The Erica Show

A couple weeks ago, this message appeared on the Facebook page of Erica Putis: “SD Musicians!! We would love to feature your happy sounding instrumental songs in our TV Pilot!”

“I’m the musical director,” Putis says. Otherwise, she can’t say much about her latest project, which amounts to a video pilot for a series about San Diego. Once completed, she and her partners in UpStream Pictures hope to peddle it to a local TV station. She says the soundtrack will be homegrown. “I want to support local music,” she says. “We have so many great bands.”

She says theme music for the as-yet-unnamed show will amount to a paid gig. “I’m planning on paying everyone when we get some backing dollars.” Have any locals bit yet? “Including myself?” she says. “So far, we have Itai Faierman, who has a new project called Mu, and Christopher Hoffee of the Truckee Brothers.”

Putis, of North Park, describes herself as a “jack of all trades and a master of none.” She owns Nuclear, a fashion design company, does makeup professionally, shoots still photography, and plays bass guitar and sings. As such, Putis has performed in bands such as the Predicates, Recordable Colors, and as a member of the Mashtis with Faierman and drummer Neal Bociek.

Her next venture will be television features, or so she hopes. “We’ve been working on the pilot episode for about the last month. It’s all local,” she says, “about some of the things we love about San Diego.” Otherwise, she refuses to say more for fear that the idea might be stolen. Putis does say that she is also the on-camera host of the program.

But whether or not the show is a travelogue or a documentary or a news format, she will not say, having been sworn to secrecy. Does the show at least have a unique angle? “Yes,” says Putis. “Me. My mom says not every TV show has an Erica.”

A quick perusal of the website says that UpStream Pictures “is a San Diego–based film production company focusing on film, TV, and photography.” Their Facebook link is live, but not so the Vimeo or YouTube links to their films. The site says UpStream also hires out still photographers.

Putis says there is no set target date for completion of the project. In the meantime, she says interested musicians can submit their information via email at upstreampictures@gmail.com.