Interesting news...

We submitted the script for our pilot to the 10th FilmMakers International Screenwriting Awards in July and we received word on Monday that we have been selected as a first round qualifier. I say "interesting" instead of "good" because we also received the press release listing all the first round qualifiers, which is almost 475 scripts. Now they claim that they received over 1450 entries, so if that is a true fact, we are in the top third of entries, which is better than, you know, being in the bottom two-thirds. Still, it seems a little premature to get excited about it. Second round qualifiers will be announced December 15th. We'll let you know.

Costuming

If you ever have the need to costume a production, whether for stage or screen, I highly recommend checking out Thunder Thighs Costumes, at 16 Busy Street. Their selection is enormous, with row after row of costumes, and each row is three clothing racks tall, all arranged by era and then by size. I've never seen so many accessories: hats, socks, shoes, jewellery, cufflinks, etc. Not to mention what you might call "special request" items, like uniforms, clown outfits and nun habits. I think I could have spent the whole day there and not have gone through their entire catalogue. The place just has a very laid-back atmosphere and our costume sherpa was helpful and knowledgeable  (I didn't get the spelling of his name, or I'd give him a shout-out here). They even have a shop dog, which always endears a place of business to me. No, they're not paying me for what I realise may be an overly effusive description, I was just very impressed. But whatever you do, if you go there in October, don't mention Hallowe'en.

Audition, actually

We had our auditions on Saturday for our younger male lead and while I haven't auditioned for something in many years, this is the very first time I've been on the other side of the desk. Turns out it's pretty much as nerve-wracking as being the auditionee. And it goes on for longer, too. When you're the one running the audition, there's the pressure of being in charge, but I think we managed to pretend that we knew what we were doing. It helped that we rented the rehearsal space at Rapier Wit for the process and that Scott Moyle was willing to come out and be our person-wrangler. Thanks, Scotty! Also, the large chai latte from Second Cup. As an Executive Producer, I feel that's an absolute must. And we seem to have been successful: we have asked Robert Eaton to be our James and even though he had to rearrange his October travel plans, he's accepted the role. Now on to costuming.

Audition, sort of

We had a meeting today with Peter Nelson, who will be our older male lead for the trailer. I don't think this constitutes an audition, since it was really more lunch and chat at one of our local pubs. We mostly wanted to see him in real life, having already approved of him from a shot provided by Luke Marty, and having seen some of his previous work on video. We did make him read a line from the script, partly for the look of the thing. "Audition" feels like a very large word to me, and I feel sort of uneasy about using it in regards to a trailer for which we have little to no budget. That having been said, we are planning auditions for our younger male lead this Saturday.

An introduction

Perhaps a little background may be in order: "we" is Steve and Chris, and no, for regular viewers of the CBC, we are not a couple of gay interior designers and talk show hosts. We are a married couple, Steve teaches high school English and Drama and I work in television. I finished my first novel in May of 2011 and was about to start writing a second when I heard that the company I worked for was firing up a new TV channel, so I put the novel aside and started working on an idea I had had two years ago for a TV pilot. At about seven pages in, I asked Steve, who is also a stand-up comic, if he wanted to help me write the pilot, and he thought that he would. And, for a couple of people with no experience or credentials, we think it worked out pretty well. Of course, we would say that.

Pre-production

A shout-out to Luke Marty and Lindsey Alston for our first pre-production meeting, during which we made plans to shoot a trailer for our pilot in the last few weekends of October. They have given us a line on some crew, a potential actor for one of our male leads, and are, in general, very excited about the project. Thanks, guys, it feels good to know there are people rooting for us!