Pre-Production Day 1

(above, the luxurious Toronto Airport Maple Leaf Lounge and my traditional pilot shoot gear: carry-on, backpack and laptop)

"Pre-Production Day 1" is technically incorrect, as pre-production on the new US television pilot started, officially, Friday. You may be surprised, as I tend to share such events with you. No more surprised than I. Greenlit on Thursday for a tight turnaround, assuming we do all right with casting, hence my momentary silence as I scrambled to adjust. Off to the races, kids.

This moring, equipped with the good Canadian Benadryl (still laden with its crystal meth-friendly ingredients, and so still effective), I've hauled my last-stage flu-ridden carcass onto a flight to Los Angeles. This means not seeing the Lovely Wife for a while, which sucks beyond all belief. It's particularly cruel as our mutual passion, Frisky Dingo, was just about to return to inflame our Sunday eves.

I'll endeavor to share the process with you as completely as possible, taking into account a.) any possible cross-ups with network confidentiality b.) common sense c.) the secret bits where I meet with the Jews and Socialists to insert our secret liberal agenda into our American entertainment products. The ironic bit, of course, is that the premise for the pilot is both a callback to the classic crime/heist shows of the 70's (intentionally) and in its own way as tech-savvy and subversive as Global Frequency. Oh, and craploads of fun. As much fun as we could cram per page.

This is also a very 21st Century project in that the studio is ... a guy. Dean Devlin, occasional business partner and good friend. The only suits are network suits, and the few I've met are pretty damn sharp. Otherwise it's an experiment in solo producing without all the overhead gunk. Dean's pretty aggressive in pursuing new tech -- he'll occasionally buy new video cameras just to test them past the specs the manufacturers use -- and new business models. We'll see what we wind up with using some elements of the New Model of production.

So, Los Angeles today to gather my wits and notes. Sometime later this week, the glory of location scouting. I believe a casting director has already been hired. We'll see if we can get some video up here occasionally as we work. In the meantime, smoke 'em if you got 'em and ask any questions you like. I'll try to answer most without lying.