Official GVP Press Release
Posted October 20th, 2008

GypsyVerse Productions is a virtual series network created by reputed VS scribe, Michael Jay. Its first season begins in January of 2009 with four series and two movies confirmed to air.

First up is Creed, a superhero noir series set in the near future. The show centers on Bishop Baines, a Catholic church minister who recently retired from his nightlife as an infamous masked crime fighter known to citizens as The Preacher. Confined to a wheelchair after suffering a serious injury, Bishop used his extensive resources to create Project Haven, an organization designed to continue the fight against crime and injustice in his stead. Bishop recruits the very worse from his pool of parishioners and spiritual therapy patients to take up his cause, advocating merciless violence to be exacted on the criminals that have left his hometown a decrepit cesspool of lawlessness. The series was created by Michael Jay. The first season consists of 22 half hour episodes and is only suitable for mature audiences due to extreme violence, vulgar language, and just about every other nasty thing one could expect from a place without any semblance of law and order.

Desperate Screenwriters is a dramedy originally created by Michael Jay and Paul Robinson. The first season ran for 14 episodes on the now defunct Blackster Virtual Community (BVC) in 2006. It's based on the lives of four men who met on a fictional virtual network and decided to drop everything and chase the dreams of making it as professional writers. To that effect, they all agreed to move to New York City together to live their dreams. The cast is loosely based on several real life VS writers, including showrunner Michael Jay himself as well as staff members Arcadio Reyes and Amy Rees, the latter of whom joins the regular cast in season two. Things didn't quite go as planned for Mike, Tony, Arc, and Paul in season one as real life continuously threw obstacles in their way. The first season, which garnered a fair reception from readers, will be released on Virtual DVD in mid November. Season two consists of 22 half hour episodes.

Sayber Space Productions braintrust JJ Estes brings hour long dramatic thriller Threadbare to the GVP lineup. Threadbare has been in development for approximately two years and finally launched in 2008 on the Blackster Virtual Community. The series went into hiatus after three episodes and BVC folded soon thereafter. The following is a description from Mr. Estes's rather eccentric mind:

They don't make universes quite like they used to. The walls of reality are becoming threadbare, worn and thin. The laws of science give way to the laws of other realities; what was once impossible is now common place. Magic is no longer a series of parlor tricks, but a tool to change the nature of the universe. The things you've never believed in, left to the likes of fables and bedtime stories, are becoming more real as the things your physics teacher taught you in High School become pale imitations of what they once were. What is potential energy when a man can spout fire from his fingertips? What is a human being when powerful people begin changing the very fabric of their souls? The game is changing even as it is played. How do we live in this world, as the very things that held us to the ground begin to fail?

The 13 episode inaugural season begins in mid January.

The final show, titled Anthology, follows in the vein of compilation series such as The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt, albeit not limited to being horror stories. Rob Kenneth's sophomore VS series (he also created the MZP series Hunted) will air on a loose schedule, interspersing 8 to 13 episodes throughout the airing season.

Then there are the movies. GVP shows will only air from January to July of a given calendar year, after which the month of August will be dedicated to any completed screenplays. For 2009, DC comics fans will be treated to two non-connected efforts in Ian Austin's Justice League and Lee A.Chrimes's Nine Lives II: Caught.

Ian provided the following statement about Justice League:

Not obviously comic-book, not obviously real. Based in reality, but a hyper-reality. The team will have their original powers, but it won't be a 'wow' style. They'll be awesome, but they won't overshadow the story. Well, not too much. I hope to take a lead from the Brad Meltzer work (Identity Crisis etc) where he deconstructs them in a visualised love-letter, showing us their flaws and imperfections and ambiguity and humanity in a way that makes us see how great a group they are.

The Justice League is, first and foremost, a group of friends. This group doesn't start that way, but they end it. While the memory wipe does cause a bit of a split, it's more because they like each other and don't want to have to face the fact that they are flawed than anything else. And Green Arrow is the heart of the story, it's him whose the character I really want to explore. Turning down being a leader of man is a selfless act from my POV, because he'd rather not do something he knows he'll struggle with in the long run. I like that, it shows he's aware enough to accept his limitations.

Last, we have Nine Lives II, a second film entry starring renowned part time hero, part time villain, full time thief Selina Kyle, better known as Catwoman. Lee A. Chrimes first conceptualized Nine Lives as a series a few years ago, but extenuating circumstances halted development. Chrimes instead chose to adapt his vision for the renowned Catwoman as a movie. Nine Lives I aired in June of 2007 to favorable reviews. A VDVD of the movie will be released in November.

