Film and Television
Belated Congratulations
…to Michael Daniels, one of the students in my "Introduction to TV Writing" class at UCLA Extension, who has landed a job as a staff writer on the CW series ONE TREE HILL. I’m not surprised at all. The goal of the class (a course which is also taught by writer/producers like Matt Witten and William Rabkin) is for the students to complete a beat sheet that they can use to write their TV episodic spec script. But Michael grasped the concepts so quickly, and his first draft beat sheet was so good, that I told him to set aside the class assignments and just go right to script. Writing a script isn’t part of the class, but I thought if he did anything else he’d be wasting his time and money. His script was terrific…and at the end of the session, I advised him to stop taking classes…he was already as good as any professional TV writer I knew. It was time for him to get his work out there in the marketplace. Within a few weeks, his spec script landed an agent at a top agency and he was being sent out on pitches. He didn’t land any freelance gigs…instead, he got right on staff. That accomplishment alone should tell you how good this guy is. I have no doubt that Michael will rise quickly through the ranks and will be running his own show in the not-too-distant future. I just hope he remembers to thank me when he wins his Emmy…
Crossing the Finish Line
Today is the last day of principal photography on FAST TRACK: NO LIMITS… we have a 7:30 pm call, so we’re going to be filming until well past sunrise. It has been an exhausting shoot, but the enthusiasm of the cast and crew hasn’t dimmed. We were shooting yesterday until 5:30 in the morning today and yet, as tired as everyone was, nobody was surly or short-tempered. It’s amazing. My internal clock is all messed up. I only know what day it is by looking at the call sheet.
Sunday we have our wrap party…where we have lots of gifts and surprises for our great crew. And Monday it’s vacation for everyone but the editors. I haven’t seen anything cut together yet, but from the dailies alone I can already tell that this movie/pilot is going to be everything I hoped it would be. Now it’s up to me to make sure that the post-production — the music, sound design and color correction — is up to the same level.
I’m also at the "finish line" for MR. MONK IN OUTER SPACE. I received the copy-edited manuscript at my hotel today and I’ll go over the edits between shots tonight/tomorrow on the set and during the day on Sunday. I hope to FedEx the manuscript back to my editor on Monday or Tuesday…we are in a rush to make the November pub date.
Towards the Finish Line
There are only two more days left of principal photography on FAST TRACK: NO LIMITS and one "pick-up" days to grab some stray shots that we missed or re-shoots that we need to do. But it’s far from over for me.
I am already looking ahead to post-production, lining up composers and discussing the main title sequence. I have a couple of weeks off to travel around Europe with my family, then I head to Action Concept studios in Cologne on July 14 to do my cut of the pilot and choose a composer…then it’s off to teach another Writer’s Room course in Lohr for a week…and then back to Munich on July 25 to present the rough cut to the network. After getting the network notes, it’s back to the editing room to work on the final cut in time to present it to the network around August 6th, then I return to Cologne for a spotting session and to begin work on the sound design. 
I go back to Los Angeles on August 9 for a few weeks to await word on a pick-up, organize my life, and to do ADR with the American actors. If we get picked up to series, then I return to Berlin to oversee the writing and pre-production on eight episodes. Whether we get picked up or not, I have return anyway to do ADR with the British, French and German actors and to lock the pilot movie.
It’s been an incredible experience and I hope it’s only the beginning for FAST TRACK and not the end.
Variety on Fast Track
There was a short bit on FAST TRACK in Tuesday’s issue of Variety:
An English-language urban street racing drama being shot in Germany has just been sold to France’s M6, Japan’s Comstock Group and China’s Beijing Time Entertainment by veteran U.S. distributor Gavin Reardon.
"Fast Track: No Limits" is co-produced by Teuton outfit Action Image and will air in Germany on station group ProSieben.
Reardon last year set up his own international distribution operation in L.A. called And Action! Distribution.
Reardon said Monday that the popularity of automotive-oriented action programming in Asia bodes well for deals in that region. No financial details of the licensing arrangements were made available.
Series is written and exec produced by Lee Goldberg, who, with this project, is importing the American showrunner system into Germany.
Fast Track Pre-Sales
FAST TRACK isn’t finished yet but we’ve already scored a few advance sales. Here’s the news from World Screen International.
BERLIN/LOS ANGELES, June 18: …and action! Distribution has sold the English-language action drama Fast Track: No Limits, co-produced by Action Image and ProSieben in Germany, to France’s M6, Japan’s Comstock Group and China’s Beijing Time Entertainment.
Fast Track: No Limits is the first English-language action drama shot in Germany. Set in the world of urban street racing, Fast Track: No Limits is a story of a group of characters that include a rookie cop, a trophy wife, a fugitive getaway driver, and a young female mechanic, who believe that car racing in abandoned industrial areas is the only way to know that they’re alive. Fast Track: No Limits was written and executive produced by the award-winning American showrunner Lee Goldberg.
"M6 is an excellent partner and the perfect channel as it fits exactly with the target audience for Fast Track: No Limits," commented Gavin Reardon, the president of …and action! Distribution. “We are also delighted with our sales to the Comstock Group and Beijing Time Entertainment, especially given the success of automotive-oriented action programming in Asia.”
Flop Playhouse
Ken Levine fondly remembers the good old days when the networks would burn off their busted pilots during the summer, either sneaking them on unannounced or as episodes of anthologies with names like "Comedy Theatre" and "CBS Summer Playhouse." I miss those shows, too. It was those stealth airings of scrapped programs that sparked my love affair with busted pilots when I was a kid and ultimately resulted in my book UNSOLD TELEVISION PILOTS.
Seeing the pilots was a remarkable opportunity to second-guess network programmers and to try to understand their thinking when they crafted their schedules. Most of the time, there was a good reason the pilots didn’t sell…but every now and then, I’d catch a terrific show and feel cheated that it wasn’t picked up.
Watching those flop pilots was fascinating and a highlight of my summers. I looked forward to it all year (though flop pilots occasionally aired during the regular season, too, usually as TV movies or, near May, as episodes of existing series). I used to tape them all on audio cassette (yes, I am a geek) and once video came along, I recorded them all on VHS. Those tapes became the basis for two network specials that I produced — THE GREATEST SHOWS YOU NEVER SAW for CBS and THE BEST SHOWS THAT NEVER WERE for ABC. Over the last year, I’ve transferred that collection to DVD.
These days, busted pilots are never aired and it’s getting harder and harder even for TV insiders like yours truly to get their hands on screeners. And when you do get one, it feels like you are being slipped stolen property.