Network Notes, Part 2

Guest Column from Mickey Fisher and The Extant Storytech R&D Report

Thrilled to have this guest post from my friend Mickey Fisher! We did a feed-swap this week, which means that the post that I wrote, Network Notes part 1, can be found here on Mickey’s terrific newsletter, The Extant Storytech R&D Report. While you’re over there, please subscribe. Mickey is really good at this. He’s also way too nice to me in today’s guest column. Read it for yourself, starting… now.

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I heard Ben Blacker’s voice in my head long before I met him. By that, I mean I spent a lot of time hiking in the hills of Orange County while listening to Ben’s fantastic Writer’s Panel podcast when I moved to LA in 2011.

What I loved about the podcast was that he wasn’t just interviewing the marquee names, the showrunners and creators. He was talking to people who were deep in the trenches of writers rooms and development circles. It always felt like I was getting the most up to date, boots on the ground look at what it means to be a writer for film and television. I devoured those episodes and learned a ton of practical information. In fact, I had just finished a hike in Peters Canyon while listening to an episode when I got the call from the contest that changed my life with EXTANT.

Two years later I got the chance to be a guest on the podcast when Ben interviewed a handful of creators and showrunners for the CBS summer shows at the ATX Festival in Austin. We met in the bar shortly beforehand and I had one of those weird out of body experiences where suddenly this very familiar voice was now attached to an actual person in front of me. I immediately assaulted him with compliments. Lucky for me he wasn’t terrified (at least outwardly) of my bull in a china shop energy.

Me holding up four fingers at a screening of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS at ATX while my much thinner doppelgänger looks on.

Seven years later I’ve gone from fan to friend. We’ve swapped war stories, pizza tips, and scripts, but I’m still a regular listener of the podcast and now I’m a subscriber for this newsletter.

About a week ago he texted me about writing a guest column for this newsletter, centered on networking. My first response was, “Let’s trade!” My second response was, “But you’re way better at the networking than I am.”

With the podcast and his weekly live show, The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Ben has built up a large and diverse community. He’s diligent about nurturing those relationships and creating opportunities for writers to connect with each other. I’m by no means an introvert but I am a creature of habit. It’s easy for me to default to isolation and hang out with the same handful of people, or just my girlfriend and my dog. I’m trying to get better, and Ben is a great example of how to do it right.

So, I was kind of stuck on what I could add to the conversation.

Then I started thinking about the round of pitches I did recently and texted him back with an idea for a part two. When I finished those pitches it struck me that there was a cool matrix of connections and relationships tying the whole day together.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

If you’re not a reader of the Extant Storytech R&D Report, I’ll give you a quick catch up. Earlier this year I sold a pitch to a studio for a new sci-fi series based on a short story with some really cool producers attached. It’s an if/come deal, which basically means I don’t get paid until we find a home for the show.

My exec at the studio is someone I met in 2006, when she was a master’s student in a producing program in LA and I was a Nicholl semi-finalist still living in Brooklyn. She reached out to see if she could option my script for her thesis project. I said yes, and we spent some time together developing the script. It was my first time going through that process and I was so excited by her really smart notes. We kept in touch over the years as she moved up in the business. I would send her new scripts, she would give me feedback and slip me the hot new pilots that were making the rounds. She was one of the first two people to read EXTANT back in 2012.

Every year or so we get together for lunch or dinner, catch up as friends, and talk about potential projects we could do together. The timing has never been exactly right or the project wasn’t the right fit, but we kept trying. Early this year, a couple of producers brought her a piece of material that seemed right up my alley. I pitched a take to her and the producers and we finally made that connection. We spent a few months developing the pitch and it was so much fun to be getting her very smart notes again. Sixteen years later we’ve leveled up in knowledge and experience.

When we started talking about potential buyers she asked me to put together a list of people I liked who might also be fans. Pitch #1 last week was with two network execs that I worked with on REVERIE, a show that I made with Amblin Television. It only lasted one season but we had (I think, and it seems like they do, too) a positive working relationship. My studio partner worked with them on a number of projects in their current positions but they also worked for the same company years before, so it was a friendly room. That went a long way toward easing the nerves and setting the framework for a fun, creative conversation afterward.

Pitch #2 was with two executives that I worked with for a brief period in 2020. I got that job thanks to my friends at Amblin. That show gave us a common creative ground for our discussion after the pitch, thanks to some thematic crossover. My studio exec had some long-term connections with this place as well, which led to another friendly room.

I remember going on my first few pitches for EXTANT and being kind of surprised how everybody seemed to know everybody else. It really drove home the idea that Hollywood is a small town.

Nine years later I feel like I’m a full-fledged citizen. It’s not just that I’ve been around for a while. I also made an effort to nurture those relationships along the way. When somebody gave me an opportunity, I gave them everything I had in return. I did the best work I was capable of and tried to be collaborative, kind, and respectful. Basically, I just tried to be a decent human being.

These pitches aren’t just a “sales meeting” about one project. They’re also networking events. They’re an opportunity to make a positive impression, whether these people buy the show or not. Hopefully, the next time my name comes up they remember having a fun, collaborative, creative conversation. The more of those I do over time the wider that web of connections becomes.

I talk a lot about creativity in terms of finding connections between ideas. I take in more and better information and inspiration and my chances of finding a connection that leads to a great idea improves. Same principle applies with making a sale or getting something made. The more positive points of connectivity you have the better chance you have for something to catch fire.

There’s one more aspect of networking that I want to talk about.

A couple of years ago a writer friend posted a picture of his custom setup for an elaborate board game. Not even a week later another friend reached to see if I’d be interested in collaborating to pitch a take on that game. I told him I didn’t know anything about it but I knew someone who did and connected them with each other.

Two weeks ago another writer friend generously “bought me a coffee” to support the newsletter. I reached out to say thanks and see how they were doing and they told me about a development deal they had signed. Yesterday, I met with a production company about potentially adapting a short story to series and they mentioned the company where my friend has her deal. Because my friend was fresh in my mind I said, “Speaking of Company X, have you met with this person who has a deal there?” They hadn’t, but now hopefully they will, and a new connection will be formed.

Sometimes the most fun you can have networking is putting other people together.

You’re putting a little positive magic out there in the world. Like Amelie.

It's better to help people than garden gnomes.

The last thing I’d like to say is that this exchange of newsletter columns is, in itself, an act of friend-working and community building. I’ve already received emails about hidden connections that Ben and I weren’t aware of, and I have no doubt that both of us will meet people we wouldn’t have otherwise met. Here’s hoping that the combination of ideas here helps you form some new connections as well!

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Why not start now? Leave a comment below and introduce yourself. I’ll give you a prompt by asking what I ask on every podcast: What are you watching and enjoying on TV right now?