LA Times Article: The Show's on Time, but the Script Is Late

Television* In a debate drawing guild attention, directors say tardy pages make all jobs harder and raise budgets. A writer says you can't hurry creativity.

By BRIAN LOWRY, Times Staff Writer

Director M. Night Shyamalan appears on the current cover of Newsweek, heralded in conjunction with the movie "Signs" as a potential new Steven Spielberg--another filmmaker whose name is splashed above a movie's title and, theoretically, puts people in seats.

By contrast, Rod Holcomb directed the series prototype for the long-running NBC hit "ER"--a franchise worth more than the $600 million that Shyamalan's "The Sixth Sense" grossed worldwide--but Holcomb can pretty much go about his day anonymously, even as ads run nightly promoting new TV series this fall from elite writer-producers such as "The Practice's" David E. Kelley and "ER's" John Wells.

In terms of power equations in the entertainment industry, television is the converse of film. It's a medium where writers wield control over series, while directors are mostly guns for hire, moving from show to show.

For the full story: www.calendarlive.com/top/...89,00.html

Mountains and molehills.

Speaking strictly from my own experience, it seems someone is trying to make a point against the Producers (and writers) by using a problem that isn't necessarily the fault of the Producers. Let's blame the weatherman for the rain. They are trying to make a connection between the "film by" credit and another situation. They aren't linked. (at one point, the DGA proposed having a director share the "created by" credit on a TV series for the director who directs the first episode or pilot. Not the same at all, but they tried to link it.)

And, as with everything in this business, no one is totally innocent.

First of all, in many shows, directors ARE given less respect. They come in, they do their work, they go. They ARE hired hands. But just like there are hack writers, there are hack directors. There are directors that merely get the job done; set the sticks; get the coverage. Those people come and go. Then there are really incredible directors that are sought after and given multiple episodes. They are invited into the inner circle and advised of every detail.

The people who make the charges in the article are trying to make it sound as if the Producers just sit on the scripts, doing nothing at all, and casually hand it out when they want to. B.S. TV is such a rush business, we would LOVE to get an entire season written and handed out in advance. I once did a show that had a 50 episode order. When we started shooting the episodes, we had 27 scripts already written. By the time we got to the last three episodes, we were writing them fast and furious just to meet our deadlines.

The problems are varied. Directors (and everyone else in the crew and staff) are supposed to get the scripts on the first day of prep. That is defined by the first day of shooting for the current episode. If the current episode is a seven day shoot, then the script is handed out seven days before it starts shooting. If it's five days, the same. It is the job of the Producers to have that script ready at that time. However, the real truth of the matter (and what this article blatantly ignores) is that since that is when the entire staff gets it, it is also when the entire staff starts outlining their duties and GIVING THEIR INPUT. In other words, the production designer starts traipsing into my office asking how he's supposed to build an A-frame structure that has to be blown up or the prop department wants to know if we can use AK's instead of M-16's. The Director (many times) has problems with the way things are described and would like to discuss some changes (as is his right to do). And, depending on the difficulty of your actors, THEY will start chiming in. Add to that the fact that the studio and network will continually make notes and comments on every draft that comes out. So what does that all mean? No, the director does not get the shooting draft on the first day of prep. He gets the FIRST shooting draft. From that point on, it continues being altered and changed and rewritten based on all the input. Does that make a script "late?"

And whose fault is it when the series gets a pick up just two hours before everyone's contract is about to expire? (that has happened to me). Or, as just happened with a friend of mine, an order for thirteen episodes for a new series that starts shooting in eight weeks. And they had NO staff. Are those scripts going to be "late"? And if they are, I'm sure some shot-sighted person will blame the producers or the writers.

Even if you get a script "finished" a month before the prep date and gave that to the director, the director would find that by the time the prep date hits, that same script is going through the same rewrite process.

I don't buy the percentages, either. I think if you were to do a statistical analysis of the dates on the shooting draft, you'd find something entirely different.

Yes, it's hard for new directors to get into the business. Just as it is for new writers. That's why old time experience is valued, because the people who have been around it for a long time know the demands and the time element. They've done it and are good at it.

Yes, I'll agree that it's a problem, but it's not what they want everyone to believe. And I can believe that it will be smoothed a bit, but never solved. To solve it would be for the producers to have a script written, then tell the studios; network; director; actors; all the crew and heads of department to just shoot the script the way it was written with no changes. And that is just as much B.S. as the complaint.

ZODITCH

ZODITCH, why don't you cut and paste that post into an email and send it to the editor?

If you don't believe Zoditch (though you should) read J. Michael Straczynski's posts about making Babylon 5.

www.jeffkirvin.com/jms/

I never watched (t)his show but he's incredibly open and always interesting. Reading the 34 volumes of posts gave me a tremendous respect for the hassles involved in being a producer.