I don't think there isn't room for it on television, in general. I just think the current crop of shows on the air doesn't allow for that type of storytelling. There are a lot of series that use flashbacks as part of their basic premise (WaT, CC, VM, PB, etc.) but their use of flashbacks is very...um...I dunno, linear?
Allyson had an idea for a show that was incredibly non-linear. I thought, and still think, it's really cool.
I guess when I say "television" I mean "television right this very moment." I like non-linear. I could go on at length about non-linear storytelling and feminist drama and stuff, but instead I'll stick with "I like non-linear."
Right, Newsies was young Christian Bale.
Oh, he didn't escape Swing Kids either. He was the eager little Hitler Youth who ratted out his friends to the Nazis in that, if memory serves.
Allyson had an idea for a show that was incredibly non-linear. I thought, and still think, it's really cool.
Do tell. Or did I miss it?
eta: Sometimes I forget that telling us is telling the world, and since Allyson may not want to share her brilliant idea with the rest of the world so that they can change it slightly and then get filthy rich off of her creativity, I suppose my note was not so good. Still, curious.
So, I'm on mailing lists for tons of writing workshops, including Screenwriting Expo 4, and I got this in my e-mail about their newest faculty member. How much ya wanna bet he wrote the course description himself:
TIM MINEAR is a professional television writer/producer who was executive producer/show runner on "Angel," "Firefly," "Wonderfalls," and "The Inside." Mr. Minear was also a staff writer on "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" and "The X- Files".
Mr. Minear will be offering a Special 3-Hour Seminar:
Breaking the Story
Nov. 11 (Friday) @ 6 PM to 9:30 PM
An interactive exercise in breaking a single episode of a one-hour drama. We'll decide by consensus if it's to be an episode of "Angel," Firefly" or "Wonderfalls." Using a white board and the group mind, we'll recreate what happens in a writers' room, with slightly less profane humor. We'll conceptualize an original episode, then board out teaser and four acts. Emphasis on theme and structure.
I've been skipping like mad, so this is the first I've seen of the class, but damn would I love to observe that. It sounds like such a smart idea. Le sigh. Not that I have even the teeniest knowledge about screenwriting.
Oooh, I know, Burrell. "This is the story I want to tell, and this is how I'm going to tell it."
Whenever anyone I know who writes screenplays talks about their work, I think of it as writing while hogtied. There's all sorts of constraints due to time and budget. Adding another voice to the story means hiring another actor, which means buying them a wardrobe, hair, makeup. Adding another setting means building and dressing another set, or finding a location that suits the work.
So when you're breaking a story, all these things have to be stuck in your head, and it has to happen fast, so that there can be beats, an outline, a draft, and a shooting script before DGA fines start kicking in because the director is waiting for the work so they can prep.
Act four may be AWESOME with a herd of elephants crashing through the wall, but then you probably need to hire Zoic for the CGI, and then maybe that means you don't have the money for that awesome hot air balloon that comes down to rescue the fair princess from that ferocious lion you had to bring in with its handler and the SPCA person watching the scene to ensure that no lions were harmed in the making.
But before all that you have to break your idea into acts that make sense, are interesting to an audience, tell your story in a compelling way that serves the characters and the plot.
And then those acts have to hit a vein so that the audience will HAVE to wait through the commericals to come back to the next act to find out how that peril was resolved.
It seems exhausting.
I want to see how they do it.
Sometimes, I am dramatically over-wordy.
I've been skipping like mad, so this is the first I've seen of the class, but damn would I love to observe that. It sounds like such a smart idea. Le sigh. Not that I have even the teeniest knowledge about screenwriting.
You live in LA. YOu can just fake it like everybody else there. (:
Seriously, registration for the expo is $74.95, and this event is an extra $8 on top of it.
Anyway, here's the link:
[link]
Speak to me of DGA fines, Allyson?
Sometimes, I am dramatically over-wordy.
Not one tiny bit. It was fascinating.
The director hired for the episode has to receive the script in a reasonable amount of time before shooting is scheduled so s/he can prep for it. I don't know exactly what the set amount of time is, but for everyday that the script is late, the Director's Guild fines the production.
Not one tiny bit. It was fascinating.
Maybe I can TA. I already made handouts just in case!
Signed,
Was worse than this in college, and twice as annoying.
