The Molly Pine Show

Posted on February 7, 2012 by James Riley

The “reality” show below is a spoof.   Lorraine’s a good sport and let me pretend I was talking to her.  Wilson thought it was funny, so we’re making it available to Colony Bay Members, (join here!) but first a word about Lorraine and our cast. I first met Lorraine at Jonathan Wilson’s office in […]

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Posted in Life Production | Tagged Courage Lorraine Pope Molly Pine New Hampshire | Leave a comment

Schedules, Money, Cameos, Housing

Posted on February 2, 2012 by James Riley

This week, we’ve been trying to juggle the schedules of our many different actors and crew, attempting to match them with the demands of our back lot — Riley’s Farm, where hundreds of students see a kind of live version of Courage, New Hampshire daily.    Frances Romero Mena has it nailed down about 90% […]

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Posted in Life Production | Tagged Courage Lorraine Pope Molly Pine New Hampshire | Leave a comment

Episode 3 Production Update

Posted on January 27, 2012 by James Riley

Plausibility and Good Advice from the Crew Back in my Stanford writing workshop days, all of my literary fiction professors would routinely warn us about what they called “plot-dominated” fiction.   Some poor, well meaning sophomore (like me) would be thinking detective mode, or combat story or espionage epic and we were then schooled in […]

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Posted in Production | Tagged Courage New Hampshire Production Update | Leave a comment

Garrow’s Law

Posted on January 25, 2012 by James Riley

We’re very deep into 3rd episode planning and writing, so the blog gets sent to the high meadow for summer grazing.   I did discover a little 18th century television you might like while you’re waiting for more Courage.  It’s called Garrow’s Law and it tells the “true story [of] William Garrow, who acted as […]

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Posted in Production | Tagged Ashton Kutcher Courage Mad Men New Hampshire Pan Am Perfection Plausibility | Leave a comment

Production Update — Episode #3

Posted on January 19, 2012 by James Riley

We put out the word on pre-production for our first episode 3 meeting yesterday, and the Hawk’s Head Tavern was nearly full of the Colony Bay crew, anxious to weigh in on the next episode, “A Snake in the Garden.” I don’t believe in writing by committee, but one of the most gratifying things about […]

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Posted in History Learning from the Past Production | Tagged 18th Century Trials Capital Punishment Courage Garrow's Law Marxist History New Hampshire | Leave a comment

Stories that Civilize

Posted on January 17, 2012 by James Riley

Stories are potentially dangerous, at least the wrong ones. A lot of parents lament profanity, sex, and violence in modern entertainment, but those, as I’ve lamented recently, are all found even in the Bible — in a context that explains their place.  How do you tell the story of Jesus without cutting off the centurion’s […]

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Between Comedy and Horror

Posted on January 10, 2012 by James Riley

Careful out there in the middle.. I remember enough about mathematics and physics to know that you can be solving for both sides of a complicated equation only to find yourself, miserably, winding down to the painfully obvious.  You see it a few steps before the eraser reveals it on paper: a=a. I’m not sure if […]

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Posted in History Learning from the Past Life Production | Tagged Braveheart Courage Jesus Magna Carta New Hampshire Passover Story | Leave a comment

HBO’s John Adams

Posted on January 9, 2012 by James Riley

I’ve been re-watching HBO’s John Adams, along with the “making of” bonus material, and while it is true enough that I would be happy with just their wig budget, let alone their green screen and CGI budget, I can’t help but comment about the choices they made in their interpretation of the facts. (This is […]

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Posted in Life Production | Tagged Courage Eve Garden Lost Boys Middle Ground New Hampshire Serpent The Graduate | Leave a comment

I’ll Buy it or I’ll Rent it — Someday

Posted on January 6, 2012 by James Riley

There’s a “metric” out there I wish I knew but can’t seem to find on Google, perhaps because television production companies keep it a secret, but I guess I would call it the “delayed admission” revenue arc of a show. For example, the first season of the Andy Griffith Show, shot in 1960, can be […]

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Posted in History Production | Tagged Courage Errors HBO John Adams New Hampshire | Leave a comment

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