Red Right Hand

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (PART TWO)

2008-07-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

And so Heath Ledger became the latest actor to portray a character with the potential for layers upon layers of complexities and who more frequently gets played one note. Maybe two.

In as critical as I am over portrayals of The Joker, and given that this version is something of a departure from any version of him, good or bad, found in the comics, I find this one a excellent translation to the screen and it both captures how I see him (more in spirit than literally, though there are even flashes of that) and seems to capture (also in spirit) some sense of the Joker's first appearance in Batman #1 in 1939. Or how I imagine how I might have perceived him had that been my first exposure to the character.

Both in writing and performance, this was truly The Joker. Leaving out an origin was perfect, and the establishment of him as an "unreliable narrator" showed a particular insight into the character. He exists only now. Like pain. You remember it, you imagine it, but it's only really there when you feel it.

Now, about that Oscar buzz. Was Ledger's performance worthy of the buzz, worthy of more than just buzz. I think yes. Objectively and subjectively. However, it brings up some thoughts to me, about crash of genreism and beloved, tragically lost actor.

Were Ledger alive now, would the buzz still be there?

Not at all because I think people are elevating his performance sentimentally or anything. He's already established himself as being up to par, his Oscar nomination for Brokeback Mountain spells that out clearly. And in the Joker, he is fully transformed.

Were he alive, though, would genreism rear it's ugly head. Would his performance alone be enough to elevate it above being a comic book character? Would it escape the artificial gutter of having been in a summer blockbuster, a cape movie...a Batman movie?

The Award shows are broken. They are just shows, after all. Yeah, I'm pleased if something I like wins, but otherwise don't care that much. Especially with the Oscars. The fact is, that all the Award shows have historically had a bias against sci-fi/fantasy/fantastical. It's true in any medium, really. It's hard to get people to go beyond trappings and into story and character and rarely do I hear a rationalization that holds up on even an individual basis.

Once in a while, something rises up and is able to garner attention. I see the Emmys coming around of late, as writing Lost's various recognitions, and some writing noms for Battlestar. Its becoming viable, but I still remember year upon year of Patrick Stewart being denied a nom for Star Trek, especially for "The Inner Light." That year, he should have owned it. And let us not forget the old maxim: "The Academy does not vote for something called Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Which is just a way of saying that the content of the show is pretty damn near irrelevant.

I feel that Ledger is deserving of the nomination. And I don't know if my subjectivity can be suppressed enough, but I would like to see him win (that said with six months of movies yet to be released). Unfortunately (for a variety of reason beyond my own irrelevant ramblings), we'll never really know if this is a result of an enlightenment to look beyond genre and find the fantastic in the fantastical or if this just a way to honor an actor who was liked, sounded like a good guy and who happened to have turned in an amazing performance in his last starring role.

If he does get nominated, I certainly hope that nary a voter will be wincing when they write the name of a movie about funnybook superheroes. These characters have endured for seventy years and though good and bad. There's a reason for that.

As for the movie itself. My CBR boss Jonah Weiland put it well. "Not just a good superhero movie, it's a good movie." I, myself, was just kind of dumbstruck in my seat for a minute at the end. It was everything it should be.

I need to see it again.

THE AUSLANDER GOES FORTH

2008-07-19T05:23:00.000-07:00

It's that time again. Time for The Auslander to knock some heads, and this time around he's doing it in the Manzanar Internment Camp in a little number I like to call "Nisei, My Darling." A startling tale of two outsiders, a dastardly trap and insurmountable odds.

All this is by way of saying that the fourth issue of Astonishing Adventures is out and the lead story is the fourth installment of my pulp character, the shock-haired sentinel known as The Auslander. What's his schtick? Well, he woke up one day with a case of retrograde amnesia and he dreams of Nazi plots of stateside sabotage that come true if he doesn't stop them. And when he puts that two and two together, he doesn't like the four that comes out much.

You can check it out for free on Issuu, as seen above or you can order the pulpy version via Amazon.

The Auslander in "Nisei, My Darling"
And as his consciousness faded, the young khaki-clad soldier managed to get three words out. The same three words the black-and-white man hated to hear. “Who are you?”

There was only one answer. Always the same answer. The only one he knows.

“Ich bin ein Auslander.”

QUICK EMMY OBSERVATIONS

2008-07-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (PART TWO) will be forthcoming.

This is the single best array of nominees in the Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series in a long damn time. FULL NOMINATIONS LIST HERE

As such, the pessimist view is that it guarantees disappointment. I want to see The Wire get it's due, but it'll be at the cost of Battlestar Galactica getting some love. And then Mad Men too. I confess, however, indifference to Damages.

	Battlestar Galactica • Six Of One • Sci Fi Channel • Universal Media Studios in association with R & D TV Michael Angeli, Written By
	Damages • Pilot • FX Networks • FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television Todd A. Kessler, Written By Glenn Kessler, Written By Daniel Zelman, Written By
	Mad Men • Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Pilot) • AMC • Lionsgate Television Matthew Weiner, Written By
	Mad Men • The Wheel • AMC • Lionsgate Television Matthew Weiner, Written By Robin Veith, Written By
	The Wire • 30 • HBO • Blown Deadline Productions in association with HBO Entertainment David Simon, Teleplay By/Story By Ed Burns, Story By

And check that out, Mad Men writer's assistant (Veith) gets an Emmy nod out of the gate. Live up to that.

Drama series category ain't looking too shabby.

