why thank you, Michael, don't mind if i do

[somedaybitch]

Michael Loceff, one of the writer-producers of 24, [along with Bob Cochran and Joel Surnow, all 3 of La Femme Nikita, btw] talks to Slate about writing a show in real time, how dramatic content is more important than realism, the necessitites of fudging it, and the dreaded T-word.

i link to this specifically as a follow up to the podcast rant, as Loceff speaks well on the process as a whole, but also tangentially because it's a damn fine read.

Loceff: "It is a challenge. I'd say that for every idea you see on the screen, there were five ideas we threw away that were more interesting and less real, and there were five ideas that we threw away that were more real and less interesting. What you have to get used to as a writer is realizing that most of what you come up with is wrong for the show."

emphasis mine.

Comments

[arthurfrdent.livejournal.com]

what... you mean The Idea doesn't just appear in the scripters mind full blown, where they write it down as an epiphany on some red paper? And Thence Shall It Be Known As The Script Inviolate Yea did the Director and The Actors take the Script Inviolate and revel in it's Complete Integrity, and did produce The Show. Lo, The Show was the Script Inviolate translated directly from word to image. And It Was GOOD.

...sorry, I was rolling on the floor laughing... You've touched a couple times on something that has always puzzled me about how some fans in The Audience [tm] think about the process behind the visuals. I suppose it's just getting upset about a process you don't understand, but I am always shocked when someone buys an autographed script and says "But THIS isn't what I saw on TeeVee!!! DAMNATION THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER!!!! ZOMG they suck!!!"

wha? I suppose it's a bad assumption on my part that anyone who follows a show or movie closely, that wanted to see a script, or is fascinated by the image on the tele, has given half a thought to what the whole process is. Throw 90% of every idea away? um, yeah?!? How often does an idea work on paper, but is impossible to shoot that way? Or is possible but can't be done in time? Or on Budget? Or because the Lead got into a barroom brawl and broke his nose?

You can't write Claudi shedding one tear only, in a script. You can't convey in a show, how difficult it is for an actor to look at a blue screen, and be realistically terrified at what they don't see. You can't take back the 5 min monologue that you had the sidekick do that killed the pacing, once it is past the editor, and on it's way to the network. You pays your money and you takes your chances.

Thing is I've never come up with a succinct way of saying all that to a fan that refuses to "Get It".

That we see anything that resembles a good story is a marvel... heh, but then... you knew that :D

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

what... you mean The Idea doesn't just appear in the scripters mind full blown, where they write it down as an epiphany on some red paper? And Thence Shall It Be Known As The Script Inviolate Yea did the Director and The Actors take the Script Inviolate and revel in it's Complete Integrity, and did produce The Show. Lo, The Show was the Script Inviolate translated directly from word to image. And It Was GOOD.



BWAH!!!!!!!!!!!