Evidence of Wrong Turns

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 26 June 2014.

Yeah, I was thinking about how, in some ways, you are the Apollonian and I am the Dionysian.

If we could afford it time- and money-wise, I would totally just do the garage, DIY version of the project we started with: put on shows, generate footage, get it on the Internet, and let the story unfold that way.

I'd be totally fine with a version of the project where we just pick a show from the timeline and put on that concert, then repeat. I think you go Apollonian when it comes to the records and live performances--you want to make them flawless.  I'm probably more Apollonian about the story, especially when it comes to chronology.

...filming for some unknown and presumably useless reason

I think what sets our story apart from The Office or Parks and Rec is that we don't have an anonymous documentary crew filming for some unknown and presumably useless reason.  I totally agree: there is absolutely no reason for the documentary crew to give a crap about 11 years of some paper company in Scranton.

In our case, if Jo is the frame, then the story is unfolds around her.

She is on a quest to understand her own father amid her own existential crisis, and she quickly learns that the only way to do so is to understand Arthur White, the man who inspired him to risk everything and who inadvertently led him to his death. There's that old cliche that cynics are jaded idealists, and I think that's true for Jo. She has her father's nature and her mother's nurture: her dad was attracted to truth and beauty like a moth to a flame, but her mom raised her in a cloud of cynicism, preaching the gospel of her father's betrayal and the idea that life is pain.

I think where I'm very Apollonian is that I don't really care that much about sharing the story of our quest to create the project.

I had the same problem in all of my drawing classes: my teachers would try to get me to leave all the marks of my process in my work, where to me, they were just distractions, evidence of wrong turns. But I trust your vision here.

Regarding our story, I think we need to see if we still like the strategy of aiming toward a TV show. The advantage is that we can map out the whole story without spending money, rehearsing, acting...all the things that are difficult for us. The disadvantage is the difficulty of getting the show signed and produced. Also, for good or bad, we probably won't end up being Art and Will.

If the show gets signed, we'll probably end up with lots of interviews about the making of the show anyway.  I watch too much cable, and I can't believe how much television is devoted to behind-the-scenes stuff. I've seen more interviews with and stories about the cast of Mad Men than I have episodes, and I've seen all the episodes.

Plus, we still have the blog.