Hi everyone! I wrote a movie called IN MERRY MEASURE for Hallmark. It's a fun, cozy Christmas romance with plenty of music and holiday cheer-- I think it turned out great, and the premiere this weekend was well-received.

You can catch it streaming for at least today on Hallmark's website: https://www.watchhallmarktv.com/#/movies/In+Merry+Measure. You can also watch it on Peacock-- or you can catch it when it re-airs on Hallmark Channel Sunday, November 20th, at 2 PM EST. They'll air it a few more times over the next month or so til Christmas, so check your listings.

Hope you enjoy-- or, if you don't like Hallmark movies, tell the family and friends in your life who you know do! (It'll likely be a hit with your mom.) Thanks!

This is her favorite time of year. She usually watches one or two a day until the end of the year. I just like heckling her through the whole thing just to see if I can predict the storyline in the first 4 minutes.

On a real note, how long did it take to write it, and how difficult was it?

>On a real note, how long did it take to write it, and how difficult was it?

This was the second one I wrote on spec. The first one took a long time, went through a ton of drafts, tons of notes from producers, *almost* got made at one point (Toni Braxton was circling it!), but ultimately might just not quite be right for Hallmark. We're trying to find it another home now, but you can tell I just didn't really know what I was doing in this genre yet.

This one was my second attempt, using all of the lessons I'd learned from doing the first... and it mostly flew out of me. I'd pitched it spring of 2020, had a decent outline that I'd sent to some people... but when you're a new writer, you just have to prove you can write. So I did a spec, and it honestly didn't take me *that* long once I committed to doing it. Couple weeks? It helped that I had a good outline and all the insight of the first quasi-failed project. And the first draft got *very* few notes other than what songs I can/can't use and what things I should probably cut (my first drafts are almost always 15-20 pages too long lol).

But to give you an idea of how quickly these things go when they go, my first draft was finished end of September 2021, I sent a second draft to producers middle of October 2021, it was officially purchased May 2022, it went into production beginning of August 2022, and it aired November 2022. Like... this time frame was no fucking joke, lol. I was very glad I felt more confident with what I was doing-- and that I had enough free time to turn new pages around when needed.

@silentintellect

My buddy Adam (who I think still uses OKP) saw an FSU student film when we were in high school-- the star was Chet Dixon and the director was Frank Longo. We thought when those titles came up that they sounded made up, and we were so tickled that they became our pen name aliases. When I was unable to access my Charter Member OKP account for reasons I don't remember, I logged in as Frank Longo instead. The rest, as they say, was history.

Congrats, by the way.

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Congratulations, I will check it out.

I might check it out even though I'm a Jehovah's Witness



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..we need to celebrate more moments like this around here.

Looking forward to checking this out.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

Great!

We will def be watching.

I just end up making fun of them the whole time, so I will make sure to go in extra hard on the premise of this one...:)

Congrats!

n/m

or are you offered a percentage of any profit the movie generates?

Im very curious about how to write for Tv shows and pitch movie ideas.


It's awesome in the speed everything was able to come into existence much success.

If you're selling a finished spec, it can be a one-time fee. If you sold a pitch, you can get paid for each step along the way-- outline, script, rewrite, etc. And if you're in the union, you can get residuals-- additional payments every time the movie re-airs.

no snark..

is this your full time gig or was this an idea that turned into a project?

https://letterboxd.com/russellhfilm/film/in-merry-measure/

Long story short, a friend introduced me to a producer, that producer took me under his wing, and I wrote this script for free specifically for him in hopes that it would sell. And it did. And I'm grateful I took the leap.

Instant classic

how long was your script or pitch or whatever its called?

I always wanted to write a story about my town.. its a weird little town outside Pittsburgh with a tight knit Black community that has known each other for generations so there are tons of wild stories about friends and family..

its like a suburban Bronx Tale/Coolie High..

Had to cut it down closer to 90 for Hallmark.

Looks like it airs on Wed, so I’ll definitely check it out over the holidays. Congrats!

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Good shit. Why didn't you post this on PTP too?

There's, like, a few people who check in there at most. There have been full days with zero replies posted. Just wanted to try to reach as many people as I could.

>There's, like, a few people who check in there at most. There
>have been full days with zero replies posted. Just wanted to
>try to reach as many people as I could.

who don't often go to GD. And never sleep on the "views to replies" ratio, lol. People be watching, even if they don't say shit.

When my stuff hits the streets I'm posting on two boards minimum lol.

I was ready to go in and pick it apart tongue in cheek of course like we do every movie.

OKps hella talented. shit you could prob write a Bollywood script too lol

>Hi everyone! I wrote a movie called IN MERRY MEASURE for
>Hallmark. It's a fun, cozy Christmas romance with plenty of
>music and holiday cheer-- I think it turned out great, and the
>premiere this weekend was well-received.
>
>You can catch it streaming for at least today on Hallmark's
>website:
>https://www.watchhallmarktv.com/#/movies/In+Merry+Measure. You
>can also watch it on Peacock-- or you can catch it when it
>re-airs on Hallmark Channel Sunday, November 20th, at 2 PM
>EST. They'll air it a few more times over the next month or so
>til Christmas, so check your listings.
>
>Hope you enjoy-- or, if you don't like Hallmark movies, tell
>the family and friends in your life who you know do! (It'll
>likely be a hit with your mom.) Thanks!

>shit you could prob write a Bollywood script too lol

That'd be an absolute dream, lmao.

Congrats. This is yuge.

I can't find it on Peacock, but I set my DVR. Only airing showing up so far is Dec 10.

Did you have an agent before this?

I owe everything to the producer, really. He believed in me based on a horror script I did. He talked me through my first Christmas script, which wasn't very good. He read this one, loved it, and got it into the right hands. He fought to get me paid as much as I could. And he set me up with a manager who also loved the script.

It really is who you know, lol. Very, very lucky to have met this guy through a mutual friend.

will def check it out.

Is one of the main characters a big CBB fan? j/k

Seriously, it's good to see good people do good things. Hoping for even better things down the line.

Anyhow, I'm sure this is just the first of many.

Big ups for this.

But now I have to watch a Hallmark movie without cynicism.

There was a great take of Sasha beatboxing way more loosely, dropping some scratching into the mix, that didn't make the final cut. Bummer.

I'm mad I didn't write it, lol.

Dude was so jealous of Sugar Rush’s success, straight up hating.

Didn't even know you're a writer