Freelance editor Ryan Koscielniak has a plan to turn his passion for travel into a concept he can sell to television. Through his RyBred Films, he is producing the TV pilot “24 Hours on a Dime” to appeal to young travelers.
Koscielniak envisions an international budget travel series in which two co-hosts spend a day in a different city for each episode, finding affordable ways to make the most of that city’s unique offerings.
“Every year I try to go to a different country ? it’s my biggest passion,” Koscielniak said. “This is an opportunity to share those experiences with 20-somethings who haven’t traveled for fear they wouldn’t be able to afford it, and hopefully inspire other people to start traveling.”
Koscielniak is confident in the marketability of his concept, a distinct combination of traditional travel shows and budget dining shows.
“Most travel shows don’t really deal with budget,” he said. “There are books like ?Lonely Planet, Let’s Go,’ ?Europe Through the Back Door,’ but there are less people reading these days and more people watching TV.”
He hopes to reach his young demographic by pitching the show to youth-oriented cable outlets like MTV, or Internet broadcast through travel guide web sites.
Koscielniak and his co-producers Laura Altmann and Ryan Horejs are casting for the pilot’s co-hosts in February. They’ll shoot on DV in Chicago in the spring, with the objective of shopping the completed program by early summer.
“We’re researching places in Chicago that we think will be appropriate for the topic, places you can go to have a good time or an educational time and not break your pocket book,” said Koscielniak, who will direct, edit, and finance the four-figure production from his earnings as a freelance editor.
He’s presently cutting the short “The Powder Puff Principle” starring Ron Howard’s brother Clint Howard and Linda Blair for Los Angeles’ Cinema Factory.
After graduating from Columbia College in 1997, Koscielniak was an editor at Big Picture and Big Shoulders, moving on to editor/associate creative director at Highland Park ad agency Roark, Pirsig and Dobie, where he worked until June 2003.
“I’ve had the privilege to follow work from concept to delivery for the majority of my career,” he said.
Reach Koscielniak at ryan@29point97fps.com or see www.29point97fps.com ? by Ed M. Koziarski, edk@homesickblues.com
