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…