Thursday - August 6, 2015
Finally, we have some news of a couple of fronts. As some of you know, last evening we held a company conference call, as the partners in Dalmatian are from Florida, Delaware and California. With everyone's schedules it's not always an easy task to do and we managed to have a successful one last night.
STUDIO NEWS - Our L.A.-based partner brought us up-to-date with where the project is floating out there. One excellent contact at one of the larger talent management/production companies, did indeed receive a promotion, in title. He's still awaiting the company to make good on the financial side of his deal. Whether he stays there or moves, the fact is that he loves the show and will take it with him to present to anyone he may get to listen.
In the meantime, our partner and his associate are sending the script to two large and very well-known production companies. However, as we have come to learn (and as I wrote about recently) those wheels in Hollywood turn very, very slowly.
COMPANY NEWS - The main reason for our conference call last night was to discuss the possibility of turning to crowd-funding (Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, etc.) to raise funds for us to produce a elongated "trailer." A "trailer" is a preview that you seen online, in commercials on TV and "COMING SOON" previews at the theater. We initially talked about producing a 6-8 minute trailer that would provide the viewer with a few key elements of what the show would be about.
Our show has been designed to be what's called today a, "limited series." For example, shows like "Under the Dome," "Proof," and "Falling Skies" only air 8-12 episodes for their season. Currently, it is a very popular way for many networks to air programs, they're less expensive that shooting and air a full season of 20-22 episodes. However, right now, we have already drawn up a three-year plan of the direction the stories will go, keeping the main theme and mystery alive throughout.
There's another important point we want to make sure everyone knows about. First, all of us either are, or have been emergency first-responders. We just regular belly-crawling, snot-nosed nozzle-jockeys like everyone else. We're not big Hollywood producers or moguls looking to make a buck off of firefighters.
Two - We are dedicated to show only the best of the fire/rescue service and EMS. If we didn't stick to our guns about that, we could have had several shows on TV already. But we refused. We will never do anything that doesn't show the best of who we are and what we do.
Three - Besides the main theme of the show which is XXXXXXXXXXXXX, we also have several others that are very important to us, i.e., juvenile fire starter education programs, LODD's, the National Fallen Firefighters' Foundation and more. Moreover, we're going to show that sometimes, we make mistakes. Certainly not on purpose, but they happen and how we have to deal with them. Mistakes in our lives, our tactics, our abilities, etc. Also, we'll try to deal with the public's perception of the fire service, what's true and what isn't.
All of this is part of what we will bring to our show.
THE "HOW WE'RE GOING TO DO IT" PART - Well gang, this might be the most important part. As I said, we initially were talking about producing a 6-8 minute trailer. After some discussion one of the guys said, "Well, if we can raise enough to produce a trailer, why should we not be able to raise enough to shoot the entire PILOT!!?!?!!?!?!
There was a long pause before everyone chimed in, "You're right!" "Good idea!" "We didn't think of that before!" As it turn out, it was unanimous. We all agreed that instead of just a trailer, we're going to shoot for the whole thing, shoot the pilot for the show. The script is written, which is one-half of the two largest tasks. The second large task? Finding the "scratch" to put it together.
To that end, we've decided to take a long and serious look at crowd-funding. Some of you may have heard that when fans of the former TV show, "Veronica Mars," wanted to see a motion picture to help tie-up all the loose ends that occurred when the series was canceled, they went on KickStarter and in less than a day, they raised over $2 Million!
We would have to set a goal, which two of the guys are working on, that would cover all the costs involved for shooting a 46-minute show. "Forty-six minutes? I thought it was going to be an hour show?"
It is an hour show. Any hour show today is only 46 minutes of programming. The rest is used for commercials and previews. Nevertheless, it will require a significant budget and a great deal of work.
We also looked at this fact: There are nearly 1,000,000 firefighters in the U.S. and Canada (career, volunteer & on-call). Then add in their spouses, significant others, parents, etc. Now add to that all the EMT's and Paramedics, and Rescue Squad members; then add their families to it.
If every member of the broadly defined fire-rescue-EMS services donated one dollar ($1.00), we would have over a million dollars!! And that's not even including all the "buffs", the people who belong to CERT programs, and viewers who like firefighters and firefighting quality shows!
Now wait! Don't start opening your wallets or writing checks yet! This is not a certainty yet. As I said, two of our guys are going to work to develop a budget and present a strong argument which way we can go. We've scheduled another meeting in two weeks. We'll see what happens. Keep your fingers crossed. Remember, Stay Safe.
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