[TV] Index of all my posts

These are all the posts I've made about television.

Reviews:
Freaks & Geeks
The Lovebites Debrief
Lost

November:
Coming up next
The Apprentice 2.5
How to write a TV series
Curb your enthusiasm
The death of pop culture
Smallville 3 .8
The Days
A love triangle explodes in Everwood
Quick update

December:
Shock! Tru Calling, good
Joss Whedon news

January:
Is downloading TV illegal?

February:
High-pressure laughs
Are TV downloads illegal (part two)
Angel lives

March:
Gilmore Girls 5.2

April:
Angel 5.1
Creating House
What's going on?
Gilmore Girls creators good to go
Next year's pilots

May:
Kindred spirit
Some writing tips from Joss

June:
Next Season
No more ads
Smile time comic
Watch Gilmore Girls this Sunday
Global Frequency
Analysing Firefly and Buffy
Writing for Facelift

July:
Some viewing
More viewing
Gilmore Girls 5.17
Outrageous Fortune 1.1
Grey’s Anatomy 1.1
Gilmore Girls 5.18
Desperate Housewives 1.1
Desperate Housewives 1.2
Gilmore Girls 5.19

August:
Gilmore Girls 5.20
Gilmore Girls 5.21
Gilmore Girls 5.22
Family Guy blog
Sliders

September:

24 4.1 & 4.2
24 4.3
Veronica Mars 1.1
Veronica Mars 1.2
Veronica Mars 1.4 & 1.5
Veronica Mars 1.6
Veronica Mars 1.8
Veronica Mars 1.9, 1.10. 1.11
Is Veronica losing it? (1.12 & 1.13)
24 4.4 & 4.5

October:

[TV] Lost review

This is where I'll compile all my posts about Lost.

1.1
1.2
1.3 (Kate 1)
1.4 (Locke 1)
1.5 (Jack 1)
1.6 &1.7 (Sun & Charlie 1)
1.8 (Sawyer 1)
1.9 (Sayid 1)
1.10 & 1.11 (Claire & Jack 2)
1.12 & 1.13 (Kate 2 & Boone)
1.14 & 1.15 (Michael & Charlie 2)

Series Design:
Social vs. Survival

Funny Sh!t

Speculations about Season 2

[TV] Lost 1.14 & 1.15

**** 1/2 (1.14)

Really enjoyed Micheal’s episode – and for the first time, I was so engrossed in the flashbacks that it felt like the stuff on the island was the secondary story.


*** 1/2 (1.15)

I’ve now caught up to where I started watching on TV. Rewatching Charlie’s second episode, what’s great is how the characters seem deeper now I’ve been through this journey with them.

[TV] Lost 1.12 & 1.13

**** (1.12)

Because I’ve seen the last Kate ep, I knew what was in the briefcase – and therefore this episode didn’t have the sense of surprise about it that it should’ve. However, I was still as involved as it’s possible to be when you know what’s going on.

As for Kate herself, she seems to be the Queen Bee or Alpha Female or something on the island. I’m not of the word for the position she occupies in the group’s social hierarchy. Her relationship with Jack is all about trust. Can he trust her? Can she let her guard down and trust him? That – more than anything else – is the reason their relationship hasn’t exploded into more UST.

Watching this, I realised that I enjoyed the previous two eps so much because they were action-adventure oriented. So their 5-star ratings weren’t really fair in the sense that they worked for me, but I’m not sure yet if they represent a 5-star episode of Lost.


****1/2 (1.13)

Liked the Boone ep more than I thought. His backstory with Shannon is good; I look forward to seeing her side of thing. Their dirty little secret knocked the rating up ½ a star and the fact there was a good explanation for Boone’s hallucination meant I didn’t knock it down by 2.

Looking back, I think the Sayid episode felt weak to me because it dealt only with him & Rousseau. To work and not feel one-dimensional, maybe the focus character needs to have subplots involving several other characters on the island. That let’s them show off different facets of their personality that demonstrate the problem that the flashback is illustrating.

Now my anticipation to see a Walt or Michael episode is really amped.

[TV] Lost 1.10 & 1.11

***** (1.10) & ***** (1.11)

Awesome. Claire’s backstory was really nice and menacing but what was great was that her actions in the real world (nightmares) triggered off a whole bunch of related activity so the episode felt really fleshed out. Plus a great cliffhanger …

I’m going to watch the next ep right away.

... And 1.11 was even better. A strong A-plot (the pursuit of Claire and Charlie) leading to a lot of character development. Or at least character reveals which deepen our understanding of the characters.

Plus more confirmation of my theory of what’s happening comes from Sawyer.

The two strongest eps so far and yet another really interesting cliffhanger.

Character notes:
Jack feels guilty and needs to save everyone.
Locke respects people who are determined to do the right thing.
Claire provides a good energy to the cast – she’s very nurturing, light and emotional.
Michael needs to do things – and notice how they’re carefully establishing his credentials at being able to build things.

I’d expect the next episode to be about Walt. This is in line with my notes about Easy Continuity yesterday – in 1.11, Walt mentioned that his ‘other’ dad thought Walt was the luckiest person he knew.

[TV] Gilmore Girls 5.17

Some nice genuine moments of emotion here. A great confrontation between Lorelai and her mother Emily - once again, the 2 mother-daughter relationships in the show parallel each other in interesting ways. Finally, Michel gets a telling-off.

Plus Lauren Graham is hot. :)

Last week I had some pacing issues with how quickly Luke reconciled with Lorelai. These weren't addressed, so much as gleefully ignored. The series designers aren't interested in Luke's motivations so much as in creating a situation where Emily once again tries to bring her daughter back into the family. It's weird - I'm interested in the relationship, but the show is clearly focused around the 3 female leads - so that's where all its pacing and presentation decisions lean into.

[The Limit] Refill

Yeah, so I had some good intentions. Keep working while the script's away with the readers, write some submission letters. But I'm shattered. So I'm going to take a couple more days off, meet people, walk & watch Revenge of the Sith. It's all about balance.

Got some feedback from Sean tho', and he liked the script. He had problems and insights that are actually pretty exciting + the things he liked were the things I hoped I'd pulled off.

[TV] Lost 1.9

**1/2 (out of 5)

This is Sayid’s episode and it marks the first point where I think Lost isn't working as well as it should. I think that’s because what's happening to him (being tortured) and why it's happening to him (he tortured someone last week) are very obviously connected.