Blogs Now Live
Posted October 20th, 2008

Unfortunately, none of our individual shows and films websites will go live until next year when the content rolls out, but every project on GVP has a blog where the writers can basically post anything they want. Spoilers, news, promotional material, and general information about all of our work here will be readily available for our readers, not to mention it lets the writers just babble incessantly about inane crap. Hell, I know I plan to.

So check us out at the links below.

Anthology
Creed
Desperate Screenwriters
Predestination
Threadbare
GypsyVerse Productions Films

Every GVP showrunner will try to keep you all up to date.

In addition to the blogs, we'll soon have other mediums to keep in contact with the fans. A MySpace page and YouTube channel are both currently in development and they will launch soon, definitely before the start of the airing season in January.

So, until all of the websites are live, the blogs will be your main source for information on the shows.

The latest production notes and releases for all GVP shows will be available at a quick click on the homepage of the website as well

- Michael Jay

Interview with Michael Jay
Posted October 25th, 2008

Right, let's get started. So Mike, tell me what made you decide to go rogue and create your own network?

A couple of things. Tony Black's Blackster Virtual Community (BVC) was in a state of limbo after first merging with Monster Zero Productions following its first year and then there was talk of it reopening, but things got to a point where there was little to no progress on when we were going to go live again. Dates were set, but no criteria was laid out for what we as showrunners and admins needed to do to get things moving and etc. What that came down to, and he will readily admit this, was that Tony himself wasn't in a position where he wanted or had the necessary ability to run a virtual network. So faced with the possibility of merging with MZP permanently, I started thinking about airing my work independently. I freely admit it was to assuage my ego.

MZP is a wonderful community and it's easily the best virtual series hub on the web. However, there's a LOT of content there. I already had one show airing there that had met with favorable, if limited response. However, I was concerned that Creed and Desperate Screenwriters, both of which were going to air in 2009, were simply going to be more on the pile. On top of that, I don't think either show really fit with the, I guess you could call it network television standards that MZP shows generally adhered to. So I told a few trusted people about my feelings while BVC was still languishing and everyone was really supportive. After a few candid conversations, I made the decision to leave BVC for good. Oddly enough, instead of just supporting me, people were asking about if I want more shows on top of my own. It was surprising at first because I certainly didn't expect that. I've spoken to several people who see it as a bit of an achievement to have a show airing over at MZP b/c of the recognition and value it carries. So from there, things just sort of took off. And about a half year later, here we are.

If you had to sum up GVP in one sentence, what would it be?

It will hopefully be to the virtual series community what networks such as Showtime and HBO are to standard network television.

How would you say GVP is different from the other VS networks out there?

I, like a lot of people involved in this whole VS nonsense, started from a fan fiction background. There's several sites (most of them sadly extinct now) that were basically just databases of stories from all kinds of writers and that's where I got my start. I was an absolutely horrific writer back then (not that I'm any better now), but I loved the atmosphere of it being like a library with a comment box. Most VS communities are just that, communities. There's discussion of everything from all walks of life and I've seen in some cases the actual writing take a backseat to everything else that was going on. On top of that, there's a lot of people, even back in the fanfic board days, that would come in, post their more-often-than-not mundane stories, then just sit and wait for feedback. Hardly anyone actually read anything and extended that courtesy they were waiting for back to others. I missed that feel of people coming to a story hub for the content instead of the people. So that's more of what I wanted out of this little project of mine.

My grand vision is anyone who stops by GVP is there to read something that interests them. Hopefully, they drop a comment or two in our discussion boards, but the point of it is those who are visiting my site are either readers, writers for the site, or both. There are plenty of web communities out there, of which I'm a member of several. I wasn't aiming to create that at all. I just wanted a place where people could read some (hopefully... as I cross my fingers) quality work and talk about it.

Let's talk about the shows a bit now. First of all, Creed do you maybe want to explain where that idea came from?

Sure. I'll be brief since there's another interview specific to the show that gets more in depth, but the basis is Rob Kenneth (now a GVP admin) and I wanted to do a series on BVC about a group of some of the more deplorable people one could ever meet being recruited for the fight against evil. The original series had a more supernatural twinge to it with the leader character (Bishop in Creed) being a scoundrel who was killed and sent to Hell centuries again. Agents from Heaven rescued him and recruited him to put together his team to fight for Heaven against an approaching, apocalyptic holy war.

