Date: 05/19/06

Hi this is James Murray.  This is my production journal for “I Never Said That,” the show I sold to A&E as a direct result of the amazing 2005 New York Television Festival.  If you are thinking of submitting a show to this year’s Festival, I hope this journal will show you some of the possibilities of what can happen!

First, to give you a little history.  I came up with an idea for a tv show back in 2000 where I film real people secretly, then bring in a team of comedians to dub over these people’s voices, creating new conversations.  I finally got around to filming it in 2004, but the show structure did not work.  Not only that, I couldn’t get any network to watch the show, because they do not accept unsolicited material if you do not have an agent. 

Then, I heard of the New York Television Festival.  I had an idea for how to structure my show differently, so I decided to re-shoot it last July, one week before the Festival deadline!  The show cost me $400 to make.  No joke.  Why $400?  Because I paid my sound guy $400.  Everything else was favors – the camera, the crew, the actors.  I even re-used old mini-dv tapes!  The new show structure worked so much better, and I overnighted my tape just in time for the deadline.

I got word in August, 2005 that we got into the Festival.  I was so freakin’ excited!  We all had a good feeling that we had a shot of selling, because the energy of the show is so overwhelmingly positive.  My cast did such a good job at selling the concept.

The Festival was incredible.  From top to bottom – the panels were amazing, the people were great, Terence and Brent worked tirelessly on putting together such an amazing opportunity for aspiring television creators and producers.

At the Festival, we had interest from several networks – VH1, MTV, TV Land / Nick@Nite, and A&E.  One of my actors got called in to audition for ABC Primetime as well!

Last Fall, I pitched the show at several networks as a result of the Festival.  A&E emerged as the most interested network.  The development team there was incredible.  They loved the show concept, and saw the potential for it as a tv show.  They paired me up with a great production company named Borderline TV (the guys who did “Insomniac with Dave Attell,” “The Al Franken Show,” and others).  I quickly scrambled to get an entertainment lawyer to negotiate a deal, and A&E officially ordered the pilot in February.  It all happened so fast, I couldn’t believe it. 

That pretty much brings you up to speed.   We are now a week and a half away from the actual studio shoot, and I’ve been working round the clock in the office getting everything ready.  Let’s jump right into it!

It was an awesome day at work today, a busy day.  Let’s see – what did we do for the show.  We combed through all the footage.  They set up the AVID system in the office, and the editor digitized all the field footage we shot the other day.  We looked through it and she pulled out the select shots from the field shooting day.  We had a really high percentage rate of stuff that’s great, really really good footage.  Very funny stuff.  Then we planned out the shoot for tomorrow.  We’re going out to Coney Island, then a lot of Brooklyn and back into the city.  Tim Meadows is coming in on Thursday to rehearse with us – I spoke to him today, super nice guy, the perfect host for the show.

The composer sent over a new theme song and new bumpers for the show, with our notes from last time.  The new theme song sounds great, it’s really rocking and kicking.  At one point, I told the composer that I thought there was a little too much harpsichord in the song, as if I have any freakin’ idea what a harpsichord sound like!  Such is the life of an Executive Producer, I guess! 

We also interviewed musicians today for the live show.  I am psyched  for tomorrow’s field shoot – we were able to secure shooting in a couple of bars tomorrow night and secure shooting in a karaoke bar, which should make for some ridiculous footage, I’m sure.

Next week is going to be a busy one!  We have rehearsals, we have to choose all our selects, get the rundown of the show finalized, and plug in the clips that we want.  It will be busy, but we’re working on my show!  It’s been an amazing ride so far, and it’s getting very exciting now.  I’m going to take lots of pictures to remember the whole freakin’ process.  Talk to you tomorrow!

Date: 05/20/06

Hey, it’s almost 11:30am, I’m getting ready to jump out of my apartment, go up to 5^th Avenue and meet the rest of the crew, where we’re going to get our lock-off shot of a mailbox for a game we’re playing called “Trapped in a Mailbox.”  Then we’re going to head over to Coney Island and let the magic happen.  Hopefully, Coney Island will be the mecca of everything bizarre and weird about New York, as it usually is.  Then, we’re jumping all over the city.