I feel like a bit of a hypocrite saying this. After all, I really really enjoyed the way they compare to Charlie's heroin withdrawal to a moth coming out of its chrysalis - even down to Charlie struggling to break through the ground as he digs his way out of a cave in. But I guess that was more metaphorical whereas this was an entirely literal presentation. When Sayid’s strapped to an electric rack, you don’t exactly have to puzzle out the deeper meaning.

You know, the episode was fun. It had golf in it – I like golf. But it wasn’t anything special. I already figured Sayid was a nice and honourable guy; his flashback didn’t really change my opinion of that. So … yeah, a flashback that didn’t deepen or twist my understanding of his character coupled with a story on the island that’s starting to make me think the show’s going back to the Obvious Well a few too many times.

[TV] Lost 1.8

**** (out of 5)

No idea what I want to see here. Turns out it’s Sawyer’s episode. And that means a very icky torture+knifing sequence.

Sawyer has an interesting backstory. I mean, it’s noir. And most of the characters exist in a noir-universe but it plays a lot of reversals and inversions with what it’s about. In fact, Sawyer confounds our expectations.

It’s also about how long will civilisation last? How do you settle disputes without the coercive force of government backing you up?

Act Breaks:
1. “So how ‘bout that kiss? … Didn’t think so.”
2. “Is that a yes?”
3. “Can you make it stop?”
4. “Don’t you feel sorry for me. Get out!”

Basically this show seems to do the following: We need a jerk on the island who’s only out for himself. Someone we’ll love to hate. Okay, we’ve got Sawyer. Now, what’s a plausible reason he’d become that person – and more, what’s in that reason that’ll make us like him.

Take a stereotype and deepen it. Repeat the process with every character.

Cos’ that’s all the characters of Lost are. Sterotypes individuated by backstories. And that’s not a bad thing – I think the series designers gleefully indulged themselves in assembling a cast of sterotypes.

Another thing I find interesting. Americans make up the majority (that have been featured so far on the island). The show is creating conflictual relationships between Americans and Iraqis (and Americans and Koreans). Maybe it’s a metaphor for the US confronting the outside world

Things I’m wondering now:
Where’s the monster?
What’s Hurley’s story?
Did Lost suffer (in the same way as The O.C.) from having an order of 26 (?) episodes instead of the planned-for 22? Does this explain the slump I sensed in the middle order eps?

[TV] Lost 1.6 & 1.7

***1/2 (1.6) & **** (1.7)

This marked the point where I *had* to watch the next episode straight away.

1.6 has a fantastic opening, foregrounding the different issues that are developing between the survivors. It’s Sun’s episode – and shows the events surrounding her disintegrating marriage with Jin. Really nice ending with her choosing to go back to her husband in Sydney.

1.7 is Charlie’s episode. Lays on the symbolism thick and fast but I enjoyed it.

This also marks the point where I think the designers of Lost are smarter than me. I was talking about telling a linear story using non-linear means last time? Well, in Sun’s ep, we’re seeing her bad domestic life in Korea but the writers know that Jin has something equally nasty going on that will humanise him.

To come up with those 2 plot elements – presumably together – and then figure out how to present them so that we move through perceiving cultural differences to an abusive marriage to we’re not sure we want them to stay together to the split to they love each other … well, that’s more than an hour’s work sitting around the Table.

I mean, it might be that you start with the second point (how you want it to appear) and then design the backstories but even then, you’ve got to figure out how to present the flashbacks, make both sides consistent and then integrate revealing them into the ongoing plot on the Island.

That’s hard work.

In other news, there's a mystery someone who’s a bad guy on the island, stopping them from getting off.

[How to: TV] Easy Continuity

Everwood and Lost appear really good at giving us episodes dealing with issues we want to see, exactly when we want to see them. Here’s the trick, as far as I can tell:

Hint at it one episode before.

For instance, in Lost, Jack didn’t want to speak at the memorial service. It wasn’t a huge thing but it drew attention to how he didn’t want to adopt a leader role. Next ep? Foregrounded that issue.

[How to: TV] Not getting cancelled

I've been observing a trend in the U. S. to cancel shows that appear to be good after six to 13 episodes. So let's make a paranoid assumption: networks want to cancel your show (because they are freaked out about losing money) - therefore you have to hook people in fast.

For instance:
Episode 1, establish your strong unique Situation.
Episode 2, establish your cool long-running plot.

You have to make a strong case for why viewers should watch your show. And if it does get cancelled, then at least you'll have told (or set out) the story wanted to. This saves you from telling all your friends that the show would have gotten really good in Season 2.

The above suggestion is the paranoid (they'll cancel out show) approach. If you're more confident, go with Joss Whedon's "the first six episodes restate your show's premise," and after that you can develop the plot.

There are many many variations on this:
a) if you have a strong unique situation, maybe you don't need a long-running plot.
b) if you don't have a strong unique situation or a cool long-running plot, then why are we watching? There are many other joys you can get from TV - does your show deliver characters you want to hang out with, titilation, information or an unusual emotion?
c) if you don't have a strong unique situation, then lead with your cool long-running plot.

[How to: TV] How do you create a cool long-running plot?

You're trying to create a tension, something that seems impossible to resolve but means we'll keep watching to find out how does ...

Examples include:
a) a character with an impossible job to do.
b) an irreconcilable tension between two characters.
c) an overwhelming enemy or weird mystery.

[How to: TV] The Goal

The Goal is to get people to watch the next episode (whether that's next week or downloaded).

[The Limit] Trying to Understand Trace

Reading The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer today. Researching into Trace's personality. First question, from reading this and watching In the Cut a couple of nights ago, is "Why doesn't Trace feel more fear?"

"Female fearfulness may be, like the timorousness of rabbits or dear, adaptive. [snip] The truth is rather that female fearfulness is a cultural construct, instituted and maintained by both men and women in interest of the dominant, male group."

Here's something that validates an aspect of the script. "Daughters will develop more self-confidence if their fathers are encouraging and appreciative of their efforts." And the quote goes on, "but fathers seldom get such matters much tension and, if they do, usually demand objective verification of the daughters merit for giving encouragement."

There's quite a bit of information about being a woman in the police force here:

"Equality is cruel to women because it requires them to duplicate behaviours that they find profoundly alien and disturbing."

"As soon as a woman enters a male preserve [such as the police], she finds herself in an alien and repellent world which changes her fundamentally even as she is struggling to exert the smallest influence on it."

