Welcome and Thank You!

Just a quick note to all the new followers from Twitter who are visiting our blog for the first time. First, thank you very much for taking the step and supporting our work to produce our new television program, "CAUSE & ORIGIN." Each one of you means a great to us.
It is your support that will allow us to take the next steps to launch the show.

Good news happened to arrive last night, as well. I heard from a good friend in Los Angeles, who has agreed to work on composing the music for the show, that he is bringing the info on the show to two very successful television people in L.A. that are good friends. Does that make it a sure thing? Naw...that's not going to happen. If and when it does, it will be with an exchange of ideas, plans and co-development. 

We want to ask one more small favor. When you visit here, please sign up as a "follower" of this blog. And always feel free to leave a comment any time you read a post. You don't have to agree with everything we discuss and we'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas, too!

Again, you have our sincere appreciation. We wish you all a very happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday.

Steve Greene, President

Bringing a Balance to Life

Each day, our lives pull us in almost countless directions. Work - Family - Home - Hobbies - Community. This one is urgent!! This one isn't. I have to do this! We have to do that. Did you get this done? Did you get that done? Even if we had the same eight arms as an octopus, we'd still probably need to take the old, proverbial broom stick and shove it where "the sun don't shine," to finish sweeping the floor!

We are finding this out almost each day in trying to produce our show, "Cause & Origin." This has to be researched...that has to be sent out. "You have to call this person before noon,"...and don't forget to email that person. 

Yet, there is one, very time-consuming part of the job for our team that, although it takes a good deal more time than we expected, we really enjoy. And that's chatting with many of you on Twitter. With over 900 followers now between both accounts, there are some great discussions and ideas that we share. Plus, meeting many of you, even if only via Twitter, has been a terrific experience and we have learned a great deal.

Yet, even on Twitter, balance is needed, we found. When we decided to really develop a presence, we figured that the fastest way to "grow" our account would be to follow as many people who shared the concept of the fire-service. It didn't take too long before we had grown our Following list to several hundred and our Followers list to a couple of dozen. Out of balance? Definitely. 

We kept growing that way, off-balance, until we hit out first 2,000 BLOCK!!! That's right, we had a couple of hundred following us, but we had already racked up nearly 2,000 that we were following. When that happened, we learned how to strip down the numbers a bit here and there and try to balance ourselves. We've been doing a decent job of it with only a few bumps along the way.

However, with over 900, we had to make a difficult decision and that was to create a better balance to our account. We made attempts to invite as many of those that we were following to follow us. We met with some success, but not a great deal. As you know, we're now seeking your assistance to help us grow our followers, we had to decide to "trim the fat," so to speak. 

Thus, as we encounter tweets from Twitter folks who have not returned the favor, we have had to unfollow them. And it's a shame that we have to do this. We'd love to be able to keep every single one, but as we wrote in an earlier post, "Communication is a two-way street."

Remember though, we'd be very, very happy to welcome as many more followers as want to join us and help us get this show on the air. We are getting closer to our next level of production work and will keep you all advised of the progress. 

As always, thank you for your interest, loyalty and friendship. Don't forget - We're doing this for you!

Stay Safe & Every One Goes Home!

New Technology - New Followers - Good News!

Welcome -

Right from the top, we want to welcome all the new Followers on Twitter, who have joined us at both of our ID's, @DalmatProd and @Cause_Origin. The numbers are climbing, but relatively slowly. But that's OK, most accounts that look for "overnight" 10,000 followers are all too often, disappointed. As long as we have steady growth, we will always keep our spirits up. 

Now that does not mean that we no longer need your help. We do! We still ask for your help, simply by telling your followers about us and about our show, "Cause & Origin." Then, ask them to tell their followers and if we keep this growing, we will reach the levels that we will need. And all of that will be thanks to you!

Additionally, we have created an Instagram account and made our first post there under our name, Dalmatian Productions. We'll start posting there on a regular basis very soon. So if you're an Instagram member, give us a look. 

Right now, all our plans are moving ahead. We taking all the steps in a specific order that will take us to our next level. Please remember, we are relatively new to this. Thus, there is a learning curve for all of us. But we are proceeding. 

Please - Continue to support us simply by referring your followers to us! It's an immense help for us!