	Boston Legal • ABC • David E. Kelley Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television
	Damages • FX Networks • FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television
	Dexter • Showtime • Showtime Presents John Goldwyn Productions, The Colleton Company, Clyde Phillips Productions
	House • FOX • Universal Media Studios in association with Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions and Bad Hat Harry Productions
	Lost • ABC • ABC Studios
	Mad Men • AMC • Lionsgate Television

I need for House to get some recognition.

Lastly, the cruelty of pitting Pushing Daisies against 30 Rock in the comedy writing category.

Sorry, though, gotta go with the Fey.

Or do I?

Actually neither of the nominated 30 Rock's were particular favorites, so...yeah...gimme the "Pie-Lette" this time out.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA (PART ONE)

2008-07-16T15:16:00.001-07:00

The Joker has always been one of my favorite characters ever, despite the fact that there are as many versions of him as there cards in a deck and most of them are just ridiculous. I am very critical of how he is used. I'm terribly possessive of him in an unhealthy way.

In the early seventies, Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers created "The Laughing Fish," a story that has repeatedly been called The Definitive Joker Story. Denny O'Neil had just recast the Joker has having his own insane logic at work, not just having a clowny theme, and also imbued him with his casual attitude toward human life in such way not seen since his earliest days, if, really, at all. These guys were cementing that and refining it.

It's best exemplified by his off-handed way of pushing one of his own henchmen in front of a truck for his failure to be sufficiently amused by the boss's cracks. That was a new thing, then.

It's also since been made into an episode of the outstanding Batman Animated Series of the nineties. And while, less rampantly murderous, owing to the kiddies, still one of the few versions of him to really come correct in my mind.

In the eighties, Alan Moore, though thinking his own story is shite, nonetheless re-redefined him after several years of misuse since "The Laughing Fish," in "The Killing Joke." Also, for the first time, giving him a back story. Though one that has been, at times, taken to literally. One of the best parts of the character is he just is. The only fact about him was that Batman, inadvertently, created his own arch-nemesis. The Joker is an unreliable narrator, and while an excellent origin (which you'll have to read, I'm not recounting it for you), it should not be taken as the gospel.

In that last paragraph, there lies the biggest problem with the Joker. He's either a Royal Flush, or he's just a pair. And Royal Flushes don't get dealt out that frequently. Very few writers, for my money, have gotten the Joker to my satisfaction. I'm not saying that the only right version of the Joker is how I see him, but it is.

The fifties and early sixties were, surely, a bad time for the Clown Prince. They weren't great for Batman either. Both were just grinning cartoon versions of the characters that had only been created a decade earlier and in a decidedly darker, pulpier fashion. And that bore the Dozier TV series with Adam West.

And since the laughing fish, it's been consistently inconsistent. Some really get him and some don't. It's best when, for years at a shot, the Joker simply doesn't turn up in the comics. Let him come to the story rather than taking the story to him. Then, inevitably, he turns up anywhere and everywhere and frequently handled poorly.

I won't get into the ones I loathe, I will just mention (as I move off the comics topic) that the most recent Joker story that I felt nailed him with the fury of a meth-addled Bob Vila was the "sniper" storyline ("Soft Targets") in Gotham Central by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker. It's also, Batman-free. These are regular cops having to deal with him. It's totally Homicide meets the Clown Prince of Crime.

Jack Nicholson's Joker, to me, is an abomination. In fact, I'm not really a fan of Tim Burton's Batman movies. Flicks in which Batman is a supporting character, but with the Joker, he was stripped of everything that really made him what he is. As the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents, the creator/creation roles are reversed as to become humdrum, and it maims Bruce's drive to eradicate crime because it really, if only subconsciously, is now all about the Joker.

And he was just Jack in clown shoes. He never really seemed insane, it seemed more just an act with him. And that "Did you ever dance..." line. That never fit. It was just wrong.

Now, there is talk of an Oscar nomination for someone playing the Joker.

To be continued...

SAY WHAT NOW?

2008-07-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a little approximation of something I like to do when the opportunity arises in my pilots. Not recommended for series specs, where doing it like they do it is the order of the day.

This is just how I do it.

An uncomfortable beat while al-Haque decides there’s no way out of the situation without getting ugly.
AL-HAQUE
HUNTER #1
How’s that?
AL-HAQUE
I said I wish you two would shoot each other.
The hunters glance at one another and then back at Al-Haque, their suspicions seemingly confirmed. They slowly raise their rifles.
EXT. SNOWY TREE LINE - DAY
Up above the wilderness, as the sun blankets. TWO GUNSHOTS, almost simultaneous, ring out through the trees, sending the birds flying, fleeing.

Of course, it doesn't have that subtle border like you see here. That's just me fucking with the screenbox css and not really knowing how to turn off the picture borders non-globally.

I did this in another script with an inter-dimensional ninja, though that was for comic effect, but it worked. A table read busted out laughing.

OK, move along.

DUO DYNAMICS

2008-07-07T07:04:00.000-07:00

In the last few days, in places like in the comments on Emily's Bamboo Killers, the [tvwriters] Yahoo group, and some other random places, I've noticed several people express the same sentiment with regards toward writing partners. It usually goes along the lines of "a writing partner keeps me motivated."

I'm not anti-partner. I know people who've had them and the experience was really nothing to write about and I know a set of writing partners now and it seems to work out well for them.

I think it generally comes down to the dynamic and an equality of contribution. I've occasionally found myself in collaborative situations where most of the heavy lifting rested on me...and it's not even my idea or concept. In those cases, I generally wind up not doing the heavy lifting and nothing gets done. And I can't say I feel especially bad about it. If the collaborator is so keen to get the project written, why isn't he writing it?