Ultimately, it was shelved because he and I were both very busy, but the premise lingered in my head for months. I think the problem I had with it was I had a supernatural series in Connor and Rob had a post apocalyptic series in Hunted, so it felt like retreading old ground in a way. So when I set about revamping it, I removed all supernatural elements from it, changed a few things here and there, and Creed was the final result.

The series certainly from the pilot I've read is clearly very dark. Why did you decide to go that route?

Because it was different. I've read fanfic for years and been a member of MZP for almost 4 years now. One trend I noticed was that everyone tended to stick to the standards of American network television in their writing, which is fine and dandy since fanfic tends to spin off network series and some would argue the point of a VS is to present as close of a simulation to a real series as possible.

My problem was most of what I watch isn't in that mold. I'm a big fan of gritty stuff like The Shield, The Sopranos, & so on. HBO in general can't really make a bad show in my opinion. So the attempt was to write something like that. Write with no limits and see what parts of my creativity could be tapped when I wasn't thinking about staying within the parameters of someone else's continuity (as in the case of Connor) or within the VS 'industry standards' as I came to call them. So I wrote the pilot literally in about 5 hours once I wrote out a brief outline and fell in love with the concept during that writing process.

What's with the episodes only being 30 minutes?

Going back to HBO, there used to be a cartoon adaption of the comic book Spawn that ran for one season. For a cartoon, it was some dark shit. In my desire to write something different from what else was out there, I thought about what styles of writing remained relatively untouched in the VS world. The thing I kept coming back to was cartoons. Not fluffy crap like Pokemon, but material that, despite being animated, dealt with some pretty mature subject matter. The earliest example I can come up with would be Disney's Gargoyles. If you hadn't told me, I'd never guessed a Mickey Mouse (literally) company like Disney created that. I loved that style as a kid and I still do now. Telling a prolonged story in shorter bursts, letting your characters define themselves through their actions instead of extended flashbacks and long chats that force the emotional response. So in my attempt to try something different, I wanted to create a show that employed that method of storytelling. The reason the episodes are half hour are because it forces me to be more economical in my scenes. One thing I've noticed in a lot of VS these days is this tendency to beat the readers over the head with the emotion and more often than not, it's because the writers have wiggle room to drag things out and milk it all. With half hour, as I learned with Desperate Screenwriters last year, that's impossible to do because you don't have the time. Every scene you write has to have a point and you need to hit that point and move on if you want to tell your story completely and succinctly. There's very little fluff in half hour shows and I hope that'll make for a more brisk, enjoyable reading experience. It certainly does in the writing, let me tell you.

How long (in terms of number of seasons) do you see Creed running for?

I'm not even thinking about that yet. As I did with Connor and now with Desperate Screenwriters, the plan is to get through the first season and let the readers expose any deficiencies in the show before I decide how long I think it can go and more importantly, how long I think I'll want to write it. You want to do over 5 seasons and 100 episodes and all that, but I'm still in the feeling out process. So ask me again in a year.

Desperate Screenwriters is back too. What have you got in mind for the boys this season?

A much much tighter, more consistent product. Again, I'll get into this more in depth in my Desperate Screenwriters interview (and the VDVD release), but season one was a mess behind the scenes. I got into some personal troubles and ended up taking a forced, unplanned absence from the VS world. In my absence, the show did finish the first season and Paul Robinson does deserve credit for that (as do the rest of the staff), but the narrative was all over the place. The standard of writing varied wildly from episode to episode. There's a few plots that sort of fizzled to an unsatisfying finish after a decent start. There was just a lot of things that could've been done better. Paul and I were both new to the game and speaking personally, I didn't take the show seriously enough to do it justice. I have noone but myself to blame for that.

In terms of the story, we're going to deal with the writing project 'Project X' itself. There are stories carrying over from last season that need to be resolved. Some of them will be resolved very quickly (like the very first scene) and some of them will extend deep into the season. Arcadio's impending child is one thing we're going to take some time with, for instance.

There's also a solid story in place for every character. In season one, Paul and I had points for each character, but I think Mike's the only one that got a real arc for the season with his drug storyline, which coincidentally, is one of my least favorite things about the season. We knew Tony would get and lose a girlfriend, but not what would happen between. Basically, we had point A and point Z, but B through Y were made up on the fly for the most part. Now, we know where each character starts and finishes the season. There's actual growth and dimensions to everyone, and most importantly, a lot more humor.

