It’s a question I ask myself all the time. Am I willing to go backwards to go forward? Many times giving up a few comforts have propelled me ahead, but not all the time. For some reason, everything that is worth having usually requires you to lay all your chips down.
We have been building Metro-Burbs, our concept for a children’s show, brick by brick. It has been a very exhilarating, yet intricate process. There isn’t financing or backing of any sort to help prop us up, so we are learning by rolling up our sleeves and often times seeking out great talent to get involved purely because they like the concepts. Luckily, it has worked.
Since it isn't our day job, it can get a little difficult to find the time to focus on it. For me, this has been a great aspect of it, albeit at times a less productive one. I never felt that I should work on Metro-Burbs because I had to. So I would leave it alone for months at a time. We are at the point where we are confident that we can roll this thing off the assembly line with great success. We have everything we need to make it happen, and I'm very proud of all our efforts. It also helped my optimism recently to have gone to a few meetings, where the project held up very nicely to outside evaluation (aka not my family).
I do have to say that we have been lucky enough to get a few enormously talented folks involved with our idea; they have done an amazing job in helping to bring Metro-Burbs to life.
We didn’t want to make this program just to get into this area of the business; it is too difficult for that. There is a legitimate hole that we are attempting to fill in children’s television. Many of today’s shows are either geared toward the aggressive young boy, or set up for the cheap laugh, at the expense of our kid’s development. Our kids are absorbing actions on the tube that we would never tolerate in real life. Why would we want them to see someone else doing it?
We have the ability to bring a show with a fresh vibe, lots of enthusiasm and with educational value. There is no question that kids are going to watch more than one hour of TV a day, so why not stimulate their noggin during that time? We can let them discover elements about themselves that can be utilized when they are not sitting in front of the television. I’m not saying that all TV for kids has a negative consequence, just enough for us to do something about it.
I’d like to acknowledge a few of those artists that joined in to elevate Metro-Burbs to another level. They are all very passionate, creative, funny and bright individuals. I see them as the ideal people to make up what I want Finn Factory to be in the future. Take a bow guys ---- Alan Camuto, Bianca Siercke, Sal Denaro and Ted Nunes.
It continues to be exciting for me to pitch the show, and to get great feedback. It's not a matter of IF it will happen, but when. So to answer my own question, I am ready to fail in the short term, knowing that it will make everything I do in the long run even better. All the efforts thus far have paid off in spades. I look forward to walking everyone through Metro-Burbs one day....soon.