And I don't want to hear about lacking the skills. If the idea's that good, you write it anyway...and maybe you learn to write along the way.

I prefer not to have a partner. It is, as I've said elsewhere, it's just me and the page - to the death, but I do really enjoy working out stuff with other writers, breaking the story, bouncing ideas. It's a vital skill if you're going to be in a writer's room for more than just delivering lunch.

In fact, one of my favorite things in a meeting of my writer's group is either pitching fixes for other people's scripts or when my synapses start running with some idea that one of the others pitched for one of mine.

Hell, just the ability to incorporate notes is a like a subtle level of partnership, isn't it?

It's the partner as motivation thing that concerns me. I don't know if I've ever read anything written by a team where this is a consideration. I don't think I have, as I've read very few specs by teams. But I kinda have to wonder about the quality of something that a team like that might produce. And this is why.

If the story alone doesn't motivate you to write it, why should I be motivated to read it?

I can see the point in being pushed to action by a writing partner. It creates deadlines where, really, there isn't. It invokes the let-down factor in that if you fail to do your part, then you've let own your writing partner. No. I get it.

Especially since our lives our hectic, either by design or circumstance, but no one ever said that writing is easy. Certainly I have periods where I just can't get adequate time or rest or be in the right mental state to sit down and write. Sometimes I let my social life (or attempts thereof) eat up that time, but sometimes it goes the other way around. However, I find that the more effort I have to make to write, the less likely that whatever I'm writing is going to be worth the trouble. When an idea is firing, you really can't keep me from my keys, even if it means falling asleep on them (or, really near them).

This is how I know (most of the time) what to write and what to move past. The story is the motivation. Nothing else.

Sometimes I come across some competition or other opportunity where a certain kind of writing is called for. Like a short script or a particular genre and its something I don't really have "in stock" as it were, so I try to work something up to fit the criteria. Sometimes I come up with something that I really like and want to write and other times my motivation is that goal. When that is the case, it generally turns out as less than. I was probably better off not even writing it.

Sure, a lot of my writing is motivated by a goal. I want to be a full-time professional writer, but isn't that goal fueled by my need to write. Even if I'm overloaded with work commitments and plans with friends, or advising third world coups, if I've got a good story, then it's breaking in the back of my mind whenever there's a free moment and of there's any measure of consciousness when I get home, and that story is really working, then I'm getting something down before I pass out...even if it's just a couple of lines.

If you need an outside motivator, like a partner, in order to get the work done, I have to wonder how bad you want it. How bad you want the story. How bad you want to be a writer. How bad the need is to write.

Like I said, though. This is scarcely an accusation about all writing teams. There are certainly all sorts. I know of one writer who likened his partnership to the post-modern Batman and Robin concept. Robin keeps Batman from going over the edge into vengeance and his partner keeps him from going over the edge into crap. There's another partnership I know where (and this is purely my application of analogy) it's The Doctor and his companion dynamic in that each partner improves the other and their respective strengths are both brought out and magnified by the collaboration.

In both of those cases, though, I'm reasonably sure that if they didn't have partners, they'd still be writing something whenever they could, despite whatever dangers they perceive from not having the partner. They're writers and they have to write.

(P)REVIEW: LEVERAGE

2008-07-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

Leverage is so full of supreme awesome that it makes me angry.

Since Adam asked...

Some things are just so good, right out of the gate that it completely fouls the gauges. Up is down. Left is right. And being bad is just fucking good.

I'm going primarily, mostly spoiler free here, so be not terribly afraid.

The concept is pretty basic. It's modern-era Ocean's Eleven for TV, so not eleven. Bad people doing good things to even worse people. Or if you're down with Hu$tle, you're down with this.

Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) is an ex-insurance investigator who finds himself put with a bunch of skilled ne'er do wells to put the screws to some people who really deserve it because they stole Saul Rubinek's airplane designs.

We get keen little flashbacks with the intro of each of the Leverage crew, and each one is priceless. Beth Riesgraf's (formerly better known as the mother of something called Pilot Inspektor) Parker (a.k.a the girl) has, without a doubt, the best one. The tone setter. And she comes after geektastic Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge) who's flashback involves Slave Leias.

With this show, Timothy Hutton reestablishes his coolness, because, honestly, it's been a while since I've thought "hey, Tim Hutton. Cool." That Nero Wolfe stuff a few years ago might be a contender, but otherwise, I'm probably reaching back as far as the early 90s.

Christian Kane is fantastically Euro-trashy as Eliot Spencer, which is saying something as his character isn't even European. Must be the hair. Then he's fantastically geeky, then he's...well, he's the faceman.

And Gina Bellman. Don't need to say anything there. Just...Gina Bellman.

But, really, the star of this...yo, Rogers...you and Downey hit this out of the muthafuckin' park.

There's a scene where the principals meet up in a big empty warehouse after things have gone a little sideways (which isn't really a spoiler, because things always go sideways in those situations). There's suspicion, there's gun's getting drawn and there's a fierce desire to get paid. It was during this scene that it really hit me. This show stands to be everything that Smith wasn't.

Smith was my favorite show of a the new season a couple of years ago, but it was really a show about bad guys. Not good bad guys, really unpleasant people. And being on CBS, it failed to find its audience in its three weeks on the air.

Leverage doesn't have the irredeemable bad guy thing, but it's nailing enough of that wrong side of the law thing that this is a worthy, of not superior successor.

Technologically scamtastic with a biting sense of humor...a drawing blood biting. I can learn from this show, in good and bad ways.

