Another Successful Table Read ! I tell ya, this is addictive. Seeing all those actors taking their roles seriously yet still having fun was great. Ken Moretti suggested this during the beginnings of the pandemic. I don’t think he anticipated how this would be the new norm. For the first time, I’m able to hear my screenplay come to life. They even talked with each other regarding voices and accents prior to the reading in order to be in agreement. I didn’t want to give much direction because I was eager to hear what they came up with… I was richly rewarded!
We met twice. The first time was the meet and greet, which served as an opportunity to make sure everyone knew their roles and that they could figure out Zoom. The second time we jumped right in after about 5-10 minutes. This is important because a feature film takes at least two hours to read. Because of the epic nature of Toymaker, it took much longer to read the description of the fantasy world.
The feedback is probably my favorite part. Speed up the intro, have Claus make toys sooner, modernize the language to fit the younger audience, and more. Hands down, everyone felt this is a great Christmas legendary film. Until I stopped to write this, I’ve been busily reworking the story.
There was a split opinion regarding whether or not it should be CGI or animated. If you know someone who’d like to produce an animation film in defiance of Disney/Pixel, let me know.
Screenwriters, please try this… it’s easy and free. Using Stage 32, you have all these professionals at your fingertips. I now have a group of 12 people who know the The Legend of The Toymaker and like it… that’s huge!
One producer said this film, “Has legs.”
Another, “I enjoyed it a lot.”
Even better; “The story is different and I believe a classic.”
So, boom! I’m ready to rock this film.
Many thanks Ken Moretti, Greg Provo, Wendell Kinney, JT Talley, Jim Foster, Frank Creasy, Erick Freitas, Sherryl Despres, Amanda Jiang, Carolyn Maitland, Amanda Billips, Doug Nelson, Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Joe Arjona, and Daniel Kenney. Mwoa!
I had a blast doing the table read! I'm excited to see what's next, it's truly a great Christmas story.
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Amanda, how does it feel to Santa Claus' foster mom? You did a great job and I'm looking forward to working with you again.
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Congrats Heidi Schussman and the Toymaker team! What are next steps for y'all?
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Hey, Amanda Jiang! I saw on your bio that you started acting as a teenager - I would love for you to start a post here in the Acting Lounge about what you learned about acting as a teen: https://www.stage32.com/lounge/acting
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Karen, I was working on another adaptation along the lines of Little Women, but the momentum gained by the table read has made me reconsider. I may shift my attention back to Toymaker. It's not everyday you have 6 producers say this film should be made... the problem is I'm not a producer, nor would I want to be. My goal right now is to find an indie animation company who'd like this to be their big break. I already have several voice artists and a music production team interested.
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It was awesome being Necile, she’s a great character. I love fantasy and it was nice hearing the script come to life! Looking forward to the next one.
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I had a great time doing this!
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Heidi Schussman Could you talk to the 6 producers who said it should be made to see if they could advise you on your next steps? Does the script need revising? Does it need a pitch put together? Could one of them do a budget breakdown so you know how to shop it around? Asking bite-sized tasks will be easier for them to agree to help.
Erick, I'm glad you had fun... it was a lot of work and you held up perfectly.
Karen, The script needed revising and has since been revised accordingly. I suppose it needs a pitch put together, but when I pitched it under circumstance where the person couldn't option it, she said it sounded great and would be good in the current market... so I guess the pitch wasn't awful. I will ask several of the producers if they could give me a ballpark figure for production, but I'm guessing that would be hard since none of them are animation producers. I will go over to animation and producer's lounge and ask for help. Apparently I need a storyboard. Thanks so much Karen.
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I enjoyed doing table reads for both "The Legend of the Toymaker" and "Piratessa." Toymaker, I believe answers all of the questions children have about Christmas and Santa and ties them together in one beautiful, shiny package with a big red bow! This needs to be made. It is destined to be a new classic tradition. Just what we need now. Thank you for having me. I'll read for you and with you anytime!
Sherryl, what a nice thing to say! I love your description of Toymaker... especially the big red bow!
Hi Heidi - I'm new to this forum but am an actress and would love to be part of any other table reads you might have/need! Thanks and good luck!!
Welcome to Stage 32 Rosalie. I'd love to include you in the next Table Read! Thanks for reaching out. I'll send you a network request, so we can be connected for the next read.