That's how I'm feeling right now.
At 9:50 this morning things were looking like an average Tuesday.
Then at 9:53 I get a call from the CFC inviting me to take part in the Prime Time Television Writing Program.
...
Amazing how life can shift so quickly like that.
Obviously I'm still processing. Still feeling more numb than anything.
But hot damn.
I just got into the CFC.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Flashpoint
Is a hit!
This despite a lot of snarky reviews in the American (and to a lesser degree, Canadian) press. John Doyle has an interesting take on the Canadian-American cultural dynamic here.
Personally I quite enjoyed Flashpoint. Doyle has it right when he says that this isn't a show "...aimed at bending anybody's mind or exploding the genre of cop-drama into smithereens..." Rather it's a solid police procedural...with a twist (c'mon, you knew that had to be there).
Flashpoint is about a Toronto SWAT team (they call it something different, but that's what it is). What sets it apart is that rather than focus exclusively on the cases, it focuses on the emotional aftermath of when the team's forced to pull the trigger.
The pilot ("Scorpio") did a great job of exploring this premise. A man takes a hostage during rush hour. The SWAT team's called in and one of the sniper's eventually ordered to take the gunman out.
All in the first half hour of the show.
It was a great bit of television. Tense, beautifully shot, well acted. All around top notch.
Then things get interesting. On other cop shows an officer would shoot a suspect, be hailed as a hero, might be put under review by Internal Affairs, and then move on.
But the cop is never (or very, very rarely) treated as a suspect.
That's not the case in Flashpoint.
From the moment our sniper pulls the trigger he's treated as a suspect. The cops rope off his rooftop vantage point and treat it as a crime scene. He's forced to strip off the clothes he was wearing so they can be bagged as evidence, before he's interrogated.
Compared to a lot of other shows that have come before, this actually felt like what would probably happen to a police officer after they had to shoot someone in the line of duty.
This was Flashpoint at its best, pulling back the curtain to give us a glimpse of how things might actually work behind the scenes.
It wasn't all good though. The pilot suffered from a lot of problems pilots usually suffer from. Too many characters being introduced at once, so many that we don't really care about half of them (So the black guy gets stuck in the truck? Who cares? The other white guy gets promoted? Whoopdiedoo!). This is exacerbated by the fact that the characters are, for the most part, interchangeable.
In this regard they would have been better off taking a page from The Border's play book. Introduce your characters slowly, focusing on a few per episode, and give them all very specific functions on the team (or at least defining characteristics) to help the audience differentiate them all.
I also wonder how sustainable the show will be in the long term. How many variations of hostage negotiations / sniper shootings can they do? Will the audience tune in week in, week out, to watch the various characters deal with their emotional fall out from similar events? Obviously the show will have to branch out eventually, but when they do will they lose some of the unique elements in the premise?
Ultimately it's important to remember that this was a pilot. It had a few rough edges, but overall it was good, light, summer fun. It'll be interesting to see where the show goes over the next few episodes.
I, for one, am pulling for it though.
This despite a lot of snarky reviews in the American (and to a lesser degree, Canadian) press. John Doyle has an interesting take on the Canadian-American cultural dynamic here.
Personally I quite enjoyed Flashpoint. Doyle has it right when he says that this isn't a show "...aimed at bending anybody's mind or exploding the genre of cop-drama into smithereens..." Rather it's a solid police procedural...with a twist (c'mon, you knew that had to be there).
Flashpoint is about a Toronto SWAT team (they call it something different, but that's what it is). What sets it apart is that rather than focus exclusively on the cases, it focuses on the emotional aftermath of when the team's forced to pull the trigger.
The pilot ("Scorpio") did a great job of exploring this premise. A man takes a hostage during rush hour. The SWAT team's called in and one of the sniper's eventually ordered to take the gunman out.
All in the first half hour of the show.
It was a great bit of television. Tense, beautifully shot, well acted. All around top notch.
Then things get interesting. On other cop shows an officer would shoot a suspect, be hailed as a hero, might be put under review by Internal Affairs, and then move on.
But the cop is never (or very, very rarely) treated as a suspect.
That's not the case in Flashpoint.
From the moment our sniper pulls the trigger he's treated as a suspect. The cops rope off his rooftop vantage point and treat it as a crime scene. He's forced to strip off the clothes he was wearing so they can be bagged as evidence, before he's interrogated.
Compared to a lot of other shows that have come before, this actually felt like what would probably happen to a police officer after they had to shoot someone in the line of duty.
This was Flashpoint at its best, pulling back the curtain to give us a glimpse of how things might actually work behind the scenes.
It wasn't all good though. The pilot suffered from a lot of problems pilots usually suffer from. Too many characters being introduced at once, so many that we don't really care about half of them (So the black guy gets stuck in the truck? Who cares? The other white guy gets promoted? Whoopdiedoo!). This is exacerbated by the fact that the characters are, for the most part, interchangeable.
In this regard they would have been better off taking a page from The Border's play book. Introduce your characters slowly, focusing on a few per episode, and give them all very specific functions on the team (or at least defining characteristics) to help the audience differentiate them all.
I also wonder how sustainable the show will be in the long term. How many variations of hostage negotiations / sniper shootings can they do? Will the audience tune in week in, week out, to watch the various characters deal with their emotional fall out from similar events? Obviously the show will have to branch out eventually, but when they do will they lose some of the unique elements in the premise?
Ultimately it's important to remember that this was a pilot. It had a few rough edges, but overall it was good, light, summer fun. It'll be interesting to see where the show goes over the next few episodes.
