It’s after midnight on the left coast, and though I know I need to go to bed there’s this midnight craving I have, it’s not for chocolate, but more of a desire to share something intimate, something real, and something only I could really add to this blog. Read More

Most of us are making a web presence in some way or another.  Some of us are creating amazingly useful, informative, or entertaining blog entries while others are chatting it up on the likes of Twitter.  Regardless of where you speak, you should always remember to consider how you speak.  That’s what Sarah M. Carr did to get our attention.  She made her online presence known with a fun-loving attitude. Read More

Contemplating Writer

When I write, I try to envision everything around the lines: how the characters move, the setting and maybe even the music. Most importantly, the words have to be true to the character and help move the story along. That’s what you ultimately need to see and, usually, that’s done through some form of conflict. However, I didn’t envision conflict on the set around the script. Read More

Tonight is our table read; the first time that all of the cast and crew will be in one place with the script. It’s a scary and exciting moment all at once. I’ve heard it in bits and pieces during auditions and have read through it in my head a thousand times, but now, it’s real. It’s really real. Not only will the script come to life as one full document, but the actors will now breathe real life into the characters. They will bring their nuances, their thoughts and their training to Jenn, Ian, Dave and Larissa. It’s also time for me to transition script and character responsibilities to Cody, the Director. Even though I’m not a parent, I can’t imagine handing off a 3-month old baby to someone I hardly know, but must inherently trust to my fullest capabilities. But, that’s what I will do. The script is “all groweds up tonight” as Double-Down Trent would say.

Given that Jenn is based on a real person, you think it’d be easy to form the basis of her character. Ummm, no. As pointed out in an earlier post, we had to balance between the reality of Jenn and the privacy concerns of someone who is working hard to define herself. In the end, the character of Jenn became a very fictionalized version of her world, her relationships and her struggles. This was all very interesting and I have no idea how writers do two-hour biographical pics. It must be very difficult to draw that line as between “what I hear and see” vs. “what the audience needs to hear and see”. In the end, it comes down to the story and what is best for that.

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Auditions went very well. We had callbacks and really confirmed some of our initial thoughts. It’s always good to hear your words read by others and I was pleasantly surprised by the actors that read. During lunch for the 1st auditions on Oct 4, we had a great, collaborative effort on the script, the characters, etc. Surprisingly, there was a long (really, really long) conversation about the stage of relationship between Ian and Jenn. Are they at 3 months? 6 months? Have they slept together? What does this all mean to the pilot and, thus, the series?

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After the initial idea was fleshed out and I had a chance to learn more about the real-life Jenn, Rob and I collaborated on a treatment. Within that, we discussed the main characters and the core of the show, in addition to an outline of the pilot. I wrote the first draft rather quickly and completed it on Sep 2. It came in at 6 pages and served as the basis for our first group meeting on Sep 4 with the NAS team. Ian was in this draft, but Larissa was not. In short time, Josh came back with some comments. For the next draft, some were included, others weren’t, but Rob and I could tell they got it and had a connection to the project (which was also exhibited in our first meeting). The draft that was completed on Sep 20 ran 7.5 pages and served as the 1st audition draft. Larissa was now included. We wanted to introduce that conflict since we had discussed it further and thought it not only had potential for humor as a character who wants the spotlight, but also continuous conflict for Jenn who is trying to build her brand. And, that’s the idea for any pilot: introduce your characters, your conflicts… and get out.

The original concept for Jenn2.0 involves following around Jenn Van Grove, a very talented real life person.  We would be capturing both the real situations that she deals with and also the intriguing and edgy community of friends around her.  We wrote a treatment and included a sample episode of fictional situations that we thought would be similar to what we might capture.  Then came the hard part.

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It’s funny how things turn out… Rob and I met back in September 2007 at the San Diego Film Festival. I was still living in Boston, but we remained connected: by email and phone (so “2007″ according to Rob). We immediately hit it off and have been bouncing ideas back-and-forth ever since. Jenn2.0 came about in the midst of another idea that we had been discussing. I’m always eager to help Rob out as we’re like-minded; neither of us is afraid to run an idea through the process and give each other praise or criticism. That, in essence, is what helped Jenn2.0 come to fruition.

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