Flying High

 

In my previous life - before I started a technology company, I worked for two guys who owned their own planes. I love flying, and it was always a treat to fly on a plane that left when the boss was ready. I like to sit up front and watch the pilot. When I first started writing, I wrote about the newest PC software, including Flight Simulator, and even wrote a chapter in my first book about that program. Later, I took ground school on the path to get my pilot's license, but a soccer injury to my eye meant that I lacked the depth perception necessary to safely fly a plane.

I got exciting news this month. I got a book adaptation gig!  It is a movie being produced about an existing book, Hijacked: The True Story of the Heroes of Flight 705. I never got asked to do this job - I aggressively pursued it. After my manager got back from Cannes, we had a Zoom where she updated me on all my scripts, the studios and producers that had requested to read and who she had sent to. I was so elated and toward the end, she mentioned that she met this amazing producer who was trying to get the rights to a book about a hijacking of a FedEx plane. I wrote that down and after we were done, I did a search on it and found the book on Amazon. I verified that was the story and went to bed reading the book (it was free with Kindle Unlimited.) 

The next day, I got up excited and wrote a long treatment of how I'd handle the story - compared to how the book is sequenced. I realized that my manager had NOT requested this and might think I was silly, but instead, she forwarded this to the producer and that the option had not been secured. I knew my manager had two writers who did book adaptations, so the only way I'd get this gig was to be the eager beaver - early bird, etc. Needless to say, a few weeks later, my manager said that the option had been secured and that the producer wanted to talk to me and she set up a Zoom.

I ended up reading the book four times and made Keith read it and explain a lot of the technical stuff (the pilot inverted the plane at one point), and then I started learning everything about the producer and her production company. www.HELICOPTER PRODUCTIONS.com

We spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone - and had a real meeting of the minds. A few odd things - she used to own a manufacturing company is a supplier to Ford, etc. They make the little tubes for electrical wires under 1 inch that run to the visor, and windshield wipers. She is still in Detroit. I explained my connection to the automotive business. My two airplane-owning bosses were car dealers.

My manager and the producer saw this as a faith-based movie. There are a lot of funds for this type of movie. I agreed, but there was another issue – race. A big producer had optioned it before - and couldn't get past the race issue, especially right after the death of Rodney King. Since the hijacker is black and against three older white dudes - some might think of it as being about race. The book goes into detail about this, but I proposed removing his race - and even suggested removing his face, etc. It didn't have to be part of the story of how three pilots were able to beat all odds and land that plane after being critically attacked with hammers. This hijacker is a very evil man, did horrible things and had planned to crash a huge D10 into the FedEx sorting facility and kill thousands of workers - most of them black. He didn't care - he wanted to destroy his employer and get the 1.3 million life insurance for his kids because he was about to be fired (for good cause.) 

At the end, she wrote to my manager "Had a wonderful meeting with Sandi.  We discussed a lot.  This is our writer! We are so excited to get started and move quickly.  Sandi has amazing ideas, and with her strength in structure, and her aviation knowledge, will make this a winning script! She is on the same page with creative direction as an inspirational / faith-based film.  Nothing "in your face", but as Sandi confirmed, God is mentioned 16 times in the book."

So, I got the gig - not a huge fee, but a percentage that could be huge if it goes to a tent pole like Sully or Air Force One instead of A Wing and a Prayer. I've been dancing on air, taking more meetings - writing, writing, writing and loving it - flying high!

Here's the link to the pitch deck.

Chasing Chickens

How many of you can say that you have a picture of yourself holding a chicken?
 
My parents raised chickens, and I'd often be the "go-to person" to catch the chickens that escaped from the chicken house. It was an important job because if nightfall came -  the coyotes would get them. 

I was a fast kid with boundless energy - so my parents thought I was the perfect person for the job -- or they just wanted me out of the house!

I could either chase, chase after them until they tired - I've always been overactive, or I could surround them by making various mazes and traps. 

My parents owned an avocado ranch and there were hundreds of wooden boxes stored next to the chicken house. I was a smart kid, so after a few tries at outrunning the chickens, I started building traps to corner the intelligence-challenged birds. That worked. It was easier and more efficient.

