Ya don’t say.

Hmm. Where should I start this?

Well maybe the best way is to first give you a quick tour through my past few years of working (or trying to work) in New Media.

Back in 2006… wow… it’s been that long… yeah… back in the fall of 2006 @cosimo179 and I began a journey that I guess is still a ways away from complete. Of course, back then we couldn’t have imagined how long the journey would actually take.

We started developing an idea for a series we called “H+”. Trying not to give too much away, it’s a story about our relationship technology. A soft sci-fi mystery, set in the near future and inspired by many of our favorite series, films, and comic books.

Without boring you on all the details of developing a pitch for something with that kind of complex mythology, I’ll just say that after a year of shopping it around, jumping through lots of the hoops young writers have to jump… we eventually found it a home at Warner Brothers in early 2008…

Wow… again still can’t believe how long it’s been.

Anyway, the plan was to be shooting late that year for an early 2009 premiere. But this was the first time either of us had worked with a studio… at least in this capacity, and we really couldn’t have imagined that nearly 9 months later (what seems like 10 years stripped from our lives) we would finally sign the contract and start writing.

We tried to keep sane during that tough negotiation year. We developed a few other ideas and shopped those around. But our heads were always in H+, like, “when are we gonna really start diving in?!” And I guess eventually we just settled into this hope… no, expectation, rather… that it would be starting up “any day now”. We’d wake up each morning wondering if this would be the day when things would finally settle and we’d be off to writing the script.

So it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that when we finally did get to the end of negotiation, that after all those months of hope and stress, quibbling over things like credits and derivative works… after a year of brutal union strikes and work shortages… living off residual earnings from my past acting work… it’s no surprise that something even bigger than any of those things would rear its ugly head to challenge the project.

But in late 2008… our country’s economy pretty near collapsed… and it took with it a great deal of the momentum that had built around seriously financed new media projects like ours.

But we had signed! We were officially employed to write a story that had been swimming in our heads for years. And that was at least something, right? I mean so much of 2008 had been about careful footing. Passing on opportunities that might conflict with the writing and producing when it did happen… so we were dying to finally get started.

For the next several months we wrote around the clock, tirelessly building an immense world and script. And we still had this illusion that once it was done, despite the financial hemorrhaging and serious jitters in Hollywood about financing this kind of stuff, somehow Warner would find a way to have us in production by summer. We were even meeting production services companies… we’d picked a director… we were scouting locations as far as Mexico… which I suppose isn’t really that far, but you know what I mean.

But the reality was that this industry, and more specifically Warner, simply wasn’t ready to move forward at the pace we’d always imagined. Another limbo. And I don’t blame Warner Brothers. Our creative team there is amazing and utterly dedicated to seeing the project through to completion. But it’s a studio, and the bottom line is studios are still trying to figure this New Media stuff out. Everyone is. And no one wants to make a wrong move.

But it did make it another tough year, I have to admit. And at a certain point, we finally had to start letting go. Not of the project, but of our desperate desire to see it come to life as soon as possible.

It was, straight up, time to focus on other things.

Cosimo went to Ireland to dance with a contemporary company, and I continued plugging away here in Hollywood, and to be honest, spending a great deal of time on twitter and my blog and Tumblr… just learning, interacting, reading, absorbing. Which was amazing, and I continue to feel so grateful for the relationships I’ve found here in that way. It really has inspired me.

But I used to be out there… doing. You know?

My last big active project was the Willy Wisely video I directed back in 2007, right before Cosimo and I dived into building pitch materials and meeting with all kinds of people in TV land and the Web. And I think to myself…man… there was this string of years were I was seeing one project after another through to completion; where I was working with these large teams of colleagues I’d been collaborating with for almost 2 decades. People like Sean and Val and Lee.

And so of course, now I was feeling like all I wanted was to get that back again. To get back out there in the field. Studio or not.

Wow… so 865 words and I still haven’t gotten to the meat of this post. I guess this is not going up in the morning.

So anyway… late last year, I was approached by a really exciting new start-up that was looking for content for their new web platform. I can’t really go into detail about the company, but I will say that at first, I wasn’t totally sure I was their guy. After all, I’d just spent three years of my life with my brain locked solely in the sci-fi space, and frankly it’s one of the things I’m most known for… Lost posts and all. I guess I’d convinced myself that that was the type of stuff I’d be creating from now on.

In a way, I’d almost forgotten about past projects like The Man Who Invented the Moon, Affair Game.

But those who frequent these halls may know that mixed in there with all the sci-fi are a few other passions. Contemporary dance, coffee, rock climbing… music.

So I decided to pitch them a story concept of mine that lives in the world of music… my particular taste in music, that is. And they liked it. So early this year, we began our negotiation process… I began soft work on it… and we finalized our deal a week ago from Friday.

It’s official. I’m making a webseries. Not just writing a webseries. But making it. Building a team, writing a script, shooting and delivering by the fall. Which might normally seem like a breeze… except this project is a little more complicated than most, and not just because it’s about music.

But because it’s also a musical.

Okay, whoa whoa whoa, hold on… before we dive in any further, let’s define what I mean by musical. Because I know that word comes with either positives or negatives for almost everyone. When I say musical, I mean less this… more this or this or this.

Less this… more this or this or this or who knows, maybe even… this??

Less this (although certainly no knock on Joss)… but hopefully more this.

More SXSW… less 42nd stree- Okay okay, you get the point.

The story doesn’t have a dense Lost-like mythology. There’s no high genre concept. It just has an ensemble of characters going on what I hope audiences will find a fun journey together. A sort of coming of age story to the sound of indie-pop and indie-rock.

