From 30 Rock to Virtuality, and Bobism to Watchmen, we’ve seen lots and lots of great scripts throughout those first thirty SOTW.
Given the fact that I would probably be killed for posting the hundred or so scripts from the past year, I decided to put up “only” two of my favorite scripts, both from SOTW26.
In this case: TV – Six Feet Under – Pilot by Alan Ball Movie – Fight Club by Jim Uhls
One of the major points of this blog, or at least supposedly, was to give interesting links, tips and thoughts around writing, both in general and especially regarding TV.
Hopefully, you appreciated and continue to appreciate the various thoughts gathered on the issue.
You’ll be Swimming with Sharks in no time.
Greatest reference ever?
As we saw again this week, I like to talk about the future of entertainment.
Nonetheless, in November I wrote a piece on “Why TV is where you must be“.
Although the article could be seen as an argument on why TV is a good place to be as a viewer, it is mostly in regards to why I (still) believe television is the best place to be, as a screenwriter.
I had just seen The Dark Knight and was deep in my reading of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces and was very into this whole “Hero/Myth” thing so I wrote two articles on “mythic structures and hero psychology”. One more centered on TDK and heroes themselves:
It especially got me thinking about a post I read a while back about (super)heroes and their flaws.
I believe TDK correlates directly to that idea, especially for both Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent.
To make a hero believable, we need him/her to be flawed. We need him/her to have limits. We need him/her to be vincible.
Bruce Wayne is a human that becomes a vigilante at night. But he is still a human behind his (too-much-technologically-advanced) suit. This is reminded to us early on in the movie when he is bit by a rottweiler (physical failing).
Structure has been analysed for centuries, even millenniums, way back when Homer wrote (or rather told) his Iliad.
In the last decades, this analysis has been transposed to scripts and screenplays. Scripts and movies were broken down and compared to other literary pieces to try to found out the common links, not the least of which being Robert McKee’s Story.
Besides script acts, and structures, “heroes arcs” and “heroes journeys” have been analysed and also broken down. These mythical archetypes lead obviously to mythic structures.
This is one of the specialties of mythologists, including Joseph Campbell.
Campbell wrote a fascinating book around his theories of the journey of archetypal heroes in various mythologies from around the globe. This book led to a memo written by Christopher Vogler (a development exec) to Disney studios about how to use Campbell’s book for screenwriting. This memo led to various critically-acclaimed movies Disney movies such as The Beauty and the Beast, Aladin and The Lion King. Vogler also worked on a small movie called Fight Club.
Soon after, Christopher Vogler expanded his memo and published a book around it where he explored not only Campbell’s work (and Jung’s) but expanded it to correlate directly to screenwriting.
One of the most vital writing step in breaking in TV is making a spec script.
Back in March, I gathered some info to make a guide on “What is hot and what is not” to spec.
I also made a guide to Spec Flashpoint.
Hope you got some good advice out of those articles and you’ll be able to get some writing done.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
A page a day keeps your procrastination at bay.
Speaking of scripts, see you tomorrow.
Time for follow-ups to some of the post from the last year.
Hopefully this won’t turn into another Jaws, trying to follow on follow-ups with other follow-ups and pointless sequels.
Let’s begin with, guess what, follow-ups to a couple of posts from way back.
In late September, Russian channel 2×2 was facing a criminal investigation following the broadcast of a South Park episode, Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics. And now an update from ten days ago: the court has dropped the case against the adult cartoon channel. Problem solved.
The case deals with swearing on live TV: In March of 06, the FCC fined FOX for Cher and Nicole Richie saying “shit” and “fucking” during the 02 & 03 Billboard Music Awards, all due to a “new” FCC policy that allowed penalization even if the expletive is made only once, and live.
The case worked its way up to the Supreme Court and on Tuesday were heard the oral arguments for the case.
I forgot to talk about but finally a decision was reached at the end of last April:
The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision on April 28, 2009 that the Federal Communications Commission had not acted arbitrarily when it changed a long-standing policy and implemented a new ban on even “fleeting expletives” from the airwaves. Justice Antonin Scalia, in the majority opinion, wrote: “The FCC’s new policy and its order finding the broadcasts at issue actionably indecent were neither arbitrary nor capricious.” In the dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens claimed that this decision was hypocritical given the presence of television commercials for products treating impotence or constipation.
Incidentally, “the Court explicitly declined to decide whether the new rule is constitutional, and sent that issue back to the lower courts for their review.” So long story short, First Amendment rights are still up in the air.
Richard Kelly’s The Box (reviewed here) also has a few new updates. The first trailer is now out:
And there is an interesting interview with Kelly on SciFi Wire.
Speaking of SciFi, given the backlash after the Syfy rebranding announcement earlier this year, there has been in the last month or so a few responses from channel president Dave Howe. In a very recent TVGuide interview he said:
This wasn’t an option, it was a mandate. We made a commitment to grow into a global lifestyle brand. Sci Fi is a genre; it is like calling a TV network Drama or Sport. The default perception of sci-fi is that it’s space, aliens, the future. It’s Star Trek. The new name positions us as having our own attitude and personality, which gives us permission to do a broader range of sci-fi/fantasy shows and take us into the supernatural, the paranormal, action-adventure and mystery space.
I think it’s been pretty much established, if only by Star Trek‘s very recent success, that the clichéd opinions regarding science-fiction are gone. We’ve seen pretty weak arguments regarding the brand change… Broadcasting & Cable also has a piece up detailing Syfy’s upcoming branding strategy, including “Wyfy from Syfy”.
You can as well check out the future Syfy TV spots right here.
Continuing on the SciFi side of things, we have another article on the genre by STLtoday‘s Gail Pennington. Included in it is an interview with Battlestar Galactica‘s Ronald D. Moore.
Moving back to more serious issues, there has been some talk regarding the future of entertainment, and especially the future of broadcast. TV Week‘s Brian Steinberg had an In Depth article on the conflicting visions of NBC and CBS:
NBC and CBS are at odds about how best to proceed at a time when the future of the business is under serious assault. Is the future of broadcast TV generating big audiences from early morning to late at night? Or is it picking the right spots, focusing instead on syndicating big-ticket programming — the Olympics or a favorite crime procedural — across a multitude of screens in exchange for advertising and other revenue?
It’s a very intriguing and interesting look at two network giants that are actually betting on opposite sides of what the future might be.
Well, that’s all the time we have folks. Tomorrow is writing day so be sure to tune in.