I found in my first 20 years of screenwriting that chasing my dream of getting to see my name up on the big screen is a lot like chasing chickens. I've been writing and writing and not catching any producers, agents, or managers. I was getting tired. 

Two years ago - I had the resources I needed - a "fixed" income  after selling my software company, which meant I didn't have to chase after clients and investors, and I had the funds, although limited - to spend on my "boxes." 

Since I don't have unlimited funds, I create a budget each month of what I can spend. I've been using my children's book writing, screenplay contests, listing services, pitching fees, editors, marketing, experts etc., as my boxes and now with a manager - I think that chicken is almost surrounded! I'm very close to getting a writing gig for adapting an amazing book. 

Tune in next month to learn more.

Did I catch the chicken?  I like to think so, but upon reflection of my childhood, I think the fun was in the chase and planning, setting up my boxes - doing the work - and, of course, running. A big part of life is to always be chasing the chickens!

Aloha Princess

This picture is of Dave Villwock (the famous hydroplane driver) with me in Hawaii. He visited me at my new job in Hawaii with one of my former bosses. In my career, as a business manager, I stayed friends with my former employers and employees. 

I've lived in seven states, and nothing compares to my years in Hawaii.  My time in Hawaii was magical. I've written over a dozen screenplays and pilots, and one of my favorites is Aloha Princess. 

Aloha is a Hawaiian word with many meanings, ranging from love, peace, and compassion to pity and grief. It's commonly used, especially by visitors to Hawaii, to mean "hello" and "goodbye."

My move to Hawaii came at a magical time in my life. I got a dream job to live in paradise, and I had recently learned that I was Native American and joined the Cherokee Nation tribe. I took a trip to England during the height of the Princess Diana obsession and became a "royalist," the term they call fans of the monarchy. I knew every Disney princess story and could sing the words to all their songs.

I changed my fascination with princesses to the Hawaiian Monarchy. I learned everything I could about Queen Lili'uokalani - the last queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The thing that I found the most amazing, is that she visited the United States twice, once in 1887 and again in 1897. She was an incredibly educated and well-read woman and must have known about the Indian Removal Act in 1830 and the ongoing American genocide of Native Americans. She loved her people - her love was so great that she made a King Solomon-like decision to not call her people to arms and avoided a similar fate for Pacific Islanders of the Native Americans who were corraled and marched into reservations -- all because some resisted the land-grabbing government.

I would like to write a screenplay based on her now out-of-copyright autobiographical novel, Hawaiʻi's Story by Hawaiʻi's Queen, but I thought a story set in the present-day would be a more marketable movie, thus my script, Aloha Princess.  In addition, that type of historical script should be written by a Pacific Islander - although I wouldn't mind co-writing.

You might wonder what caused me to leave Hawaii? It was hard, I have dozens of close Hawaiian friends who I've stayed in touch with over the years and I truly left my heart in the islands. But I worked for a man that broke all three of my rules. He lied to me, broke a promise that he made that he'd help me buy his company when he retired and yelled - yes, yelled at me. You might think I have thin skin - but I grew up in a charmed house. My parents never yelled at me (or each other) and never struck me. No, there weren't "new age" parents - they beat the heck out of my brother. My mom used to tell the story of how she had to put him in an upside-down playpen and put the TV on top. He was a terror and deserving of Mom's daily screams. On the other hand, I was a shy and bright kid who easily understood the rules and tried my best to stay out of trouble.

After getting yelled at for an outrageous reason, my boss had three strikes, so I had to quit. To prevent it from happening again, I decided to start my own business and never have a boss disappoint me again. Creating a technology company was the excuse I gave him for leaving his employ because it wasn't important that both of us knew why. I ended up having him as a client, along with dozens of others in Hawaii - and I returned often until I sold my software company enabling me to live my dream of writing full-time.  He died that same year.

 Aloha Princess means so much to me - along with the word, aloha. It sums up the "hello" I gave to Hawaii by spending hours in the Iolani Palace, Bishop Museum, and local library, learning everything I could about my adopted state. It means "love, "- which reflects the love I have for everything Hawaiian - and "goodbye," the hardest thing I've ever had to do - leave a job that enabled me to meet celebrities, stay in my boss's waterfront homes, fly on his private plane, and attend dinners where the "per plate" fee was more than someone like me could ever afford. 

