Dev Slate
So tonight I put together a list of all the projects I have on my development slate… AKA concepts for projects that are officially looking for a home. And man do I have a lot. Without giving an exact number, I’ll just say it’s over 10!
Some of them are just story concepts that would need a company to get behind before I’d be willing to put in more time to flesh it out. But many of them are more fully developed, with spec scripts, outlines, or full oral pitches written.
I guess the past year has seen so much creativity pumped out of me that, to be honest, I feel bone dry. On the one hand it’s exciting to look at this list of stories, worlds, characters and ideas and know that I can accomplish something like that. But on the other hand I’m still struggling to get all of this stuff off the ground… to get to that next phase in my career. Despite all the recent excitement around H+, this career is not making it easy for me.
And so I also look at the list and think, “these are cool… but do I have anything more to give?” Even if someone comes up to me tomorrow and says they want to put up funds to develop one of these projects… see it through to fruition… could I do it?
I guess I’m also talking like a guy who’s struggling to keep his eyes open at 5:14 in the morning.
Bottom line is the list made me both proud and slightly depressed. I mean, a couple of the projects have been on my dev slate for years.
Pauline on 01 Sep 2011 at 12:10 am #
Question: Is there a part of you that wants to take a match to all of your older projects and only save, say… the last two or so? As a rule I always hate the second to last thing I wrote and continue to hate it through eternity.
P.S. Congrats on making it through your month of blogging. Well done.
~ p
Jules on 05 Sep 2011 at 12:33 am #
JP! ugh, I have to say, I was kind of sad that the month was ending because I knew you’d be done with your daily blogging month! well done, though, it was so great to see your updates so frequently!!
for the record, I can completely relate to questioning my limits in the wee hours of the morning… but I have no doubts about your abilities, my friend. I hope you have the opportunity to explore your projects and refresh your confidence in your creativity and talent! (getting some sleep will probably help with that, as well!) xoxoxoxoxo
John Cabrera on 06 Sep 2011 at 8:53 pm #
I really love all of my past projects… even some of the ones that looking back on them seem a bit amateurish. But that’s expected. This field is a very exploratory one… and part of exploration is about making mistakes. With each project we learn just enough to get us to the next stage in our artistic development. We rarely pass with flying colors. And so years later we look back and can only see the mistakes we made rather than the victories that helped us get to where we are today.
John Cabrera on 06 Sep 2011 at 8:54 pm #
Sleep is probably the thing i need the most since getting this PS3.
Pauline on 07 Sep 2011 at 12:28 am #
So… I guess then it’s a good thing that I kept the Duran Duran fanfic I wrote in 1983?
Megan on 02 Nov 2011 at 5:31 pm #
Johnny boy! You should totally update again!!