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5 Ways to work Faster In Final Cut Pro

By Biagio on July 5, 2009 in From the Trenches with 0 Comments

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1. Mountain Dew
2. Pepsi Max
3. Rockstar
4. Red Bull
5. Jolt Cola




At the studio

By Joke on April 29, 2009 in From the Trenches with Comments Off

Working and waiting on our next meeting. So serious!!!

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-Posted from Joke’s iPhone

Chad Wrote a Book!

By Biagio on April 27, 2009 in From the Trenches with 1 Comment

Chad Gervich, the man who bamboozled Warren Littlefield into thinking we deserved a career is once again out fooling everybody into thinking we are more imporant than we are. He wrote a book about us.

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Okay, so it wasn’t about us. But we are in it, so I feel a certain right to claim it’s about us :) Anyway, Chad has killed himself to put together an extremely comprehensive manual on all the ins and outs of the TV business, and if you want to know anything about breaking into television, get his book from our affiliate link: Mediabistro.com Presents Small Screen, Big Picture: A Writer’s Guide to the TV Business

Chad Gervich is a great writer, a fantastic teacher, and probably the funniest guy I know.  He keeps a regular blog at http://blog.writersdigest.com/scriptnotes/ that is a must-read for anyone who wants to be  a Hands-On Producer.

What I like about his book (aside from the fact that he was kind enough to feature Joke and myself in it) is that it’s an easy, fun read that really breaks down the business of television.  I doubt I can do a better job than the review given by David Pitt on Amazon:

This could just be the most informative book ever written about the television industry…Gervich, who has worked in television production for about a decade, concentrates on the mechanics of the industry…It would be difficult to imagine a more engaging, user-friendly, and educational book on the subject. –David Pitt

I agree, and not just because Chad is largely responsible for much of our career success (more on that another time, so be sure to subscribe!)

– Post From My iPhone

Welcome to the Joke and Biagio blog about producing in Hollywood. I can’t sleep.

By Biagio on April 27, 2009 in From the Trenches with 3 Comments

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It’s 3:37am and I can’t sleep.  So I’m finally launching the blog I always wanted to find when we were first starting out in Hollywood.

The road to producing in Hollywood…

Seven years ago, crammed together in our shoe-box sized, Hollywood-adjacent apartment, the two of us made a decision. We’d sink every penny we had into chasing our dream: producing in Hollywood.

You don’t sleep a lot. There’s a million things going on all at once. Ideas to develop… deadlines to meet… and every second of it can be completely awesome and totally terrifying at the same time.

Since every penny was about $2, it was time to write, shoot, direct, edit, sound-mix, and create the graphics packages on those early productions ourselves. We took entire projects from idea to completion–just the two of us. It taught us the value of caffeine, and a simple, painful truth: you can do more if you sleep less.

The long hours did start paying off. More brainstorming brought better ideas. Our tapes sizzled. Confidence soared.  We only had one, tiny little question…

How do you break into Hollywood?

Oh, right. That.

There I was, a kid from Parma, Ohio–a town I love dearly, but also a town best known for pink-flamingo lawn ornaments, not Hollywood producers. And Joke? She’s from freakin’ Belgium! So, no. We didn’t know where to begin, and (at first) we didn’t know anyone in the business. Turns out agents weren’t lining up to meet with two wide-eyed kids rollin’ in a Toyota Echo. Shocker.

The goal of this blog…

I asked myself, “What did I wish I knew 7 years ago? What blog did I want to read then?”

I wanted a blog about producing everything from reality television to film that promised something like this:

  • Real insight on how to break into Hollywood
  • True stories from working producers, and a glimpse into their every day lives
  • Tips to become a hands-on producer who writes, shoots, directs, and edits their way to a career
  • Direction to break into a business where no one will meet with you

I would have read that blog! So, here it is.

And here I am wide awake. It’s now 4:05 am.

This is what it’s like to be a producer.

You don’t sleep a lot.  There’s a million things going on all at once. Ideas to develop, pitches to finish, tapes to edit, deadlines to meet, computers that crash, networks to please, overhead to cover… and every second of it can be completely awesome and totally terrifying at the same time.

So, yeah, some nights it’s hard to get to sleep.

If it didn’t keep us up some nights, either out of total excitement or sheer terror, I’d think we were in the wrong business.

I believe this is a good thing. After all, this is our calling. Succeed or fail, there’s nothing we want to do more. If it didn’t keep us up some nights, either out of total excitement or sheer terror, I’d think we were in the wrong business.

If this is also your calling, swing by every now and then. Whether your producing dreams are behind the camera, or in front of it, in reality television, scripted dramas, or feature films, we will try to share our own insights that might help you on your path to success. Thanks for reading, and best of luck!

Now, I gotta try to get some sleep…

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