Film and Television

Sloppy Continuity

by

Tonight I finally got around to watching last week’s LAW AND ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT.  There’s a big debate about whether or not seeing someone shoot someone makes you more comfortable shooting someone yourself. At the end of the episode, a lawyer asks the A.D.A. if she really believes that theory. The A.D.A. makes a speech about how her daddy taught her how to shoot guns and she hasn’t shot anyone yet… then again, she says,  she’s never seen anyone gunned down in front of her. But regular viewers of the show know that isn’t true. Three or four episodes back, the A.D.A. saw an entire courtroom full of people gunned down in front of her — a judge, a witness, two guards, two cops and two gunmen. In fact, NBC re-ran that episode tonight.

I can’t believe the producers would have made such a huge continuity gaff. All I can figure is that that last week’s episode was shot before the other one and, for whatever reason, and was aired out of production order. If that was the case, I don’t understand why the producers didn’t cut the speech or loop a new line. That’s just sloppy.

Grey’s Blog

by

The writers of GREY’S ANATOMY have their own blog. The latest post from Krista Vernoff tells the story behind her "Christmas" episode:

So
here’s a funny thing: we were never going to do a “Holiday episode” of
Grey’s Anatomy. Shonda, in particular, (though many of us agree) is not
a big fan of Santa Claus in the E.R. and elves in the operating room
and the kinds of things you most often see on medical show holiday
episodes. So, the mandate was: we can have a tree, we can acknowledge
the holiday, but we’re not doing a “holiday episode.” And then Harry and Gab walked into the writer’s room and pitched this: “A cranky, angry little boy needs a heart transplant because his heart is TWO SIZES TWO SMALL.”

Come on. That’s brilliant. The Grinch boy? How do you not make a holiday episode now? So that’s how this episode was born.

She goes into much more detail, but I especially enjoyed this observation:

I don’t know why I’m telling you all this… Maybe because I’m so often asked “How do you guys come up with this stuff?” The
answer is, we come up with it in a largely convoluted, fabulously
meandering, highly collaborative way where bad ideas lead to good ones
and good ideas lead to other ones and nothing is set in stone until
about a week before you see it on TV. Which is why I love working in TV.

This new trend towards blogs (eg CSI:MIAMI, SCRUBS) and podcasts (eg LOST and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) from  the writers room of TV shows isn’t just great PR and fun for the fans — it’s an incredible opportunity for aspiring writers, offering an inside look at how TV series episodes are conceived, written and produced.

On The Edge

by

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that my mentor Michael Gleason, creator of REMINGTON STEELE, has a new show in the works for UPN entitled ON THE EDGE. Michael has teamed up with writer/producer Alan Moskowitz and director Penny Marshall on the Lions Gate project, which revolves around a young female assistant district attorney trying to discover who murdered her parents — while struggling with her alter ego who is bent on returning her to a life of drugs and alcohol. Marshall is likely to
direct the pilot.

Project UFO

by

Pufo_y2_relettered_title
Jack Webb is famous for "Dragnet," and his  "just the facts, ma’am" -style of  emotionless, rigid dialogue and performance. He  used that same approach for the short-lived series "Project UFO," which was essentially "Dragnet" with flying saucers.  Here’s the opening narration and theme. And you can even see entire episodes in streaming video on this site, one of the most blatant acts of copyright violation I’ve stumbled across on the web. The show is so obscure, I guess the studio figures it doesn’t even merit spending ten minutes and a 37-cent stamp on a simple cease-and-desist letter…if they even know about the site at all.

The Pay for Script Readers in Hollywood Must Really Suck

by

There is a guy on ebay who has gone from auctioning his old comic books and Heather Locklear posters to offering to read any script, and provide coverage, for $49.

I will read it and send back a 2-3 page analysis of the script. Also
called coverage, this is what the studios use when reading scripts and
will include a summary of the script (because if what I see as the plot
is different from what you meant it to be, there is a problem!), and
include notes on strong and weak points, and ways to make the script
more marketable.

A little bit about me and my qualifications. I graduated from the
University of California (USC) School or Cinema-Television with a BA
degree in Film, emphasis on Critical Studies. I also hold a minor in
Creative Writing and Literature. I have been working in the industry
for almost 6 years now, and have worked as a script reader for
Zide/Perry Entertainment (credits include "American Pie," "Final
Destination," and "Cats & Dogs"), and for Blain and Associates
(credits include "Save the Last Dance") and am currently working at
Shaprio/Grodner Productions ("Scared Straight," "Rescue 911", "Big
Brother").

This is a great chance for any aspiring screenwriter.

I don’t see how. Unless the reader is reading for a studio that’s actually considering the script for option/purchase, the coverage is completely useless. 

The sad thing about this isn’t really the desperate aspiring screenwriters who will send a stranger $49 to read their script (especially one who is so clearly on the fringes of movie-making).  The sad thing is the schlub who, after six years in the business, is still reading scripts — and is making so little money that he’s been forced to auction off his movie posters and underwear.

The guy isn’t doing a favor for writers — he’s asking you to do him a favor. This auction is an embarrassing act of desperation by someone still struggling to find a foothold in the industry. He’s trying to take advantage of wanna-bes when, in fact, he is still one himself.

(Thanks to Richard Yokley for the heads-up!)

Coming to a Costco Near You

by

Ultramantigamulti
TVShowsOnDVD posted a long list of TV shows  that are officially, and supposedly coming to DVD in 2006. The titles include such short-lived bombs as  ACTION, SIGNIFICANT OTHERS, THE FLASH, and LIFE WITH LOUIE, and such long-running favorites as HAWAII FIVE-O, STEP BY STEP, GUNSMOKE, GET SMART, CAGNEY AND LACEY,  MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, ARCHIE BUNKER’S PLACE, WILD WILD WEST, HILL STREET BLUES and THE ODD COUPLE and cult favorites like SHE SPIES, ALIEN NATION, VIP, TIME TUNNEL, ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY, ULTRAMAN and STAR TREK : THE ANIMATED SERIES.

Movie Hell

by

My wife dragged me to RUMOR HAS IT tonight. It’s the first time in ages I’ve seen a movie on a Friday night (usually I see bargain matinees or, during the holidays, get in free with my WGA card). Now I know why the movie business is in trouble.

Let’s talk about the theatre experience first. The movie tickets were $20. The popcorn and drink were $10 (we shared). That’s $30.  You can rent a DVD for $3 or buy one for $18…or wait until it shows up on HBO or Showtime.  I was gouged and I didn’t like it. But hey, you can’t beat the movie-going experience…the big screen, the stadium theatre, and the great sound. Like hell.

My local stadium theatre is one of the crown jewels of the Regal chain. The theatre was packed. The film was scratched (and it’s only been out a week) and the screen was stained. The woman next to me passed gas, coughed, and sneezed her way through the entire movie. The couple in front of me wouldn’t shut-the-fuck-up, even though I asked them politely, and then not so politely, to please shut-the-fuck-up.

Let’s talk about the movie. I can’t remember seeing a movie with so many matching errors. Nothing matched from master to coverage. His hand are around the cup in the master, not in the closeup. She’s got her arms crossed under her chest in the coverage, not in the master. The couple is sitting behind them in the master, not in the coverage. We’re over Shirley MacLaine’s shoulder and she’s talking but her mouth isn’t moving. AHHHHHH!  Perhaps I wouldn’t have noticed the unbelievable number of continuity and other matching gaffs if the movie wasn’t so dull. Shirley MacLaine was wonderful, and over-the-top, and cartoonish — but whenever she wasn’t on screen, the movie died.

I couldn’t wait to leave the theatre… and get away from the flatulent germ bag next to me, the loudmouth couple in front of me, and the over-priced popcorn and coke and the movie itself. Why pay $30 for that experience? Buying or renting a DVD, making my own bowl of popcorn, and buying my own coke, sitting in the comfort of my own home, suddenly seems like paradise.

Now before you write me off as a curmudgeon, I like going to movies. Or I did. But more and more often, the experience is like the one I had tonight.

The Starlost

by

Starlogo
"A fresh and startling exercise of the imagination, an audacious television concept." That’s how actor Keir Dullea described the 1973, first-run syndicated  series THE STARLOST in a seven minute sales pitch for the program. The pitch, which Dullea hosted with Douglas Trumball, is a fascinating little piece of television history.

Law & Goyim

by

My friend author Rochelle Krich is steaming mad over a LAW AND ORDER episode a couple weeks back that portayed orthodox Jews in a less than flattering light.

We have an Orthodox Jewish rabbi dispensing unOrthodox theology and upholding the fiction behind the family chumash.

We have Eric, a greedy Jew who engineers the desecration of a Jewish book that results in someone’s death.

We have Barry, an Orthodox Jewish killer, all-around
louse, and frequenter of lap dancers who recants his testimony against
Eric when he learns the chumash isn’t "the one."

My father lied to me, he says. It’s all a lie.

"It"?

Greed, brazen immorality, hypocrisy, lies.

According to Law & Order, that’s Orthodox Judaism.

I saw the episode and it didn’t offend my Jewish sensibilities, mainly because I’m a bad Jew and LAW AND ORDER portrays everybody as immortal, hypocritical, and dishonest. It’s a murder mystery and every character is a suspect. For that to be possible, everyone has to have a motive. It isn’t the job of the writers to portray every racial, political, economic, cultural and religious group in a positive and accurate light — in fact, they do the opposite and on a weekly basis. They didn’t single out Orthodox Jews — if they had, then perhaps I would share my friend Rochelle’s anger.