Lee Goldberg
It Begins
Sorry I haven’t posted much … it’s been an exhausting few days.
My flight to Berlin on Thursday was stuck on the ground at LAX for two
hours while workers tried to fix some mechanical problem. We made up
most of the lost time in flight, but about an hour before landing in
Heathrow, the passenger in the aisle across from me collapsed. The
stewardess got on the intercom and asked if there were any doctors on
board. Within minutes, there were about half-a-dozen doctors rushing up
to First Class to deal with the unconscious man. I guess he was okay,
because he walked of the plane to the waiting paramedics when we landed.
The security checkpoint in Heathrow is chaos…and takes forever. They
only allow passengers one carry on, and for women that *includes* the
purse, and I guess a lot of people weren’t told about that before
getting on their planes to London. It was ugly. I managed to make my
connecting flight to Berlin…in fact, I even had a few extra minutes
to pick up the INSPECTOR LEWIS dvd boxed set at an airport store.
I was met in Berlin by my line producer, who took me to my hotel and
then to a long dinner to discuss the script, some of the production
challenges it presents, and to tell me about the potential production
designers, casting directors, costume designers, writers, etc. that I’d
be meeting over the next few days. We start shooting the pilot on May
20, and this is a very stunt-heavy show, so there’s lots of work to do.
On top of that, I also have to develop the storylines for the first
eight episodes and deliver them to the network before we start shooting
the pilot…so I am really feeling the pressure and so is he.
I got back to my hotel around 10 pm and by 11 I was in bed. I managed to
get a solid eight hours sleep, which was a relief after 28 straight
hours without rest. I figured I’d be firmly on German time the next morning.
It was one interview after another. By the time the day was done,
though, I settled on a casting director and hired my assistant/script
coordinator. We went through through dozens of actor show-reels and I
watched some of the work done by our top choice to direct the pilot.
After great dinner with the line producer and his girlfriend, I returned
to my hotel to watch more DVDs and pick some scenes for our American
casting director to use for auditioning the U.S. actors. I was exhausted
and fell into bed at midnight….and was still awake at 1:30 am. I
finally fell asleep some time after two…and awoke at 5 am. I couldn’t
get back to sleep…and finally gave up trying around 7:30. I got up,
showered and took a long walk to Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz,
Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. It really hit me — I am in Berlin
preparing a movie that I wrote and will produce. Holy shit!
Today, I interviewed potential costume designers at one cafe after
another, just to keep things fresh and enjoy a change of scenery. It was
very exciting to see designers’ initial ideas for how the characters
will look. Talking about the characters with the designers has also
sharpened my own vision of the show and what I want the look to be, the
sound to be, etc.
I believe every aspect of this show — the cars, the clothes, the
locations, the music, the background "sound" etc — has to convey
character and our franchise. So I have to convey my vision of who these
characters are, and how I’d like to see those characters expressed, to
each of these artists. And, of course, I am very interested in hearing
their vision/interpretation of what I’ve written and what they see. I
need to know what they are going to bring to the show…I want to hear
their ideas, their interpretation of the characters, their sense of what
the franchise is.
For instance, the central set on our show is a garage. But it has to
be so much more than a garage. It’s where our characters live, where
they work, and where they make love. It’s their home. It’s the center of
their universe. And it better be an interesting place to be for the
viewers, too. It needs to be special. So, for me, a big test for the
production designers is what they can tell me about their vision for
this set — what do they have in mind?
There’s a lot of car racing in this show. But the way those cars are
driven must be an extension of character…I want the viewer to be able
to tell, without seeing the driver, which of our characters is driving
the car. The cars themselves — which models, how they are painted, etc
— are also a reflection of character. So when I talk to our potential
action directors & stunt coordinators, I want to hear more than cool
moves…I want to know how those moments will reveal character and
further the story.
I don’t know shit about fashion. But I do know these characters — who
they are, what they want, and how they see themselves. The clothes they
wear need to reflect that. So it’s fascinating to me to see what the
costume designers have in mind — and it tells me if they see the
characters the way I do…or see things about them that I missed. And
the best of our candidates have been able to tell me very clearly who
these characters are and why they’d be wearing what they are wearing. It
has been a fascinating give-and-take for me. But the wardrobe doesn’t
exist on it’s own…it also has to fit with the production design, the
cars, etc. All the department heads have to communicate, work together,
and compromise. So I am also looking for people who enjoy collaboration.
