Whew. Excellent work day today. I’ve still got it.
100% fulfilled my goals today, and slipping into bed on time to get 100% of my goals done tomorrow. Saying it again, right here on the blog, in public, that I will get 20 minutes of editing done tomorrow.
The wheels are continuing to turn on my new pilot idea as well…I’m really looking forward to doing some brainstorming on Wednesday and Thursday. I’ve decided that I am indeed going to take a new approach to this pilot; I’m going to break the entire thing down first. Scene by scene, and character by character. And, I’m going to try and do it as collaboratively as possible. Try to get notes on my outline. Who does THAT?
Probably the professionals. I believe that’s called a writer’s room 😛
But, I also know pretty much all my friends break their stories in solitude, which if I really think about it, seems very counter productive. How many scripts have we all read where there’s either plot issues with not enough happening, or there are majorly underdeveloped characters. I mean, that’s the baseline, needing to know exactly what your story’s about, and who’s telling it. Isn’t that where the real notes begin? Fine tuning making those first two things the clearest and best they can possibly be? If I haven’t figured out those two, then the script is guaranteed to be shit.
So yeah…I’ve already had a couple excellent discussions with the Ho about some ideas I had. She doesn’t think she is, but she’s actually really freaking good at that stuff. Logic police, pointing out when an idea’s not original, or fragmented…all the stuff you hate to hear. But she’s RIGHT. And, if she isn’t, it’s only because I haven’t thought it through far enough. That’s such a great crucible to put an idea through, convincing someone else that’s skeptical about it. If you can come out on the other side with them convinced, or at least you even more convinced than you were going in, you know it’s an idea worth keeping. Otherwise, ditch it 😛
If only they could all be good ideas.
Liz and I have also been having an ongoing conversation lately about how it’s a little odd how focused I am on wanting to write for television. And, I don’t mean that she’s saying I’m odd, or that I’m saying that, or even that it’s remotely a bad thing. It’s more of a comment on how most writers we meet, and this town in general, is still so enamored of the Feature Script. It makes sense; for the longest time, movies were the golden standard of visual story telling. I just happen to think that has changed.
Yes, there are still wonderful movies being made, and yes, godamnit, I have several feature scripts I want to write…but mostly…I want to write television. I completely 100% whole-heartedly believe that TV has eclipsed movies. Excitement. Execution. Writing. Perhaps not in budget or in over-the-top artistry…but neither of those matter to me. It’s about the most effective story telling, and hands down, TV is doing a better job these days than movies.
This is how it comes down to it, for me: I think, would I rather see my favorite book, comic, story, etc…would I rather see it made into a movie, or into a show on TV. TV. In a heartbeat. Without hesitation. Lord of the Rings on HBO. Are you fucking kidding me? Fuck yes. Movies have fucked up SO MANY of my favorite stories, with the remakes, and the reboots, and on and on…it’s all on TV. And, I should clarify, I 99% mean the premium channels and others of the cable channels. Network television is still very much stuck in the days of when the Movies ruled entertainment.
What happened, was production values on TV finally caught up to films, and then far surpassed them. I don’t know how much Game of Thrones actually costs, but I’d bet you it’s about 100 million for a season. Seems like a lot. As much as one of these “fucked up” movies you’re blabbing about, you’d rightly throw back at me! Sure. Except we’re getting 13 HOURS of character development, and texture, and life, and tension, and philosophy, and everything that makes good story telling good. As opposed to jamming that all into 2 frantic hours of cutting corners and just making shit explode.
I mean it, it’s not even close for me right now between the two. We’re living in a golden age of television right now on cable. And I intend to be a part of it. Movies are in real trouble right now. They suck.
Give me an episode of Sherlock over the next Transformers any day. Easy example. I’d take it over half the oscar movies this year as well. Chew on that.
Tonight’s robot guard is, of course, from Forbidden Planet.
