Television series began.


In the photo above I am commemorating that "red letter day" by presenting Ron with the very first printed copy of the pilot episode in the TV studio of the Cape Girardeau Career & Technology Center.

PILOT FIRST DRAFT IS DONE!

With bleary, red eyes, trembling hands, and empty cans of caffeine-laden soda strewn about, the first draft of the pilot episode of "Back to Normal" is done, this 13th day of October, 2013. I really don't know what my rush was, I've only been at this since the second week of January...2011. Almost three years...hmm...let's do the math:

Roughly, 60 pages in 21 months (630 days give or take) = 10 days per page. Ouch.

Now, in my own defense (since I don't see anyone else rising up to protect my pride), in all fairness, it wasn't until about the spring of this year (2013) that I really got serious about writing for this TV show. Yes, I had jotted notes down from time to time, yes, I had spent late night hours and car rides pondering, planning, plotting, and destroying my ideas, but the serious business of writing has largely been confined to the last six months.

Looking back at some of my older notes and journal entries, it is gratifying to see the changes and refinements that have come to this project. Name changes, title changes, character development, story arcs, and countless other facets, facts, and foes have emerged, and matured.

Having written three feature length film screenplays before beginning this project, it has been a steep learning curve of late gaining knowledge and skill in the area of TELEVISION screenwriting. Trust me, a screenplay is not a screenplay is not a screenplay. There are some deep and fundamental differences between the flow and structure of MOVIE scripts and TV scripts.

For instance, movies are typically based on the famous "THREE ACT STRUCTURE" formula, but television, especially hour-long TV shows, are based off of a FOUR or FIVE ACT STRUCTURE (some networks are moving up to SIX acts!). Films have to FLOW smoothly (most of the time) but TV shows have to pulse, they have "beats", and why?

COMMERCIALS

Movies aren't interrupted every 8-10 minutes by an advertisement. The entire TV script mindset is BUILT around commercial breaks. You must have segment cliffhangers every 8-10 minutes, people must be given a reason to not "turn" the channel. And each episode must make you hunger for the next episode...you can tie up your story in a nice neat little bow, but there better be at least a small, mysterious stretch of ribbon coming off of that bow that makes you crave to know "What happens next?!" And then there are season cliffhangers, and season openers, and teasers, and tags, and, and...oh, bother.

I think I've violated most rules of pilot episodes, including the rule to NEVER kill your main character, or main characters in the pilot. But wait, I don't want to give too much away already. I am going to print out the first official printed copy, sign it, and present it to Ron Pokracki, in honor of that fateful day, almost three years ago, when he said: "I had a dream..."

You know, Martin Luther King also had a dream, but his led to freedom...Ron's dream has led to my willing bondage, a self-appointed probation that has been a wonderful literary journey thus far. I can't wait to see where it goes.

CRAFTY TV Screenwriting

If I strain my eyes, I can just make something out in the distance. But, what is it? Wait, it is a little clearer...it...it, oh, yes, it is--it's the completion of the pilot episode of "Back to Normal." I am getting very close to finishing the first draft of this project/series, nearly three years in the making.

My experience of screenwriting in the past has been feature-length film. I've written a romantic comedy (a "rom-com" in the biz), a police-thriller, and an action-thriller--but these are apples, and television might as well be oranges. Though the fundamentals of storytelling are the same (character, conflict, all is lost, rebirth, final battle, resolution), writing for television is MUCH more difficult (in my opinion).

MORE difficult? I'm sure that most people reading this would think the reverse to be true. With movies typically being about two hours long, and most TV shows at a slim half-hour, or hour, wouldn't THAT difference alone place cinema in the "More Difficult" category?

(Incidentally, the proper word is "more" and not "most"...as the mother of a good friend of mine is always quick to point out. If there are only TWO things in comparison, one of them can be "more" of something, but not "most" of something. For example, I have three children, a boy and two girls. I have an OLDER daughter, and a YOUNGER daughter, but I do not have an ELDEST (oldest) daughter, or a YOUNGEST daughter). Anyway, I digress...)

Let me repeat, writing for TV, in my opinion, is a much greater challenge, and there is one fundamental difference between TV and the cinema. Do you know what it is? It's so simple, yet often overlooked.

COMMERCIALS.

The theater experience is basically this:
lights go down, movie comes on, movie finishes, lights come back up.

Television is a bit more frenetic:
show starts, commercial, continues, commercial, continues further, commercial, a continuation of the continuation, commercial, even more continuation, commercial, closing (or some variation depending on the length of the show, or what network).

To help me "deal with the differences" between writing for TV and film, I enlisted the literary help of author
Alex Epstein (OK, that sounds way too formal and professional, actually, I just bought and read his book
Crafty TV Writing: Thinking Inside the Box).

I cannot overstate the importance of his advice to a young screenwriter, those hoping to get into television writing. He points out those fundamental differences, demonstrates the importance of writing in four, five, or even six act structure, and how to actually USE commercial breaks to make better television.

He discusses how movies FLOW but television PULSES. It's a not-so-subtle difference that makes all the difference for a writer.

He points out the absolute necessity of creating a BEAT SHEET from a TV show outline, and that cliff-hangers (pre-commercial and end-of-show) are non-negotiable...they WILL be there, or, as a writer, you WON'T be.

To order a copy of his book from Amazon CLICK HERE.

To learn more about Alex Epstein, CLICK HERE.