Considering how I (Marie-Michèle) have been rubbish at keeping everyone in the loop this year, here is a humble attempt at making amends with a year-end review !
2018 was a year of great < learning >. I had been considering doing an MFA in order to develop my new project (more on that later), and also to get back into an active, learning environment. I visited a few universities, either online or in person (for instance Falmouth University, in the UK, where I had a wonderful time speaking with faculty members). Ultimately, it was an email received in May that made the decision for me; I was going to attend festivals instead. Yep, festivals.
It's the new model for learning in the film/tv industry, as it turns out. Upon a wonderful opportunity (the aforementioned email) via SeriesFest to go pitch my series concept for Women of the West to a panel sponsored by FOX (on which Time Warner was also sitting, nbd ), I discovered that one has a lot to learn from sitting in on festival panels.
A. LOT.
Twenty, no, thirty pages of notes into my second day at SeriesFest (it's in jolly Denver, CO by the way), I had found every up to date answer on the current market trends, ways to run a writers' room (and what a writers' room actually is), alternative funding opportunities and how to deliver a successful pitch. I didn't really have time to attend screenings -nope, it was all about learning. And learn, I did.
Fast forward a few months later, I have synchronistically (is this a word?) been offered a festival pass to MUTEK (back home in Montreal), where I went and dove into the world of electronic arts and music (still applicable to running 8h51, my artistic practice and the creative life in general).
Another email (those emails, I swear !) follows a few days later notifying me I had been selected for a development meeting at yet another fantastic festival, ITVFest, in gorgeous mid-October-with-fall-leaves-on-fire Vermont. Insert another note-taking sprint, and a very life-changing talk by Jeff Gomez on the current model of the hero's journey (hello, Joseph Campbell) being transformed into the collective journey on so many successful on screen stories (like, let's say, this little show nobody's head of called 'Games of Thrones'.).
View a similar presentation of his here :
As I write this, it is the last day of November, and based on all the knowledge acquired in the last few months, I have been working like a wild woman at updating trailers, recutting the pilot for Women of the West and putting together a mighty fine 'series bible' which will be emailed very shortly to some very important producers and studios execs who have requested it this year.
So if anybody's wondering where I have been, well, mostly 'here'. Hidden away in the countryside, focusing on writing, reading, designing, editing. And it's been glorious.
A special shootout to my 6 week trip to the UK in the spring, and to driving a very large car on very tiny roads with my UK-based family. That's where I took the glorious shot of Tintagel castle, where I also filmed absolutely epic b-roll to be included in my new series, The Turning of the Tide.
So that concludes the first post. Funnily enough, I had just told a friend while rolling my eyes that blogs were « so 1997».
Well, so are the Backstreet Boys and floral leotards, eh ? «So 2019».
So get ready, world. MM is back on the blog !