October 22, 2014: Introducing Vanessa Piazza!

Production on Dark Matter will be uniquely challenging for a number of reasons, not the least of which being the fact that my long-time writing and producing partner, Paul, won’t be making the move to Toronto to show run the series with me.  Instead, he’ll come down for a week of meetings in November, return for prep and shooting of the opening two-parter, then come back to prep and produce episodes #5, #10 and #11.  Otherwise, I’ll be flying solo – insofar as that’s possible considering I have an entire crew of talented individuals to backstop me. It’ll certainly be a different working model for me as I’ll no longer have Paul to split duties with.  In the past, when I was in prep, he was on set – and vice versa.  Now, if I’m on prep making sure the Android hits the “stealth parameters” line in episode 2, who’ll be signing off on the belt buckle being designed for episode 3?  And if I’m editing episode 8, who’ll be tracking sweat beads in episode 7?

At first, I thought I would need to hire someone – someone experienced, smart, and pleasant to work with who I could depend on to be on top of things.  And then, as things moved further along on putting the pieces of this show together, I realized that “someone” was already on the production.

Vanessa enjoys a power lunch.

Vanessa Piazza worked on two previous Prodigy Pictures productions (Lost Girl and XIII) as a producer involved in all aspects of prep, production, and post.  Hell, she was also heavily involved in PRE-prep for Dark Matter, hustling to help close the deals that finally made our show a reality.  In the few short months I’ve worked with her, she has been nothing short of awesome – and I couldn’t imagine anyone better suited to help oversee set, work on cuts, and, of course, sign off on that belt buckle being designed for episode 3.

First day of Vancouver auditions will be uploaded tomorrow.  Looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.

I’m calling it a night as my power cord has died and I’m dwindling past 32% battery life.  Added to tomorrow’s to-do list between 1) Identify a new set of sides for the second round of auditions and, 2) Have barbecue for lunch, is 3) Get new power cord.

Hey, here’s something interesting.  #10 on the list of Unsolved Mysteries: 15 TV Cliffhangers: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/gallery/unsolved-mysteries-15-tv-cliffhangers/editorial-10259823/

Tagged: Dark Matter