I believe Amy Berg who's (mid-level on the show), at the recent Scriptwriter's Network Event that E and I attended (and so did apparently everyone I know in the state, yet we all saw naught of each other while there (except Josh) that the show is scheduled to bow in December (or maybe January). That is too damn long.

I'd put off watching this because I had high hopes for it and I wanted to be in an optimal state of mind, with optimal snacking options and optimal whatever else. That's why I'm just getting to this now, despite it having been..."set free" some little bit ago.

It lived up to and then some.

I'm watching this again. Probably several more times.

Shooting it back in the homeland (Chicago) was nice too.

If I were to have a complaint, and I really don't, it's that the music evokes the Ocean's Eleven thing a little too directly. I'd have liked to hear something with its own unique identity.

PREVIOUS (P)REVIEWS
Heroes
Heroes: ".07%"
Chuck
Pushing Daisies
Bionic Woman
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

I AM MADE OF WORDS

2008-06-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

So the writing kind of ground to a halt, for a variety of reasons. Chief among them being that nothing was quite firing right. I hate getting a block like that. It keeps me from wanting to consume new materials. Like the flood of preairs that hit the illicit distribution systems of late.

This is no longer the case, also for a variety of reasons.

Hellcat has been indefinitely shelved. Still brainstorming on one-act play ideas. Have had several that are perfectly viable, but for one reason or another just don't quite feel like what I want to write...at least right now. And the shooting of another episode of Area Five has been delayed. One I'm especially looking forward to, but it's also a break for the brain.

Then, I came across a challenging opportunity. Something in the realm of horror, which is not something I usually do. I'd like to come up with something classically gothic in nature but with some aspect of modern weirdness. It's a small thing so it's kinda backburnered for now.

In the meantime, I've been giving some thought toward a project I wanted to work on later. After Hellcat. I didn't think it was gonna quite fill the need I have write now for a fresh pilot, but some ideas began coming to me.

So on Saturday, the idea was sit down with some chili and get cracking on something, like a once over of the Dexter spec, making sure I hit the notes the astounding writer's group gave me when they covered it last month, and working on NBC/Universal program application materials. And that was done.

I decided to warm up by doing something uselessly creative, so I grabbed Steiny and fired up Garageband. The result, "Wiresnip" is not safe for human consumption, but then so are cigarettes and thiose make you look cool and all.

Then some more ideas for the next pilot just started showing up, and then...and this is when I knew that the next pilot was going to be the this pilot, more characters started talking to me. Ben Franklin had already been whispering to me. (Yes, that Ben Franklin). Then Sayf started talking to me. Then, the weirdest thing, Danny from Hellcat showed up with a case and a movie (Be Kind, Rewind, I liked it). Before I knew it, she had joined the cast of what I'm calling Black Ops.

It satisfies all my needs: Weirdness, violence, political maneuvering, outright lies, and a really nice house on the east coast.

I'm going to be writing two versions of it, for reasons I'll describe another time.

And somewhere in all that, my Pushing Daisies, I've decided, needs a massive overhaul.

Oh, and maybe some (p)reviews of some of those preairs later on, now that I've burned through them.

AND NOW THE SECOND GREAT AND BOUNTIFUL WHEDON EMPIRE IS IN FULL EMPIRENESS

2008-06-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

Still busy. Here. look at the sauce d'awesome.

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

LAZY SUNDAY

2008-06-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Reading writer's group scripts. Working on stuff. Was not involved in that thing with the burning trousers.

In the meantime, I offer you this...

THE BEST MOVIE EVER (CONT'D FROM BAMBOO KILLERS)

2008-06-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

OK, totally misleading title, because I am by no means telling you that this is it. It's an impossible proposition. Whatever you say is automatically wrong, no matter what it is.

This is part of a little mini-meme Emily and I cooked up the other day after we went to see the likes of Jane Espenson and Amy Berg being awesome. We were talking about what the boredom-disc is for each of us. The movie that gets thrown in the player when something needs to be thrown in the player. You know the one. The one you can watch and watch and watch and never get tired of. The one you can have on all the damn time, as background or in paying full rapt attention.

To be perfectly honest, I'm more likely to go for a TV disc at any given time, but there are a couple of flicks that do get that dubious honor. One above all.

In her post, you'll see the laundry list of things that she just loves in a movie. Sort of an equation, if you will. And you get her answer. And we find that those things are reflective of the things you find in her writing and that which she likes most to write about.

I find the same reflection in my equation.

mindfucks + violence + social breakdown + delusional goals + a little out-of-the-box terrorism + random weird, but actual facts= Fight Club

Your turn.

THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS BATTLESTAR SPOILERS ONLY INSOFAR AS IT DISCUSSES SOMETHING THAT DID NOT HAPPEN IN "REVELATIONS"

2008-06-15T06:06:00.001-07:00

There was a moment, while I was watching the finale that I thought that the Fifth Cylon was actually in this scene.

What's that you say? There are only three people in this scene? Tyrol, Saul and Anders? All of whom are already known as the Frakked Up Four? Yes. That's correct. There are only three people in this scene. And in this screencap. Yet, there was another Cylon there (to my mind). Plain as day.

Then I remembered that scenes in "Rapture," where D'Anna meets the Final Five in relig-o-rama vision (like the one below) render such as assumption as unlikely.

Not impossible.

Just unlikely.

Let the BWAH HA HA's commence.

