Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Everything is read, reread, bargained, re-reread, and amended, and I can finally feel okay about talking about this: My partner and I have sold an option on an original TV series to a small, unstruck production company.

The show is called "Graduates" and follows the lives of six new graduate students as they struggle to integrate their faith, families, social lives, and personal beliefs with their new life in academia. The option we signed is actually an option for co-producer credit, meaning we maintain an almost unheard-of level of creative control and remain tied to the project if it is picked up by a network--meaning that they can't just buy us out and replace us with a team of their own writers. This is the reason we decided to go with this company; they have an incredible amount of faith in their writers, and are supportive of their original vision almost to a fault.

Our next step will be editing down the 8-10 minute promo we've written to 6-7 minutes. Instead of sending around a script, we've decided to film a teaser for the entire show and shop that around instead. The promo, once it's edited and a director is selected, will probably be filmed in Cleveland, so if anyone knows any actors in the area who have film experience and, ideally, some experience in the sciences, please, send them my way.

As far as the strike goes, we're aware that we're on somewhat squishy moral ground. The odds of the show getting picked up at all, much less before the strike is over, are slim to none. The production company we're working with, Verax Media, has just gotten into TV and is not struck at this time, which is important to us. Additionally, we're not members of the WGA--apparently they want you to sell things before you start paying dues and stuff. So we feel pretty comfortable with where we are right now.

I'm so excited about this. I know it's only the first step of many, but to have a creative idea flow onto the page so easily and to so easily find someone else to believe in it too feels AMAZING.