And so 007 begins with a bang! At least for me.
While some might refer to my present life outlook as a ‘middle-age crisis’ or ‘middle age crazy’, I prefer my own ‘middling’ interpretation: ‘mid-course correction’. Allow me to explain.
The year just passed was in many ways a watershed for me… literally and figuratively with the floods in my apartment on Christmas Day! Many of my television productions saw their completion, broadcast and even an award or two - always a nice recognition, though not necessary in the slightest.
Island Escapes, the travel program that took me around the world in less than 20 days — literally! — finally aired. Looking at those episodes now makes me wonder how we ever accomplished decent visual coverage of Crete, and Bermuda, and Molokai, and Saint-Pierre & Miquelon among other islands — ten in all — and still managed to survive! The series is still running, so that’s a good sign I suppose.
Shakin’ All Over!, the two-hour history of the early days of Canadian rock ‘n roll aired in late 2005, but received recognition in 2006 from both the Leo Awards (Best Arts Documentary and Best Sound), and the Houston International Film Festival (Platinum ‘Remi’ Award for Best Arts Documentary). Well deserved because of all the hard work and devotion from all concerned in telling the story of those early years. The DVD set will be released in the next few months.
The Second City: First Family of Comedy, the three-hour history of one of the most influential comedy institutions in the world, aired to critical and audience acclaim on both the CBC here in Canada, and PBS in the United States. A ton of work but also a ton of fun.
Shakin’ All Over! was SO successful that the broadcaster ordered four more hours (two parts) which I’m producing; they go into production this month. It’ll keep me busy for the full year and into 2008 in fact. The first installment ended in 1972 with the implementation of government Cancon (Canadian content) regulations and the first Juno Awards for music excellence. The final two parts will look at the evolution of Canadian rock ‘n roll in the intervening years leading up to the present day.
Yes, it was a busy year for production - always a good thing. But it was also a year of bad timing, bad advice and bad ju-ju - personally and professionally.
Several projects, mostly in the travel and documentary genre, went south - and I don’t mean that in a good way. A lot of work and a lot of money (a LOT of money!) was spent in developing these new shows. For various reasons — only a few of them mine, I hasten to add — these projects never got much beyond the planning and pitch stage. For awhile there during the summer it felt as though the planets were aligning quite nicely, when in fact all they were doing was queueing up to give me a giant raspberry! Bastards! I hate planets! Pluto isn’t even a planet anymore - doesn’t have the balls. Fuck ‘em.
Back on my heels and the wind safely out of my sails I began to look a little more closely at exactly what it is that I did for a living. Do I wish to continue, is the only real question. The answer, so far, isn’t resounding. Make no mistake, I’ve been in television for a long time, and these thoughts have crossed paths with my mind in the past. But for some reason, now, it has taken on more significance. I’m actually thinking about an appropriate answer. Regardless, that answer will take me in a new direction should I fall down on one side or the other from this fence on which I am now precariously perched.
So, with the ghosts of years past still dancing in my head like some Rauschenberg lithograph, I have resolved to do several things. The first is to not use the term ‘resolve’. Any time someone uses the word at this time of year they are usually met with laughter and derision at its mere utterance or any derivation of it. I mean how can you possibly keep your New Year’s resolutions when people are laughing at you…?!
So from this point onward let’s call it ‘decisions’, ‘ideas’, ‘thoughts’ or ‘plans’ and refrain from uttering the qualifiers ‘wrong’, ’stupid’, ‘idle’ and ‘ill-conceived’.
I’m retreating. Not from anything specifically, just retreating. Back to the basics. Back to what I went into this business for in the first place: creative expression.
Over the last five or six years the paperwork of the business has gone from riding shotgun in my professional life to being my professional life. While the administration of a television or film production is at least half of what’s required of a producer, I have increasingly found myself an unwilling and sometimes uninterested passenger frequently relegated to the back seat. No more.
I’ve taken all those travel and documentary projects and moved them to the back burner, and not at all reluctantly. I’ve built a priority list — a lengthy one in fact — and have already removed a number of items from it having accomplished several preemptive strikes. I am dissolving one of my production companies and absorbing the assets into the one that remains. This will strengthen both my corporate and personal tax positions by uncomplicating it immensely. I will work on one production, Shakin’, and several smaller projects. Those projects are travel-based for the most part: photography and writing primarily, though one or two television opportunities are already rearing their heads (more on that later should it/they come to fruition).
But there’s another area of my professional life that’s missing also: fiction writing. Over the holidays I wrote two outlines for novels that have been dancing in my head like some Rausch… oh yeah, already used that analogy. Whatever. Both outlines have existed in various forms for several years. My publisher eventually gave up trying to coerce me into writing (let alone completing!) one of them. So, those have me excited in fiction again. Doing this blog, in fact, has helped that process immensely. It’s forced me to go back to my past work and reassess it with an eye towards actually completing it.
What this means is begging-off any further third-party collaborations, at least for the time being. I’m perfectly capable of wasting my own time, I don’t need anyone else’s assistance, thank you very much!
So that’s it. Down tools, movin’ on, ’nuff said, over and out. For now.
P.S. But the blog and the Flickr account will continue, of course.