ANATOMICALLY INCORRECT

2008-06-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

I have long been a fan of Katherine Heigl for, honestly, superficial reasons. I see no reason for that not to continue. I liked her in Roswell, however, as an astute observer may notice from its absence of mention on this website, I'm not a fan of Grey's Anatomy, despite several attempts to watch it. I just don't like it.

I do like Allan Heinberg though. He of Gilmore Girls, The O.C., Young Avengers and Wonder Woman. It was a few weeks back at the Breaking Into The Box event at the Writer's Guild Foundation that he spoke candidly about some of the behind-the scenes actor/writer struggles on the show. He mentioned, for instance, how ridiculously close Meredith was to actually dying in that episode where she should have died. There was another Grey on hand at the time, so the title would still be fine.

He also expressed frustration with Patrick Dempsey's recent expression of frustration with the writers. I, in my uncalled-for opinion, find that such actorial whinging is unprofessional, especially when you're on a top rated series that has served as a springboard to relaunch your previously unremarkable film career.

Thus, I find Heigl's recent statement to be -- I don't even know what.

"I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination, and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention."

Is there anyone she didn't insult in making this statement. Obviously, it's meant as a swipe at the writers, though I think that releasing the statement was just form. I think it would have been classier and the same message would have gotten out just by not putting forth her name. It would have been noticed and questioned and speculated about in the entertainment press and on the blogs and you know damn well that the same reasoning would have had out.

However, in her statement, she also, intentionally or unintentionally, slammed the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. This bothers me less. In suggesting that she has to "maintain the integrity" of the Academy by withdrawing from contention, she's basically saying that there is a real danger that she could win, despite the lackluster material she'd be FYC'ing. She's essentially saying that the award she already won once is worthless because it's a popularity contest and has nothing to do with talent.

That as may be. I'm happy when someone I like wins something, but for the most part I see the whole process as broken on the conceptual level. It basically asks everyone to compare apples and firetrucks and assumes that they have the knowledge to do so.

Not so much. And for this reason, these are the members of the Academy, people who are ostensibly involved in the making of TV shows and, as Joss Whedon once said to me* "you can either watch TV or you can make TV." Really, do these people have the time to be aware and have watched everything worth watching?

Also, she didn't withdraw anything. You have to put your name into contention. So...there's that.

So, given that the writers have diminished her part in the last season and she's got a good movie career underway (no small thanks to the show she just dissed), I wouldn't think the writer's would have any problem continuing to not give her good material until her contract runs out or she quits. Additionally, even if she reversed herself and put something forward and had no competition to speak of (which she does), she's ensured she won't win anyway (because she's right, it is a political thing).

So what has she achieved, other than insulting a bunch of people for no good reason?

*No, he really did . I love a good name-drop.

DON'T EAT ON THE POOL TABLE

2008-06-11T00:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun thing that was in the NY Times.

I'm fascinated by the many and varied dynamics of various writer's rooms and this piece runs down a few of them, in particular (for me) the unique facility of the House writer's room.

And if a writer's room actually looked like this one, there'd be work, wouldn't there?

CREEPS AND JOY

2008-06-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this because I just finished watching "Forest of the Dead," which I will not discuss because some people are a few weeks behind on this sort of thing. So in the name of "spoilers" there will be no spoilers. You'll get it when and if you see it.

I've always thought Steven Moffat was quite good. I enjoyed his structural adroitness in Coupling. Once I really got into Jekyll, I found it to be one of the best things I'd seen in all of 2007.

His Doctor Who's have been consistent favorites and he has not let me down, despite the massive anticipation built up when ever I see his name on the roster, and now, with his taking over the showrunnerish duties, there is very much the possibility of the best show I'll ever see in my life being on the horizon.

Well, honestly, there is always something better just beyond the curve of the universe, isn't there? When there isn't at least the possibility, it's time to turn off the lights, and shunt off. So, yeah, I'm overstating, but I like fucking overstating. It's a measure of my enthusiasm.

The cool thing is, there's still a lot of stuff of his I haven't seen. Some of it, I'm not sure I'd like, but I want to give it all a shot. I want to find his episodes of Murder Most Horrid. I think I may well order up the Joking Apart DVDs from Amazon UK. Used though. Ehn.

This man, however, has such a grasp of the amazing things that can be done with popular science fiction. Keep your sodding singularity shit to yourself, hardcore scifi-ists. I'm a character-comes-first guy and the things Moffat can do with the weird and the sublimely frightning is astounding.

If you have even an ounce, a cc, a cubic nanometer of love of scifi, of geekism, or enjoyment of solid TV writing, if you have all three of these in any measure or combination, I cannot stress enough how much you have to be watching this show. It's filled with creeps and joy and it's worth-- so worth slogging through the episodes that maybe don't quite click with you. There are two episodes since the new series began that I absolutely loathe. Go now to your Best Buy, you Netflix, whatever you've got and get that first disc of the first season. Whole different Doctor (Eccleston, you liked him on Heroes, right?) in that first year, but when you hit "Father's Day" and "The Empty Child," you'll start scratching the surface. There WILL probably be episodes you don't like. The show is versatile and can pull of having a massively different identity from one episode to the next, with the only real constant being the Doctor himself and there's even variances in that when a new actor comes in. So much a hero in a world overrun with anti heroes. And with his dark secrets nonetheless.

In fact, while I was writing this, I spoke with a friend in a far-off land and he told me his girlfriend had watched a Doctor Who, randomly, for the first time and didn't like it. Yeah, well if my first Battlestar was "Black Market" or my first Friday Night Lights was "Last Days of Summer," well...I would give it another one or two. Sampling data demands it.

You got a show you're thinking about stopping watching...? Replace it.