If you click on this link, Aloha Princess, you can read more about my script and I hope that someday it will be made into a movie and filmed in beautiful Hawaii.

How to Choose?

My manager is taking a few of my scripts to the Cannes Film Festival next month. The problem is that I have thirteen feature scripts ready to go, and she can only showcase three of them in her book that goes out to 500+ producers, studios, etc. How to choose? Thank goodness that is not my problem; she's the professional and will figure it out. I've been working with Alexia since February, and the first thing she does it send the scripts with the most marketability out for coverage. The person who does the coverage reads the script - maybe a few times and ranks it on a score of 1-10.  A score of  1-4 means to Pass on the script. A better score of 5-7 earns a Consider, and the best score of 8-10 - means that the executive should Read the script. I have two so far that have earned a 9 and four that are 7s. Three more are on the way to getting coverage. At first, I thought a 7 was a low score since I was thinking 70% on a test, but it is actually pretty good to be a "Consider" and outstanding to be a 9. 

The next process is to get a professional pitch deck created. The first thing that I do is to structure out the script and write a pitch. That sometimes causes some rewriting because when I'm telling the story in the form of a pitch - something might stand out as being in the wrong place. This pitch is then put into Canva, and off it goes to a designer who makes it look amazing. My pitch deck guru is Annalisa Giolo Dunker of https://www.betterearthproductions.com/. You can see her work on my new website - SandraJerome.com.

You might wonder how I can have so many unsold scripts. Easy - I've been writing for a long time, but only been a full-time screenwriter for a year. If you've been following me, you might remember that I retired two years ago, so what have I been doing for the other year?  After I retired, I thought I wanted to be a novelist. I spent a year learning how to write kidlit - middle-grade and young adult books. I wrote three of them, joined SCBWI and attended seminars and workshops. I started querying agents and publishers and did get a few requests for my books. But one problem - the publishing business is extremely slow. A typical wait time is six months before you get a response to a query - if ever. That doesn't stop me - I'm working on my 4th novel, but I remembered fondly that when I first started writing screenplays, there were many, many contests to enter. I'd get immediate feedback on my work. Plus, I needed a hobby while I was waiting be be a famous novelist. What do I like to do in my spare time?  You guessed it - storytelling!  There is no easier way to tell a story than a screenplay. It is like writing computer programming (my trained profession.) Lots of instructions to the talent and dialogue. 

I trained professionally to be a screenwriter two decades ago. I graduated from UCLA's advanced screenwriting program but then tragedy struck, and I had to abandon my dream of writing movies. Those who know me well know what happened and what I accomplished - including helping to raise my four granddaughters. Now that "my watch" is over and I'm writing full-time - the timing is perfect for a great 2025. The existing IP concept is huge. Studios prefer to reduce their risk by greenlighting a project based on something already "out there."  I have books already published and now I'm writing a book based on my most highly-ranked screenplay, Blood Moon Wolf. My "job" and hobby have joined together.  In addition, producers also want projects based on material in the public domain, and I'm working on a historical screenplay based on a book by Lady Churchill, Jennie Jerome, Keith's fourth cousin, twice removed. I'm also writing my 2nd Christmas movie and I'm thinking that might be my passion - I love Christmas. The acorn didn't fall from the tree because my mother was Christmas-crazy. I miss her so much.

Getting back to my huge inventory of completed projects, during the past two decades, I flew hundreds of thousands of miles and writing my screenplays and novels kept me company. I might be stuck in the middle of nowhere, far away from my family - but my characters were always with me - even when I was alone. I could drop my mind into their world and get away from the yucky hotel, cramped airplane, or stressful job. Then, I'd enter scripts into contests, get feedback, then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. I read recently that quantity does equate to quality when it comes to screenplays. If you keep writing and rewriting – you get better. I know so many screenwriters who only have 1-2 scripts, and they are precious to them. They only want certain producers and platforms to take on their projects and expect millions. I don't think that - I want my work to be aired - streaming, network, turned in TV - even YouTube! I plan to write 100 screenplays by the time I'm a hundred. Based on the ten thousand outliner hours that I've spent so far, I'm on the way there, and I have one sold and in production, with another two being optioned and a manager taking a few to Cannes. Better get back to writing - lots more to say before next month. Here's my IMDB page - Sandi Jerome