I’m also interested in something else in these meetings with possible
department heads. I want to get sense of them as people — can I work
with them? Do I like them? Do we "click?" It’s exciting, inspiring, and
exhausting. But I am loving it.
I got back to my hotel with a shoulder bag full of DVDs at 4:30, ready
to collapse…which I did. I set my alarm for a short nap…but slept
through the buzzer.
I woke up a 8 pm, took a walk to a supermarket for bread, meat, wine,
and chocolate, then settled in to watch DVDs to see the work of the
people I met and to prepare for my meetings tomorrow with more
production designers and the director.
It’s 2:15 am now, and the car is picking me up at 9, so I’ll be getting
into bed in a minute…and I hope I can clear my head of everything
that’s on my mind and get some sleep. (On top of all this, I still have
a MONK novel to finish writing!).
I’ll report back soon…
The Lady with the Great TV Series Idea
Since I’m out-of-town, and you all seemed to enjoy my recent re-post about the San Francisco Writers Conference, here’s a rerun of a 2004 post about an experience I had at Sleuthfest in Florida…
I was a guest at Sleuthfest in Florida a few years back and after one of my panels, a woman approached me saying she had a great idea for a television series. Even better, she already had 22 scripts written and a list of actors she felt were perfect for the parts.
All I had to do, she said, was sell it and we’d both be rich.
I get this a lot.
So I asked her, what if I was an engineer from General Motors? Would you approach me with a sketch of a car and expect me to manufacture it?
“No, of course not,” she said. “That would be stupid.”
So was her suggestion that I run out and try to sell her TV series.
And I told her so. Politely, of course.
The thing she didn’t understand is that networks don’t buy ideas. They buy people.
Or, as the old saying goes, ideas are cheap and execution is everything.
Take NYPD Blue, for example. It’s about a bunch of cops in a precinct in New York. Not the greatest, most original idea in the world, is it? But that’s not what ABC bought. They bought Emmy winning writer/producer Steven Bochco doing a series about a bunch of cops in a precinct in New York.
The network was buying Bochco’s track record and experience in television. The idea was a distant second.
When the network buys a series, they are investing $50 million. They aren’t going to hand the kind of cash to somebody who hasn’t proved they can write, produce and deliver 22 episodes a season.
So, that’s what I said to her.
She told me I wasn’t listening. She already had the idea and the scripts. All she wanted me to do was sell the show. And produce it. And send her the big bags of money for her great idea and brilliant scripts.
I could see it from her point of view. She wanted a short-cut into television and finding a producer to hitch herself to seemed like a good one. A lot of other people have had the same idea, which is why I get pitched series all the time. From my mother. My gardener. My pool guy. The rabbi at Bill Rabkin’s wedding.
I even got pitched during a proctology exam. In middle of a very delicate procedure, the doctor started telling me his great idea for a TV show: the thrilling story of a proctologist who’s actually a suave, international jewel thief.
Honest.
The truth is, it’s highly unlikely that any TV producer wants to hear your ideas, whether it’s after a panel at mystery convention or while you’re shoving a camera up their rectum.
Why?
Well, for one thing, it’s rude.
For another, television is a writers’ medium. The majority of TV producers are writers first and producers second. Every one of us wants to sell a TV series of our own. It’s the dream. It’s the chance to articulate your own creative vision instead of someone else’s. It’s the chance to not only write scripts and produce episodes, but also have a piece of the syndication, merchandizing, and all the other revenue streams that come from being an owner and not an employee. It’s the chance to become the next David E. Kelly, John Wells, J.J. Abrams, Stephen J. Cannell, Dick Wolf, Aaron Spelling, Donald Belisario, Glen A. Larson, Steven Bochco, or one of the other members of that very small, very elite, very wealthy club of creator/owners.
Getting to the point in your career that networks are interested in being in the series business with you isn’t easy. You have to write hundreds of scripts, work on dozens of series, and build a reputation as an experienced and responsible producer (Or you have to write and produce a huge hit movie, which often leads to an invitation to work your same magic in television). The point is, you don’t work that hard just to share the success with someone else who didn’t have to work for it.
Which brings us back to the basic rule of television: ideas are cheap, execution is everything. We want to sell our own ideas to the networks. Producers like me aren’t interested in your idea unless, of course, you’re asking me to adapt your best-selling novel or hit movie into a TV series. But that’s different, because you’re bringing something valuable to the deal, a pre-sold commidity with commerical and promotional value.
I told her all of that, too.
She just glared at me.
“You just don’t get it,” she said to me. “I’ve got a great idea. I’ve got 22 terrific scripts. You won’t have to do any work.”
No, I said, you’re the one who doesn’t want to do any work. You don’t want to learn the craft of screenwriting. You don’t want to struggle to get that first freelance script assignment. You don’t want to compete to get on a writing staff. You don’t want to work for years on a series, moving up from staff writer to producer, gaining experience and skill and becoming someone the networks want to be in business with. You want to bypass all of that and go straight to having your own series on the air.
“Well,” she said. “Yeah.”
At that point, I gave up. I did what anybody in my position would do. I pointed across the lobby at Jeremiah Healy.
“Go tell him your idea,” I said. “Maybe there’s a book in it.”
And then I ran away.
Forgive me, Jerry!
Getting Read
There’s a great interview at UKSFBookNews with IAMTW member Steve Saville about his nomination for a Scribe Award. Here’s a short excerpt:
UKSFBN: Do you think these awards are going to help raise the
profile and respectability of tie-in novels and boost sales, or is it
more of an intra-industry back-slapping exercise?SAVILLE: Sorry, I can’t help but chuckle at the idea of the awards existing
to boost sales when as a general rule of thumb most media tie-ins
outsell traditional SF and Fantasy novels quite considerably – and I
don’t mean one or two thousand more copies, I mean twenty or thirty or
fifty thousand copies and often more.
I find it quite interesting, but tie-in writing is often seen as the
‘ghetto within the ghetto’, which is just absurd when you consider %
Lori Prokop to the Rescue
It’s been eight months since I last wrote about Lori Prokop (best known for her Book Millionaire debacle) and I often wonder what she’s up to these days (surprisingly, she’s finally gotten around to excising me from her spam mailing list). Maybe while I am away, this post from March 2006 will inspire someone to check up on Lori Prokop for me.
Lori Prokop, the self-described "selfless supporter of families, children and animals," is apparently tired of blogs like this one mischaracterizing her as a get-rich-quick huckster. In fact, "her life goal is to advance the well-being and enlightenment of humanity" when she isn’t selflessly striving to help the downtrodden "achieve the goal of Best Selling and Celebrity Status" and showing "people how to choose most any car off the showroom floor and drive it free while our company makes your payments."
So Lori Prokop, who "lives in and creates from the upper energy levels of life (Anyone can choose to live and create in these powerful upper levels as detailed in Lori Prokop’s Life Guidance System)," is tackling the problem as only she, Lori Prokop, can:
Blogs are a powerful force for good in the hands of those people living in their upper level energies/emotions and less-than-good in the hands of those living in their lower level energies/emotions. (Continue reading to learn about the Energy Mastery System.)
Lori Prokop has an upcoming work being release called, “Launching from Good to Great Online,” which is a definitive work on blogs where she interviews leaders and experts in blogs and human psychology.
I, for one, am looking forward to this definitive work which, no doubt, will be published by Bestseller Publishing, the vanity press run by future Nobel Prize winner Lori Prokop, who describes herself in her fascinating and definitive mass mailings as "Leading Expert, Author and Creator of books, CDs,DVDs, Online Videos, workshops, television shows, speaking and more!"
To learn more about this selfless individual, who has profound "respect and humanistic regard for all species," (She is, afterall, the visionary who asked the burning question: "Where are the best sellers by Doctors of Chiropractic?”) just read her previous definitive books, like "Awaken Your Million-Dollar Intuition," "77 Streams of Super Lucrative Income for Authors, Experts and Speakers," and Employee No More: How to Stay Home and Still Make Money."
You, too, can feel her humanistic regard, especially for those species who possess a Visa or Mastercard.
How To Write a Treatment
This was originally posted back in June 2005…but since I get asked this question a lot, and I am on a plane to Germany right now, I thought I’d share it with you again.
Bryon Stedman asked me this question in a comment to another post:
I have a situation where a broadcast entity claims they want to hear my idea for a boxing series or made for TV movie. The characters belong to my family from a comic drawn by my father.
