The Month Ahead for March 2024

A regular accounting of The Three Fifty-seven published on the first Monday of each month.

This is The Month Ahead for March 2024

Hello, All,

One of the joys of writing and producing The Three Fifty-seven as a single-narrator, solo endeavor, is that it permits tremendous freedom to develop characters, stories, and series of a wide latitude. True to the tagline, “Stories are Everywhere”, inspiration comes from anywhere, everywhere, and sometimes, all at once. It can be a thrill ride.

However, one of the perils of a solo endeavor is the need for always writing and producing. The collective pronouns often used in describing the channel – our, we, us, and so forth – are a bit of false advertising. It is only me.

This point was highlighted in February. The month was intended as four weekly scheduled releases for ROMANCE 20 MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE. The series involved The Messenger who premiered last year in THE MESSENGER DINES OUT about saving the music in a New Jersey diner. We take our diners seriously here.

ROMANCE started as an intersection of two old television shows: 1) The Dating Game and 2) Max Headroom which came from Britain’s Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into The Future. ROMANCE, true to the spirit of the channel, found its own life as a series that shared DNA with Dating Game and Max Headroom but evolved into a distinct branch of our portfolio.

Also intended during the month were narrations of Shakespeare’s love sonnets in honor of Valentine’s Day. The month came to a close two weeks behind. It may still be a week behind when this comes to print.

But the characters and stories are still worth having my name on them. Still worth posting and cross-posting on the platforms we frequent. And, with most, but not all, being less than seven minutes, still worth sharing as short form entertainment.

And, still worth pitching to producers in other media.

Even with March starting and some catching up to do, February had at least one notable, and perhaps humorous, inspiration. In Ingmar Bergman’s THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957), Max von Sydow plays a game of chess with Death (played by Bengt Ekerot). Fast forward to 2024. What if Death was a social media influencer. What would that story be and how would it unfold?

Until then, look for the last episode of ROMANCE and the fifth episode of SEVENTEEN. With the tagline of “He’s dying to forget. She lives to remember.” this may be a drama.

No matter what happens, please know The Three Fifty-seven remains committed to its core belief that “Stories are Everywhere”.

Sincerely,

William E. Spear, Jr.