Visualization and AI - Artificial Intelligence

 

My dad grew up in the age of automation. Travel by horse was automated by cars; in fact, they measured vehicles by horsepower. My dad is fascinated by machinery. His favorite place is the Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum in Vista, CA. His last job was working on the machines that automate the baking and packaging systems at Dudley's Bakery in Julian. He invented a small machine that mixed the paint for my brother's color coating business. Machines were a big part of his generation and he knows how they work. Everyone thought that automation would eliminate the need for humans, but someone needs to know how the machines work to maintain and improve them. 

I grew up in the era of computerization. I remember my first experience with computers at college and writing software. I later owned a technology company. As a CPA, my specialty was writing code to calculate net pay. If you ask the next generation how to do that, they'd say, " Go to this website and enter your number of dependents, state, and then your gross pay."  Again, people thought computers would replace humans, but instead - the computer industry has added over 800 types of jobs. For example, I'm a programmer, software designer, and database administrator -- but not a web designer. But that job has changed. Web designers used to write HTML code with an editor and then "publish" or upload it to a website. This job is changed by web design software like Squarespace and Wix. These tools are taking us into the next era - visualization.

What is visualization? It involves AI - Artificial Intelligence to create what you "see" in your mind's eye. For example, imagine a flying army of cats that put out fires. Hmm... that visualization is hard to create. It would require animators to ask, "How do they fly - wings?" The next chore would be to determine color and breed - and start drawing. Computerization has improved drawing tools, but you'll need a story before you move forward. Who organized this army of firefighting cats? Who is the lead cat, and why does she do this? Who doesn't like flying cats, and what are they doing to stop them? Story software can create this by answering questions like this, but like the person who designs and maintains the machines and computers - we'll need someone to come up with the idea of flying firefighting felines and then visualize the story.  I know you're thinking of the pitch - it is like Cats - meets Fireman Sam. I expect there to be software where you'll put in two unrelated movies and have it spit out a new movie.  But someone will still need to think of it. That is called visualization.

The age of visualization is upon us. Today, we have hundreds of thousands more filmmakers.  As in Field of Dreams, "if you build it, they will come."  YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Twitch, DTube, Vevo, Flickr, and Veoh built the platforms.  Amateurs have dipped their toes in the filmmaking arena by using Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram to get their work out there.  The tools are amazing - you can make a film on an iPhone and edit it on the flight home. I bought the latest iPhone before my big European vacation after I sold my software company, so I wouldn't need to pack a camera, video camera, or GoPro.  If you're a worker in the film and TV industry, these "amateurs" who haven't been to film school or don't have their MFA in Screenwriting might scare you - but it is like computerization and automation. We still need someone to develop the idea (screenwriter) and think of the story. A director needs to visualize the story and know how to film it. Thousands of talented and craft people must take that vision and make the show. Producers must combine all the pieces and get the show funded, filmed, sold and distributed.  But the tools to make this process easier means thousands of new jobs are coming. 

I addressed this issue in my script, Technically Soccer - where a software mogul decides to coach a soccer team with a droid. The players are initially upset that a robot has replaced a human - taken the coach’s job, but the development and maintenance of that cute little droid created dozens of jobs. Plus, the old coach was pond scum - so a win-win!  I've created a new website that is more "visual" for my new screenwriting career - visit it at SandraJerome.com

 

YOU ARE REPRESENTED!!! - I read the email a few times. Could it be?  Since I sold my software company and started writing full-time in July 2022, I had a "phase two" goal of getting represented. What was "phase one?" That is easy - write something worth watching or reading. I've been spending the past two years learning, writing and rewriting.

