Hi, folks.  James Riley here.   I wrote, directed, and acted in “Courage, New Hampshire,” and on behalf of the whole Courage, New Hampshire family (literally hundreds of people help make these episodes), I need to spend some time selling, so pay heed and spread the word.

Reason #1 for buying Courage right now:
IT IS FANTASTIC DRAMA
In 18th century New England you settled fights at the local public house where the tavern keeper was justice of the peace as well.   In the first episode we settle a bastardy case and in the second we deal out justice to counterfeiters and burglars.   In 1770 New Hampshire, redcoat deserters from Boston were known to take shelter in the backwoods townships, and you’ll see encounters between the lobsters and the locals.   We screened over 600 working actors for these episodes, and it shows in their performance.  Did I say it already?  It’s fantastic drama.   Okay, I’m going to up the ante:  it’s better than any period drama that’s been on television in ten years.

Reason #2 for buying Courage right now:
IT IS SMART

Courage, New Hampshire isn’t for dumb people. We spend weeks pouring over colonial newspapers, journals, and literature to make sure the language is appropriate, the clothing is accurate and the sets evoke both the feeling and the reality of the era.   You aren’t going to hear “We Are the Champions” playing over a militia muster in these episodes, and you aren’t going to see King Henry VIII cavorting around like a porn star in brocaded silks.  Courage, New Hampshire is the real thing.  It isn’t dressed up to pander to this generation’s pop culture version of the past.   For that reason, it won’t be for everyone, but if you really like history, and good story, it will be for you.

Reason #3 for buying Courage right now:
IT IS REDEMPTIVE

Tired of Don Draper walking around in his existential stupor, varnishing his pain with random couplings?   Maybe not.  It is pretty stylish, after all, but, at its core, it is soul-dead, without compass — complete with the obligatory, and cliché,  back story of rural desperation.   Frankly, the sort of people who assign Albert Camus in college “literature” courses should be sent off to Frank Capra summer camp for a little love and summer sunshine.   Courage, New Hampshire takes on the difficult pain of life, but it points to victory –as all real art should.

Reason #4 for buying Courage right now:
HIGH PRODUCTION VALUES

We’ve spent years studying colonial America and we’ve hired the right cinematographers, actors and art directors to bring it alive for you.   One executive at Fox Drama told me he was “blown away” by the quality of the acting and the heavy-weight caliber of the art direction, lighting and cinematography.   In episode 2, we even brought some of the skill that brought HBO’s John Adams to life.    It’s not exactly Avatar, of course, but that’s because we have so much story to tell, we didn’t think you would actually need 3D glasses to enjoy this.

 

Reason #5 for buying Courage right now:
HOLLYWOOD IS NO HELP

Another network executive gave us this “advice:”  He told us to stop production and use our existing footage as a “sizzle reel,” to entice them into telling us what we should produce.  If we’re lucky, in other words, they would let us work on our own show.

Hollywood really doesn’t like competition.   Their shows are so expensive because they have utterly ridiculous pay scales and work rules, brought on by union tyranny*.  It’s no wonder they don’t want to take any risks.   That’s why you see slow-thinking, witless bores like Kim Kardashian taking up band width every week.    Even channels theoretically dedicated to history don’t dare produce a historical drama.  Why?   Because they refuse to produce it non-union and because they think you’re too stupid to watch it.

PLEASE HELP US PROVE THEM WRONG.

Buy Courage Today or be stuck with the same old, same old tomorrow.

 

 
* Note to union lovers:  Years ago a commercial was being filmed on the farm and I got to chatting with one of the crew.

“What is your job on the set?”  I asked.
He said “Oh I run the dolly.”
“The Dolly?”  I asked.  “They aren’t using a dolly on this shoot.”
“I know,” he responded.  “Aren’t unions great?”

In other words, he was getting paid to stand around.

Now, we all want job security, but the scale has swung a bit too far in the wrong direction.  Can you really imagine a small production company honoring the “hire a dolly operator even if you don’t need one” rule?    If you were trying to bring a risky production to the big screen on a small budget — where everyone is sacrificing for love of the story — would you really enforce the “no gaffer can touch a camera” rule?

Believe it or not, these rules still exist and they still make film production expensive for a lot of the studios.   It’s one of the reasons so much production has gone to Canada and other film-friendly locations.   Even in California, some estimate that as little as 30% of all production is union-based.

For all of that our crew tells us we run a fair, friendly, wonderful set, but the truth is we could not afford to do what we do, if unions were involved.  It’s that simple.