Acts of Violet(97)
“Do it again,” I said, “keep your hands where they are, and this time, I pick which fry.” She agreed, and I picked the longest french fry on my plate, even dotting it with ketchup—I had to be absolutely sure there’d be no fry swapping.
CAMERON FRANK: Did she make it levitate again?
QUINN DWYER: Of course she did … right?
SASHA DWYER: She did, but this time the fry only made it halfway across, when Violet glanced out the window and saw some guy in the parking lot staring at us. The french fry fell to the table and Violet swept it under a napkin.
“Show’s over, let’s get the check,” she said.
It would’ve been pointless for me to badger her about how she did it, so I let it go.
QUINN DWYER: How come you never told me this story before?
SASHA DWYER: Because I’m a lousy, withholding mother?
I don’t know. It was one more thing I thought would be easier to keep quiet about, since I couldn’t make sense of it. I told myself there was a rational explanation I just hadn’t figured out yet. What were my choices? To believe the logical or the impossible.
CAMERON FRANK: What do you believe now?
SASHA DWYER: I mean, I still lean logical, but I’ve made more room for the impossible. Let’s say … the impossible hasn’t moved in but I’ve cleared out a drawer for it.
* * *
Date: March 29, 2018, at 8:15 AM
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: The Future of Strange Exits
* * *
Cam—
I know I had some reservations about you and worked you hard, but you’ve really pulled it off. Your work on Strange Exits has been outstanding.
Good thing you pushed back on that Checkmate episode. It’s getting a ton of social media and blog coverage and is the most downloaded episode of any show we’ve ever aired, though the Sasha/Quinn episode looks like it’s going to break that record. The big picture is even more impressive: Strange Exits is nearing a million monthly downloads, well above any numbers Sidecar has seen before. This is exactly the kind of show we need to position ourselves as a premium audio journalism and entertainment provider.
Keep going with the Violet season. Even though we initially planned on twelve episodes, I think we can easily do five to ten more. There’s no reason to stop this rocket from reaching the next stratosphere.
Start putting together an outline and proposed budget. I’ll need that ASAP so I can squeeze you into our Q2 allocations.
While I still can’t draw a direct line between #violetisback and Strange Exits downloads, there’s no question the viral social media campaign contributed to the overall fervor surrounding Volk, so I’ll reimburse your out-of-pocket costs and provide a more substantial marketing budget for next season.
Speaking of which, I want to think ahead and start planning out the next few seasons of SE. Violet has been a gold mine, but if we don’t have a good subject for another deep dive, branching off into multiple stories could be a better way to go. While you keep churning out the VV episodes, I can hire associate producers to lay the groundwork for the next season, so you can hit the ground running when you’re done with this one.
Let’s meet next week to brainstorm and get some ideas in motion.
I also want to look into additional crossover opportunities with Off the Beaten Path—how about you set up a meeting for us with the Curiosity Network?
Keep up the great work.
—TW
* * *
Date: March 29, 2018, at 4:57 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: The Future of Strange Exits
* * *
Tobin,
I appreciate your positive feedback. It’s nice to see you set aside your doubts and finally trust in what I’m doing.
Before we get into any further discussions about this or subsequent seasons of Strange Exists, I’d like to introduce you to my agent, Ruth Fleischer, copied here. I signed with Ruth a couple of weeks ago, right around the time you were threatening to fire me. It was reassuring to discover I had a number of career prospects I could explore outside of Sidecar Studios, and Ruth has already lined up a few conversations for me. She was also kind enough to have Fleischer Media Group’s legal team review my contract with your company.
It turns out, our original agreement was for only twelve episodes of a “podcast centering around the life, career, and disappearance of Violet Volk,” so we’ll need to negotiate a new agreement for any additional work I might do with Sidecar.
Our contract also specifies that the content I create—these first dozen episodes—belongs to Sidecar, but I trademarked the name Strange Exits—as a podcast and other media—prior to signing that contract. Therefore, I own the rights to the Strange Exits brand; something to bear in mind moving forward.
A couple of months ago, you told me my future with Sidecar was not guaranteed. I agree with you. I think we need to sit down and have a bigger conversation about what—if any—kind of future I might have with your company, before I put together any outlines or budgets, before we have any brainstorming chats, before any of that. I do have other opportunities I’m considering, but I’m certainly open to discussing what Sidecar may be able to offer me going forward.