Another good thing about field shooting the other day was that I finally got rid of my pasty white skin from the winter, because I forgot to wear suntan lotion.  So I came back with a nice Irish red all over my face.  I’ve learned my lesson for today!

Date: 05/22/06

Saturday was a super busy day, we were shooting out on location.  We started at noon.  I met the whole crew in Bay Ridge, then high-tailed it over to Coney Island.  A good amount of people there, not as crowded as it was last year when I was shooting.  But we got some really good footage.  From there, we came back to Bay Ridge for a few more shots.  Then, headed into the city to a fair on Christopher Street.  After that, we went up to the tattoo convention, which was awesome.  Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life.  They all happen to have ridiculous tattoos covering their entire body, but they were salt of the earth kind of people.  It was great fun. 

After that, we went down to Slainte, the bar where I originally filmed the tv show last year.  I filmed the whole show there, this time we went to grab some shots of people in the bar.  Then we went to another bar that they own, Dempsey’s Pub, got some really good shots there.  People in various stages of conversation in the bar.  Then we wrapped up the night at Little West 12^th Street, getting drunk people coming out of the bars, which always makes for some good footage.  Overall a great day, and a long one – a 12 hour shoot, but I think we got everything we needed.  I took Sunday off to relax.  My first day off in a while, and my last day off for the next two weeks probably.

Today at work, busy, busy day.  Meetings all day.  Met with another musician this morning.  The editor digitized all the clips from Saturday.  Then we went through all the clips, chose our selects and redid the rundown for the show using the clips that we want.  It’s kind of complex – we have to create 3 different rundowns.  One for the 6pm show, one for the 8pm show, and one for the dress rehearsal the day before the show, because the cast can’t be improvising to the clips that are going to be in the live show.  It wouldn’t be improvised then!   So we have to keep those clips unrehearsed.  Makes it complicated for the edit, but it will be worth it.

We also had a good 2 hour tech meeting today with the director, lighting designer, production manager, the studio manager, myself, the other EP’s, going through everything – lighting design, the technical requirements on set, the projector.  Very detailed meeting.  Some of it was a bit over my head, but I held my own when I needed to.  Then we worked on the rundown, which should be done by tomorrow.  That will inform the edit.  We should be able to have the edit done tomorrow, which is good because our exec at A&E will probably come by tomorrow to take a look at the show. 

All in all, busy, an amazing day, and thank God I made it to watch the season finale of 24, or else I would have been really really pissed! 

One more thing, the graphic designer came in to show us the new opening for the show, the graphic opening.  She’s going to redo a couple of things that we had ideas on, but she’s doing a great job, it looks very cool.

Date: 05/23/06

Whew, what a day!  It’s 11pm at night, I just got home from work.  Busy day, I went in early, we were editing all day.  Finished the cut of the show and dress rehearsal.  Then I ran off a copy of the show to bring home to watch now, do a little homework, even though it’s 11pm at night.  Got a lot done.  Getting ready for our cast rehearsals on Thursday and Friday.  It looks like Tim Meadows will be coming into town on Friday for rehearsal with the cast.   Me and Tim Meadows hanging out in the conference room of 251 West 39^th Street, you know, typical Friday, that’s how I do it!  Completely amazing!

05/24/06

It’s Wednesday, May 24^th, almost midnight, I got home around 11pm from work.  We started editing immediately.  The editor and I were working all day on finishing up the sequence for the show and rehearsals.  We had to run off tapes for the cast for our first rehearsal tomorrow.  The set gets built entirely tomorrow.  The crew goes in at 8am and they load in and build.  I’m going to swing by around 1pm tomorrow to take a look at the progress of the set.  The whole set will be built by 4pm, which is pretty wild.  I’m probably going to snag a few pictures when I’m in there, meet all the crew working on the show.  It’s crazy, I can’t believe it.  Now it’s getting very exciting – now it feels amazing.  Holy shit – I’m about to see the set tomorrow!