How did the departure of Paul Robinson from the writing staff and the series itself affect the development of the second series?

Starting with the real Paul, I'm not going to slam Paul at all because like I said, under his helm, the season still finished. Despite what people may think of him, he deserves a share of the credit for that. The main thing with Paul that I think I'll miss is that this really isn't the type of show I'd actually watch, which is odd given I'm the solo showrunner now. Paul, on the other hand, well this is right up his alley. Some of his ideas might've been a little more outlandish, but just in prolonged conversations with him, I got a better feel for how a dramedy like this can work. However, he and Arcadio Reyes had a falling out and weren't going to be swapping friendly conversation anytime soon. When Paul decided to leave MZP (and BVC at the time), he wanted to end the show. I've heard from him and from others that the mood behind the scenes wasn't a fun one to be around. So in that light, despite missing him as a confidant, I think the show is better for it. I'm not opposed to him returning to the show at a later date either. I just think the ugliness of season one combined with some other circumstances meant that, at least for the time being, the show was better off with him not involved. There needed to be some distance.

As for the character, it fucking sucks to be honest with you. Real Paul asked to be written out and I've crafted a story that lets him bow out gracefully while be true to the character and leaving the door open for a return down the line. I've actually already come up with a storyline to bring him back. However, one of the positives that most who read season one pointed out was the relationship with Michael Jay and him. I'm absolutely gutted to lose that, given that the two of them being the base friendship was my idea. I think the show suffers a bit without having a light, free spirit such as Paul in the show and I think the Michael Jay character in particular suffers for it. I've plotted around that as best I could, but I could write MJ/Paul scenes all day everyday and never get tired of having the two of them interact. His character could easily liven up a morose scene and of the four, Paul really wrote himself. I never had think of lines for him or scenes for him. I could just stick him in a scene and let the character run away with it. So it sucks to lose such a fun and easy character, but hopefully we've made the proper adjustments to deal with that.

Amy Rees is now a main cast member. Anyone else from the VS world due to make an appearance?

Chakira and Jonah, two MZP members who were incorporated into the first season, will be in a few episodes. We're using Matt Latham again and I've made it a point to have fun with that character. Other than that, not really. This show wasn't meant to be a fanwank to the VS community. Ideally, we've structured things so anyone who doesn't know a single one of us can pick it up and read with no problems whatsoever.

What's it like being an American writer doing a show with multiple British leads?

A pain in the fucking ass! Much like a lot of perceptions of America, what Brits are really like is nothing like how they're portrayed in the entertainment industry, which is really all I know of them. Thankfully, Matt Latham (the real one) is on staff for this season and he'll be able to police me.

Threadbare seems to have resurfaced again too.

The show won't go away, will it? Actually, this is the one and only show I actively went after for GVP. I've known about it basically since I started at MZP many moons ago and when it had a stutter start on BVC, I really wanted to see it fully realized. From what I've been told about Estes, he's a slow burn type of storyteller. I read the first few and saw where the potential for something grand. Some could argue the base plotline (man on a rescue mission for his kidnapped sister) is pretty... basic, but just in those first few episodes, the groundwork was laid for a pretty damn fascinating mythology. It's paranormal without being overt about it and I definitely appreciate that.

Now let's talk about Anthology. What was the idea here?

Me giving my trusted friend and sounding board Rob Kenneth a platform to write whatever the hell he wanted. It'll only be a once a month, almost special edition series.

What kind of stories have you got planned for this one?

I've seen bits and pieces of a few plots, but that's really a Rob question. He's tapping into a few genres all across the board, including his patented post apocalyptic world (with guns), so it should be a bit of random fun.

Is this planned to be a permanent addition to the GVP roster?

Again, a Rob question. It's almost like writing a new pilot once a month. I don't think any writer will ever suffer from a long term shortage of ideas, especially amateurs like us who just want to tell every story imaginable. So it's a part of the GVP roster until Rob says he's tapped out.

You've also got Arcadio Reyes' new series, Predestination. How did that come about?

Arc has another show, The Fantastical Flash McGinnis, set to air on MZP. What a lot of people don't know was he and I had talked about it being a GVP show. This is back with GVP was still in the 'ehhh, maybe' stage. Lee A. Chrimes picked it up for MZP and ultimately I wanted to honor that decision. Arc was one of the first people I told about GVP and he instantly wanted to be a presence there. He was probably the biggest supporter of me seeing this whole thing through and that kind of enthusiasm isn't easily found. So I was more than elated when he contacted me about Predestination shortly after he pulled it out of mothballs.

