Happy Friday! Last Monday afternoon I got a call from my reps about a potential staffing opportunity. It was for a returning show that I dearly love but I hadn’t seen the latest season. I basically had two days to binge ten hours of brilliantly crafted television which is one of those moments where I think, “I can’t believe this is actually my job!”When I get a chance to meet with someone else about possibly joining their staff the first step, of course, is to read the script if it’s a new series or watch as many episodes as humanly possible for a returning show. Then I do research on all of the people involved, including going to YouTube to watch interviews the creators/producers may have given about the series.I make notes about all of the main characters as I go, moments that really sucked me in, or places where I felt a personal connection to the material or specific characters. At some point before the meeting I go through those notes to refresh my memory and organize them into coherent thoughts for discussion.I’ve been on enough of these now on both sides where I don’t feel like I have to sell myself too hard. I don’t come in armed with a lot of pitches or wild swings for the characters. I tend to ask a lot more creative questions than logistical ones. Mainly because those questions will reveal the themes or characters I’m most interested in and very often it kicks off a creative discussion that starts to feel like I’m already in the writers room with them.There have been times when I’ve left those meetings and wondered if maybe I didn’t come off enthusiastic enough about the show or the opportunity. Did I fail to clearly communicate how much I’d love to work on this show? Did I joke around too much and give the impression that I don’t take things seriously enough? I also don’t want to come across too eager and make them uncomfortable with my sweaty desperation. Clearly, there’s a lot of overthinking you can do before and after. Mostly I try to relax and be myself. I come in with a point-of-view because I’ve given a lot of thought to the material. I remember we met with a writer for the first season of EXTANT who said, “I think this is about desire.” Even though that wasn’t at all what I was thinking when I wrote it I thought it was so cool that she came at it from another angle. It made me see my own pilot in a whole new way. I’m always honest about my strengths and weaknesses in the room and in production. It’s not like if you’re an actor and you put that you can ride a horse under the special skills section on your resume. If you get the gig maybe you can go take riding lessons and pull it off, but if you say you’re good in post you better be good in post. There’s no crash course for that. The other thing I’m mindful of is not being too negative about any one person or experience, no matter how bad it was. It’s not that I’m not honest if the subject comes up but I’m careful. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m the kind of person who talks out of school or, worse, someone who is quick to put the blame on everybody else for a bad situation. In life in general I try to take more than my fair share of responsibility in failure and be more than generous with praise and credit in success.(Of course, this doesn’t apply to abusive people or toxic cultures. I feel like it’s in everybody’s interest to be candid about that sort of thing but I’m also aware enough to know that some people pay more of a price for speaking out than others.)Before the meeting they read my latest sample, the unmade pilot for BARBARELLA. It’s a pulpy space opera and a very different tone from this show, so they asked for a second sample afterward. If I’m still in the running after that they’ll likely call some references. A lot of these rooms are on Zoom right now but it still comes down to, “Can I spend seven or eight hours a day with this person?” This is where The Old Scout’s advice comes into play (Issue #11). “The better person you are the better baseball player you’re going to be because people will give you opportunities they won’t give someone else.” Fingers crossed. I’ll let you know what happens.WRITING UPDATEBy the middle of January I had finished the new TV series pitch doc and a pitch doc for an audio drama. The other thing that I found myself coming back to again and again was a feature idea that I had done a bunch of brainstorming for just before the holidays. I realized that if I took a few days to focus on fleshing it out I could close out January with three completed documents that would form the basis of personal creative slate for the next few months. After spending Mon-Weds of last week getting prepped for the staffing meeting I tackled the last bit of the feature idea and finished right on the deadline on Sunday, the 31st.So here’s the completed lineup at the end of January: 1 TV pitch1 Feature pitch1 Audio Drama pitch1 Feature Spec Script already making the rounds Looking ahead to February I have a few meetings already on the books, a couple of generals and a meeting on an OWA. Things are starting to pick up speed and I’m HERE FOR IT.In the meantime, it's back to the outline for the new drama spec!