"Women who are inducted into masculinist hierarchies are exported tissue, in constant danger of provoking an inflammatory response and summary rejection."

"... the attempted integration of women in the police force was met by more or less covert insult, harassment and humiliation."

"'Either you try to be one of the boys, or you're on your own and you become a target.'"

QUESTION: what is the ratio of women to men in the New Zealand police force? At all levels?

And a couple of other bits I found interesting:

"The conversations between males; when women make a contribution the men ignore it and respond to the last utterance by a male." I've noticed this many times and really dislike it.

"A few men hate all women all of the time, some men hate some women all of the time, and all men hate some women some of the time." I know I've hated some people who happened to be women but I don't think I've hated anyone because they were a woman.

[TV] More stuff I've watched

Wednesday

The Simpsons
I've been an occasional watcher of the season but this Wednesday's episode is the most consistently funny I think The Simpsons have produced since Bart and Lisa ran afoul of the Patriot act. Homer believes the Rapture is coming. Homer goes to heaven.

Lost
The finale. I've written about this elsewhere but I'm pretty happy with what Lost is doing. I think it's setting itself up well for at least two more seasons of ideas.

Friday

Friends
Last episode ever. The Joey/Chandler plot is pants but the Ross/Rachel resolution is pretty much golden.

America's Next Top Supermodel
Eva gets smacked down by the sisterhood. Tyra teaches the models how to pose. There’s humourous music to hammer home the editorial points.

House
See, I gave up on this show 6 eps in because I thought it was just doing the same ol’ thing every week. However, came back to it about 3 jumps back and am just … entertained every time I watch it. That’s all. House doesn’t do anything special –just delivers an entertaining medical mystery with a good cast and 2 extra dollops of cynicism.

And tonight: Evil Nina Myers screaming in pain! A guest appearance by CHI MCBRIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A change to the basic situation – venture capitalist basically buys the hospital in order to engage in medical experimentations using unproven treatments. House, seeming to take an ethical stand. Oh yeah, the VC is in a real position to stand up to House, finally a credible threat.

And here’s where it gets interesting – although previous eps have pretty much run variations on the “we think we know what it is, oh no we’re wrong” act breaks, halfway through this one swerves off into an ethical dilemma, House deciding to lie just when the stakes are highest for his career. So, if the medical problem is identified by the halfway point, that means character stories have to come to the fore. That led to some doozies: the young female doctor expressing a romantic interest in House for instance.

(And BAM! Insight. A couple of days ago I posted about liking characters who were 'normal' not soap opera figures. I'm starting to realise that shows like CSI and early episodes of House are illustrations of what I mean. But the thing is I don't really respond to those shows. This is interesting because my theory doesn't fit my experience.)

And that’s 4 ‘ands’ starting paragraphs in a row so I’ll finish with the finish – House and the VC facing off, each immune from being fired by the other – but now with the VC implicitly threatening to remove all of House’s friends until he leaves the hospital. It’s was actually pretty well handled and it’ll be interesting to see how the show handles an ongoing dramatic subplot.

[How to: TV] Characters have Principles

Over at anyway, Vincent's making some good points about RPG settings and what we do when we're playing in a game like Buffy, which is based on someone else's creation and we are all familiar with and like.

Anyway, he has some comments about a game run by ... *cough*Ninja Hunter J*cough* ... that I think of such a lot of potential for writing a TV series Bible.

Last summer sometime Ninja J and I spent a whole afternoon walking all the heck over Northampton. Among many other things, we talked about a beloved old game he'd GMed; particularly, we talked about how rich and alive its setting was, how detailed. His players ate it up, he said, they'd go on and on about how compelling, complete, fully realized the setting was.

Then he told me how he'd done it. He'd taken three principles - I wish I could remember them in particular, J please step in here, but they were like "nobody thinks that they themselves are evil," "the Grand Galactic Empire is procedurally conservative," and "nobody really enjoys their job" - three principles something like those, and whenever any of his players asked him about anything in the setting, he'd simply apply those principles to create the answer.

"I duck into a broom closet." "Okay. There are a bunch of reg-77f portbrushes in there, but someone hasn't bothered to replace them yet, they're all slimy and they smell." All the details you'd need to bring the setting home, give it weight and momentum, and yet J didn't precreate the contents of a single broom closet.

There's lots more in the Comments section, but the basic idea I'd rip from this is to define characters via a series basic principles which you can communicate to your writers. For instance, Xander off Buffy would be ... let's say the one who makes pop culture jokes, the heart of the group and the one who no-one listens to but who always knows what's really going on.

[TV] Lost 1.5

****1/2 (out of 5)

After a disorientating opening (small boy in a schoolyard fight with a bully), it becomes obvious that this is Jack's episode. It's about building pressure on Jack to assume the role of leader - an episode I've wanted to see for a while. Aside from that, there is the growing pressure to find water and the appearance of the ghost/hallucination of Jack's dad.

Watching this, I noticed three distinct plots. The Real (Jack becomes leader), The Flashback (Jack as a young boy is told he doesn't have what it takes by his dad + Jack recovers his Dad's body from Australia) and The Island (Jack pursues the ghost of his Dad, dealing with unresolved issues that are stopping him from becoming leader).

What's neat is that they're using back story not only to answer questions about who these characters are, but each bit of information is also setting up new questions. It is also providing linear character development fire non-linear means. For instance, Charlie appears to be a playa in these early episodes (and the flashbacks reinforce this), even though on his journey to becoming committed to Claire the incident with the rich girl in England has already happened.

Act breaks:
1. "Dad?"
2. Dad causes Jack to take a fall. ¶
3. "A leader can't lead till he knows where he is going."
4. Jack smashes the coffin.

By the end of the episode when Jake gives his speech that it is time to organise, it feels right. In Series Design terms, we have established the premise. Now it's time to move on.

Cool stuff:
The first time we see Jack's dad, he's drinking.
Jack's last name is Shepherd. B'oh.
I'm looking forward to Charlie's withdrawal.
Locke saves Jack. "Okay, so it's an hallucination. But what it isn't?"
Kate as sheriff!
I was touched, concerned and interested by the end of this episode. At the moment the series is very good at making me think "What would I do?"

Just checking

Does the blog look all right in everyone's browsers? I'm getting some weird formatting issues between Explorer and Firefox.