Have I made my point yet?

All right. Tirade ends.

Oh, and here's a nice juicy rumor regarding series five. If true, it's just reason #43...

UPDATE: It just kinda hit me, about Moffat's sci fi stories. You know how sometimes, when you kill off a major character, that episode can me really strong, powerful...profound sometimes? Maybe it's just the license to break out of things because you're killing off someone. Image if you could get that kind of push from people living, being saved, even just guest characters, and you totally feel it. You just don't get that thrill from Buffy saving somebody from a random vamp or when Claire or Peter or whoever on Heroes-- Well, I don't even get that from Heroes, they seems to be saving or failing to save each other more often than not, but that's what it is. For me.

7

2008-06-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

I'm totally swiping this from Warren Ellis. He got tagged with it by some Kid Shirt guy, but...whatever the fuck. It is as follows:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.

Dresden Dolls - "The Jeep Song"
Dresden Dolls is the unofficial official band of Hellcat. I dream that when Hellcat is bought and shot as a pilot and picked up to series on Fox, that the Dolls will record the theme.

Portishead - "Silence"
Really, the only track on the new album that reminds me of Portishead. Ten years between albums might not have served too well. This one, though, is classic Portishead.

Nine Inch Nails - "Demon Seed"
Unexpectedly my favorite track on the new NIN. Some interesting lyrics, an odd mutating structure and an interesting deconstruction toward the end. And some nifty vocal effects. Yeah, I said fuckin' nifty.

Deftones - "The Chauffeur "
Lately, the first thing I start playing whenever I pick up my guitar. Prior, it was the Doctor Who theme. Better than the original Duran Duran recording. Though, about even with the live version from Arena that has that rumbling bass piano in the beginning.

Nick Cave - "Dig, Lazarus, Dig"
Just cuz it's weird. It's not not like his usual dreary tales of bloodletting. Which isn't to say that I'm not inordinately fond of those, as may well be obvious. This just has some kind of weird alternate version of the 70's vibe going on. It's like a world where Gerald Ford got a second term or something.

Nine Inch Nails - "35 Ghosts IV"
There's just something crime-ridden about this. Like some New York cops that jack up a guy and wire him to nail some dealer. Except he's wired with an ocular implant and the the dealer is selling sex slave clones of Eva Mendes. Wait for the cop show guitar solo at the end.

Elemental - Cup of Brown Joy
Just fucking watch the video.

And here are the seven people who will completely ignore my tagging them (nor do I blame them). Emily. Bill. Shawna. Avitable. Josh. Shinkicker. Adam.

A PAGE FROM HELLCAT

2008-06-02T01:58:00.000-07:00

I scarcely have a moment to post of late.

So, I'm just gonna put up a piece of one of the things what I've been writing that's kept me from writing.

INT. INTERVIEW ROOM
There’s a laptop on the table displaying security cam video of the events in the Dunkin Donuts. Danny, however, never takes her eyes off McIRVIN SIMMS, Internal Affairs investigator (30s, rack-bought suit). He pauses the video at the point where we just left off.
SIMMS
You just happened to be wearing your kevlar?
DANNY
I’m a police, Simms, That’s something we do sometimes. Shouldn’t you know that?
SIMMS
A plainclothes? With no bulletins, no departmental order to wear--
DANNY
What’s the big complaint when we get ordered to wear the vests?
SIMMS
No. This is where I ask and you answer--
DANNY
--Just - what is it?
SIMMS
Hot. They’re hot.
DANNY
What’s the temperature outside?
Simms sighs and drops back in his chair.
DANNY
Yeah. January in Boston. I get to be warm, look good and be bulletproof all at the same time. Next question?
SIMMS
I already asked it. What happened to Gavin Hewson?
Danny hits the play button with irritated force.
DANNY
Watch it for the 200th time. He came down with an acute case of fire.

AREA FIVE: "Liza McCready"

2008-05-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

THE MAKING OF AREA FIVE

Area Five came about from a weird need to use the internet for something...else. I wanted to make a short film, but I lack just about all the resources needed to pull off something that looks good. Cash being chief among them, followed by crew and gear (in no particular order).

Thus, it became an exercise in limitations. What did I have? What could I do? I have a cheap digital camera ($100) that's just a step above cell phone cams. I have no sound equipment to speak of. I can wrangle no more than probably two people at one time. Probably not actual actors either.

Sets? Well, I just got creative there. It's a frakking storage unit. I could have done something in my apartment or outside, but I just didn't want to set anything in my apartment and there's a distinct lack of control in doing things outside, though I've got an idea or two for the future there. Also, I didn't want to do anything that looked like it was in LA.

There's the limitation of YouTube. Naturally, I want people to be able to see it, and YouTube provides an excellent platform, so there's the ten-minute maximum. I know that people's internet attention span is probably closer to three minutes, but suck it.

The internet also favors comedy. I am not with the massively funny, so again...suck it, internet.

So, all of the above spells low-tech. So, I began to think, how can I excuse being ridiculously low-tech. How can being low-tech be part of the story or the concept in someway. Well, if you've ever seen police interrogation video on the news, you've noticed that it uniformly looks like total crap.

And, of course, Homicide: Life on the Street, is one of my favoritest shows ev-ar and is the master of the police interrogation scene. Can you say homage?

And so, the concept of the police interrogation video, pulled straight from the police archives was born. I wanted to spiff it up some. Technologize it. What if the detective had access to all municipal databases (not to mention the internet) by means of a tech assistant (so as not to spoil the rhythms of interrogation). It would also allow me to play with some on-screen elements, making this look less like a short film and more like an artifact.

