5
 
 
  
1:58 PM, Sunday, August 14th, 2016:
 
Since the video is about the Golf Hard Hole, the title followed suit...
 
...but this entire entry is about all that other stuff. That laboring, annoying, and quite frankly exhausting side of The Journey. But I gotta keep everything up to date...
 
So, after not hearing from my contact at "Geeking Out" for over a week (strange for him) he finally got back with:
 
"I honestly wish I had an answer for you with what's going to happen. Our Executive Producer is in New York and it's really hard to get answers from him. Sometimes it seems like the piece is a go and we should book it right away, other times it seems like it might not happen. I wish I had a simple answer for you but nothing about this seems simple haha.
 
If I were to guess, it might not happen for a little bit still. "
 
And, well, there it is. Now, if I were a betting man I would say they are going to front-load these episodes with the absolute best shit possible for maximum ratings and then throw in the other cool shit at the end of the season. Matt Damon, best shit possible. JJ Abrams, best shit possible. GolfKon? Cool shit at the end of the season. But also, it's now clear that this might not happen.
 
And that's how this business works. You have to strike while the iron is HOT. I needed to be bugging everyone possible (tried to do it as judiciously as I could) right at the beginning so it was BOOKED and SHOT... but even that might not have been doable. The first 2 shows are in the can and there's only 6 left - so time really is of the essence. Since the final episode would air September 25th it's pretty clear that I have a window of about one month for this to be shot to make it because I'm certainly not season finale material. It sucks because this was clearly a done deal a couple weeks ago as they were asking for my schedule for shooting the following week and now weeks have passed. The window is closing and there's no way not to be bummed here. Mostly because...
 
...the other piece of excitement this summer, Chasing Heroes, is my biggest headache. I've never dealt with this type of "silence" in business before. Weeks to respond to emails and some questions never answered. I get it, there's always bigger fish to fry but of course it's concerning as this continues to go forward. Latest I've heard is "it could be weeks" before we know anything more. That's fine, but letting me know that without having to bug you constantly is helpful. I guess the president is taking it to his "team"? It feels like I'm reading articles on Variety about someone else for which I have no effect on or feedback about. It's nothing like any of my other dealings with networks or development deals. I was talking to Paddy the other night and he said he and a co-worker are noticing there's a "ghosting" trend with younger peeps that's happening far too often to be ignored. An absolute ignoring of correspondence. And he actually meant urgent correspondence. Like "Here's the first two shots, let me know if these work and I'll finish the rest..." Crickets. Your entire workload is delayed until there's a response unless you just GUESS and waste your time. Bizarre. I sent that reel back to Collins even though my questions weren't answered and guessed, then waited for their response and two weeks passed. I write them again and get the "oh yeah, everything was good." from someone completely different than who I was talking to originally. Ferfuksake. So in the end, you just stop really caring about it and move on.
 
...moving on of course to this "Geeking Out" shoot which for all intents and purposes isn't happening unless they can't find anything else cool to spotlight. THENNNNNNNN maybe they'll plug it in. The thing is, I relate to their problems. If you can get Matt fucking Damon and JJ Abrams on your show... UHHHHH that minigolf course in some dude's backyard doesn't stand a chance. However, there's the Johnny Carson line of thinking which is, lure them with the big names but keep them with the unique and interesting stories. If you ever watch old Carson shows (which I do a lot now thanks to Antenna TV) sure the celebs are there, but there's almost always a really fascinating normal person telling an interesting story. The celebs start to blur together, but you remember the every day people and I have to presume that's what Geeking Out is going for. I'd say my chances are stil 50/50, but they were 100% a couple weeks ago when they asked when I could shoot the following week.
 
At least the hole is finished. Even got some testing in...
 
 
Whew. I sure do get shit done when up against a deadline.
 
Adam