[The Limit] Gone Public

Spent Wednesday procrastinating about writing the script. Spent yesterday finishing this draft of the script. The difference was that on Wednesday I felt like I had to do two things at once: come up with cool new stuff AND rigorously proof read the script.

I felt stressed out about it, so I had to take things back to basics. First I wrote Wednesday off and just used it to set up the new computer that Lee built me (Props, man! It's fantastic). Then I told myself to get a good night's sleep and try and settle back to my daily routine of exercise, writing and everything else. That took a lot of the pressure off and at some point I was able to just say to myself, "Don't proof read. Just write."

From there, finishing the script - which had seemed such a huge deal the day before - was over in a matter of three hours. My goal became to create something that was readable for others as opposed to getting it perfect right now. That took a lot of the pressure off and that meant I could do more constructive things than just stare at the screen and worry. So, the script's come in at 89 pages (dead on what I wanted). It's being read by four people at the moment - and while they are doing that, I'm going to talk to an actor and do send detective work on Trace's character, try and get more excited by her.

For the record, this was Draft 2B. A B-draft seems to be a quick hack-and-slash to tidy up any inconsistencies and make the story flow so you can get it out to other people. I'm now scheduled to finish on 24 July. 17 days left, 14 days in my safety buffer.

[TV] Lost, Episode 4

**** (out of 5)

I’m starting to get a taste for the flavour of Lost. Can’t articulate it yet, but I’m beginning to know what I expect to see when I sit down and watch an episode.

Watching this fresh, I can imagine viewers starting to get excited, realising that all the characters are going to get flashbacks, waiting and wondering which one will be next.
And then a few episodes time the second level of anticipation – that there are subtle connections between some of the passengers.

Coupled with that is the growing understanding that each character has a reason to get off the island.

Act Breaks for this episode:
1. “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.”
2. The thing in the woods gets Locke.
3. Locke returns with the boar.

The episode export Locke’s back story plot – and firmly hammered home the conclusion that he has a destiny. This ties in to his conversation in the finale with Jack – destiny vs. rationalism – presumably leading to a big conflict between them in Season 2. In a way it’s red vs. blue state. Locke is the man of faith, certain in himself, competent. Jack, intellectual, rational, doubting himself but willing to lead. And the show isn't afraid to paint them as both heroes (although Locke is certainly cast in a sinister light).

There are other leadership dualities in the group of survivors:
Jack-Kate
Jack-Sayid.
Jack-Sawyer
Jack-Locke

Watching this episode, I had another thought on how I would have structured the season. I would have written a timeline on the whiteboard and said “Each ep is a day. How many days before they have to hunt for food? 4? Okay, then an episode 4 they have to hunt. How many before there’s a fight that needs justice? How many before factions form?” Then you have your metaplot which is about human society. However, I'm not sure what I can generalise from this about series design.

Other random thoughts:
Wow. Setting up a Michael-Sun affair. That’s nice.
I like Boone and Shannon. Didn’t think that would happen.
The Michael-Walt tension is great – and completely justified by what we saw happened in the airport in the finale.
Shannon’s fishing plot allows us to see her M.O - – fishing for men to help her.
Jack, being asked to do things, starting to be considered a leader.
The reveal of Locke’s condition – even though I knew it was coming – fantastic. Shivers.
The thing in the woods is a constant presence in these first 4 eps.
The appearance of the man in the suit – awesome scary image. Could be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

[TV] Speculating on Lost Season 2

After watching the finale last night, I think Lost is in a good position for Season 2. Here are my speculations - some of them based off the Internet - so beware spoilers.

I have increasing confidence that Lost’s writers know exactly what they are doing.

That they’ve developed a secret for every element they introduce to the island, whether it be character or location. They certainly worked out the chronology of all the characters before they boarded the plane – before writing Episode 1.

:: SPOILERS :: (and speculation)

Michael seems to be the pro-active guy – he built the raft. I pick him to be the first of the crash survivors to really explore the island now his son’s missing. Meanwhile Charlie will have to confront his heroin addiction – which will bounce his relationship with Claire in interesting directions.

“They’re not the survivors they thought they were.”

There is another group of survivors on the island. The people from the tail section. That gives Jack a potential second love interest in the form of Michelle Rodriguez, Anna Lucia – the woman who comforted him at the airport bar. And with a second group of survivors comes the opportunity to introduce new characters, tensions, relationships, back stories and mystical links to the island. The second group will know information our main characters don’t – so that makes them a great source of (reasonably) trust-worthy information.

I've also developed my theory of what's going on which I shall acronymise here: ITTTCOFIBIAFITGR. Gino also has a theory which he's solid about ... so it should be fun to trade notes.

[TV] Lost, Episode 3

***1/2

Obviously this episode ("Tabula Rasa") is about fresh starts. It's the first ep to use extensive flashbacks from before the crash focusing on just one person (Kate); hence bringing up the baggage of her past. Meanwhile, on the island, the seriously injured Marshall represents someone who has a present day tie to Kate's past.

Act Breaks
1. Kate doesn't tell Jack about her past.
2. Jack confronts Kate with the fact he knows what she did. // Kate is caught (in backstory).
3. The Marshall wants to talk to Kate, thinks Jack has been compromised.
4. The Marshall leaves the A-plot of Lost.

Cool stuff: the way all the Kate-Jack UST is vapourised by her early lack of honesty. The focus of the episode is very much on their relationshipand about playing what seems to be a low-key but major twist in it. The way there's no clear leadership amongst the survivors.

Later eps of Lost feel like a TV show. This feels like just watching interesting stuff happening. It's not doling out too many plots twists or starting to over-dramatise more than a few characters by involving them in soap-opera issues. The show's just letting people be people.

[RPG] Last night's weirdness

Check out Jenni's write-up of last night's game. Three words: My Little Ponies.

[TV] Lost, Episode 2

***1/2 (out of 5)

I found this much more entertaining. Again, the back stories are very solid. Humour and dramatic subplots are starting to emerge.
"It's a polar bear."
"Bear village."
"It's been repeating for 16 years."
"Guys, ... where are we?"

For some reason the act breaks seem much more interesting here in the early part of the series than in the later eps that I've seen. Perhaps that's because the island (and the characters stranded on it) are even more of an unknown in the beginning. So even the tiniest piece of information seems huge. Also, they are dealing with the immediate aftermath of a crisis so there are lots of natural and dangerous steps they have to take - find shelter, explore the island. In contrast, by the middle of the season the survivors have almost settled into a routine.