I did have some trepidation because of his commitment to MZP with Flash and his writing obligations on Desperate Screenwriters, but we came together on a fair schedule that allowed for everything to go without a hitch. On top of that, and I'm not inferring that Arc's a bad writer. The man is scary talented, but I'd much rather take an enthusiastic writer with a passion for his project than an outstanding writer who is ho-hum about his work. The former is more likely to put in the effort and do their absolute best to churn out a quality product. Much like actors, great writers can mail it in when they're not feeling it. Arc's very passionate about the things he's into, if nothing else. I couldn't say no to that.

Which shows are your flagships?

I'm hesitant to answer that question. If I HAD to answer, I'd say Creed and DS if only because it's my network and those are my shows, but I certainly wouldn't rank them above any of the other series. I'm keeping the roster to a limited run (no more than eight shows airing in any given year), so for GVP to be a success on the level I want it to be, everything that airs needs to be good, if not great. I think I have a varied roster that offers something for everyone and I want anyone that gives us a look to able to find a series that interests them and ultimately one that they enjoy reading and come back for. If any one show is a failure, then I consider GVP to be a failure on some level because a bad show (or movie) just means that someone who took the time to read it likely would be less inclined to continue visiting and give something else a shot. In that regard, every show and movie is on equal. I'm going to do my best to make my work of a high standard that people can come to expect and enjoy from myself and I expect anyone that writes for GVP to do the same.

You've also got two DC-related movies in the works. Does this give you the chance to create the unified DC universe in a VS world that Ian Austin's been trying to do for a while?

That's a great question I wish I could answer. Nine Lives, chronologically, is set well before Justice League would happen. Not to spoil too much, but in Lee's Nine Lives continuity, Selina Kyle is just getting her feet wet as Catwoman, which coincides with Bruce Wayne still growing into the Batman mantle. When Justice League rolls around, Bruce has been under the cape & cowl for years (even though he's not in the movie) so there's a good deal of time separating the two. In that respect, I can see them co-existing if Lee and Ian were to go that route, but it's not something I've had a hand in pushing. If they want to synch up, that's just great. If not, I'm not going to cry about it. I just don't want either movie to suck.

Just briefly with this expansion into your own network, what does that mean for your other big VS commitment, Connor?

Connor is staying at MZP. It's been branding with MZP pretty heavily and MZP started as a Jossverse VS community, so it's a much better fit there. It'll run as planned (six seasons and six movies). GVP won't alter those plans at all.

Any plans for expansion in the future? More shows? A pilot season maybe?

As I said earlier, GVP will never have more than eight shows airing in a calendar year. We've got five for Year One and Lee Chrimes is penciled in to start Nine Lives as a series for Year Two (2010). If anyone wants to submit a series for airing, they have to email me a full pitch for their series with a fully written pilot episode attached. The way things will work is if I like it, there's a whole section of the website dedicated to pilots for prospective new series and a thread will be created on for the forums for the writer to get feedback from the masses. While that's happening, another second episode has to be written and submitted to me privately. If I like what I see for a second time and there's a roster spot available, then I'll make the final call on whether we'll carry the show.

It might seem elitist, but I limited myself to eight shows because I didn't want a handful of good shows among a sea of average to subpar material. So I need to be prudent about what I select because ultimately I don't care about pandering to a particular type of audience. I just want it to be good, if not great and those shows are hard to come by.

We accept submissions during the airing season (January to August), but I make my picks in June for new series and August for new movies (all GVP movies will air in August every year). I'll also post a notice if we're not accepting any new offers at the time. I have no problem if someone still wants to submit something just to get notes and I'll still run pilots I like on the website because I think all good writing deserves an audience, but long term, I want to maintain a limited selection of quality work.

Finally, we've seen a lot of other VS networks rise and then collapse. Why is GVP going to be different?

First, I know what I'm doing. By that, I mean I have the necessary background in web, media, & design to put together the aesthetic end of things. Also, this whole thing started because I wanted Creed and Desperate Screenwriters to be showcased. Yes, I have other shows and movies as well, but that reason alone, the desire to put my work out there the way I want to do it will continue to drive me to promote and write to the best of my ability. I would like to think that I've surrounded myself with the same people. People who want to showcase their writing to the world. GVP is writing first, everything else a distant second. As I said before, I'm not looking to start the next big web community or anything like that. At the end of the day, VS writers are all just storytellers and that's what I'm pushing. I got into this whole VS stuff in the first place to read some good work and hopefully compose some good work.

