Author Archives: James Riley
Branding With A Hot Iron
We had a meeting this week with a distributor/producer who seemed to know her business and her market, (“faith/inspiration”), very well. She said very early on she had an idea for an entertainment “brand,” along with the right people to produce it. By all appearances, she’s doing very well.
Does “Courage, New Hampshire” and “Colony Bay” have a brand?
I know there are marketing types who can ruminate with more precision on this subject, but my sense of “brand” is a signature that declares essential ingredients. Continue Reading »
Why They’re Nervous
Buying Directly: It could change everything
What we are doing at Courage, New Hampshire is not really being done anywhere else.
Conventional industry people get a funny look on their face when you tell them you’re doing a television show “on spec.” Some of them look as though they wish they had a chalk board, so they could diagram how it’s done: find broadcast partner, study what they do, pitch idea, find name talent, locate investors, produce pilot, wait to see if that sells enough lip gloss to “Twilight” fans and their moms. Continue Reading »
What’s in a Name?
Recognize any of these guys?
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Do I know these guys? I would have known the first two faces, then I would have snapped my fingers, hit my head a few times, trying to remember the first guy’s name — ultimately to surrender and ask one of my kids. The second guy I would have recognized immediately for his role in Mad Men, but I wouldn’t have the slighest idea what his name might be. If IMDB is to be believed, the third guy is the #3 hottest actor in the world, but I wouldn’t have recognized his face or his name. Continue Reading »
The Ambition Blogs — #2 by Kristie Kershaw
Editor’s Note: Kristie Kershaw, the wife of British born actor, Nathan Kershaw, (“Bob Wheedle” and “Sam Courage” ), has this to write about “Ambition,” (the title of Courage, New Hampshire chapter four.)
Ambition is neither vice nor virtue – nothing but human intention can make it one or the other.
On its face, ambition is merely the desire to better oneself or one’s circumstances. That, in and of itself, can be construed as neither good nor bad. The motivation, in point of fact, is everything. Continue Reading »
The Ambition Blogs
“Ambition,” the fourth chapter of Courage, New Hampshire inspired a question for our cast:
“Is ambition, in any age, a virtue?”
Allen Marsh, “Abraham Foxe” in Courage, New Hampshire, has this to say:
Well, the Greeks certainly thought so. The Hebrews not so much. And the Romans couldn’t decide.
Personal ambition, to the Greeks, was indeed regarded as a virtue of sorts. In The Iliad, Achilles wanted glory rather than a long life, and that just about sums up the definition of ambition to my mind — the desire for something beyond the average. Continue Reading »
The Story You Crave
What makes a story worth your time?
I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but I can remember looking forward to “Happy Days” installments when the show first began running in 1974. That would have been around 8th grade for me, and it might have had something to do with thinking high school would hold moments of gorgeous mystery — a girl who looked like Linda Evans saying yes to the prom, the Beach Boys showing up for your birthday party, dad presenting you with a chrome-heavy convertible red Corvette. Continue Reading »
The Inevitable Surprise
We’re at the “plot points” stage of episode #4, where we debate what happens to whom, how we match it to the events of the era, and what we have the means to attempt. For example, in this next episode, we’re very confident that Reverend Laud, in a flash back scene, needs to give a pretty spirited Whig (read patriot) sermon. Else why would Silas ever hire him for the Courage pulpit? But, wait, why would Laud be giving a liberty sermon when he can’t wait to be ordained into the King’s established church? Continue Reading »
Pondering Premieres and Performance
Premiere
Well, you should have been there.
The episode three premiere was epic, complete with an audience that ooohed, ahhhed and chuckled at all the right places. My daughter sat next to one fan who was literally leaning forward in her seat, anxious for the lives and fortunes of our heroes.
That’s the way it should be, and it made for a great after-party. Filming an episodic drama makes for a kind of congregation or fraternity of the faithful. You actually become a kind of township in the cause of telling a township story. Continue Reading »
The Color of Courage, New Hampshire
Color Adjusting and the Period Film Experience
Keep in mind, I know just enough about this topic to be dangerous, and if you have ever argued, as a family, about the proper color adjustment of the television set, you have an idea how volatile this issue can be, but the bottom line is that almost everything you see on television and in theaters these days has been “color adjusted,” “colorized,” “color balanced,” or “color massaged” in some way.
One way of understanding this reality is to consider the last time you saw one of those “on the set” interviews. Continue Reading »
The Photoshop Syndrome
Three weeks. That’s a big break in the production blog, and it
has to do with, well, production. We’re working hard to bring in the next episode by the first week in May.
On that front, there are a few cuts and transitions we’re still debating, but it’s pretty much a matter of color and music now, and it all looks pretty nice in our book.
Over the years I’ve come to warn people about what I call the “Photoshop Syndrome,” but lately I have come to believe it’s a life truth more ancient than Adobe. Continue Reading »
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