[TV] Lost, Episode 1

*** (out of 5)

Just watched the pilot episode. Seems weirdly appropriate given that the finale is playing tonight. What impresses me most is that the key elements of the main characters' back stories were obviously firmly in place by the end of series design. However, watching it from this end, with the knowledge I already have, means that the mysteries of the crash and the characters ... aren't that mysterious.

Given that the pilot lacks that suspense for me - and that I've seen the one-hour summary of the first 20 episodes - I'm giving this ep a slightly lower grade than it deserves. Great first meeting between Kate and Jack though.

[TV] A little bit of viewing

I actually watched some shows over the last couple of days:

Gilmore Girls:
I'm enjoying how GG is taking its time dealing with each character's subplots. This is one of the few shows I trust completely to be internally consistent. Highlight this week: Lane's reaction to an offer of sex. Lowlight: I'm not sure Luke would've reacted like that to Emily's apology. It feels a little forced. Still, I'll trust the Sherman-Pallindos. ... Oh yeah, other favourite: "You're loving this aren't you. You're the favourite."

Jamie Oliver's School Dinners:
It's got swearing, great characters, a social conscience and at least 3 levels of conflict. Jamie vs. the kids' taste for junk food, Jamie vs. Nora (wildkind vs. the Establishment) and Jamie vs. himself. It's great to see by the end of Episode 1, Jamie has utterly failed. The kids hate his stuff and he hasn't come up with an underbudget meal yet.

In the Wake of the Rainbow Warrior:
Things are clearer now.

[The Limit] Finished!

Just finished ... the gruntwork. Man, I almost lost it (tears) while working on the finale. And that was while editing, moving back and forward, working on it out of sequence. I hope hope hope it's as tear-jerking as I imagine it once it's out in the wild.

Not really thinking about what's next. I mean there's polishing and a little bit of new material to write for A1 but I think Draft 2B should be ready for the public tomorrow.

Now I'm gunna head back into town, hopefully watch War of the Worlds, roleplaying round at Jenni's tonight ... generally cut myself some slack.

[The Limit] Terrified

Re-working the climax - the section I thought I'd gotten right only two weeks ago - and there was much procrastination this morning. "IT'S TOO IMPORTANT!" screamed the editorial static in my head. "I'm scared of getting it wrong."

Eventually I plunged in (after working up bits and and pieces of ideas in layers over a couple of hours). Now I'm through 'the worst' and hopefully into the final stretch. Have a feeling that this is going to be like the argument scene in hopeless. Rewritten over and over. Good thing here is that there is a specific effect that needs to be accomplished - unlike the argument scene which could wander all over the place - and that should act like a map, helping me home in on an effective way of hitting all the emotions and beats I need to.

But, yeah, a very scary section this morning.

[The Limit] Bought it

It's critical that we really buy* the moment where Trace reaches her limit. It's all about the power of anger - an emotion I've been feeling (for personal reasons) today. After 6 hours, I think I buy what Trace does.

6 pages to go.

*believe, empathise with, don't challenge.

[Script] When is it finished?

Let's leave aside that I still re-edit hopeless and episodes of lovebites in my head 5+ years later. Eventually you have to send something you've written out into the wild. I guess I have three measures that let me know the time is right:

1) I can visualise how a scene needs to be shot.
2) I really want to film it.

And most importantly

3) When I read it from start to finish, I'm absorbed - taking hardly any notes.

What about you? Any rules of thumb for when something you've done is finished?

[Film] George Romero interview

Ook. Forgot to link to this yesterday. It's an interview over at alternet.org about Land of the Dead, which really hammers home the thematic-sociological-satirical basis this one's operating on.

"As for the imagery, I don't know if people will pick up on all of it, but some of it is obvious to me -- the financial center being a high-rise, and a tank riding through a little village and mowing people down while we wonder why [the zombies] are pissed off at us." -- George Romero

[The Limit] Sculpting

Currently working on the end of Act 2, making it more human and emotionally connected between the two leads. There's a big flip between triumph to despair at this point of the script, and to get it working right I feel it needs to be less 'WAAAAH! PLOT!' in-your-face than it was in my first draft. So I'm layering the scene, going back over it a few times and making sure it builds in a way that feels natural to me.

I mentioned the "doing it right vs. getting it done fast" dilemma a few days ago. When I was first writing this draft, I laboured over each sequence until I felt it was working as good as I could get it. At the moment, my writing is nowhere that intensive.

However, I think it's like sculpting*. My first draft was like taking a lot of care to get the general shape correct. Now I've stepped back, assessed what it looks like and am making some of the quick, obvious hacks and cuts to get everything in proportion. It means my concern is I'll cut too much or that I'll stray from the heart of the piece, but - unlike sculpting - I can put material back into the script. I guess it's like sculpting with play-doh ... and I think I'll end the metaphor there cos I can sense it starting to collapse.

*I've never sculpted anything, so this is what I imagine it's like.

Anyway, enough writing about writing. Back to it. The update boils down to this: 1) the work's going slower than I thought, and 2) regardless of the final quality of this draft, I won't put it on the market till I'm happy with it. (This may lead to another post about why 'happy' and 'finished' are two completely different - and achievable - measures from 'good enough' and 'perfect'; the benchmarks I used to aim for.)

[The Limit] Unhatched Chickens

Read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, played nine holes of golf with Dad yesterday. Watched Gilmore Girls and had roast chicken tonight. Sandwiched between that I've managed to slug through two action sequences and am nearly at the end of Act 2.

Haven't got my chart with me, but I budgeted 4 days for this rewrite and this is day 5. There's probably a day and a half of writing left, so that takes my safety down to 17 days. Biggest concern is that although I'm editing to address my biggest concerns with the script, I'm wondering whether the material I'm writing has enough quality in it.

Guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks after the readers have gone through it and I've re-read it too.

[Film] War of the Worlds

Share your thoughts about Spielberg's latest!

[The Limit] Stress Level 90% and falling

I'm tense - and figuring to take the next day or so off (or at least easier). However, I've been making good progress. The big rewrites have been straightforward

Comments and Revamp

Just overhauling the blog at the moment and thanks to bloggerhacks (via No Right Turn) I've added a 'Recent Comments' section at the bottom of the sidebar.

[Film] Batman Begins

What did you think of the movie?

[The Limit] Realisations

These are all simple things, but ...

Trying to cut 10% of the script (down to about 90 pages) is fun.

The longer I write a scene, the more chance I have of fucking up what the scene’s about.

