Reaper, Inc. — Part 19 — Producing 9
AKA Kind of a mixed bag
Despite saying goodbye in the prior fairly disappointing post I somehow have an update. It’s a big one at that too.
In keeping tradition with the last post I’ll kick this blog off with a major spoiler:
I got the rights back.
I don’t truly feel like talking about how exactly that happened or what it took. The gist of it is it was frustrating, took a long time, and I have mixed feelings about the whole ordeal and even the entire series at this point.
I can’t be too upset about an outcome I had asked for. When making, for lack of a better term ,— an ultimatum— you have to be okay with either result. I was hoping for the 35k to produce the series, instead I got the consolation prize — the rights back to what is currently¹and arguably my best written work.
Does this mean Reaper, Inc. will be going into production soon? We will be seeing Jessica, Stan, Alex, Anna, and Margaret come to life on the small screen in the near future?
The TL;DR is that boils down to quite frankly it’s expensive to produce, at least upfront.
Besides do I even want to make it at this point?
I don’t know. Money and logistical issues aside the whole ordeal has been a whirlwind of emotions. From finding out I won in a rather amusing method, to Covid hitting, to frustrations and communication problems (here, here, here, and here). On top of all the pressure to make something truly special only to have it not come to fruition the way I was promised leaves me feeling just… down about the whole thing.
Don’t for a second misread that as me being down about getting the rights back, I’m not, I’m just torn. I’d rather have the rights than not if the money is off the table. It’s just that a lot of my life (at the time²) and (at the time again²) career decisions (and hopes²) were tied up in Reaper, Inc.’s production and what it (could) mean for me and my filmmaking journey. What it boils down to is this:
Reaper, Inc. should have been a major highlight of my filmaking career (including everything yet to come³) but ended with me having to fight to get ownership back.
Besides if I’m going to burn all (or at least a lot) of my political capital attempting to raise money I’d rather it be for my feature as a thrityish minute self produced web series doesn’t have the opportunity to do as much for me as ninetyish minute feature does.
But who knows. I never thought it’d come to this. I never thought I’d get (or have to get) the rights back. I never thought three years later I still wouldn’t have seen a dime from the contest.
Until the next update. Maybe.
1: As of 03/06/2023.
2: I suppose that in and of it’s self would be something interesting to write and read about and at the initial time of winning I was going blog about that but we are, over three years later and a lot has changed. I’m not sure how relevant any of that is anymore other than a mere footnote.
3: There have been really great highlights since winning too.
Curious how we got here? Start here.
You can follow me on Instagram here.
If you really want you can follow Reaper, Inc. On Instagram here.
P.S. Filmaka didn’t directly sponsor this blog other than agreeing to give me $35,000 to make a web series. They did however agree to let me publish a blog describing the making of it.