Winston (Crump) is a guy I worked with. He's taking acting classes. I talked him into it. Emily (Liza), I was just talking about the idea with, mining her for advice (because she's taken on the whole professional short film thing, directing it herself, and she's totally a producer) and, for some reason, asked her if she'd be interested. She was, for psychological reasons. She wanted to see what it was like to be on the other side of the camera.

The 911 operator is my neighbor. I reached out for some local flavor and in Chicago, cast Joelle as Shelby Vance.

I found and totally wrecked a table. Graffiti, installed a handcuff bar (as seen on The Shield), hit it with stuff, etc. Got some stuff for the wall and, after deciding that no room in my apartment could be adequately converted, nor my garage, I located a Public Storage that had regular doors instead of roll-ups. And one dollar for the first month rent. Hyper-scammy. The set was probably the easiest part.

My hands, not so steady, nor was the camera designed to be held as steady, so the camera was stationary. On top of a box. It fit.

The Public Storage closed at five, so we had to be out before then. Also, we had to stop shooting when ever somebody decided they needed their ratty old couch.

Also, I'm no director. Not technically anyway. A little bit of experience dealing with stage directing, but not for something to be edited, blocking and what-not was a little more fluid that it should have been, so I would up doing a lot of directing after the fact. And after I learned how to edit. Some. I probably didn't do it right, but come on...the instruction manual was (I kid you not) 1152 pages. And not awesomely clear on some topics.

Very much a learning experience.

PROVING I'M NOT COMPLETELY DEAD YET

2008-05-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

There will be something by the end of the extended weekend. In the meantime...I was asked, thus I will answer the following:

As of 7:30 PM today,

Last Thing I Watched: House: "Wilson's Heart" (third time)

Last Thing I Listened to: NIN: The Slip "Demon Seed" (car stereo)

Last thing I Read: Best American Short Plays 1990 (I feel I should point out that I did, in fact, read this in the last week, not 18 years ago)

In the meantime, too much to write. A pilot, a one-act, some CBR, another thing, and a rewrite.

BOXY: NOT THE KID FROM BATTLESTAR

2008-05-18T18:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I attended the Breaking into the Box thingy at the Writer's Guild Foundation. Largely just for infotainment purposes, but there's always unexpected highlights. Hanging with Shawna, certainly, and speaking geekese. Ran into some other friends as well. Talking to Josh Appelbaum, he formerly of October Road and no sooner mentioned than he being currently of Life on Mars. Talked to Kevin Falls (and managed not to say the word "Sorkin").

And any time you've got Shawn Ryan, Brannon Braga , Allen Heinberg and Damon Lindelof on one panel at the same time, you will be infotained. Lindelof spoke of being showrunnerless at the beginning of Lost. Heinberg was very enlightening and candid about the Grey's Anatomy writer's room. Past and present.

Actually, the most interesting stuff came from the non-writers. It was interesting to hear executive points of view on a variety of subjects. Their main point (and you really should now this by now) is write your own voice. Specs serve a purpose, but original material is the thing. Short original material. In fact, David Babcock (Reaper) mentioned that he would have his agent send only the first act of one of his plays.
One of the coolest thing is that brand new Queen of HBO (really, isn't that a better title) Sue Naegle was on hand. An interesting view as she makes the agent to exec transition.

Some few things, random things.

Life on Mars pilot will be reshot, rewritten and recast (not Jason O'Mara, though, thankfully should have asked about Colm Meany,) it'll be done in New York (can you say tax break). Pleases me to no end because of my well-known weariness of stuff set in L.A.).

Told Kevin Falls that I just can't bring myself to delete the last (best) episode of Journeyman from my DVR. He says music rights are boggling a DVD release. Of course.

You wanna be an assistant. Call Appelbaum's office. He's only had the show for five days. He is, however, already staffed.

I wasn't aware that Desperate Housewives is reshooting (or rather just reshot) their finally because ABC rejected the original. Hmm.

You cannot get into the business if you don't know Winnie Holzman. Can't be done.

Seriously though, lots of breaking in stories. I'm always interested in these, despite the fact that they are basically unrepeatable. Best one was Appelbaum's. A CAA agent asked out a waitress friend of his and his partner. She made it conditional on the him reading their spec. Bam.

Attendees I spoke with were waffley on the usefulness of the day in actually "Breaking into the Box" ( a lot of common sense advice, really) but every single one, myself included, said, "it makes you want to write stuff. Right now."

And when I got home. I did.

Will I go again next year. Yeah. Probably.

DOLLHOUSE TRAILER

2008-05-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

Until it gets pulled down, which could be any minute now.

"TAKE A LOOK AT THE LAWMAN..."

2008-05-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

The Life on Mars trailer.

It looks like they took visually a step further than the original. It looks good. I hate the trailer, but the show looks good so far.

FIRST THINGS FIRST...

2008-05-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

...but not necessarily in that order.

I admit it, my ability to prioritize sucks harder than a hull breach on the International Space Station. Keep your physics nitpicks to yourself.

I don't overly involve myself in too much stuff if I can help for this very reason. It's a lesson I've learned in the last couple of years or so, I guess.

There's the writing I do writing scripts. There's no deadline on these (unfortunately) yet these are the things I'm drawn to first and foremost. For instance, yesterday, I spent a chunk of time rewriting the first act of Hellcat. This largely because the main character slapped me around and she said ...

DANNY
What the fuck is this shit you've written for me? Do it over again or I'll turn your arms into tentacles.