I, for one, am pulling for it though.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Things you can do to piss off development monkeys
I'm sure I've posted about this before...but trust me...it bears repeating.
1. Spell Check!
If your script has spelling and grammatical mistakes don't submit it! The dirty secret is that development monkeys (like me) are looking for reasons to not read your script, don't give it to us.
2. Do your research!
Don't pitch us ideas that don't fit our company. If it's not a fit, we won't consider it (funny that).
3. Don't harass us!
Your average development monkey will have anywhere from 5 to 10 scripts to read at any given time (at least from my personal experience). It will take AT LEAST several weeks to get back to you. If you harass me it'll take longer.
4. Learn to take no for an answer!
It's not personal. If I tell you a project's not for my company, that's just it, no need to get hostile.
5. Have something else to pitch!
If we like you, we'll ask you what else you have. If you don't have anything else (even if it's rough) you'll go to the bottom of the pile.
Have something else.
1. Spell Check!
If your script has spelling and grammatical mistakes don't submit it! The dirty secret is that development monkeys (like me) are looking for reasons to not read your script, don't give it to us.
2. Do your research!
Don't pitch us ideas that don't fit our company. If it's not a fit, we won't consider it (funny that).
3. Don't harass us!
Your average development monkey will have anywhere from 5 to 10 scripts to read at any given time (at least from my personal experience). It will take AT LEAST several weeks to get back to you. If you harass me it'll take longer.
4. Learn to take no for an answer!
It's not personal. If I tell you a project's not for my company, that's just it, no need to get hostile.
5. Have something else to pitch!
If we like you, we'll ask you what else you have. If you don't have anything else (even if it's rough) you'll go to the bottom of the pile.
Have something else.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
What have you been up to?
In the last 177 days?
Things I've done:
1. Got promoted to the lofty rank of Development Coordinator.
That's right, monkey's got some say now.
2. Participated in some TV writing workshops. Met some cool people. Learned a lot.
If you get a chance to do a workshop with Chuck Lazer or Esta Spalding, I highly recommend it!
3. Started a writing group with said cool people. So far we're meeting once a week, and everyone submits about every other week.
It is glorious!
4. Finished polishing a new pilot and a spec episode of Dexter.
Not sure they're glorious, but don't think they're steaming piles of donkey shit either.
5. Applied to the Canadian Film Centre's Prime Time Television Writing Program.
Hopefully I'll be in Toronto come September.
6. Attended the CFTPA Prime Time Conference, crashed the VIP reception.
Never seen so many suits in my life. Drank myself stupid with some other creatives.
7. Registered myself for the Banff World Television Festival.
Drunken debauchery, here I come!
8. Came up with three solid ideas (two pilots, one spec) that I'm planning on writing in the near future.
Not sure which I'll be focusing on yet, but we'll see how the beat sheets go...
9. Was approached to Produce a doc about exotic dancers in Vancouver.
Very tempting (for reasons I'd think were obvious), but ultimately had to pass due to scheduling problems...
10. Got a TiVo! And it has changed my life!
Seriously, if you have yet to experience the wonderfulness that is a PVR, you're missing out...
That, in a nutshell, sums up how I've spent the last 177 days. Had a bit of burn out on the blog, but am jumping back on the bandwagon now. Guess we'll see where it leads!
Things I've done:
1. Got promoted to the lofty rank of Development Coordinator.
That's right, monkey's got some say now.
2. Participated in some TV writing workshops. Met some cool people. Learned a lot.
If you get a chance to do a workshop with Chuck Lazer or Esta Spalding, I highly recommend it!
3. Started a writing group with said cool people. So far we're meeting once a week, and everyone submits about every other week.
It is glorious!
4. Finished polishing a new pilot and a spec episode of Dexter.
Not sure they're glorious, but don't think they're steaming piles of donkey shit either.
5. Applied to the Canadian Film Centre's Prime Time Television Writing Program.
Hopefully I'll be in Toronto come September.
6. Attended the CFTPA Prime Time Conference, crashed the VIP reception.
Never seen so many suits in my life. Drank myself stupid with some other creatives.
7. Registered myself for the Banff World Television Festival.
Drunken debauchery, here I come!
8. Came up with three solid ideas (two pilots, one spec) that I'm planning on writing in the near future.
Not sure which I'll be focusing on yet, but we'll see how the beat sheets go...
9. Was approached to Produce a doc about exotic dancers in Vancouver.
Very tempting (for reasons I'd think were obvious), but ultimately had to pass due to scheduling problems...
10. Got a TiVo! And it has changed my life!
Seriously, if you have yet to experience the wonderfulness that is a PVR, you're missing out...
That, in a nutshell, sums up how I've spent the last 177 days. Had a bit of burn out on the blog, but am jumping back on the bandwagon now. Guess we'll see where it leads!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Strike!
Sorry for the lack of updates...chalk it up to doing lots of other writerly things...
I'm sure everyone knows that the WGA's out on strike at the moment. I'm not going to rehash it other than to say that they're fighting the good fight. If you're curious or want to know why they're striking (or are just hungry for news) I've added some great links on the sidebar...
This one's for the whole shebang kids...
I'm sure everyone knows that the WGA's out on strike at the moment. I'm not going to rehash it other than to say that they're fighting the good fight. If you're curious or want to know why they're striking (or are just hungry for news) I've added some great links on the sidebar...
This one's for the whole shebang kids...
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