After the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships concluded, I thought of a new media organization to report on the sport and created a pitch deck to introduce the project to venture capital firms. I know seed funding for media ventures is an arduous task, but as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. At the moment, that concept is being tweaked based on some feedback I’ve received.

But one figure skating project is complete, at least at the script and short-film stage: Serpentine. I realized after I wrote the business plan for the media venture that I hadn’t looked at the script for a few years. This past fall, I reviewed the script, made a few adjustments, and commissioned a new poster by my longtime collaborator, Adam Starr.

Since I publicized the poster on my social media pages a couple of weeks ago, the engagement I’ve received has been greater than when I first introduced the project several years ago. As I learned from having attended Worlds last year, figure skating has changed for the better since I wrote the original story. In short, audiences are more engaged. It reminded me of the heyday of the 1990s and early 2000s. While the engagement is different now than it was then, the one thing this sport still has is a devoted audience. And what we have now in the streaming world are limited series.

At 155 pages, Serpentine is either a 3.5-hour movie or a limited TV series of 3-4 episodes. When I reread it, I couldn’t see a place to cut 30-odd pages to bring it down to around 120. Simply, as a political thriller that revolves around an entire season in the sport, any cutting of scenes would have diminished the story and the many threads that wind up all the way to the climax at the World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow.    

In addition to streaming, we now have artificial intelligence. The images you see in this story were 100% generated using AI (ChatGPT). The ability to create these storyboard images demonstrates what Serpentine will look like on screen. This type of technological capability is so important to independent filmmakers. Think about it. When you meet with investors, actors, or crew, sure, some will read a script and see the vision, but as filmmaking is a visual medium, you really need high-quality concept art to showcase a project.

With the script now registered on Film Freeway, the process of submitting the screenplay to festivals for consideration will begin next week. What I have done to start this process is something I’ve never done before. I compiled an email list of film festivals that selected my screenplays SOS United States, First Launch, and In Mind We Trust. My plan is to email them to announce Serpentine and their interest in inviting a submission. I know there is no guarantee of selection, but as they are already familiar with my work, it’s certainly worth a conversation.

As I learned this past week, after receiving our latest quarterly royalty disbursement from First Signal’s distributor, Indie Rights, the market continues to evolve. With more streaming services vying for ad dollars, platforms one could count on are now being shared revenue-wise with other platforms. This is why I promote all platforms that stream First Signal. All this said, I was pleased to see that, even after 4 years, First Signal outperformed other films by 93% and ranks in the top 6% of sales.

On the ice.