Suffice to say that the lack of blog posts indicates how insanely jam-packed the itinerary has been this trip.
I shall attempt to summarise in point form:
I walked up to our apartment (a gorgeous little airbnb which if you ever happen to be in Marseille you should TOTALLY stay in, it’s amazing) and squealed at the view. And by that I mean I squealed EVERY SINGLE MORNING.
This was the exact view from our window. I mean, come on. Seriously?
Marseille is one of the most creatively inspiring and photogenic places I’ve ever been. I adored it and took a billion photos. Let me show you round.
the writing residency I took part in involved myself plus seven other writers from around the world (Belgium, France, Denmark / UK / Switzerland, Australia / LA and various combinations thereof were present and what a rad bunch they were.
Guided by our mentor Professor Rich, we developed our pitches for our projects, workshopped and got feedback on each other’s concepts and had the benefit of listening to some great guest talks from the likes of Adam Dunlap from FullScreen Pictures, Drew Baldwin from Tubefilter, David Worthen from Fox Digital, Lucas Passmore (screenwriter whose credits include mini episodes of The Walking Dead and Neil Landau from UCLA (and as a tid-bit my kids might appreciate, the writer of “Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead.”)
my brain melted.
I also attended some masterclasses and wrote as much as I could on Viking Mama. I have SUCH a clearer vision now of what the show will be and feel completely unleashed now to just make it as crazy as it was always destined to be, rather than trying to sanitise it into what I thought it “should” be, if that makes sense.
And of course, I met a gazillion incredible people who got me so pumped up with possibilities just by hearing about what they’re doing in the world. It was the coolest thing; one person would say “oh wow, you’re thinking about your characters doing their own mini-episodes? You should chat to X, they did that in their series Blah Blah! Oh, here’s X right now!” Then another would say “Oh, you’re thinking of playing multiple characters? You need to meet Y! He did that in his series!”
With Yukata Cowboy, who plays all the characters in his series.Loved these guys! Jack Jewers, director and producer of the “Night School” web series, based on the brilliant books by his other half CJ Daugherty.
WEB SERIES IS WHERE IT’S AT, PEOPLE. It seriously feels like we’re right on the crest of a wave that’s about to crash in the world. It’s such an exciting time and I’m so pumped up about the possibilities of that.
Wow. Did I actually just sum up a manic week in a couple of paragraphs? I think I did. It feels like cheating. So much more went on.
But for now that shall have to do, because as I type this I’m well into the final leg of the adventure and what a new one it is: learning the craft of improvised cabaret (including a foray into improvised hip hop which is already blowing my mind) in New York City.
“I’m Working Here!”