Hello beautiful people!
Let’s get going on building, maintaining, and eventually leveraging a massively powerful show bible.
You’re about to.
You major in them so they can make your career major.
Since you may not be *entirely* down with all that a show bible is and can be, I’m sharing a mini-course from our SMFA Essentials series. It is an MP3, a PDF, and then another MP3 of Q&A from subscriber interaction. While some of the technology mentioned has advanced, the core data on how it all works is — as always — damn ninja.
First, the overview.
Next up, the not-at-all sexy-Canva PDF for this module, including all the latest apps for data management that 2014 had to offer. Ha ha!
In 2015, I wrote about other geeky apps for managing info like this, and got great feedback from readers of my Actors Access column and wrote a follow-up piece.
Here’s the latest SMFA Hot Sheet on productivity tools and apps, which includes a round-up of several popular show bible systems. (Keep this bookmarked.)
Since keeping up with technology is like aiming at a moving target, I’ll just say that we’re still using our custom-built wiki database for my master show bible, my local Mac address book for my personal show bible (20,731 entries as of this moment — not including my mailing list for the BonBlast), and Slack and Asana and Airtable for team communication and task-management and organization, respectively.
Without fail, EVERY time the topic of HOW to manage show bible data comes up, our beloved community bowls me over with their creative ways of getting this job done. Share suggestions below, check in with your #SMFAninjas community throughout the internet, and keep in mind that the “newest, latest, ooh… shiny!” way of keeping up with data isn’t necessarily the best way.
Assuming you’ve got decades of data management ahead of you, you don’t WANT to chase the latest trend just because it’s exciting; you want something stable, adaptable, and reliable for the long haul. Most of all, it’s gotta be something you *adore* interacting with, or you’ll never update it.
And then what good is it doing you?
Next up, the long-ass Q&A MP3 from the SMFA Essentials module.
Okay, that was a lot of content — most of it foundational — and I’m sure you’ve got a favorite way of wrangling your data to share below. Or, maybe you’re just starting out with this and want to get off on the right foot.
Whether it’s up and running, started but stalled out, or only a kernel of a concept right now, your task is to get a date with your show bible on the books. I recommend weekly updates at minimum.
Today’s work: Grab your calendar, map out one day per week (or more — you don’t have to spend as long doing it if you do it more frequently, y’know) that you will write up, type up, copy-and-paste up info on a target or two. (NOTE: I said “a target or two.” Do *not* let overwhelm stop you from starting this work, y’all.) Just. Get. Started.
That way, when your version of a Cindi Rice “randomly” calls and says she has pitched you for a job, you can easily reference how you first intersected, so you know what it is she valued in your work back then. Because of my show bible, I knew Cindi dug the style of our Cricket Feet Showcase, and that meant I needn’t go in for my Bite Me interview highlighting my festival-bound, gritty, indie casting abilities. It was my leading-edge, ballsy, comedic casting vibe she was into. I was up to speed before I even met the execs! Advantage: Gillespie.
And then I’m casting the first-ever scripted series for Machinima, which made the leap from web to TV and feature film distribution in its second season, locking my invitation to the Television Academy for my “significant contributions to the future of our industry.” I am certain, had I gone in highlighting my festival-bound indie film work, things could’ve gone a very different way.
There is no WRONG WAY to manage this data. You are creating what will be the inventory tracker for the building blocks to your success in this relationship business of ours. This stuff will serve you for DECADES. If popping Post-It Notes up on the wall helps you map the connections, go for it! A single page per person in a notebook works too. Whatever your method, get into keeping tabs on folks. Do they use social media? Do they hit networking events? What can you learn about them through interviews they’ve done in the past? What commonalities exist?
Google is your best friend, here. But so is your focused use of your powers of observation. Begin building a muscle for casually bumping into information and squirreling it away, knowing it could later pay off. Start out with all the people on your “leader list” from Day Two. You’ll be astounded how much you already know and you’ll get hungry for filling in new information over time. You’ll start to find people who are in those folks’ inner and outer circles and you’ll begin to map out connections you never realized were within reach for you, at your current tier.
This is a relationship business and your Web of Trust connects you to everyone. Harness the power of this network you’ve *already* begun building and continue to build upon it as often as possible.
Excited? Overwhelmed?
You’re only going to get to know more people every day. So start now while your show bible is as manageable as it will ever be. Commit to using a ninja playlist — start with a SINGLE SONG (about three minutes, right?) and do as much updating as you can during that ONE SONG. You can do that, can’t you? You can start making that your daily 100-day email SONG task. Chip away at this. Start with a few of those you know and a couple of those you want to know. Do a few more next week. Create good habits for tracking folks so when it’s time to utilize the data, you do it effortlessly.
More on that another day!
Share below your favorite way to eat this elephant. Buddy up if you need a weekly co-working Zoom to get an hour of updates done. Make this EASY by sharing the load.
’til tomorrow… stay ninja!