Remember - Stay Safe!!! And Every One Goes Home! 

That's News to Us!

Another quick post tonight. We had a very informative and positive conference call on Wednesday evening, between our partners and two reps from the crowdfunding platform that we are seriously considering. They provided both clearer and stronger information that will play a major part in our final decision.

There was one very important point that they brought up and we weren't aware of. And that is before we can even begin our campaign for money, we need to very seriously and strongly increase the number of our followers! Now, if we were just throwing a few "rescue videos" on YouTube, we'd be fine. But we're not. We are looking to finance and produce a professional and dynamic pilot episode of our show, "Cause & Origin," and that will take a major increase of followers and, at the right time, a lot of money.

Listen, we're currently closing in on 800 Twitter followers. According to our advisers, we will need to increase that number into the tens, if not hundreds of thousands! How can we do that?

Here it is in plain language: There are an estimated 1.2 million firefighters throughout the U.S.; career, volunteer, and paid on-call. There's no way we'll reach all of them, but think of it this way. When the time comes for the money, if every one of them donated $1.00, we'd be perfectly set to shoot the pilot. But that is not going to happen!

Again, we desperately need your help. Please reach out to each and every firefighter/rescue friend you have. Reach out to your spouses and significant others. Reach out to your broader family. If you're a member of the IAFF, please contact your local and regional members. Letter HQ in Washington and Ottawa know that you'd like to support our efforts. 

How do we define, "support?" We are not asking you for a single penny, right now; not a dime! All we're asking for is to help grow our numbers so that when it is time to launch the financial side of the campaign, we'll have thousands of people to share our message with. 

So many have come forward already to help in any way possible. And we are sincerely appreciative of your support, loyalty and encouragement. Now, please tell everyone else you know. They don't have to be involved in the fire service. They just need to enjoy quality television with great writing and compelling characters!

THANK YOU! Stay Safe  - Every One Goes Home!

It's a Long, Slow Road to TV Prime Time!

Sometimes, it's just damn depressing! It really is. Even though you might think that after working some 20 years to make this dream happen, we'd be used to the lag time, when things just slow to a crawl. Think of it this way, you have a bunch of really good calls in a row. Each one requires the best from every participant and the calls are almost all different. First you have a complex, confined-space rescue, then just a couple of hours later, you have a working fire in that huge building that you always knew was going to beat you down to a pulp. On both sides of those, you have non-stop EMS calls, a few routine, then you have a difficult delivery, a full-arrest, and a poisoning of a child. All this in just one tour.

Now, you go nearly a week with nothing worse than an ingrown toenail, an elderly resident who simply forgot where he parked his car and the proverbial, cat up a tree. 
"What the hell happened to all that action we had just a couple of days ago," you wonder. Those are the responses you live for!

NOW,  you have an idea of what we're going through. Initially, we thought this week was going to be a big one for us. However, those damn circumstances that you never think about or prepare for, or expect, show up. And with that, molasses is moving across the floor faster than our developments!

We started the week with an excellent conference call. Almost all of our company meetings are conducted via conference call as we're spread out around the county with two members in different parts of Florida, one in Wilmington DE and one in Los Angeles. We decided to continue our discussions with one of the major crowdfunding platforms and to secure domain names for the new show. So we can share that the new domain will be CauseandOrigin.tv. We'll be initializing new email addresses and a new Twitter name this coming week.

That stuff was the "fun" part of our meeting. Then came the section where we have to act like grownups and take care of business. There's a new corporation to form, what type is should be, how to capitalize the new corporation, etc., etc. etc. BORING!! But, it does have to be done. And that's done in between all the really important stuff we do in our lives, like work, teach, household errands, yada, yada, yada. See what I mean? Aren't you enthralled?

Now that's not to say that there isn't some good news. As of a few moments ago (1708 HRS EDT) we have 724 Followers on Twitter. It's a great number, a really great number. Unfortunately, it's nowhere near enough! Why? Look at the numbers:

• There are approximately 1.2 million firefighters in the U.S. (including career, volunteer, combo and on-call)
• For our crowdfunding campaign to raise enough money to shoot the pilot and provide the networks with a great show that they will fight over, we need every one of those firefighters to donate $1.00 each! Right - like that's ever going to happen.
• So, we need to reach as many fire-rescue personnel, plus other first responders from all "branches," i.e. LEO's, EMS, Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. and ask them to contribute whatever they can.
• On top of that, we need to reach each of the great periodicals that service our industry and convince them to pick up an editorial story about our goal to produce this show.
• On top of that, we need to reach as many companies and other businesses whose prime customers are those of us in fire-rescue, EMS, law enforcement, and convince them to be promotional sponsors of the show.

