Ay, there's the rub

People will do what they want to do.
And if they want to invest, they will.
I used to think that if it ever happens, it’ll happen quickly.
Probably because I’ve now heard umpteen times from potential investors: “Oh, you’d be surprised how fast some people will invest.”
May be on Wall Street.
Not in the movie biz.
Ay, there’s the rub: we’re pitching hedge funders, bankers, investors and they’re just a bit out of their game when it comes to movies.
Can we pitch people in the industry, though?
Can we?

Post-Pitch

Money pitch.
Went well enough…
On our end anyway.
Enthusiastic response, too.
And they appeared not to be on hallucinogens or under the influence.
So I am knocking wood and moving on.
Ball is in the investor’s court.
It always is, isn’t it?

Friction

Practiced our new pitch for investors.
And by practiced I mean argued with Perry on the shape and outline of the pitch.
Happens tomorrow at 2 p.m.
Tired.
And angry.
Perry and I haven’t hashed out ideas together in a long while and I just don’t think I was in the mood…

Going Kubrick

On the phone with Perry, into the late, late night.
And it is decided, the documentary’s thrust will be reality TV.
I will force him to watch Survivor, even if I have to strap him into a chair like Alex in A Clockwork Orange.

Gill Holland

Meet with Gill Holland, NYC film producer.
He’s been involved on nearly 50 films over the past 15 or so years.
Perry and I first contacted him when we were drumming up buzz for Creative Process 473.
Now, after a chance meeting on the subway, him asking what we’re working on, us giving him a cursory overview, he agrees to give us some advice.
In the moment, it seemed to us that he’d be a good person to actually vet the interest in the idea.
So we go in, pitch him on it and, here’s the thing, he’s riveted, interested and offers to set us up with a number of his contacts working in reality television.

LA Trip #1

Perry, brave soul, goes it alone.
I’d like to say that I really wish I could have gone with him – but, for the record, that would be a lie.
He’ll grab a couple of assistants there – friends, actually.
Says to me over the phone that the project could be bigger than we first thought.
Says he interviewed various TV players.
Many, by default, working in reality.
An editor for The Amazing Race, named Paul Frazier.
A casting agent for Survivor, Fred Rischer.
And Head of New Line Television, Jon Kroll.
I believe that New Line Television only does reality programming now. Should check on that.
Perry’s thinking that the documentary should be a behind-the-scenes of not simply television production, but specifically on reality TV, starring the people who actually create and make it.
It’s topical, he tells me later, it will be for people who love reality and for people who hate it. His take is that most every person we’ve talked to have been fascinating because they have such strong opinions on reality.
Good documentaries, in my estimation, usually reveal that within the documentary itself, therein lies other stories worth pursuing.
Other stories that could a full-length documentary in and of themselves.
But now we have to choose a direction.
And then choose another direction in the edit.
Reality TV, sure, it’s topical, but is it worthy of an entire doc?
Vastly interesting, Perry says.
How, I ask, is it possible that you think that?
You’ve never seen a reality show in your life.
Yeah, he says, but don’t forget I worked on one for a year and that I know the ins, the out.
A documentary starring: Reality TV?
Hmmm…
The bullet points, I suppose…
Where it came from.
Where it’s going.
Why it’s so popular.
Perry’s scheduled more interviews in LA for October, when he'll be forcing me to go there with him.

KanDu

KanDu Productions.
A writing team.
Dave Roberts and Gil Ripley.
They had let Perry on to the set when they were shooting their pilot for Comedy Central, what, two months ago?
Got some great footage of a production crew clicking away, knocking-off scene after scene after scene, working under pressure, mentions of meal breaks, the different camps – crew, producers, talent, management.
Was quite nice.
Perry actually knew a number of people on the crew and sat a number of them down to chat about their jobs, asked what it’s like to work on a pilot in comparison to a series, what it’s like to work on a sitcom compared to a reality show.
That the show was run smoothly and efficiently, there was very little drama that was out of the ordinary.
But what may come across as ordinary to people in the business, may seem extensive to those outside the box, so to speak.
Gretchen Cryer (mother of Jon Cryer) was one of the actresses…
Quite a wonderful, kind person.
In retrospect, I wish we had done the interview with the two writers when they wrapped the shoot – as Perry wanted – because, today, Gil was the only one in the office when we arrive.
Perry goes mute;
he’s pissed and busies himself with assembling the gear.
We set up the area and hope Dave arrives, soon.
We’re to meet and pitch another investor for lunch, so our time is limited.
Gil makes a few calls.
And…
Nothing.
Their office is a nice midtown space (yes, Midtown – starving writers in midtown, kinda weird).
They share it with other TV-production types; a writer/producer named Sherry.
Maybe it’s Tracy.
Should find out though because she said, sure, she’d pitch on camera for us.
She’s currently working on an MTV rapper-type project.
And then there was another guy who had his own avid system.
Nice enough, but whistles a lot.
Later on we had to ask him to stop his self-amusing scat while we were shooting.
In an earlier conversation with him, he tells us that he’s pitching a reality show about angles, real life angel stories.
Could maybe film that one…
The wait for Dave lasts 20 minutes until Gil gets a text message from him...
Dave has kids, we find out, and the nanny didn’t show so his E.T.A. is M.I.A.
There’s a problem I can identify with, and intimately.
We decide to Q&A Gil, regardless.
Basic set up.
Against a white wall.
Blank TV set to the camera’s right.
We begin rolling tape.
First, give your name, what you do for a living and where we are?
Mumble, garble…
The lav mic isn’t working.
This takes five minutes to fix.
But in those five minutes, Gil either gets nervous or annoyed.
Not really sure, but his demeanor changes.
It takes a good 20 minutes into the Q&A until he begins to relax again, until he begins to simply have a conversation with me.
He’s extremely funny and seems to have experienced a whole lot more than his boyish looks reveal.