Action obeys Harold Ramis’ rule for writing comedy: it should take as long to read it as it would to see it.

The Limit has 5 acts.

At the moment, I’m back on schedule.

[The Limit] Stay! Calm!

Feeling stressed out at the thought of trying to finish all of Act 1 today. So I've set myself a couple of small goals. First, I'd like to quickly rough out the new introduction to the movie (over several passes) and bat that off to Andrew. Then I'll do all the macro restructuring of the rest of Act 1, after which I can start to fine-tuning.

Probably going to end up half a day behind schedule at the mo'.

[RPG] Last Night's Game

While central.rpg.net continues to go crazy, I thought I'd post about the play test last night. I had a lot of fun, was pleased Wayne grasped the rules better than I did and have made a lot of notes for rules changes. What about you? What did you think?

*Jenni, I just saw your comment in the post below. Rock!

[The Limit] Overusing declarative sentences

The script analysis is completed. Halving my time estimates really has resulted in me doing the work faster. So much so that my Safety Buffer is back up to 20 days. Conclusion: if I want to get work done fast I should focus on it until it’s freakin’ done.

Now I’m going to start on the edit. 4 days seems even more ridiculous now I’ve seen what needs to be done on the script. I’m going to take it as a challenge … to see if I can get back up to ‘TV writing’ speed.

For future business reference: That was a full script analysis in 2.5 days.

[RPG] My first playtest

Hopefully tonight we’ll be playtesting my game Luck of the Joneses. However, I’ve just figured out that it’s a 5 player game and there are 6 people in our group. Looks like I’ll be sitting out and watching – which actually sounds fun to me, I’m exhausted!

Spear Tackle = Iraq?

A little off-topic, but all the footage I've seen of O'Driscoll's injury in Saturday night's game clearly shows Tana Umaga and Kevin Mealamu tipping the guy over onto his face. Yet the MSM seems reluctant to discuss that directly.

"Tana Umaga's such a nice guy. He'd never do that."

"Perhaps someone took offense to the Lions' reaction to the haka. Except all the experts we've just interviewed say that wouldn't happen."

I think it's weird. Obviously the story is the anti-climactic nature of the first game in the series, but the more interesting story is an apparent cultural blindspot where we can't examine the potential misdeeds of our sporting heroes with any objectivity.

[The Limit] I Cheat!

So, yesterday I analysed the script - what I felt while reading it (highly instructive!), the questions it raised, and the negatives. Today, instead of continuing the process ... I'm going to cheat and pull together my 1 page summary sheet of the script. My logic is that I already know the positives, I'll brainstorm ideas while I'm redoing scenes and I'll be overviewing the structure in the process of writing the summary.

Hopefully I can save myself half a day and increase my safety buffer.*

Anyway, project management geek-out aside, the main plot concern is 'have I made the solution to the mystery too obvious?'. I think so - and I think it's an easy fix.

[*36 days to go. Safety buffer of 19.5 days.]

[The Limit] First Read

Interesting. Lots of really good stuff in the script. Be interesting to hear what Andrew thinks about it. (BTW: His pages have elegantly solved a major problem.)

Overall: the plot's almost there and the heart of the script - what I feel while reading it - needs a lot of work. The rhythm of the script feels wrong. If the script were a pop song, there'd be too many repetitions of the chorus, the verse going on for too long and not hitting the notes you want to hear, and the mood being not quite right. All fixable stuff, but a bit of work to get it 'just so'.

I can see ways through the problems but they involve a moderate amount of work, ranging from simply shifting material around to writing completely new scenes. I may soon face the screenwriter's dilemma: "Get it done on time or get it done right?"

Started half a day later than I thought, so my safety is now down to 19.5 days. Now on to a 6 Hat Analysis for the next couple of days.

[Script] Next feature

On my days off, I'm brainstorming the next movie I want to write. Based on a short story by Sean Molloy, I've wanted to make this film since 1997 - and it's had various incarnations: horror, thriller, even romantic comedy.

Anyway, I think the central question of the script is "Will Gene and Becs save their marriage?" Just recently I realised that the main character has always been Gene, who wants to have an affair - and that I didn't like him. So my first recent breakthrough decision was to show the situation from both their sides. I think this provides a decent conflict for the central question and it also probably sets up Becs as the more sympathetic of the main characters

So now I know what the married couple want ... and I've come up with a few nasty surprises in the motivations of their circle of friends. The pieces I need to set up the film all seem to be there. Plus I have an idea about the midpoint I want to use to complicate the situation. And in the shower tonight I came up with a deeper, secret want for Gene that has me reeling with its potential.

Darth Tom kills Oprah

Here.

[The Limit] Big effort coming up

My goal’s to have a second draft of The Limit on the market by August 7. Doing that requires a massive amount of focus and time-management. Since applying the concepts from Critical Chain (a book on project management) worked for finishing off Draft 1, I’m going to use them again.

Some of the relevant ideas are:

1. Assume all work gets done at the last minute.
2. With that in mind, halve my time estimates for how long it’ll take to do things.
3. Put the 50% of time I’ve saved into a safety buffer at the end of the project. That time can get fed into the project if any particular step starts running behind.

Here’s my plan.

A. Edit Draft 1 [finished by 3 July]
B. Send script out to readers. [12 July]
C. Polish Draft 2 [17 July]
D. Send script out to producers. [18 July]

A. Edit Draft 1

26 July
Read it. [0.25 days]
Emotional Engagement Chart. [0.25 days]
6 Hat review. [1.5 days]

28 July
Boil 6 Hat notes down to 1 page. [0.25]
Write up a ‘Gut’ report of what I feel about the script. [0.25]
Compare 1 page note and Gut report. [0.25]

29 July
Consult with Andrew (depending on his availability). [0.5]
Distill core problems. [0.25]

30 July
Re-edit. [4 days]

So, assuming everything goes according to plan … which it won’t … there will be a leaner draft to send out to a select few readers on July 3. It’s a totally insane schedule and I’m feeling slightly stressed even writing about writing it … but I have a couple of aces up my sleeve.

First, I’ve done this sort of thing, under these constraints, many times before – on the TV series and on at least a couple of feature films. Second, I have that safety buffer. Say the re-edit gets bogged down. I have days I can draw out of the buffer and spend on the rewrite.

