A Web Series Journey - Part 1
The Beginning of Frank James the Web Series.
I want to tell you a story about a journey. This journey is how my script Frank James came to be and how I decided to turn it into a web series.
Los Angeles as Character
It began when I moved to Los Angeles from Atlanta in 1991, a punk rocker with dreams of becoming a cinematographer and making films. Though I had grown up in a city most of my life, I had never lived in a megalopolis quite like Los Angeles. Its multi-tiered terrain of urban jungle meeting suburban wasteland, interconnected by a web of freeways stretching on to the horizon, all felt overwhelming. But it was also a source of fascination. Shortly after I arrived — first living in Hollywood and then the San Fernando Valley — the Rodney King beating and LA riots happened. Like many, I watched the city burn from a television set. The visuals coming from the street were eerie and illuminating.
Then in 1994, the Northridge earthquake hit while I was driving home from a film set and in ’97 the Bank of America shootout in North Hollywood took place only a few miles from where I used to lived. All these incidents made Los Angeles feel like it was poised on the edge of some great chaos.
The first screenplay I wrote when I arrived in Hollywood, took place in North Carolina, much closer to what I had known before. The next one was going to be set in Los Angeles, as the 90’s then felt like a tragic time and Los Angeles, a tragic city.
Art that Inspired
Michael Mann’s film, Heat, came out right in the middle of all this in 1995 and captured everyone’s attention. To watch it was almost a visceral experience and elevated the police drama, in my eyes, to an art form. Its story of the hunters and the hunted in the criminal world captured you from the beginning. Its wild shootout predated the Bank of America robbery and was suspected as the inspiration for it. To this day it remains one of Michael Mann’s best work if not the best.
That same year, I also discovered the work of Joseph Campbell and his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This seminal piece first published in 1949 is required reading for anyone writing a screenplay. Reading the book brought home mythic connections to the journey of heroes and heroines we read and watch. It is also symbolic of our own journey. We know our own call to adventure, what our first threshold is and who our mentors are. And we hope that at the end of all this, we will bring home some boon to our fellow travellers.
From these inspirations came the script Frank James, about a detective on his own hero’s journey through Los Angeles as a tragic city. It started as a feature length script, but then evolved over the years into a serialized television format. Because the character was front and center, having the story be more open ended allowed for more seasonal story arcs and themes.
But turning it into a short form web series was another direction.
Rehearsal and Performance
In 2002, I read Directing Actorsby Judith Weston and opened up to the world of acting with fresh eyes. I come from a technical and visual background and this was a fantastic way to gain some insight into the actors process that I hadn’t known before. She has a studio in Los Angeles where she teaches an acting course for directors which is a brilliant experience. Practicing the craft of directing without fearing failure was a great relief. You learn to do a script analysis and then rehearse the script with the actors. You would then do a performance in front of the class and Judith would give you notes. It was an excellent learning tool and a way to allow the script to grow.
In this same vein, I approached actor Chris Muto to work on a scene from Frank Jameswith me in this format of rehearsal and performance and then to film it. Chris’s first reaction to the scene was, “Why not film it as a web series?” And with that I was liberated. Here standing before me was my character — and a path by which I could bring this story to life!
Coming Soon to the Web
A web series by nature is shorter then a half-hour television show. It’s in that category of short form much like a short film, but open ended. It’s a new format, at least to me, unencumbered by the need for a longer running time, which can mean the need for a larger budget. It’s accessible and engaging and with its own built in distribution network, the great mighty Internet.
Now I was free to approach each scene and group of scenes as short bursts of character and plot. Almost like filming a short, but with transitions into the next short burst. And so the journey began, or has begun, as at the moment, we have only filmed the first two episodes and are in the post-production process. As for the rest of the episodes, a search is on for a crowd-funding scenario that will work well with this format.
So now, like the hero’s journey, I’m on the road of trials in bringing Frank James to fruition. And my hope is that you will join me as my ally and follow along on this journey.