The Transmedia Endeavor
The Address of Happiness is a personal Transmedia endeavor on which I have embarked. I believe it can exist comfortably on many platforms – in music, publishing, and movies. The narrative involves a couple who fall in love before they were born, on earth, and when they are reunited in heaven. The initial project has been written as a novella. The story involves a singer who has a song that she is known for. It is called, “The Address Of Happiness”. Quietly, I am looking for a pop songwriter and performer. Ideally, I would like the singer to write the lyrics for the song and perform the song. The book is being launched in June, 2013 through Happiness Publishing. Years ago while I was at Disney, we developed and made a vehicle for Bette Midler entitled Beaches. It was a performance musical, no one broke into song, except for the lead character played by Midler as she was a pop artist in the story. The movie was based on a book written specifically for Bette Midler: it became a movie and a successful soundtrack . Address sprang from a legitimate yearning of the heart and has been intentionally developed for multi -platform distribution.
- Leslie Caron and David Paul Kirkpatrick on New York Dance Set
Methodology
Here I am with Leslie Caron, the inimitable star of Gigi. She is as full of curiousity and spirit as she was then. I have often wondered what happened to the romance and elegance that Ms. Caron embodied.
I thought it would be valuable to try and recreate that elegance with a novella that one could read in one sitting.
In my day, so many people would talk about their “soul mate” and how when they met, it was “love at first sight”. I could not think of anything in recent times that had really dealt with the subject nd so embarked in the subject. My discipline was to create a mood and a story within 10,000 words.
After all, The Little Prince, and Dicken’s A Christmas Carol were under 10,000 words. Not that I am comparing myself to them; except to raise those works as a gold standard to which one might aspire.
I wrote something relatively quickly and started sending out to trusted friends who would take an hour and read it in one sitting. The Object was then to send it back to me with their notes, so that each time, I could make the story more personal and more universal. I remember reading Erich Segal’s Love Story in one sitting when I was in college and crying like a baby by the end. That was the reaction I was looking for. SO I am in the process of changing and rewriting with every missive I receive. Thank God for good friends who will tell you truth..
- Hard Copy Comments with Stamped and Addressed Envelopes
Having worked in movies for several decades, I was accustomed to focus groups and they can be very helpful with changes. But I decided to try something new with my methodology which was to sense, particularly with women, what they found most romantic, most dramatic by following their pins on pinterest. I have learned a great deal and I continue to hone the project. After all, a storyteller is not worth much if there is no one to listen to the story….:-)