Third, once I’ve finished that rewrite and handed it off to our readers, I can relax again for at least a couple of days. So it’s not like this is persistent pressure through to the first week of August. There actually will be ebbs and flows. It’ll be tough, but I think it’ll be achievable.

[The Limit] More things I do (that might alienate Billy)

So what did I learn from Draft 1 of this script?

To outline thoroughly, then write. Maybe not four years of outlining (like with this project), but analysing the script pays off.

Don't settle. Try and make each sequence as good as I can without pressuring myself to get it right first time out. In fact, each pass can be crappy and unformed - but the idea is to build the sequence into something I'm happy to sign off on.

How do I do that?

First, ask myself what is the question I want the scene to raise in the audience's mind. Hopefully that question follows logically from what they just seen (I've just written). This question is what I interpret others mean when they ask "What are the stakes?"

The conflict: I suspect that works best when the conflict centres around two different answers to the question. That way, the answer to the question is uncertain and keeps you in suspense.

"What is the emotion I want to produce?" I kind of forgot about this as I got further into the script.

Brainstorming conflicts, beats and lines of dialogue until I'm happy. Come up with at least 20 ideas, and then add 10 more until I'm satisfied.

Make sure that at least every 10 pages there are moments reflect your genre and unique moments that could only appear in your movie.

That’s all I can think of right now. Any questions? Anything you’d like me to expand on?

[RPG] Who's your audience?

Lightbulb moment. Brand Robins is talking about one-on-one gaming and sexuality in RPGs over at his blog. Towards the end of the comments, he says this:

... [make] games for people that are already friends (or more than friends), who already like each other, and exploit their social context in order to build the game from that healthy point rather than trying to do the inverse.

That feels like one of those principles of game design Vincent's talking about over at anyway.

Makes me think that a great paragraph on the first page of Luck of the Joneses would be: "Who do you play this with? Grab 3 or 4 of your friends, maybe people that you play board-games with already, and invite them over. Make a night of it - put the stereo on, have some drinks. Simply hang out and play this game."

[The Limit] It’s over

Sort of.

In Which Lie Die I Tell, William Goldman talks about scenes in screenplays where – after you’ve read them – all the work is done. The audience has bought into the story and they’re just going to be taken along. In The Limit, I think that scene comes 3 pages from the end. And I just wrote it.

It’s a weird emotion: relief, triumph … and a little bit of fear. I’m disturbed at how little craft I applied to Act 3. Basically I burned through it today, wanting to write from the heart and follow my old outline rather than re-break the scenes by Stakes and Conflicts.

It made me believe that a well-worked out outline really would create speedy fun writing for me. That’s the goal for next time. I feel I got distracted by the pitch … put it at the wrong stage of the process. Oral should be 1st or 2nd – and then last.

Anyway.

Couple more pages and a re-edit but for the first time in months I can think beyond the immediate task of ‘finish the script’.

• TO DO

Finish the script.
See Revenge of the Sith.
Writer’s Summary. What have I learned? What will I do differently next time?
Describe how I managed my time.
Days off.
Celebrate!
Planning next couple of months.
Assemble 1st 10 pages from Andrew.
Print out script.
Read … Take the whole day to do it.
Should I take notes on that first pass through?
Build a Whammo Chart.
6 Hat the script on six passes.
Polish with Andrew.
Send to Sean and Ainsley.
ID main problems.
Correct.
Send out 2nd Draft.
Sell.
Celebrate.

There’s also Directors’ Notes, the Pitch and Marketing to start thinking about.

[How To: TV] What’s your Inspiration?

Can you articulate the bundle of images and associations that have you jazzed about working on your project?

Try writing a paragraph or a list or a manifesto or whatever of why you really want to write this thing – and then try and stay true to it over the next 3 years.

[The Limit] Onto Act 3

I have more to write but:

a) I'm loving the Armed Offender's sequence.
b) must add another beat to it - and re-edit a previous scene
c) it's 20 pages, about 8 pages longer than I thought.
d) it's an action sequence with character development.

A couple of cool things happened during the writing:

e) I started hearing the voices of actors I want to cast saying the dialogue.
f) I got scared and moved and righteously angry along side the main character.
g) I cast a friend in the movie who I've been trying to find a part for, for ages.

Finally:

h) Maybe the conflicts in the first half of the film are off. Need to check.

Happy with progress. Want to move faster. I'm going all out for the next 3 weeks.

[Script] Kung Fu Monkey

Couple a quick updates today. First, I am really really grooving on John Roger's blog, Kung Fu Monkey. He's the script writer behind The Core and Global Frequency (TV pilot). I'll probably add his blog to the sidebar soon.

For an example of what I mean, check out the Writing articles in his Index post (another neat idea I'll probably yoink). What I find so great about these posts is that I've been coming to similar conclusions as him - and where we differ, I can see the differences offer up some exciting possibilities.

[TV] Funny sh!t

I'm probably WAAAAY behind the 8-ball on this one, but this is a damn funny spoiler-ridden script about why the survivors in Lost deserve their fate.

(Oh, and this script review about Jurassic Park 4 is the funniest thing I read last year.)

[RPG] The Sabers of Paradise

Finished designing my second role-playing game last night. I even play tested it twice - found it was gripping and fun. The game is supposed to be intense and action heavy, inspired by 24 and Global Frequency and especially by an unproduced TV show idea from a friend of mine, Brian. Here's the intro copy:

The world is three minutes away from destruction.

You are the guardians of Creation. And Creation is constantly on the verge of being destroyed.

There's only one team who can save it. That's why they send for you. The Sabers of Paradise.

The threat is here.
The world is ending.

Can you save it?

[How To: TV] The Question

Proposal: There will be a fundamental question your story will (or seeks to) answer. This can apply to both an episode and a series. It definitely applies to The Limit, the feature film I am writing. The question for The Limit is "Will Peter find out who killed his son?"

A typical question in lovebites would have been "Will Ben get this girl?"

Knowing the question seems to help focus on telling the story.

[How To: TV] The Worst

To write drama, ask yourself what's the worst that can happen? Right now?

[How To: TV] Open vs. Closed Episodes

Open episodes are used when you are telling an ongoing story. When you start watching an open episode, you have no idea or guarantee where it will end up. The Sopranos and Everwood are good examples of series that use open episodes.

Closed episodes follow a predictable formula. The end point of an episode is almost certain to maintain the status quo of a series. CSI and Law & Order provide good examples of closed episodes structure.