And how is all that going to happen? That's the Million Dollar Question! (sorry for the pun!)

Listen, we deeply appreciate everyone of you who have contacted us via Twitter or email and want to support us. However, we do not want to ask you for money yet. What we do desperately need you to do is simple and free: please pass on our information to everyone you know in the "business." If you work for one of the magazines, tell them about us. We'd be happy to talk to them about it. And if you work for one of the companies that service our businesses, let them know about us too! Just provide them with our Twitter handle (@DalmatProd) or our web site, www.dalmatianproductions.tv, and they can email us for more details. We will write, call, talk and even visit any company that would like to work with us to make this dream, this dream of all of us, come true. 

No, it's not easy. Yet, we have all learned that nothing that is worthwhile in life, ever is. But this is something the fire-rescue personnel, all first responders, deserve. A good, accurate television program about the fire service that will show the viewers what our lives are all about. Who we are and what we do.

Any questions? No problem. Just DM us on Twitter or through the web site.

Now, Stay Safe and Remember - Every One Goes Home!

How Do You "Deliver" a TV Show?

Wow! We just finished our second Periscope broadcast. And a big "thank you" to those of you who tuned in and to those who sent tweets afterward. They are very much appreciated. So in this entry to our blog, I'm going to put into the written word what I discussed on the Periscope broadcast.

As we've explained over the last several months, the sole reason for our company, Dalmatian Productions, Inc., since its inception, was to create and produce quality television programs about the American fire service. The problem was that we were working before our time. Initially, our goal was to produce a couple of reality TV shows (before "reality" came to mean the distasteful stuff we see today) about our jobs. We had a show about volunteers and paid-on-call members and another about career departments. We had placed letters in all the top industry magazines and received hundreds of entries from departments all over the country. We got to work and shot two different pilot episodes. By the summer of 2001, we were gaining interest:

1. I was sought out to write a segment on fire prevention week for the then, Rosie O'Donnell show.

2. While in Israel that July, I was asked to return to Israel in the fall to produce an Israeli version of our show, "America's Heroes: The Men & Women of Fire-Rescue" for Israeli television.

3. Our distributor was getting interest from American cable and satellite networks for the pilot. 

Sounds good, right? WRONG! 9|11 happened. 

Besides being emotionally crushed and devastated, we knew that we had to stop all activity dealing with the fire service. For even though everyone we were dealing with knew that we, ourselves either were or had been members of the fire-rescue service, we did not want to appear that we were trying to use this horrible tragedy for our own purposes.

Over the years, we developed numerous other ideas for pilots, but they all fell within the broad concept of "reality." And over and over again, the TV networks weren't interested in good stuff about our jobs, but instead, wanted us to create a show that would disparage the fire service and hold it out to ridicule. We adamantly refused. 

Then, several years ago, I came up with the concept for "Cause & Origin." We bounced it around with different thoughts and ideas and finally, arrived at what we have today. And this is where YOU come in! 

To produce the pilot episode of "Cause & Origin," we have to generate a significant amount of cash. Watch any one-hour drama on TV today and you'll get a brief idea of what it takes to produce a show. Add to that the costs we will incur for the special effects and real fires, coverage, etc. and that gives you an idea of the mountain we're facing. Thus, our inclination to use crowdfunding to raise the money, a la "Veronica Mars," movie revival.

However, before we can even begin the campaign, we need to know if you, your family, your friends, your coworkers, etc., would like to see a dramatic series about the fire service. There has not been one since the days of "EMERGENCY!," "CODE RED," and "FIREHOUSE." Well, do you? And if you do have the interest, would you be willing to make a donation to our crowdfunding campaign to help make it happen? Well, would you?

That's it! That's what we need to know. So, we're asking you for your help....not your wallet...at least not yet! What we need to know right now is would you like to see this show and would you make a donation (even one dollar!) to help us create it?

