From the Depths of Outline Hell

RIGHT NOW, WE'RE shooting Day 7 of 8 of Episode 202 of THE BORDER. I'd love to be on set at ICS right now, and I may well make it there tonight. But for now I'm desperately trying to pound out the revised, revised, revised outline for my next ep. So here's my one-line craft advice for the aspiring:

Unless you can be fast, and I mean FAST, fast -- don't bother. You want to really be a value to a story department? Hone your skills in such a way that you can a) structure a story well and quickly. b) revise it even more quickly. c) write the outline in 48 hours d) in a pinch, write a solid first draft in a week.

If you can do that, and do that consistently, you may just be employable.

(at left: James McGowan (Mike Kessler) and Sofia Milos (Bianca LaGarda) strike a pose for the paparazzi in the land of the 70 dollar cocktail.)

Things are going pretty well at The Border. Our stars got to walk the Red Carpet at the Monte Carlo TV Festival last week. We didn't win Best TV drama, but hey, it was nice to be nominated. (I think the winner was some show about forensic people. You know, those guys in Lab Coats that do the icky stuff with bullets and spatters and stuff? Sounds deadly boring to me. Whose lame idea was it to make a show about that?)

But the best news is some really hot, super duper, incredible, fun news about next season that I can't talk about yet.


Ooh, it's so good. Oh man, I wanna tell you.

But I can't. No. Nope. I can't.

But it's good.

Oh yes it is.

A hint?

You want a hint?

I shouldn't.

I can't.

Mmm...

Well ...

Let's just say we'll be getting some hits from some other kinds of fans next year.

Yes. I did just do that. Heh heh.

(If you want to catch up on Season 1 of The Border, we're reairing through the summer Monday nights at 9pm on CBC)

For now, I leave you with Sofia walking and working it in red. Rowwr!