Second, I'm fully aware and prepared for a low, if not nonexistent, reader response. A lot of people can get discouraged when they're not getting a ton of feedback at first. I'm very used to it by now, first starting on fanfiction boards where 'oh, this was good' was considered a lengthy review and then writing a Jossverse show about one of the most hated characters in the continuity. I've seen writers lose their drive and passion when the response isn't there. I've seen forums shut down because they didn't get 100 members in their first month. I'm expecting the absolute worse in terms of response from the general public and I take it as a challenge to get people here and compel them to stay.

Third, most people who aren't computer savvy won't understand this, but I've set things up so a lot of the day to day operations are out of my hands. Every GVP series has a blog maintained by its respective showrunner. That blog actually feeds content to the website itself, eliminating the need for daily updates from myself. That both excites me and takes a tremendous load off my back. The forums, much like GVP as a whole, are designed solely for readers. There's very little in the way of moderation necessary there. All these things were designed to allow me to concentrate on putting out the best writing I can and not have to worry the little things.

Last, I think I've invested too much of myself to throw in the towel early, if ever. I spent months just talking to people about this project and writing down ideas for things I wanted to try. I've been working on the backend coding of the websites, blogs (every series has a blog), and forums for months. I'm putting two shows that I think will produce some of my best work on display here. This has basically been a second full time job for me in terms of the hours I've put in between creating the network and developing two shows for it. It's been a lot of fun work, mind you, but it's still work. My name is all over this thing and I refuse to let anything with my name on it be less than what it can be. As I've said before, my ego won't allow for anything less than 100%.

Mike - always a pleasure. Best of luck with the network.

Thanks for conducting this interview, Adam. Hope to see you in January when we start airing our shows.

Advance Airings This Week
Posted November 9th, 2008

Due to some heavy road trips for my job, I've been unable to complete the material I wanted to release for Week 3 of this Coming Attractions Year One run. So this snippet is really to promote what we're going to be doing this week.

Every Year One project will release actual written material this week. For most of the shows, this will be pre-air drafts of their pilots (or season premiere in the case of Desperate Screenwriters) or a release of any previously aired material. The planned releases as of now are as follows:

Desperate Screenwriters Season One Virtual DVD
Our first VDVD offering will contain "digitally remastered" (basically, we proof read them all again) versions of all 14 season one episodes and a slew of extras, including commentaries (both audio and written) on select episodes.

The originally released pilot for Creed
Originally written in December of 2007 and released exclusively on the Monster Zero Production Forums, this pilot was written as an hour long two parter and met with considerable praise.

A promotional Anthology script
It's hard to write a proper pilot for a series that will essentially be a run of one off, non-related episodes. So instead of that, Rob Kenneth has put together a brief 'trailer' of sorts, introducing The Hub (see Kenneth's interview for an explanation) and a few quick snippets of several eps.

Predestination's original pilot
As stated in his recent Q&A session, showrunner Arcadio Reyes wrote a pilot that was completely disconnected from the actual series. This also ran on MZP at one point. The series premiere (April 23rd, 2009) will be a completely different episode, but this is an oppotunity for fans to see how the show will be structured and how the characters interacts. Having read it myself, Alice in particular is a joy.

Threadbare's original pilot
Estes's long long (long) in development project finally the light of day on BVC earlier this year and was put back into statis after 2008. We're giving those who missed the opportunity to check out the original pilot ahead of the scheduled March release.

An early draft of Desperate Screenwriters' season two premiere
Along with the season one VDVD, we'll be airing the current draft (right now it's #2) of the DS season two premiere episode. Though there will obviously be edits between now and January 9th (and I can say this for certain because I'm the writer), fans of season one can get an advanced look at season two's new cast member and what the boys have been up to since we last saw them.

Select scenes for Justice League
Writer Ian Austin has composed one page scenes each focusing on a specific League member. A unique opportunity to get a glimpse of Austin's vision almost a year before the film's scheduled release.

Nine Lives I Virtual DVD
Exactly what it says on the tin. The original film first aired on BVC and now, over a year later, gets the full VDVD treatment from Lee Chrimes.

Look for all of this material over the next week or so and keep an eye on that 'Releases' part of the left column on the Home Page for updates on the new releases.

Predestination in Trouble?
Posted January 2nd, 2009

First of all, I hope everyone out there had a safe and happy holiday season. Hate to open the new year on bad news, but what cha gonna do?