I won two Native American Media Alliance fellowships in 2023. From Cari Daly in the NAMA Writer's Lab, I learned how to write a TV show.  I wrote my first "from scratch" TV show with the help of my mentor, Kris Crenwelge (staff writer on Spirit Rangers and True Lies.) Technically Soccer is a Ted Lasso-like dramedy about women's soccer and Artificial Intelligence. Didn't think those two topics could be one story, huh?  I often come up with ideas by thinking of some of my favorite stories but then adding, "But what if?"  For example, the Ted Lasso series is about the struggle of an American football coach trying to coach in the UK premier soccer league - but then I thought, what could be worse than being someone who knew nothing about soccer?  What if the person knew everything but wasn't what Ted had going for him? What if the coach wasn't even human?

As with every new venture, doubts started creeping in when I learned about the "writer's room" of a network TV show. First, a new writer is often considered a "gopher" or secretary - only allowed to take notes and get coffee. Trying to get onscreen credits can take YEARS!  The pay is amazing - especially after the writer's strike. A beginning writer hired to be on a sitcom staff might start at $7,000 a week - yes, per week!  But the hours can be long, and there is a good chance you won't get to write any episodes. After you have paid your "dues" and get a few onscreen credits and story editor/producer credits - it doubles to $14,000 a week. Growing up, my best friend wanted to be a flight attendant - but I wanted to be Sally Rogers, the funny writer on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Why didn't I pursue this earlier -- after completing UCLA's two feature screenwriting programs? Personal tragedy led me to become a programmer and software designer for the steady income, but I never stopped writing. My business meant flying over 200,000 miles a year - and I've written three young adult books, four new scripts and five TV pilots from some of my previous scripts and two original TV pilots. Whew! 

I'm a contest junkie and entered some of them in contests and was a Nicholl Fellowship and Austin Film finalist with five different scripts.  Recently, my feature scripts have been doing well - I've gotten two requests to "read" my scripts, and one of them, Last Woman, was a semifinalist in Final Draft's Big Break 2023 contest.  But TV? I've entered most TV writer's fellowships: Disney, NBC, Warner Bros, Fox, and CBS Paramount+. These are mostly diversity programs, but I haven't even gotten an interview. I think my age is a red flag - even though my Young Sheldon script had a good enough scorecard to boost my Coverfly rating. Who wants a grandma in a writer's room? Doubt set in - maybe I can't write TV?  So I entered my Young Sheldon in Scriptapalooza TV and won 2nd place!  Wow, my first time winning money!!! I knew it was a good script - it is about Sheldon's father dying, which should happen soon, according to Big Bang Legend.  

During the past year, I've gotten coverage for my scripts, taken three workshops from Carole Kirschner, including How to Pitch a TV Script that Sells and recently written software, SmilingPitch.com, that enables me to track my submissions and query producers. What is phase three?  Yup, sell something. I'm ready, I'm prepared. I'm proactive and aim to send out 5 queries a week to producers. I have about 20 projects, 14 of them have Accolades on Coverfly - and three have made the Red List. I'm ready.

All doubts are gone. I'm a TV writer. I'm a feature screenwriter. I'm a young adult novelist. I'm represented!!! I'm earning income writing. The back of this mug, which I purchased at my first writer's conference, says - "A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit."  That's me - a professional writer! Never give up, never surrender!

Wolf Clan

 Happy New Year!

I can't believe my new writing career is now two years old. If I had stayed on my original screenwriting path, I'd be about 26 right now - but since the women in my family live into their 90s - I'm right on schedule for a long writing career! Sure, my brain is filled with a ton of programming code after a successful technology career - but I got out early by selling my software company so that I could write. A huge part of my work involves my Native American heritage, which is odd, because I didn't find out I was Cherokee until Grandma Cook died, and I asked, where? My dad said she went back to the reservation.

I immersed myself in everything Cherokee, joined the tribe, applied for the Native American Media Alliance Fellowship and traced my ancestors back to North Carolina - finding out we were part of the Wolf Clan. I then wrote a script about the reintroduction of wolves into National Parks called Nature’s Way. 

I wondered - what if we all returned to the reservation - not to die, but to live? Then I thought, why not reintroduce us to the National Parks like wolves?  Imagine a futuristic virus-infected world where corporations are the governments, AI runs the world, and humans are stuck in their homes, monitoring the robots that grow our food, maintain the elderly in rest homes, and for kids - their education and relationships are online.

