Dec 23 part 2

Not in the least interested.
The investor, that is.
In fact, I'm pretty sure he thought we were insane.
First off, he makes us wait for almost an hour and if it wasn’t for all the original artwork gracing the walls (Warhol, Hockney, Miró) and a vat of free coffee I would have left.
But he wanted nothing to do with the project.
When we showed him the 3 minute trailer, he knew half the people in it.
Hey Phil Gurin. I know Phil Gurin...
Halfway through it, though, he says, “how long is this?”
Waiting at the airport now.
Flight, of course, is delayed.
Battery dying on laptop.
More on this pitch later...
Or maybe not
Best just to forget it.
As the plane will not land until 11:30, I’ll miss my anniversary altogether.

Film/TV Investors

My 10 year wedding anniversary and I had to send my family home without me.
Moved my trip back so we could go pitch an investor.
Wouldn’t do it if he wasn’t legit.
Gill Holland (Hurricane Streets, Loggerheads) has come onboard with us as a producer.
He’ll give us some of the clout we need, but will function more as a consultant.
Since we first pitched Gill a month or so ago, he completely understands that we’re following the story being presented to us.
Dave and Gil R. have been somewhat out of the loop as of late.
Dave landed a WaWa commercial while in Los Angeles.
Gil is working on a TV show called Greg the Bunny for IFC as a tech-guy which, oddly, Gill Holland is producing.
They have never met.

Knee surgery

Torn meniscus.
Knee surgery.

Adult Swim come through!

Email from Ben Gruber.
He just sold a cartoon to Adult Swim called Super Jail.
Of course we missed it.
Did I mention that we tried to eek our way in?
Well, if I didn't, we gave it our best effort...
How were we to know.
Gruber did say that perhaps we can film him going through drafts, artwork etc...
Dig the first set of notes he received back from The Cartoon Network, they said, "Can you make it a little stranger,weirder?"
I would kill for a note like that.
Are you kidding?
The flood gates are open, son, here's your surfboard, I'll see you with the Lochness Monster.
Gil and Dave had an amazing set of pitches.
Two of which, however, would not let us in with them.
But their reactions afterward were wonderful.
Perry scored two huge interviews.
One with industry big, Mark Itkin, the head of worldwide programming (or something enormous like that) for The William Morris Agency.
And with Jon Murray creator of The Real World
These are the biggest blokes we have thus far.

Where has real documentary filmmaking gone?

Jill Boniski.
Producer of America’s Next Top Model.
She’s really a writer.
Cannot believe that she’s not called a writer, that she has to be called a producer.
Adamant that you cannot capture reality.
Even documentary, she goes on at length, cannot be real.
On the subject of Reality TV, she often would catch herself taking rather large digs and then pulling back, laughed at herself.
Great content.
She's smart.
Thoughtful.
Perhaps a bit bitter about the industry, but who isn't.
Later, after the camera is off -- of course! -- a dialogue ensued on Michael Moore and his “Documentary” style and how it cannot be, in any way shape or form be called a real documentary.
I am astonished at how often this conversation keeps coming up.
Over and over and over again.
Particularly Farenheit 911 and, also, Bowling for Columbine.
Many agree with the politics, but very few defend his right to call his films an actual documentary.
Funny that.
The seeping oil of self-righteous people.
Me, included.
I can honestly say that this sentiment regarding Michael Moore is a prevalent feeling in the TV and Film (and actor) communities
The people who are in the entertainment industry, I've found, are brutally vociferous against where he’s taken the genre.
Cannot help but to think back to what Rob Sharenow from A&E said when I had asked if we could interview him… “Don’t sandbag me. Remember, I used to work for Michael Moore.”
It was his nod to the façade of Moore’s technique, right?
Where has documentary filmmaking gone?
Has Reality TV sullied the entire genre?
What is real?
Holy Christ, did I just write that sentence?
Upon checking…
Yes, I did write that sentence.
I am ashamed of myself.
What is real.
Who am I, Kant?

Again, LA...

Fish tacos all the time.
The best part of LA.
Gil and Dave are to pitch number of production companies.
The one’s they’ve done so far: Megahertz Pictures, Line 204 , Maverick TV (uk?)
The above would not let us film.
Which is the reason I won't post a link to you guys here.
So, take that!
One of the companies that did let us film was called Perryscope Pictures
Josh Otten was the executive taking the pitch; didn’t have a whole lot of positives for the boys, but I will say this…
Gil is extremely funny.
He pitches these outrageous ideas just to break the ice and then, Dave reels him back in so that they can pitch their real ideas.
In fact, earlier in the day Dave gave us the new name for our Doc;
He was trying to pep Gil from a funk.
They were on the way over to Universal and Dave says, “Us being here is like the U.S. in Iraq.
This is our Operation Enduring Freedom.
We shouldn’t be here, but what the Hell, let’s kick some ass.”
So, PROJECT: Project, which this decidedly is not, and hasn’t been such for the last few months, is now titled: Operation Pilot.