It’s a new world of media opportunity out there, and talent is coming from every which way.  We’re extremely grateful to have met and worked with so many talented people over the course of this amazing year.  We especially want to congratulate a few stand-outs who offered up their hope, talent, and unique experiences to form the basis of winning entertainment properties, and who made all the right moves in 2012!

Carolina Sullivan and Chris Balsamo are enjoying new-found TV stardom with the debut of their hot new show “Flipping Miami.”  When we met these two newlyweds who had left the stresses of Wall Street for a “funner” life flipping houses in Florida, they had no experience in entertainment—just enthusiasm, open minds, and great personality.  We quickly realized they belonged in front of the camera, so we had them work closely with our Reality TV Producer (and expert show-seller) Aisha Corpas-Wynn, and voila–just a few short months later they had a deal with noted Reality producer John Kroll and their pilot just aired on A&E!

Javier Ortiz grew up in Bushwick, New York and had a hankering to write.  He had no experience in the industry.  His first great move was to come to Voyage with a few ideas for edgy, socially conscious, indie screenplays. Wethought he had talent—and that one of his film ideas could meet the growing 2012 market demand for projects with appeal to the Hispanic/Latino audience, and possibly other niches as well.   Javier mounted a kick-starter campaign to raise money to fund his own project development—that was his second great move.  We had him work with Jesse Israel (producer of “Lottery Ticket”, and the upcoming “The Late Bloomer” starring Elijah Wood).  As a result, Javier achieved every beginning screenwriter’s dream—breaking in to the industry with his first script—he optioned the project to the producer of “Sympathy for Delicious”, “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing”, “Reservation Road” and many other successful indies.

Jason Atkinson is a Senator (yeah, a real one!) from the State of Oregon who has been taking fire from both parties due to his conservationist activities and his lack of patience with “business as usual” in Washington.  He came to us looking for a voice in TV, and we’re now helping him convert his message into a show, and a pitch that the networks will understand! And he already has the series optioned by a successful reality producer! This guy knows the language of politics, but sometimes it takes an insider to help translate true expertise into a hot entertainment industry property.

Jason Sumner is an aspiring TV producer who wanted to put his own material together, and came to us with nothing but a logline and an utter willingness to accept the advice of those with more experience than him. We helped him develop the entire show, a treatment, a full episodic breakdown, and a killer look book. The project is so good that several agents got interested in it and Jason ended up attaching a famous TV showrunner, John Leekley, who’s now writing the pilot…and we’re not stopping there!  We’ve recently garnered the attention of an interactive company who are going to develop an online game as a companion to the groundbreaking series.

Deborah, Jennifer, and Rebekah, “The Three Divas” are a vivacious mom and two 20-something daughters who run an event planning business in Wilmington, N.C. on a shoestring.  They’ve made a name for themselves as the life of the party around town, and about a million people had told them they should be on TV. They didn’t even know where to start – so they came to Voyage for some trusted advice and guidance (and a series format, sizzle reel and showrunner attachment)!  Now two hot reality producers have now optioned their format and they’re ready to start the network bidding war!

Chris Hardie is a TV screenwriter without a track record or connections—just a project he’d been working on by himself.  He had one session with our fantastic TV producer and former William Morris agent Katy McCaffrey and she dubbed him one of the most talented first-time writers she’d encountered all year.  As you can imagine, that feedback was the key that turned the lock for Chris’s writing career and we helped him get two scripts optioned by producers, and his work is now being read by key people all over town, including (yeah, you guessed it) Jerry Bruckheimer!

Bernadette Heath and Janet Farnsworth are success stories, from our Book-to-Screen Access division.  As you may have heard, self-publishing is all the rage these days (just write it and sell it on Amazon yourself!), and the big hit “50 Shades of Grey” was a self-published book, as is “The Tiger’s Curse” which our own Jesse Israel is producing with Paramount Pictures.  Well, Bernadette and Janet had been writing about their travel experiences for years, inspiring others to get out and see things, and finally they pulled their columns together into a book and submitted it to Voyage for an evaluation.  It went into our database and caught the eye of a comedy producer who developed films for Kevin James and staffed writers for The George Lopez and Wanda Sykes shows.  He optioned it on the spot!

Here’s what Bernadette had to say about the experience:

“Having our book made into a TV Reality travel series wasn’t possible, even in our wildest dreams and yet it has happened.  The process of taking a book and getting it into the hands of producers was totally unknown to us.  Yet, in just a few short weeks Voyage Media was able to accomplish just that. Now we have a contract in hand and are working towards the success of a TV Reality series. Thank you, Voyage Media. This exciting adventure would not have been possible without you.”

Authors: “Grandma Needs a Four-Wheel Drive”

Bernadette Heath & Janet Webb Farnsworth

…Need we say more?  Give us a call at (310) 392 4180 so that we can talk about YOU and YOUR SUCESS in 2013!