So, a scant two days out from airing, we might have our first casualty already.

Arcadio Reyes, the showrunner for Predestination and a staff writer for Desperate Screenwriters has recently run into some real life issues that seem to be keeping him off the internet for the time being.

I personally haven't heard from Arc in almost two months and though I understand the extenuating circumstances behind why he had to take his initial leave, it sort of puts me in a tight spot.

I'm not going to air all the dirty laundry here, but the fact is he's got a show on Monster Zero Productions called The Fantastical Flash McGinnis. When we discussed the potential of him airing a show here, I was pretty adamant about Arc fulling his MZP commitments (i.e. finish the first season of Flash first).

That was supposed to happen by the end of this month and we planned for PD to start in April to give him some breathing room. Well, Flash has, to date, aired three episodes (of a season of 13) with very little indication of it continuing to air anytime soon, despite Arcadio posting on the MZP Forums that he'd have news soon.

So, unfortunately, I'm forced to put PD on hold while Arc gets his affairs figured out.

Now, be aware that I've not heard from Arcadio directly since before he took his leave of absence, so for all I know, this message could be for naught and everything will work out. Come April, PD could potentially air as scheduled. However, I'd rather be proactive about a potential problem with a show than let it fester with nothing in the way of a statement to readers out there who may be interested.

So, until further notice (i.e. I hear from Arcadio), I'm disabling all the Predestination material (website, blog, forums).

I'm hoping this is just me being paranoid, Arc rises from the ashes like the Phoenix, and everything runs as scheduled. Either way, I wanted to update everyone now instead of waiting until the last second to pull the show.

- Michael Jay

Introducing the GVP... CIRP?
Posted January 12th, 2009

As much as I wish I could be clever and come up with a slick analogy that rolls off the tongue, I'm just not that bright. So I went with lame. Lame works for me. So lame you shake your head at how bad it is, but can't help but laugh.

Onto business. C.I.R.P. stands for Community Involvement & Rewards Program. I've mentioned over and over again that we want to foster and maintain a healthy readership and this program is another step in the process.

We'll start with the Involvement end of things. We've broken down reader contributions into a few categories and are currently (as of this news posting) creating badges to be displayed in a member's profile or sig to indicate how they've contributed. The badges will be broken down by levels that differ per category. The Admin team will handle assigning them to members. Categories are as follows:

Referrals - We love that you're here. We love that you're (hopefully) reading. We'll love you even more if you're getting other people interesting in reading as well. The referral system is simple. If you get anyone else to check us out and sign up for the forums, have that person shoot me (Michael Jay) a Personal Message on the forums simply giving me your name for the referral. After that, if your newbie drops us feedback on five episodes of anything, that earns a point (and a badge for you). The more people you refer, the higher your badge level.

Multimedia - I wish I could say we were robots that churn out content 24/7, but unfortunately, I require at least one hour of sleep a day to function. We're always happy to have more extras such as avatars, signature banners, userbars, etc. to proudly display on our and other forums. And we're happy to acknowledge and thank such people. Graphics, short videos, anything you have spare time to whip up is more than appreciated. If anyone would like the fonts that we use, shoot me a PM on the discussion board.

Pilots - You can check out the Pilots page for the particulars on submitting. What this boils down to is I like to read and I particularly enjoy checking out new material. Putting aside notions of having your show get greenlit and actually air here, anyone that submits a full pilot and pitch to us gets a badge acknowledging that they did so.

Feedback - And here's the big one. The lifeblood. The driving force. And any other lame analogies you can think of. For this one, we've instituted the karma system on the discussion board. It's very simple. You drop feedback on an episode. The showrunner gives you a karma point. And as you progress up the different levels, your badges increase. Only showrunners and Admin can assign karma, so there's no potential for unfair boosting, except if I decide to give myself 1,000 points. I own the place. I can do that. The idea here to acknowledge those who are active readers in the community and showing us the love that we oh-so-crave.

So that's the Involvement portion. Now for the Rewards.

Note - Anyone who writes for GVP is ineligible for the Rewards program.

Some of the rewards will be on a show by show basis and left up to the discretion of the showrunner. For example, Creed is running a trivia contest that you can read about on the blog or the News page. Desperate Screenwriters will have an end-of-the-season contest as well.

As for the community as a whole, people who go above and beyond the rest of the crowd will be receiving vouchers that can be redeemed for whatever you want at Amazon. We'll be handing these out towards the end of Year One (end of August) as rewards and thanks for helping us build this place. All of the vouchers are sent via email, thus your privacy is protected. I don't want to know where any of you live anyway!