I thought about that for a bit and decided that the tentacles would be bad, so... I do what I'm told.

Also, I've got this short deadline piece for CBR, not to mention some other pieces down the line that I should be jumping on, but I was working on Hellcat and on the next thing.

The next thing is some video editing I need to do. Fortunately I have been doing that. Finally. I had to get around some technical difficulties, but I'm there now and I'm on a roll. That project should show up before too long now.

In doing these things, I 've fallen back on the notes I owe a friend on his Mad Men script. It was a good script. I liked it, but I'm generally a "discuss the script" guy and so I need to make some time to write out a good, thoughtful assessment. I thought I'd see him today, but I'm not, so I'm totally doing that. I feel like shit about not doing that earlier. If anything I may actually have more time today than I planned for, so maybe I can use it to get caught up on that shit, but then I have the character from Hellcat in my ear.

DANNY
(whispers)
Come back. You know you want to. Just put those fingers on the keys and make word things go.

Then, oh, there's another pilot I got to get out of my head yet has a very - well, I think it has a very limited usefulness to me, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Then there's the Pushing Daisies spec, which I've let sit long enough to get some distance on it so I can go back at it for some rewrites.

All of the above has suffered for about an hour while I watched the newest possible Doctor Who. And another hour while I was Outback. I'm sorry I needed a steak right there and then, and there's one just up the street. And suffered while I've been writing this post.

BTW, while I've been writing and editing, I've had on the PBS mini-series Carrier. I had eight hours of it on the DVR. Fanfuckingtastic documentary. Now that's a reality show.

OK, back to work. Sorry Danny, you're just going to have to wait a while, I got some catching up to do.

THE LINE BEGINS TO BLUR

2008-05-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

NIN - "1000000"

I want you to consider something. Something relating to TV, trust me. But there's some background I need to relate first, so bear with me.

Now, I'm a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails. It doesn't really matter if you are or not, just digest and consider. If you're knowledgeable about Reznor's recent goings on, skip down to the paragraph that begins with "Shortly after.."

Trent Reznor, who essentially is NIN, is on a roll of forward thinkingness. It started just before his contract with Interscope Records finally lapsed. His last album with that label was a concept album. Two words that scare the shit out of me. Year Zero was essentially fragments of a militarized post-Bush future in which rights are something people used to have. There is an uprising and there is something coming down from the sky. My fear was unfounded.

In addition, there was an alternate reality game which spread so far as to have some players actually get sorta kidnapped, taken to an actual NIN concert and have the show raided by Year Zero soldiers. This ARG just won a Webby award. Deservedly so. Here's a rundown on the whole monster. It's crossover in the actual and physical, with mysterious USB drives and white vans is fascinating.

From there, released the multitracks of all the songs on Year Zero (essentially making the album available for free.) and set up a remix website where fans can post their NIN remixes and creations with just a few basic restrictions. Fans like me. It was launched when he released a CD of Year Zero remixes by people like Ladytron and members of New Order, oh and a fan who went by Pirate Robot Midget. Yeah, a fan.

Then there was the album he produced and performed on for his bud, Saul Williams, kinda of a pseudo-rap, beat poet kinda dude. It was called The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust. Reznor and Williams released it as a pay-what-you-want download. The results were a little disappointing, but then before doing it, very few people knew who Saul Williams was. Now he's on a Nike ad. BTW, it's not free anymore. It's five bones. Worth it, though.

Then there was Ghosts. In which Reznor released 36 instrumental tracks, like this one (the guitar at the end makes me think of urban cop shows). Very experimental. Zero commercial value, right. Certainly not getting on the radio. He released a chunk for free and took preorders on CDs, in varying editions. In the first two days, he cleared a million dollars. When it hit the stores a month later, it debuted at #14 on Billboard. An experimental album.

The tracks are also released under a creative commons license, so you can use them for your own non-commercial videos and what-not. And there's the Ghosts Film Festival on YouTube. And there's remixable multitracks.

About a month later, he like..BAM new album. It's called The Slip and it appears to have been conceived and recorded in maybe a month or two and immediately, last Monday, released as a free download. Free. CD's out later on. They will sell. And, yeah, multitracks to remix.

Here's the TV part.

Shortly after Year Zero came out, Reznor spoke about taking to concept that drove the album and the ARG and porting it to TV. Recently, he was asked about it again...

Though crippled by the writers' strike, a proposed TV series based on the Year Zero concept is ‘‘still churning along''.

This is what I want you to think about. If Reznor, having done all this stuff I just described, got his fingers into TV, what would happen? Free day and date downloads, in addition to DVD sets? Webisodes, sure. Other series have done that, but how about expanded or alternate cuts episodes online? Soundtrack albums that actually affect the story?

How about format busting? Instead of say, an hour once a week, how about a half-hour every three-four days? It's worked before, you know.

Remixable TV shows. Re-edit episodes. Shoot your own footage and cut it in and upload it. Sturgeon's Law will apply, but it's about that ten percent, you know.

Or how about fans shoot their own footage, upload it and episodes get written around selected clips. Stories of the future freedom fighters. Just like a one minute or two minute thing and the staff writers find a way to craft something around it, if not as a basis for a story, at least utilizing it in service of a larger or different story. This is something I'd like to see done somewhere, if not on a Year Zero series.

I hope this gets off the ground and is allowed to do whatever it can. The line begins to blur.

And Trent, the email is m at redrighthand dot net.

THIS IS FUCKING BRILLIANT

2008-05-08T04:42:00.000-07:00

Watch it. Now. NOW!