In hopes to get noticed by…well anyone, we submit to a lot of contests. All require the same thing - DVD of a show, press kit, 40 dollars - mailed to a P.O. Box somewhere.
In addition to these contests, we submit to Channel 101, a monthly screening with five new pilots and five returning pilots competing for a chance of another episode. I view Channel 101 as the precursor to funnyordie or even youtube. I remember watching their five minute videos way before Charlie bit anyone’s finger.
The first time we submitted to Channel 101, we were filming the Decarbonizer at my parent’s house and someone asks me to double check the due date for our pilot. It was DUE not postmarked by on Monday and it was Saturday evening.
So we all pile into the car like the Beverly Hill Billies (Tony was strapped on top, William hanging out of a window, dogs and cats thrown everywhere) and drive all the way to the LAX post office. You might ask: Why the LAX post office? Wasn’t it Saturday evening? Post offices aren’t open then. Usually you’d be right except the LAX post office is a procrastinators dream - open until 11 pm on weekdays AND on Sundays. It’s the ultimate answer for the “Oh Shit” problem.
A brief aside on why this is all so moronic. The Hollywood PO Box we’re shipping it to is only a few minutes from our house. But you can’t just take a letter there and hand it to the attendant to drop in that box. Even if you offer to bribe the attendant with what would’ve been the $14 in priority postage. Even if you show him or her your nipples. No no no - it has to go through the mail. So we have to drive to LAX and pay the priority postage so a mailman can rush that DVD right back to where we started from.
Here is a little chart to explain it all:
That DVD, by the way, was “Dead Men Don’t Play Strings,” which got accepted into the January Channel 101 screening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pgRjI5Y6pg
