Friday, March 5, 2010

Positioning the Bottle

So I'm sitting alone in the Kairos Productions office in downtown Seattle. An hour ago, Ben came out of the ZOE compartment, rests his hands on his hips, gunslinger style, and eyes me while I peel an orange.
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"Matt, Kat, congratulations." I blinked at him. Was he complimenting my ability to flay citrus? Which, to be fair, is pretty badass. "Tomorrow, we head off to start filming our first feature-length production as ZOE. A production and a company that didn't exist just a few months ago."
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I consumed my orange contemplatively. He was right. Neither Zombie Orpheus nor JourneyQuest were more than ideas a year ago. JQ started talking to me on the train ride back from Comic Con at the end of July. And Ben and Kat first grokked the concept for ZOE, or the company that it would become, in September. A couple months later, JQ morphed from an eenie weenie farce bound for YouTube to a genre-bending, high production value webseries that will introduce ZOE to the world. And it all happened in a whirlwind that continues to gather people and talent to it.
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Honestly, I have no idea how JourneyQuest will do. I have no idea whether non-fantasy fans will find it accessible. Or if DG's amazing fanbase will embrace it, since it's not a Gamers film. Or if sales will allow us our second season, since the first one ends so abruptly. (Well, at least that's how it still feels to me -- several people I trust who've only read the 10-episode and not the 20-episode Season One have said there's no problem.)
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The last weeks and months have all been prep and logistics. Tomorrow, we're off to the first location, which is the farthest removed, and the most remarkable. And that's where I'm most comfortable: on set, on location. Once we're on set, the worries and the fears melt away. Or at least recede to ebb tide. I'm surrounded by colleagues and allies, and against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful parts of the world, I get to tell a lovely and entertaining story with my friends. All the right components for magic.
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Let's see if we can't catch lightning in a bottle twice. Got the same bottle, got the same team. Been studying this storm rather closely. That cloud overhead sure is a-roiling. Zap me, you bastard.