Tim Meadows is getting on a plane tomorrow evening, flying to New York for rehearsal on Friday, which again, is insane!  Last year, I’m filming in the bar Slainte sitting next to a girl eating quesadillas.  Now , I’m having rehearsal on Friday with Tim Meadows, giving him thoughts about his character, the way he should play the host, etc.  That’s nice.  That works out well!

So, it’s been a crazy, amazing, great day.  Tomorrow and Friday are going to be even more amazing.

And it looks like we might have the weekend off, which will be nice.  Unwind a bit before the big show next week!

05/25/06

It’s Thursday, May 25 around midnight.  I just finished editing another tape for rehearsal tomorrow.  Today was super busy.  I came in and immediately started editing, getting everything ready for today’s cast rehearsal.  We had to run off all the tapes that we edited.  The cast gets a tape of the dress rehearsal, a tape of the clips in the show (but they are not allowed to prepare them in any way – they just get to look for the visual cues).  Around lunchtime, I ran down to the studio where they built the set today.  I took a bunch of pictures – the set looks great!  I’m going to head back tomorrow to take another look at everything. Tomorrow, lights get focused and the projector gets set up. 

The cast rehearsal today was great, about 2 hours long.  The cast was really psyched.  It was a really good atmosphere.  Tomorrow is another cast rehearsal from 3pm – 5pm.  Tim Meadows is coming in, he’s on a plane right now.

Tomorrow is the big deadline to finish the cut of the show, because we have to send it out to a post facility to output the tape onto DigiBeta for the show next week. 

All in all, a crazy day, amazing, a lot of fun, very supportive.  It’s all coming together!

05/26/06

It’s Friday, May 26, technically May 27^th because it’s 2am.  So we had a busy day!  The big deadline to finish the editing of the show.  We had to get the master tape to the post house by 5:30p, so they can run off the DigiBeta master by Tuesday, which is when we are loading the footage into the computer at the studio.  So we were working feverishly to finish the edit.  Got everything done in time, and the show looks great.     

At 2pm, Tim Meadows came in.  We met with him for about an hour.  Completely nuts.  I’m giving Tim Meadows tips and direction on how to be a host!  Freakin’ ridiculous.

At 3pm, the rest of the cast came in, and all of us rehearsed, went through the clips and rundown of the show.  All in all, absolutely ridiculous.

I found myself beaming several times throughout the meeting.  I’m looking around the room thinking, “Here’s my cast.  Here’s my host…”  At one point, Tim asks me, “So who was the host of the show last year?”  I replied, “It was actually me…”  And Tim says, “Wow – I betcha a year ago you didn’t think I’d be taking your place as the host!”  Nope!

He’s great, very down to earth, relaxed, fun.  We all got along really well.  He’s going to be great next Wednesday, I’m sure.

I think we have a good shot.  I think we have a really good shot.

I popped my head into the studio today.  The lights look great, as does the projection screen..  So now, it’s just the countdown to the big day! 

I’m off this weekend, which is wonderful!  I’m looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, food shopping, jogging, working out, doing all the things I’ve been too busy to do.  

Today, the amazement of this entire situation really hit home for me.  Incredible.  Goodnight.

05/30/06

Surreal.  Absolutely surreal.  I wish I could slow time down.  Today was amazing.  The crew finished focusing lights today, loading all the footage, blocking all the cameras.  Then, we had a dress rehearsal with the cast and Tim Meadows.  It went very smoothly.  It felt so bizarre to me to be giving tips and advice to Tim Meadows.  I never saw that one coming, that’s for sure!

The best moment of today – the opening of the show, the rock theme music is blasting,  the lights are going, the audience is applauding, and the camera mounted to the jib swings out over the audience and Tim’s head,  lands onto the stage, spins around and settles on Tim.  I just shook my head, laughing, amazed.  I can’t believe I’m executive producing a studio television show!  I wish I could replay that moment, that feeling over and over.

