Tag: ChilltownTV

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

wranglingcomplexityChapter 35 – Wrangling Celebs
by Leesa Dean

I’ve mentioned it in passing a few times here, but since April I’ve been working on a TOP SECRET project. It’s brand new, I have a producing partner (a first!) and we’re still a ways off from figuring out when we’re gonna release it, etc. And while, as the world’s most superstitious atheist, I don’t normally like to talk about projects til I’m ready to release them, I will talk about this.

We’ve been having a tough time wrangling celebs.

When you’re a relative nobody like me, let’s just say it doesn’t hurt to have a celeb attached to your project. It’s definitely a way to get views and, if said celeb has a big following and tweets about it, well you just might have a hit on your hands. read article

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

fearisaliarChapter 22 – Fear is a Liar
by Leesa Dean

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned during the process of teaching myself how to animate, getting Chilltown off the ground and promoting it has been: Fear is a Liar.

I was so worried, initially, that nothing would turn out right. That everything would be a fiasco, it literally kept me up at night, at times. But, ultimately, the believe that people would respond to what I did prevailed. And, people did. As they say in the Lottery, “Gotta be in it, to win it.”

I know a lot of people who are writers or, even, wannabe writers who are wracked with fear of failure. And it prevents them from ever completing anything. I used to be friendly with someone who ran around telling everyone he was a writer. The truth is, he never really wrote anything. He was too scared of being judged and failing. So he’s wasted years of his life in a type of limbo. Too scared to fail and too scared to try. read article

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

Chapter 29 – Bottom of the Barrel. Rollo Returns
by Leesa Dean

bottom-of-barrelSo, as promised, the Rollo story.

We hadn’t spoken in months. I, occasionally, thought about him but frankly not too often. Being insanely busy with a web series will do that to you. You tend to prioritize what you focus on. I thought he was just gonna be another one of these cottage industry guys who entered my life with a bullshit story and then evaporated. Well, maybe?

A few weeks back he calls. Wants to meet for drinks. Admittedly my first thought: Is this dude selling Amway? But he caught me on a day when I was feeling crappy–a little blocked with writing; a little frustrated with calls not returned; a little worried about the usual: am I making the right decisions with the relaunch, etc. In short, a perfect needy storm whose grande finale was: yeah, I met him for drinks. read article

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

Chilltown-TV-tvwriter.comI’m a Loser, Baby, So Why Don’t You Kill Me?
by Leesa Dean

Ok. A lot to write about so I’m holding off writing about Rollo till next week cause this is more important. I got a fairly big response to last week’s post about developing a thick skin. A few people actually wrote in saying how they were scared to move forward with projects for a lot of the reasons I addressed.

Coincidentally, a few days ago TVWriter, a great site that has TONS of resources/articles/competitions for people interested in writing for TV (and yes, they’ve been a huge supporter of Chilltown), had a link to an article in Inc. magazine that addressed another aspect of it: the very real fear of failure, especially when you’re starting out and things are rough and you are, in fact, failing. One of the things that really hit home for me was identifying so much with your work, any rejection or failure is a rejection of you personally.

I had to get over that. Quickly. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have had some minor success (so far) as a creative. But I’ve had WAY more rejection. Everybody goes through it. It’s tough to take. And it’s way worse when you look at rejection as a personal indictment. That all you are is your work and if your work is rejected, you’re nothing. With all the rejection you go through as a creative person, believe me, taking things that personally is a one way ticket to Bellevue where the only plus is you’ll be too depressed to complain about the lousy hospital food. read article

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

trolls-tvwriter.comChapter 27 – There Will Be Trolls
by Leesa Dean

Most people have, at times, had to battle that inner little voice that tells you you’re not good enough, you’re not talented enough, you’ll never truly make it. Welcome to the internet where that little voice is now not only in your head, but in the comments section of your videos for all the world to see.

Everybody’s gone through it. Everybody. When I went to an all day YouTube workshop a number of months back, it included a panel with some of the biggest YouTube stars there are. Half of what they discussed had to do with trolls who comment. The bigger you get, the more trolls you get. It’s inevitable. So how do you deal with it?

You could: read article