No Business Like...

Finally. I have 5 minutes.

The past few weeks have been pretty busy for me. We're in the middle of pilot season and are actually producing a pilot this year, so the hours at the office have been long. In a city where everyone wants to be an act-or/-ess, who knew casting was so difficult? A couple of years ago I worked on a pilot that was shut down a couple of days before we were supposed to start production because they couldn't cast a couple of the roles. When the producer told us why we were shutting down, my friend looked at me and said, "Can't find actors? Give me a dead cat, I'll go to a restaurant and swing it. I guarantee I'll find them some actors." Except it's not that simple. Everyone has to be just right. It's not enough to simply be a good actor. They're judged on their looks, height, attitude, how different their look/height/attitude is from other already-cast actors. I kind of dislike actors immensely, but I sort of understand why they're such fragile, insecure people, despite the beauty and lifestyle. And then producers, casting agents, studio execs, network execs all have their own "it" in their minds for what the roles need, and sometimes these "its" come into conflict. Then you find someone you like, and the contract negotiations begin. If they fall apart, back to square one.

But anyways, the pilot got cast at the 11th hour and we had a table read and so things are moving forward.

Except now that casting hell is over, production has started. I show up at the office between 9 and 9:30, which is great except I get home at 9 at night. Which, again, is fine -- I really don't mind the hours -- but then I need to make dinner, and clean up, and there's laundry, and my car needs some work done on it, and God knows when I'm ever going to get to the bank because I can't leave the office, and I have reading to catch up on.

And then there's my own writing with my writing partner which I've been really bad about lately and need to start getting serious about. It is, after all, my raison d'etre out here in Los Angeles. If I'm not actively trying to "make it" I may as well get the hell out of here.

But so anyways, take this as a very long apology for why this blog hasn't been updated. I have stuff to say, but no time to say it.