So if you’ve ever wandered onto my blip.fm stream, and while you were there, found at least 50% of the stuff I’ve posted enjoyable… I imagine you’d be into what we’re trying to do with this.

Now, if you’re more of a sci-fi person than a music lover, that’s cool too… but it just means you’ll have to keep waiting for H+… which, believe it or not, also comes with a bit of irony in this story. Because funny how this works, but as soon as I started “letting go”, things started moving again with H+. Isn’t that how it always is?

Right now, I’d say H+ has the most momentum I’ve seen in a very long time. But what I’ve learned from this experience is that things will move when they’re ready… I mean, that’s kind of a life rule, not just a webseries rule, right? So I’m resigned to the fact that there’s really nothing I can do to speed up that process. In fact, it’s probably in H+’s best interest that I don’t. Because the flip side is that by waiting as long as we have, the project has gotten even richer and has found several more intelligent and passionate team members. So there you go.

Now this musical project, on the other hand… whew! It couldn’t be more different in that regard. This one is gonna be about moving fast and nimble. I’ve already begun building an amazing team, several of whom are from the good old days of Cabrera projects. You may or may not be familiar with a few.

But this project is going to need more help. And I’m going to take it from any place that will give it. Would you like to help? Well maybe you can. Maybe you already have, but you didn’t know it.

For example, if you’re someone I already interact with on blip.fm (and I know right now that pool is relatively small) chances are, the music you’ve blipped has been playing while I’ve been writing. I like to think that it’s not only been growing my musical knowledge… but it’s also been helping to inform the world of this series. Thanks for that!

Now, let’s say you’re not on blip, or I don’t follow you on blip, but you think your taste in music might be an asset to my process. If so, PLEASE JOIN BLIP.FM AND/OR LET ME KNOW WHO YOU ARE SO I CAN FOLLOW YOU.

If you don’t think your musical taste will help inform my writing, that’s okay… but perhaps you’re curious about the music that will. Following me on blip is probably the best way to piece together clues about what I’m writing. In fact, most of my twittering over the next few months will be through auto posts from blip. It’s an idea I had for the project months ago, and I’ve decided to officially make it so.

And there’s another way that many of you have been invaluable without maybe even knowing: your encouragement. Your support. This is an ambitious project, and even though I keep telling myself, “I directed this film in 48 hours, so 5 months to create 12 should be more than doable,” the truth is, it’s going to be a challenge… and having encouragment along the way will make a huge difference. Believe me.

So if you’ll continue to help me in that way, I promise to keep you updated throughout the process.

And there will probably be other ways that people can help or get involved, although most of that is still being worked out. I know we’re going to be using a variety of social media tools to aid in everything from the casting to finding fantastic independent music/artists. The project will likely have a profile on each of the big social networks, and they’ll provide even more details about the project.

But like I said, I’m going to try to keep you in the know, all along the way. Which I know, raises the question: “how might this effect my online activity?” Perhaps some of you don’t care… but for the ones that do, it will effect it in several ways. It actually already has.

The first, and probably most obvious, is just the amount of time I’ll be able to spend online. I’m sure some of you have noticed a sharp decline in my tweeting and tumbling these past few months. Well, now you know why. It’d be disingenuous of me not to say it will likely continue, if not decline further during these months.

The second, and perhaps even more painful for me to say (since I know many of you really enjoy them) Lost blogging will likely be reigned in a bit. I know it sucks. We’re so close to the end here, but I can’t really think of any other way. Hopefully though, our conversations in the comments will fill in some of the stuff that’s missing in the posts themselves

And likely other ways I’m not even considering. I hope it won’t be too drastic a change. I really do value the connections I’ve made here and around the web. But my sense is that any vacuum will likely be filled by alternative means for interacting. Somehow… blogging… will find a way.

And who knows… things change just as fast as they start in this space. Perhaps I’m jinxing myself with a lot of this (<- this disclaimer line was included as a double jinx, aimed at jinxing any malevolent jinxes.)

So… yeah… I think that’s all. I know it was a lot, but I wanted to give you the full skinny, since I haven’t in a while.

Okay, gotta jump in the shower, @seangunn will be here in 10 minutes.

Do you have any questions? I have to imagine you do. If I can answer them, I will.

Hey, man. How are you?

…

Oh that’s nice to hear.

..?

Me?

…

Oh, you know… I’m okay. It’s been a long week, so I’m a little tired.

…

What do you mean, I look it?!

…

First of all, those dark circles run in my family. Everyone on my dad’s side has them. Secondly, yes, I may be a little tired, I may have pulled an all nighter… but my exhaustion is nothing that a hot mug of Lost post won’t cure. So back off, buddy.

..?

Of course I know what I want to write about. What? Are you saying I pull this stuff out of my ass every week?

…

Okay, you know what? That’s just plain insulting. I work hard on these posts, dude. And they make plenty of sense to plenty of people.

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Ladies and gentlemen… I give you… The Lost Spectrum.

Anyone else here find themselves throwing episodes into one bucket or another… like, “oh that was a Science Geek episode” or “here comes a faith based” or “this episode is guest starring Cheech Marin. Must be a Sabado Gigante!”

Well, I guess that’s not totally fair, is it? I mean, let’s be honest, the show really is open to so much interpretation… I mean, we’ve found that to be the case here, haven’t we? Discussing and considering a broad range of possibilities for what’s going on.

So I devised this quaint little system to help me better understand the episodes I’m about to dissect. And before we jump into the nitty gritty of Desmond and his quantum love sickness, I’d like share my system with all of you.

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