Reintroduction of Humans is about a Cherokee woman in a futuristic world, who convinces her family to participate in the reintroduction of Native Americans back into the National Parks to find her son, who was taken from her family because he was obese. A scripted Survivor!

My idea expanded after my AFI instructor, Matt Black, showed us Blade Runner's Voight-Kampff Test scene during my Native American Media Fellowship.  The writer's strike was going strong and a big issue was AI - Artificial Intelligence.  I put these three ideas together and wrote this as a short. I have no desire to be a filmmaker - I'm a writer, but one of my cohorts in the Native American Medial Alliance fellowship - Derek Quick - is an aspiring filmmaker.  He has an award-winning short, Camping, that is making the festival circuit. There was a short fellowship that was sponsored by Indeed with the theme of getting a job - so I wrote the first ten pages and he submitted. Our short didn't win, but Reintroduction of Humans was still in my head - so I had to tell the story and I made it into a sitcom.

I wrote a scene similar to the clip in Blade Runner but made it funny. AI is confused - and it knows that she is Cherokee and must understand why Native Americans would shoot arrows into trees. She goes home excited - instead of monitoring robots that kill pigs, she will monitor the National Parks! Plus, she thinks this is where their son has been taken, and she might see him on the screen. But when 3 radio collars arrive, she realizes the job is much more - they have been selected for the project to reintroduce animals into the wild - including humans. Again excited  - but the rest of the family is not, especially after their first orientation lesson. Kill their food? Possibly be the food?  Seriously? The theme is survival - at first.

After the pilot, each episode involves another challenge. In the first season, it is all about survival;  how to get water, what to eat, and most importantly - how to avoid things that want to eat them. They have lived in a world where they rarely encountered animals and their food was piped into their house and formed by a replicator oven. They must enlist the help of the other Native Americans living in the parks. In the second season, the survival concept changes as history repeats itself as there is fighting amongst the various tribes for territory and resources. The conflict moves from within their tribe to the other tribes.  In the third season, outside forces threaten their existence. The AI ruling program wants to terminate the program and return them to "civilization," and she thinks her family will be delighted - but she's wrong. 

The story engine is driven by each of the problems they encounter and the conflict from disagreements on how to solve their problems. For example, the daughter doesn't like in-person relationships and insists that another Native American boy leave "texts" - or carvings on trees to communicate. The pilot is titled Not Food and ends with the wolves and Cherokees being chased by the Apaches. Next is Training Day. The family starts their training on the reservation - and they learn about Derek. Then there is Flunked Out. Both Talitha and Alex want to go home, but Natalie insists on staying to see Derek again, and Episode 4 is Moving Day. It is time for the family to enter the park with other members of their “tribe.” Episode 5 is Bad Water - the new tribe finds out the hard way that there is good water - and “bad” water, followed by Run Faster. Alex is sure that something is stalking them - wanting to eat them and then Berries and Bears. Talitha convinces the family that bears can live on berries - but the bears are not happy with humans eating their food. The first season ends with I love you, Deer.  Victory for the family when they bring down a deer, but this attracts the attention of the other tribes.

Characters

Natalie is in her (30s) - our fearless Cherokee protagonist who wants to find her son and a better life for her family - but at what cost?

Talitha is a skeptical teen about 14 or 15, a passionate animal lover, but hooked on technology and being vegan. 

Dakota (17) An older teen, he's their Native American guide and teacher to help them survive in the wilderness and find Derek.

Derek was originally obese but is now 13; he's spent the past year in the wild and is now fit but concerned for his family.

Alex (30s)- is a Navajo hypochondriac, afraid of everything - especially bacteria and things that can eat him.

Like The Good Place, which made death funny - this dramedy maintains humor with exciting survival situations - for example, the pilot ends with Derek and Dakota being chased by a rival tribe - wearing radio collars and getting zapped, which is funny. But full of Indian culture, like Reservation Dogs.

View on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx_8Ja4anZU7427aV5A98VQUPYtmdfWJc 

Canva (my entry for SeriesFest in May 2024)

https://www.canva.com/design/DAF3szItxdU/LJF6EVCDBLPZVh07bmqaDQ/edit?utm_content=DAF3szItxdU&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton