The Playboy Mansion

One of the evening events scheduled during YEO University was a party at the Playboy Mansion.  Evidently Hugh rents out the place to organizations looking for a party venue with a little something extra (the addition of surgery-enhanced women to provide tours of the grounds - pools, a small zoo, the grato and a gaming cottage.  It was quite interesting - sort of like a 60s/70s time capsule - somewhat dated for the tastes of 30 somethings in 2004. 

Shortly after a couple of glasses of wine and some rubbery chicken I tagged along with a tour of the grounds.  The place is a lot bigger than I had imagined - monkeys, birds and other animals can be found throughout the grounds - the grato is very humid (I cannot imagine have any sort of intimate encounter there under any circumstances). 

I settled in the game room and played a few video games (does that make me a geek?  playing video games at a Playboy party? I think it might).  Anyway, it would seem that geeks flock together and to my surprise Jason Alexander (George from Seinfeld) walked through the door with his publicist.  In short order we were playing pool and talked about his new project - the (at the time) pending release of his new sitcom Listen Up - and my new project (wow I had a PROJECT!).  I described our first meeting with FOX and drew the Seinfeld analogy - he laughed (slightly in a “do we have to talk about Seinfeld?” way).  Anyway, he was much more conservative than the characters he portrays on television.  I guess that is fairly obvious to most everyone - except for me…

Missy’s assistant still had not called to firm up our meeting with FOX Sports so we were still waiting on pins and needles.  We had a meeting with our director and his agent for lunch the next day…

Our first FOX meeting (Part II)

Do you remember the Jerry and George’s pitch meeting with NBC?  We came in with one idea and a backup idea - nothing seemed to work.  Finally the FOX reality executive turned to us and explained that they were working on a NASCAR/American Idol program and did not think they had anymore room for another car/motorsport program - no matter how compelling or high concept.  Our program was not the right fit for a network running shows like: The O.C., That “70’s Show, American Idol, Nanny 911, House, and 24.  As this point she started asking questions (why I am not sure).  She wanted to know if we be interested in Jason Priestley or Ian Ziering hosting the program. 

I figured we were a better fit for BRAVO or Discovery.  Missy then surprised everyone by asking permission to take the show to another part of FOX - the reality executive was a little startled - she just finished telling us it was not a good fit but now Missy was threatening to take it away.  The reality executive couldn’t really object so Missy had one of her assistants get George Greenberg on the phone - he runs Fox Sports.  She promised to get us a meeting with George later in the week so we left - a little deflated but excited that we might have found a better venue for the program.  

Our first FOX meeting…

The time finally came for our meeting with the FOX executives.  We arrived at the FOX lot and were given an “drive on pass” and headed to Missy’s office (we met Missy through our contacts at EFNT - detailed in a previous entry).  We could have never asked for a more warm or accomodating welcome from Missy and her team.  They rolled out the red carpet for us.  Missy heads up the talent for FOX - keeping stars like Paris Hilton happy.  We talked shop for half an hour while we waited for the reality TV folks to drop by Missy’s offices for our meeting. 

We were able to pitch our idea directly to Missy and show her the screener (I bought my PowerBook G4 to play it on).  The reality executive showed up and she proceeded to talk shop with Missy and we tried our best to keep up.  Next we gave her the pitch - describing the “Big Show” as well as the “Small Show” we already had in the can.  Finally we played the screener for her.  As soon as we were done she wanted to know where Missy got the flowers on her coffee table.  Maybe Granddad was right…

Downright FAT Heads at this point - we pull into our Malibu estate!

If you have followed my entries you may recall the Head Size meter - we are at a Head Size +8 at this point - the worst it is has been.  It should be illegal to have as much fun as we were having.  Scott and I flew in together on an American Airlines flight, rented a car and headed to Santa Monica to have lunch with a couple of his friends in the entertainment industry (screen writers). 

After lunch we headed up the highway to Malibu and found our house.  Turns out it is next door to fellow Texan (from Dallas no less) Owen Wilson.  You would not believe this place - situated on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean - we were impressed - nothing but glass on the ocean facing side.  We met the owners who were headed to their home in Mexico for the week and I suddenly realized I left one of the two cashiers checks (one was for the deposit and the other for the rental fee) in my office in Dallas.  My ATM limit is $400 and I needed $12,000.00 - fortunately our controller was able to wire the money and we were in business!

Bob arrived soon after and we saddled up and headed into Santa Monica for the opening speeches at the YEO event.  We were going to have fun!

Headed to Hollywood…

Bob came over to our offices at the INFOMART to lay out the details for our trip to LA.  Fortunately we were able to plan our trip to visit FOX during YEO University (being held in Santa Monica).  We looked in the hotel hosting the University and we decided that it might be fun to rent a house in Malibu so we start poking around on a weekend rentals website that Bob uses when he vacations.  We found a very cool place in Malibu owned by the creator of what might be called the “first” reality television program: COPS.  We thought that this was a good sign as COPS is a FOX show…

Scott had firmed up our meetings with FOX and Bob agreed to set up a few other meetings with other networks and potential show runners.  I scheduled lunch with Joe (our director) and Paul (his agent).  So we were ready, oh wait - where is that screener?

The screener - what did we want the editor to produce?

When we first considered building a screener/trailer we had intended to capture specific footage during the pilot shoot to use in our “Big Show” screener/trailer.  The footage would not be topical for the pilot, but necessary to help tell our elimination style story. 

Bob had imagined a quick overview of the Ranch and a quick flash of 10 - 20 members/drivers heads, finally asking “Who will win MotorSport Ranch?” 

When we sat down and look at the footage we realized that Joe Dea had to cut out (i.e. never shot) some of the shots not needed for the pilot - this was the right thing to do, but it limited our ability to create the screener/trailer we had hoped to build.  So Scott and I had to decide on the fly what to do - we have barely two weeks before our meeting with the FOX executives  -  we would have John (John Harris is an editor at Picture Start 972.490.6351) build a general screener about the facility - to explain the unique qualities of MotorSport Ranch - i.e. this place is very unique.  The plan was to create a screener that would allow us to pitch the Big Show concept and then visually represent the venue - the screener would only work in conjunction with a meeting (we could not just mail the screener to you - we would have to meet with you to explain the show). 

John was ready to start putting together the screener, but he needed something to “cut to” a bed - Scott and I decided to run over to Starbucks and write a voice over (Bob hates voice overs, but I really saw no other way to tell the story without the shots we were missing).  Within an hour we had drafted the voice over and headed back to the Picture Start offices.  John did not have a DAT recorder so we had no way to give him a rough recording of the VO - we needed something ASAP.

Across the parking lot there was a sound studio called Cake Mix - the owner (Bruce Faulconer 972.818.1649) was nice enough to let us record the VO in his studio - burn it to CD - for FREE.  By the time the screener was finished we would have a real VO completed and layed in on the screener/trailer.  Wow, Scott and I were making progress…

Deja Vu! I am smelling smoke…

So Bob left for the Bahamas and I get a call from his partner, Scott Wilson, at HD Republic and I am smelling smoke (previous entry: Sunning in the Bahamas while Rome is Burning!) again.  He had called inquring about another project were considering partnering on called Celebrity Hunting with Jason Arnott (a Dallas Stars hockey player).Arnott  The previous week (July 23rd 2004) we had taken Jason and one of his friends to lunch to discuss the show.  Given the impending hockey lockout he was looking for potential projects, ultimately we were never able to come to terms with him.  But at the time Scott Wilson was hopeful we would engage HD Republic to do the production work on the show. 

Ever the inqusitive executive producer I asked the million dollar question:  “how is the trailer/screener coming along?”  Scott had no idea, but agreed to find out.  After making a few calls Scott determined that Bob was never able to connect with the editor - in fact the same editor that we were using for the SPEC trailer was the one he intended to work with on a paid-project basis.  I suggested that Scott and I pay the editor a visit - a fellow named John from a company called Picture Start - our meeting went well and I think John understood what we were looking for.  Oh and that is another issue - “what WERE we looking for?”

Where in the world is the screener?

Week after week I had asked the simple question, “how is the screener going?” and I would hear the same answer “I need to call the guy!” and I would drop it.  With our meeting scheduled with the executives from FOX I could not wait any longer - I needed to know what was going on.  Bob and I met for lunch at a restaurant called Taco Diner in the West Village and he explained that since we were doing the project on SPEC would could not really complain that he was not working on it. 

I sort of fliped and suggested that we had already spent so much money that another couple of thousand dollars spent to safeguard the tens of thousands we had already spent was a good idea.  Bob agreed and he said he would engage an editor before the following week (he was headed back to the Bahamas).  I was relieved.

MotorSport Ranch on FOX?

While Joe Dea was continuing the work on the MotorSport Ranch rough cut we were busy focusing on getting meetings with various networks and potential sponsors.  Our efforts were detailed in My Business Magazine in the May 2005 issue in an article titled A Look Back at how the Internet Has Changed Small Business. 

As I indicated previously, Scott and I own an IT outsourcing business called Architel and we are a member of an organization called EFNT (Entrepreneurs Foundation of North Texas).  The Director of the organization’s sister is a very senior executive at FOX in the talent department.  Through a referral from our contact at EFNT we were able to schedule a meeting with the Reality TV executives from FOX in LA.  Now the rubber meets the road and we needed our BIG show screener ASAP.  Where was the screener?  

Hey, thats my idea! How to protect it…

Immediately after we completed the Treatment for MotorSport Ranch I wondered how people in the television and film industry protected their ideas and concepts.  I brought this issue up with Bob and Tanya (she details some of this in her book Pitching Hollywood) and they indicated that the first step was registering the idea with the Writers Guild of America - you can even do it online. 

You may ask, “Why should I register my material?” and according the the WGA’s FAQ: 

    The registration process places preventative measures against plagiarism or unauthorized use of an author’s material. While someone else may have the same storyline or idea in his or her material, your evidence lies in your presentation of your work.  Registering your work does not disallow others from having a similar storyline or theme. Rather, registering your work would potentially discourage others from using your work without your permission.

    Though the Registry cannot prevent plagiarism, it can produce the registered material as well as confirm the date of registration. Registering your work creates legal evidence for the material that establishes a date for the material’s existence. The WGAw Registry, as a neutral third party, can testify for that evidence. 

Msr_wgaIt only cost me $20.00 to register MotorSport Ranch: Registration No.: 999021.  There are lots of resources on the WWW regarding protection.

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