To let us know, please send a tweet to us. That's all we need for now. Easy right?

Thanks for reading this entry and remember, #StaySafe and EVERY ONE GOES HOME!

Are We Taking Two Steps Forward and One Step Back?

Have you ever thought about the meaning of the words in the title of today's post? No? Well, try it. Pick two points in your home, in the firehouse, anywhere you choose. Now, walk with your regular gait and time how long it takes to travel from point A to point B. Easy, right? Now, do it again, but for every two steps forward, take one step backward, and time your journey again. Not so easy, eh? What was the difference in your times? Now, imagine living through your entire day, all your tasks, all your errands doing the same thing. For every two steps forward, you must take one step back!

The August 2015 edition of Firehouse^® Magazine notes that seven firefighters died with the classification of LODD. Each and every one of these deaths was classified as an LODD. Not one was a fireground or apparatus/vehicular occurrence. The magazine also has an article about the NFPA’s latest report of LODD’s from 2014. All together, we lost sixty-four brothers in 2014. This made 2014 the third year in the last four where LODD’s were below sixty-five and it was a significant reductions from 2013 where we lost ninety-seven firefighters.

As good as that news is the problem lies in the fact that over half of the deaths in 2014 were caused by sudden cardiac/health events. This was the highest number of health-related LODD’s since 2008.

We have been on our Twitter account (@DalmatProd) for approximately six months now. And we have made firefighter health one of our top priority topics that we look for and write about. As a matter of fact, we are so concerned about this that the subject will play an important role in the television program that we are currently working to sell in Hollywood. Moreover, if you have read this blog before, you know how important it is to us and how often we write about it.

The question remains if we are doing enough to prevent these types of LODD’s. I have no doubt that each and every industry magazine addresses this issue from time to time. Many departments have taken the issue to heart (pardon the pun) and developed excellent fitness programs for their firefighters, both current and future. However, many of those departments are larger, urban and suburban companies that may have a fitness line item in their budget or perhaps, they applied for and received a SAFER grant specifically for this purpose.

Yet two key issues remain. The first is the difficulty in promoting this health initiative in smaller, more rural departments, most of them being volunteer departments. As it is, they are having a difficult enough time just recruiting and retaining volunteers. Now, we push this health initiative on them and they back off because they simply do not have the resources to do so.

The second issue is how do we “encourage” the firefighters, mostly on-call and volunteers, who have been members of their departments for several years or longer and over the course of time have gained significant weight or developed other health issues that could lead to a morbidity level? And what about officers and command staff, who sometimes feel that since they are not performing any physical exertion at calls, their health is not of concern and they should not have to abide by a department’s health standards.

The issue of firefighter health is well publicized; there is no doubt about that. And we have some of the best leaders in this country working their tails off to bring this message to the masses. So, the question remains how we raise the level of attention of our target audience?

As I thought about this very question, the proverbial light bulb went off. How bright it is, well, that’s for you to decide. Every fire department in this country is well aware of the NFPA, its purpose, its mandates, etc. While we all realize that some departments are financially unable to employ each NFPA mandate, they do try to do their best. Why? Because they know in their hearts and minds that the NFPA is working to keep firefighters as safe as possible. Whether it is the semaphores on apparatus, PPE, standards for SCBA, etc. they are looking out for the safety of every one of us and the citizens we protect.

What if we can find a way to create a union of the NFPA and either an existing organization or a new one, even a new sub-department of NFPA to carry this health message to the boots on the ground, so that they see it as the same way the majority see the other safety mandates from the NFPA. Perhaps if we can create a Committee of Firefighter Health & Wellness as an offshoot of the NFPA, our messages will stop falling on deaf ears. Or, at the least, find a larger audience.

However, I sincerely believe that this must come from us, the firefighters, current and former, the departments and our own organizations. I do not want to see governmental bureaucracy involved in this endeavor. We have the experience, we have the knowledge and we have the influence that we can put to work to save our lives.

The goal is simple: let’s give the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation the least amount of work to do. Let’s do our best to live by our motto: #EveryOneGoesHome.

 

"LUCKY THURSDAY" Has Returned (Even if it came on Wednesday night!)

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.