Writing 100 Pages and Second Seasons, #Scriptchat, & Passing the FBI Fitness Test
It's been a landmark summer filled with unexpected writing opportunities, a rollercoaster post-production process for CON, and lots of having to explain why my walls are covered in newspaper clippings, red string, and far too many color-coded notecards.
I have 99 problems and all of them are trying to keep these notecards from falling off my wall
Jen (my writing partner) and I are also training to pass the FBI fitness test-- and not because we want to join the FBI, but because we want the bragging rights for our Twitter bios. Yeah, we're cool.
Writing Projects
This summer I wrote a play, two thirty-minute episodes of a miniseries (season two of CON!), a short film for a production company, a short web series to go along with our CON marketing campaign, and some short portfolio items. The page count total is somewhere around 100, which was my goal for the summer.
my Portland trip consisted of mandatory winery, brewery, and coffeeshop visits
Even though I wrote a good amount, I was able to do some summer-y adventures worthy of an opening montage. (Cut to: attempting to paddleboard in Malibu, wine tasting in Seattle, running on the beach in Santa Monica, roadtripping with some friends to the Grand Canyon, sitting on rooftops and talking about life, hitting three bars in one night because I'm determined to reach a Hemingway-level of alcohol consumption.)
Upcoming "CON" Premiere
the CON title sequence
Season one is premiering later this month! Our trailer will be out soon, and we'll also have cast interviews also available so I hope you've subscribed to us on YouTube! CON has been by far the most challenging project to date, both from an organizational producer standpoint and from a writing perspective.
Over 80 people were involved in our team from start to finish to create 90 minutes of quality content during weekends last semester -- and on a microscopic budget.
Marketing has been difficult because we want to do everything: a spinoff web series where Jen and I teach the audience cons and card tricks, endless interviews and Twitter chats, grand screenings and complex social media strategies and blog series and photoshoots and trailers and interviews. There's never enough time to do everything we want to do. Luckily, we've been able to spend our whole summer handling marketing on top of coordinating all the moving parts of post-production.
photocredit: Jon Pham MUA: Saori Yazaki and Denys Servin Hair: Mia Johnson
We've also been writing season two, even though we're not greenlit (since by the time we get that hypothetical green light we will have to start right away on production). Jen and I started outlining and putting up that rainbow of index cards on my wall back in June, and since then we've written all four 30-minute episodes and are incredibly proud of them.
Writing a season two is so much rewarding than the first season: you're able to have a solid understanding of the characters, the strengths of your actors, and a better idea of how things will play, and you understand the tone and strengths of your show.
It's my hope we'll be able to go into production with season two, but even if we're not, I'm so thankful for the experience of running such a wonderful show and working with all of the great people who we've been lucky enough to collaborate with.
Join Us for #Scriptchat
With the way that the television landscape is changing, 22-episode seasons are becoming a thing of the past. Jen and I will be guests on #Scriptchat, a Twitter chat hosted by Jeanne Bowerman, editor of Script Magazine. We'll be talking about miniseries and short-form content, and we'd love for you to join us!
Follow me at @AmyMSuto and join us on August 9th, 5-6pm Pacific Time!
Thanks for your continued support, you guys!
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