Vouchers will be awarded to those who hit the following marks:

The person with the most forum referrals.

Whoever contributes the most to the site in terms of new multimedia to display (within reason, don't bombard us with 10,000 avatars that just have a cropped picture with a name slapped on it).

And last and easily most important, feedback. At worse case scenario, i.e. if Predestination ends up being canceled altogether, we're going to have sixty four pieces aired by the end of Year One. Sixty two episodes of shows and two movies. That doesn't include any pilots we run during Year One. Anyone that reads fifty of these will get a gift certificate. We'll be tracking this via the karma system so it's fair to everyone.

Values of the certificates will be disclosed at a later date and we'll also unveil the badges and a key for the various categories and levels soon.

And that's it. We're very excited about this program and hope to see it be a resounding success. Thanks to everyone for their continued support.

- Michael Jay

Creed & DS Unexpected Delay
Posted January 30th, 2009

Greetings from San Antonio, Tex-ASS!

I posted this on the Creed and DS blogs a little over a week ago. I'm currently out of town helping my company open a new store. This entails basically 16 straight 12-16 hour workdays. I thought this one would be easy, but apparently Texas refuses to cooperate with me, given I've been here twice before and never really had things go my way.

So basically I get up at 6am everyday, I'm at this store from 8am until around 10pm to midnight and I'm on my feet in the kitchen all day helping manage a bunch of newbies learning a new menu. So I'm currently sitting on drafts for 3 episodes of both Creed and Desperate Screenwriters that I've barely cracked open to edit and air.

To compound matters, I was supposed to be going home on Sunday, but the owners panicked about our team leaving on Super Bowl Sunday, so now my boss and I are staying Sunday. THEN I get told I'm staying until Wednesday. :( Oi vey.

So, long story short, I've got 4 more days of hell before I can sit down and deal with anything for my two shows. I'm pretty much assuming that I'll run all 6 in a week to get both shows caught up before hiatuses. When that will be? At best guess, starting next Thursday when I get home. Worse case scenario, that'll start February 8th.

Thanks to everyone for their patience. This has been more frustrating for me than any of you could possibly imagine, not to mention absolutely exhausting.

- MJ

I'm Back!!
Posted February 7th, 2009

So after getting stuck in Texas for three extra days, I'm finally home! Moreover, I've got six scripts on my computer ready to be edited and aired. Sort of sucks because this week was supposed to be hiatus week for me, but que sera.

So, as of this Monday, DS should've aired five episodes and Creed should've aired six. I have everything but Creed 1x06 ready to go more or less, so rather than another couple of weeks delay, I just want to blitz through all of them. So starting this Monday and running until next Monday, an episode of one or the other will air. The schedule breaks down like this:

February 9th: Creed 1x03
February 10th: Desperate Screenwriters 2x03
February 11th: Creed 1x04
February 12th: Desperate Screenwriters 2x04
February 13th: Creed 1x05
February 14th: Desperate Screenwriters 2x05
February 15th: Creed 1x06

After all that, I'll still get over a week off to recuperate and prep the next run of episodes. I apologize again for this hiccup. The store openings I oh-so-love doing are just plain out brutal and leave me zero time for anything else. The fact that I got sick on this trip didn't help matters either. So that's the schedule. Gives me a week to write Creed 1x06 and mercifully a bit of a breather right after.

Update: Pushed everything back one day to give myself more breathing room. So just add a day to the above airdates

-MJ

Predestination Officially Canceled
Posted February 19th, 2009

So, in the midst of dealing with a recently diagnosed case of pneumonia, I'm sad to announce that GVP suffers its first casualty as Predestination has been removed from the Year One roster.

What it comes down to is I simply haven't heard from Arcadio Reyes, the showrunner, in five weeks now. We touched base via MZP and I asked him of his plans for the show in light of his unexpected disappearance a few months ago. I'm not going to get into the specifics of the reply out of respect for Arcadio's privacy, but the gist was he was unsure due to some real life issues and would get back to me shortly.

That was weeks ago and I've not gotten anything from him since, which leads me to this decision. Predestination could still end up going ahead in a later season, but it's off the board for 2009. The staff has been notified and the show's discussion board has been removed.

I apologize to those of you who were looking forward to the series. I was too, especially since it was set in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. We wish Arc all the best and hope that he gets his issues sorted out soon.

-Michael Jay