After the dress rehearsal, we spent about an hour going through the script with Tim, then came back to the production office to type up the new, revised script for tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

We’ve been building toward May 31 for 3 months now, and here it is.  At this point, all the creative choices made along the way, bit by bit, over many weeks, get tested out – they’ll either work or not, and it’s out of our hands!  I asked Dave, one of the other EP’s, how he felt about the show going into tomorrow, and he said he felt good, but it was a bit unnerving not knowing what the improvisors were going to create.  He had never worked on a show that was so completely out of his hands creatively during the studio shoot.  But we’ve got a great team assembled, we’ve worked hard, I think the cast will do an excellent job.

If there were any way to freeze tonight and just live everyday as if I was producing a television show tomorrow, that would be almost perfect.  Perfect, of course, would be producing the show every day!  We’ve got as good a shot as anybody – let’s kick ass tomorrow!

05/31/06

I’m writing May 31^st’s entry some time after May 31^st.  The reason is I needed some distance from that night to gain any real perspective.

May 31st was absolutely the best night of my life so far.

It’s nearly impossible to describe the experience, because it was so overwhelming in every way.

We had two dress rehearsals, then shot two episodes of the show – one at 6pm and one at 8pm.  I was so nervous before the first show!  It wasn’t until the 8pm show that I finally relaxed, and really took in the experience.

The cast, the host, the crew, the audiences…Completely overwhelming.

Before each show, the warm-up comic introduced me to the audience so I could say a few words of thanks.  I remember that feeling – when I stepped onto the stage, the audience exploded!  (It helps that a fair amount of them were friends or fans of “Criss-Cross” from last year).  What an amazing feeling.  Seeing the idea I had in 2000, shot in 2004 with no success, then re-shot with a new twist in 2005 – to see it go from that, to May 31, 2006…

I was glad I got to speak to audience for a minute before each show.  Particularly because there were several people that I wanted to publicly thank.  This all started with the New York Television Festival.  Terence and Brent (and everyone else on the NYTVF team) worked so hard on putting together an amazing festival last year, and I am so grateful to them for giving me this shot.  If it wasn’t for the festival, I know none of this would have happened.  Thank you guys!  I cannot wait to get started on a new pilot to submit to the festival this year!

I also thanked Dave and Nick, the other two EP’s on the show.  They were amazing to work with, supportive of the original concept, and at the same time, great at coming up with new ideas to make the show even better.  I have to say – it was an excellent working relationship through and through.  The first of many shows we produce together I hope. 

Which of course leads to the amazing team at A&E, who believed in the show concept from the beginning.  Nancy, Colleen, Rob, Michael, they were all so supportive of the show, and saw the potential for it on television, and I am grateful for their enthusiasm.

After the shows, we had our wrap party, which was so much fun.  I was sitting at the table with my cast, the execs from A&E, the director, the EP’s, Tim Meadows, and my high school friends.  All hanging out, chilling at a bar / restaurant.  Completely surreal.

When I took the subway back to Brooklyn that night at like 2am, I felt like I was in a daze.

Completely overwhelming.  The best night of my life.  The first of many, I hope!

06/13/06

Well, the editing of the show is done, and we handed the final cut into the network today!  Whew!

Overall, I’m very happy with the way the show turned out.  The notes we got from A&E were good ones, and it was amazing watching the editing and sound mixing of the show.

I will get my copy any day now, and I can’t wait to show the family and friends!

We should hear back from the network hopefully by the end of summer whether we go to series.  Keep your fingers crossed!  Either way, though, the experience has been incredible.

There is no time to slow down though.  On Saturday, I began shooting a new pilot to submit to the 2006 New York Television Festival.  It’s a comedy travel show, and I think it’s going to be hysterical!

Hey – if I sold my television show last year as a result of the NYTVF, why can’t it happen again this year?!

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations!  Thanks for reading through this journal.  I hope it helps in some way, and inspires!   Good luck with your pilot, and I look forward to seeing it at the Festival in September!

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