Making Moves
We bought our house in September of 2018. The down payment came from money I saved during EXTANT and REVERIE and money Julie saved on tour with LES MISERABLES. We had enough savings left over to ride out an inevitable slow period, but a few months later I sold a pitch to a streamer. I broke the news to Julie by saying, “Congratulations, we get to keep the house!”
Cut to four years later.
After The Great Packaging War of 2019 that lasted two years. After the Global Pandemic that — actually, it’s still going. Buying slowed, theater totally shut down. I got my agents back, I sold another pitch. Then one project didn’t go forward and I was let go from the second.
That was exactly one year ago.
2022 has been all uphill in terms of selling new projects and trying to staff. I’ve been incredibly lucky with some of these opportunities but by the end of summer there was still not an actual paycheck in sight.
During this slow period the one thing we kept coming back to was that even though we weren’t working, the house was making money. Then the market took a downturn.
So we made the hard decision to sell the house. I say it was a hard decision, but in fact, it was a pretty simple, pragmatic one. We figured we could stress out about the mortgage and the fact that neither one of was anywhere near making a stable living again, or we could cash out, go back to renting, and buy ourselves some more time to pursue the things we love.
In the end, it was clear to both of us that we loved that pursuit more than owning a house. In fact, the idea that we did own a house was kind of strange. Like, “Can you believe we pulled this off?” We have rented our entire adult lives. We like moving around, exploring new places, and trying new things. We can make anywhere home, a skill we honed through years of summer stock.
Luckily, the process of selling the house went as smoothly as it could possibly go. And, I feel like we did it just in time. While we were in escrow the interest rates went up which knocked a few potential offers out of contention. Ultimately, we found a great buyer, we found a new place we absolutely love, everything worked out. The hardest part of moving was a long, slow, sad goodbye to my beloved crows and squirrels and the neighbors who had become great friends.
The week before the actual move, Julie booked a commercial and I got a call about a potential job, supervising a writer through the pilot process. In the networking crossover I did with Ben Blacker I talked about how this current round of pitches is like one long networking event, a chance to catch up with execs I love but maybe haven’t seen in a while. My feeling was, even if they pass, maybe I’ll be fresh in their minds if something else comes up. And that’s exactly what happened. (I’ll give you more specifics in a later issue) I fell in love with the material, I met the writer on Friday, we clicked, and the next thing I knew, I got a call about meeting with the studio. And could I do it on Monday?
Monday morning, while it was pouring rain outside, and Julie and a small army of movers were packing up furniture and hauling it out of our old house, I snuck off to a side room for a zoom meeting with the studio.
The next day, Tuesday, I had an early morning pitch for my new sci-fi series. There was just one problem. We didn’t have wi-fi at the new place. Since we weren’t supposed to hand over keys to the new owners for a few more days I decided to haul a card table and folding chair to the old house and do it there. Julie had her commercial shoot that day and I felt bad about leaving Ellie alone in a new place so I took her with me.
On the highway, my car started knocking like crazy on the passenger side. I decided to keep going, so I just put the hazards on and drove fifteen MPH to the old place.
As I was setting up the card table I couldn’t help but laugh at how things were getting progressively harder. It was like a video game, starting with the last minute wild card of this potential new project, to the last minute meeting, to the torrential downpour during the move, to calling an audible and doing one last pitch in an empty room at the old place, to white knuckling it while it sounded like someone was beating on my car with a baseball bat. I was in survival mode, putting one foot in front of the other.
Which is not a great headspace to pitch from.
So a minute before I opened up the zoom I wrote a post-it note and stuck it to the top of my laptop.
It said, “Slow down. This is fun. You are so lucky you get to do this.”
This may sound crazy but it actually worked. Taking those few moments to remind myself, to put it down on paper, calmed my nerves and put me in a place of joy to tell my story.
No bullshit, I think it was the best one so far.
Afterward, I immediately drove to the dealership where the tech discovered that the tread on my front passenger tire was completely shredded. The other three were like Bruce Willis, Vin Diesel, and Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Just bald as hell. I’m lucky I didn’t get in an accident, especially with my precious furry cargo. Ellie and I waited while they put on new tires. We passed the time playing fetch in the showroom and eating snacks from the vending machine, the stress of the day finally starting to lift.
On the drive home, my managers called.
The studio is going to make an offer for me to supervise the pilot.
My real reward for making it through that gauntlet was two days of hanging out with friends at a stunning wedding in a canyon down in Orange County on Friday and a birthday party in Los Alamos on Saturday night. I had time to reflect on the drive, listening to music and cruising safely on brand new tires. Despite a couple of sleepless nights thanks to the Santa Ana winds and having to postpone a pitch because we lost power for half a day, we’re settling in just fine.
It feels like everybody’s in a mad dash before the town shuts down for the holidays. If you’re running that pilot gauntlet, if you’re cramming in the last few pitches, if you’re thirty-thousand words into your NANOWRIMO project or a new spec, keep going.
There’s still plenty of time to make magic.
Don’t forget to take a breath now and then.
Slow down. This is fun. You are so lucky you get to do this.
Spielberg Wants You To Watch These Movies
I can't wait to see THE FABLEMANS, Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story. In the run up to its release, Indiewire put together a list of some of his favorites. This paragraph really struck me:
“Before I go off and direct a movie, I always look at four films,” Spielberg has reportedly said (though sourcing that particular quote proves a murky research journey). “They tend to be ‘The Seven Samurai,’ ‘Lawrence Of Arabia,’ ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ and ‘The Searchers.'”
It got me thinking about the four movies I would pick to supercharge my creativity before I start writing a new feature spec. I want to put a little more thought in to it and maybe do some experimenting before I tell you.
What would yours be?
Steven Spielberg’s Favorite Movies: 22 Films the Director Recommends | IndieWire — www.indiewire.com In honor of "The Fabelmans," 22 of Steven Spielberg's favorite movies: "Lawrence of Arabia," "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Tootsie," and more.
Octavia's Art
In the last issue I talked about how Dennis Linde drew a map to keep track of the fictional characters in his songs. I was thinking about other ways that writers can use visual aids to inspire them and I remembered this picture I took a few years ago at The Huntington Library's exhibit on Octavia Butler. She made this vision board for Parable of the Talents.
It's like a thematic and emotional blueprint for the novel. I took this picture because I wanted to try this for myself but never got around to it. I have to do it at some point, I think it's extraordinary.
One Last Bit of Business
The next issue will be coming to you via Substack. I don't think there's anything for you to do, I just wanted to give you the heads up.
I hope you have a great week!