If a narrative is they way to go, what are the key points to include? Do I go as far as dialog and cameas shots and locations or simply text with main characters CAPITALIZED? Advice requested and appreciated.
A series treatment and a TV movie treatment are very different. A series treatment sells the characters and the franchise of the show…the relationships and format that will generate stories week after week. A TV movie treatment sells a story.
If the studio is already familiar with your Dad’s comic, I don’t know why they need you to come up with a series treatment…the strip itself sells that or they wouldn’t be interested in the first place.
A series treatment isn’t about telling a story…it’s about describing the characters, how they interact within the unique format of your show. Who are they? What do they do? And how will who they are and what they do generate 100 interesting stories?
For a TV movie treatment, you’re selling the characters and their story. At this point, you’re trying to sell the broadstrokes…they can pay you to work out the rest. Write up a punchy over-view of what happens in the story, as if you were writing a review of a great movie (only minus the praise). You want to convey the style and tone of the movie. But don’t go into great detail. Keep it short, tight and punchy.And whatever you do, DON’T include camera shots or dialogue.
Don’t fixate on treatment format, because there isn’t one. Tell your story in the style that works best for you. Don’t worry about whether the character names are in capitals or not (it doesn’t matter). Concentrate on telling a strong story.
On the Fast Track
I am taking a quick trip to Germany today to meet our leading candidate to direct FAST TRACK, the movie/pilot that I’m writing and producing…and that goes into production in Berlin on May 20th. I will also be meeting with the studio, the network, our German casting director, and a number of other folks. Then I return to L.A. on the 22nd to celebrate my wedding anniversary…and attend the U.S. casting sessions. Then it’s back to Germany on March 29 for three weeks of pre-production on the pilot and the development of the stories for the first eight episodes.
FYI – I have been hit with a lot of comment spam lately, so while I am away, I will be holding comments for review before posting them.
The Saint
Variety reports today a bit of news that I’ve known for months: TNT is developing a new, TV series version of THE SAINT. The producer is William J. McDonald and even though he was involved in the horrendous movie version with Val Kilmer a few years ago, I’m told by sources in-the-know that this project will be more loyal to the character immortalized in the novels by Leslie Charteris. Jorge Zamacona (HOMICIDE, WANTED) is writing the script.
Call’em as you See’em
Karen Scott talks on her blog about how much she likes sex scenes that tell it like it is:
I love good sex scenes in my books. I love books that call a cock, a cock, and a pussy, a pussy…
That’s certainly what I try to do in all my DIAGNOSIS MURDER books. Karen believes that sex scenes are required in a good romance novel.
If the love scenes are well written, then I’m likely to buy, if not, I’ll
probably leave it on the shelf. Does that confirm every stereo-type out there
about romance readers? Probably, but I’m not here to promote respect for the
genre, so I couldn’t really care less.[…]It
bemuses me to think that there are hundreds of thousands of romance readers out
there who pretend that sex in books don’t matter to them, when in reality, it’s
probably what they’re secretly looking for.
Secretly? All you have to do is look at the covers to know what the books are selling and what the readers are buying.
Ghost Riding
The friendly folks over at Bookgasm conducted a terrific interview with IAMTW member Greg Cox about writing comic book tie-ins and movie novelizations (most recently, the tie-in for the comic-turned-movie GHOST RIDER). It’s a revealing peek into the creative obstacles a tie-in writer often faces:
BOOKGASM: What do you find attractive about writing novelizations? And what’s not-so-attractive?
COX: On the positive side, you get to let someone else worry about the plotting and dialogue for once. It’s also just neat, on a fannish level, to be privy to the inside scoop on some upcoming new movie. The challenge is trying to describe a movie you haven’t actually seen; I’m always desperate for any sort of visual reference material I can get from the studio. Getting photos of the supporting characters tends to be difficult sometimes. The deadlines can be pretty tight, too.
BOOKGASM: When you finally see a film you earlier wrote a novelization for, what’s that experience like?
COX: Usually, it takes a couple of viewings before I can appreciate the movie on its own terms. The first time through, I’m too busy wincing at all the differences between the book and the movie. “Hey, what happened to the barn scene? That chase doesn’t go there. Ohmigod, they changed the dialogue. Wait a second, nobody told me that character was a woman!”