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chk
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« on: January 31, 2008, 10:23:19 pm » |
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I enjoy reading Doris Egan's posts about the trials and tribulations of writing for a TV show ( http://tightropegirl.livejournal.com/). (I wish she'd right more books, but a girl's gotta make a living, so...) Anyway, when Emma wrote: That was the oyster: a team of creators who were up for an experiment, possibly the best television writing staff that never wrote television. My first thought was: imagine how good a TV show would be without advertisers and network executives (and even producers) interfering with the storytelling... And then I remembered that today, SCI-FI announced that they were going to make a TV version of Sanctuary ( http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/, and I thought "well, anything's possible..." :-) |
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Elizabeth Bear
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« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2008, 10:26:23 pm » |
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Somebody on Boing Boing suggested we pitch this to a network.
At which case I thought, and the first thing that happens is that the characters who are gay, Jewish, atheists, pagans, or persons of color become white, straight, and ambiguously Christian.
Well, Hafidha might get to stay African-American. Maybe.
And then they start demanding a romance between Frost and Reyes. And at that point my head went *spang.*
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chaz: "As if puberty weren't stressful enough."
Todd: "See? That's why we're better than all those other law enforcement agencies. Correct use of the subjunctive."
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Joe Sherry
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« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2008, 11:49:55 pm » |
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Depends if you pitched it to HBO or FOX. You'd have a shot at keeping your characters on HBO. With FOX you wouldn't have to worry either, but that's because your episodes would be either run out of order or the show would be cancelled by ep 4, and so it wouldn't really matter.
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Emma Bull
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« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2008, 11:50:07 pm » |
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For more great writing on writing for TV, check out Kay Reindl's blog: http://seriocity.blogspot.com/Smart like a smart thing. She and her writing partner, Erin Maher, have written terrific episodes of shows you've seen. Like, f'rinstance, Millennium.But back to Bear's comment about the why-not-pitch-this-for-TV question. Yep, she's right. Also, we could pitch this for TV. If we lived in Los Angeles, and had appropriate L.A. television and film agents who could get us meetings with people who were in a position to say yes or no, but only after we'd retooled the bible and rewritten the pilot a couple-six times. After which, if we were very lucky, someone would option the project. And give it to someone else to write, and run, because we don't have the credits or experience to be showrunners. So, really, it comes down to a choice between moving to L.A. and spending a lot of time trying to get someone to listen to us...or spending the same amount of time having a great time telling stories. While paying a lot less rent. Either choice is valid, depending on what you want out of life and storytelling.  |
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Falkner to Worth: "'Competent'" is not an insult."
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Joe Sherry
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« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2008, 11:56:21 pm » |
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So, really, it comes down to a choice between moving to L.A. and spending a lot of time trying to get someone to listen to us...or spending the same amount of time having a great time telling stories. While paying a lot less rent. Either choice is valid, depending on what you want out of life and storytelling. I know I'm more than thrilled to have SU in the format you're providing, but I'm a bookish type person anyway and love words on paper, err...on screen. I'd rather have a good text based story (although, I'm watching The West Wing for the first time and that show is at least six kinds of awesome) |
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Emma Bull
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« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2008, 11:58:44 pm » |
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I just love storieeeeeeeeeeees! Gawd, I'm a sucker for narrative structure. Including in songs; a good storytelling song will slay me.
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Falkner to Worth: "'Competent'" is not an insult."
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Elizabeth Bear
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« Reply #6 on: February 01, 2008, 12:05:14 am » |
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Mmm. Stories.
Good with ketchup.
Actually, one thing I love about this is the episodic structure. We have the luxury of doing all those cool things, like telling long-arc stories parceled up into bite sized chunks, like lots of character development and continuity....
So much fun.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chaz: "As if puberty weren't stressful enough."
Todd: "See? That's why we're better than all those other law enforcement agencies. Correct use of the subjunctive."
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Emma Bull
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« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2008, 12:25:01 am » |
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Ssshhhhhh! Keep saying stuff like that, and they'll all want to do it!
Oh, right--they can. And if they tell stories, everybody gets more stories to read, don't they?
Hey, that's pretty cool.
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Falkner to Worth: "'Competent'" is not an insult."
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will shetterly
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« Reply #8 on: February 01, 2008, 12:48:01 am » |
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Now, for all that Emma and Bear are acknowledging frustrations in writing for television, I'd like to stress that we chose this model for Shadow Unit because we love TV storytelling when everything works right. So while we're not going out of our way to pitch this to anyone, if Hollywood finds us, we'll talk. (I currently want Lena Olin for Faulkner.)
The main problem with Hollywood is that writers waste a lot of time pursuing projects that fall apart. We're doing Shadow Unit because the only way it'll fall apart is if we get distracted by something newer and shinier.
Which seems extremely unlikely. Emma and Bear could keep this going for the rest of their natural lives, and then they would start in on their unnatural ones.
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Emma Bull
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« Reply #9 on: February 01, 2008, 01:04:19 am » |
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I am into the unnatural part already, BWAH-hah-hah!
And you are crushing on Lena Olin! I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.
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Falkner to Worth: "'Competent'" is not an insult."
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Elizabeth Bear
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« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2008, 07:58:23 am » |
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Zombie authors. And then we can hire the zombie chef.
Resssiiiiiiiiidddddddddddddddduuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllsssssssssssssssssssssssss.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chaz: "As if puberty weren't stressful enough."
Todd: "See? That's why we're better than all those other law enforcement agencies. Correct use of the subjunctive."
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chk
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« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2008, 08:52:20 am » |
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Resssiiiiiiiiidddddddddddddddduuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllsssssssssssssssssssssssss.
Thank you; I just fell out of my chair....  (in case anyone is confused, I wasn't advocating pitching to Hollywood; the opposite, in fact...) |
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postholedigger
Jr. Member
Posts: 61
Oh...well, darn!
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« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2008, 10:32:10 am » |
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As someone who's related to people in the Biz, don't go there. You are all too nice to have to deal with them, and you would be unhappy. Trust me on this. Postholedigger  |
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“All literature, highbrow or low, from the Aeneid onward, is fan fiction”. Michael Chabon
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ebony14
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« Reply #13 on: February 01, 2008, 11:30:51 am » |
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Depends if you pitched it to HBO or FOX. You'd have a shot at keeping your characters on HBO. With FOX you wouldn't have to worry either, but that's because your episodes would be either run out of order or the show would be cancelled by ep 4, and so it wouldn't really matter.
Only if they got Tim Minear involved. Poor Tim.... |
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Joe Sherry
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« Reply #14 on: February 01, 2008, 07:13:34 pm » |
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Depends if you pitched it to HBO or FOX. You'd have a shot at keeping your characters on HBO. With FOX you wouldn't have to worry either, but that's because your episodes would be either run out of order or the show would be cancelled by ep 4, and so it wouldn't really matter.
Only if they got Tim Minear involved. Poor Tim.... Maybe the SU folks should go for Marti Noxon instead. Poor Tim, indeed. |
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