Now, there is a give and take between these two - mostly to do with series and season continuity and character growth. Lost, for instance, seems to have a closed structure when you think about its backstories but a reasonably open structure when you look at the overall story it's telling. It would be fascinating to see a Closed Series (such as a police procedural) with strong character growth... so that revisiting the same type of story gave no guarantee of the same outcome.

Of course there are advantages and disadvantages to both types of episode structures (which I'll expand on later).

[TV] Freaks & Geeks - Index

Here are links to all my posts on Freaks & Geeks, an 18 episode comedy disguised as a drama series about what it was really like at high school.

Intro.
Genius.
Hitting its stride.
Is it flawed?
Make or break.
Continuity appears.
Humour.
Stalker humour.
Testing the limits.
Darkness.
The End.

[TV] Writing for Facelift

While reading this transcript of the Don Brash / Simon Dallow interview on Agenda, I figured out how to write for Facelift. Just spend those 7 weeks up at Mum & Dad’s watching as much TV as possible, with a notepad beside me … bouncing ideas off what’s actually happening.

That interview is basically a comedy sketch in and of itself.

Reminds me of what John Clarke said about satire, that it’s just hitting the ball back to the politicians with a bit of spin. No wonder I was having trouble. It’s very tough to write comedy in a vacuum.

[The Limit] Trying to move on

Going through the AOS Callout sequence, putting it into a rough structure and now I want to read through it and finetune the emotional flow.

As full of enthusiasm as I was about doing this last night, I seem to be putting it off today.

[RPG] Better Actual Play reports

This is a thread over at rpg.net that goes into why Actual Play threads are important, and how to write better ones.

[The Limit] @ss-kicking approaches

I’m nearing the point where Trace puts the whomp on Forster – and I’m really looking forward to writing it.

[TV] Freaks & Geeks, The End

It’s over. And what am I left with? That Freaks and Geeks was a good series seems obvious. It was fearless in the way it induced flashbacks to all those moments that made me cringe during college.

But it was doing more than just the comedy of social dysfunction. Despite my early frustrations about the lack of continuity – specifically that significant changes in characters’ lives tended to be ignored in the episodes immediately following – F&G is essential viewing if you’re interested in seeing how a love of character translates to the screen.

The creators said they weren’t interested in building the series to a plot-driven cliffhanger but rather in developing an understanding of these people’s interior lives. So, the other way of looking at my continuity complaint is that the writers appreciated the essences of the characters … and made sure they fully explored them in one state before moving them on to the next.

That’s pretty much what the 2 final episodes are about. Moving on. In the penultimate episode (involving VP George HW Bush’s visit to the high school), Ken and Sam both deal with new relationships – leading to a scene where they share their problems with each other; a scene that is simultaneously a little contrived and exactly what I wanted to see.

Discos & Dragons is the finale for everyone else. Daniel learns to use his imagination through roleplaying, Nick might just pull his damnfool life together and Lindsey makes a choice after being confronted with her future.

These 18 eps form a perfect little portrait of these people’s lives. I guess the injustice is that Freaks & Geeks heralded the rebirth of the current era of good TV, with its deepening focus on character. If it’d come out a couple of years later, or screened on a more supportive network, we might all be loving it even now. Or talking about how jumped the shark after they graduated from high school.

We’ll never know (so I’ll just enjoy what we’ve got and try to get my hands on the DVD set again one day).

[TV] Analysing Firefly and Buffy

Steve Darlington has written some articles on Firefly and Buffy. Check them out.

[TV] Global Frequency

This post about Global Frequency made me tear up. Not only was it a show I really wanted to see but it sounds like they nailed what I felt was the heart of the idea: at any time, any one of us could be called up to save the world.

[The Limit] Progress, again!

I was finding the mis-direction scene a bit difficult. Coupled with my now consuming desire to FINISH something, I spent Thursday through to Saturday morning writing a playtest draft of my new RPG, The Luck of the Joneses.

After that, I came back to the scene I’m been blocked on and finished it in a couple of hours.

[The 48] Getting ready for next year

So, I started these posts talking about the Disney vibe, the sense of well-being-happiness-community I felt after finishing the movie. I was not alone in feeling this way. For me, the best quote was Debz': "It is now my firm belief that there would be fewer wars in this world if leaders and politicians were forced to make Disney family movies in 48 hours."

It lasted a full day and a half, and first started to wear off after visiting Pak n’ Save (nothing like a trip to a supermarket to bring idealism and warm fuzzies sinking down to earth). But a big advantage I discovered was that I was also running on the vapours of decisiveness – and I was able to use that to make a lot of calls I’d been putting off – including interviewing the head of the Armed Offenders Squad.

In that spirit of decisiveness, the HODs all got together for a debrief of what we’d learned during the production. I thought I’d built up enough credit to give some honest feedback (and receive some in return), but instead what I did was hurt someone’s feelings. Fortunately later discussion made it (I think) all better.

Finally, the screening … which eliminated the last of my Disney high. We were up first, excited and then discovered that for some as yet untraced reason the sound was dropping out of the tape we’d submitted. This rendered a good 50% of our movie silent – but even so we still managed to elicit one “Oh, that’s cool!” from an audience member when we revealed the price to leave the Fairy Kingdom was a story.

Afterwards, dinner … and I was in good spirits, but after that, while walking home, I threw a HUGE tantie/hissy-fit which basically boiled down to not believing a group of 12 year olds could have produced a more technically proficient film than us. There were tennis rackets involved. In fact, most of my 5-yearly temper tantrums involve tennis rackets, which I speculate stems from too much childhood exposure to John Macenroe.

But that passed … and now the work continues. I do want to make more short films with my new friends and enter the 48 next year and deliver on time (and even hopefully go through from our group – a goal which is, of course, totally outside our control).

[The Limit] The end is in sight!

I’ve just been through 2 big rewrites and one cruisy action sequence. Now I’m into the final strand of Act 2 and working on a scene that (for the first time) requires a lot of thought about how much to mis-direct the audience.

What’s frustrating is that I’m so close to the end of the script. I’d like to just zoom through and finish this thing.

Of course, by ‘the end’ I mean the end of this draft. There’s more work beyond that. Like taking my new understanding of the characters and the plot - and feeding it back into the start of the script, refining the story. All I’m hoping is that the amount of intense thought I’ve been putting into the writing this time round is going to remove my standard errors from the script. Of course there will be mistakes – that’s what a first draft is :) - but I’d like to be dealing with a higher level of mistakes.

[TV] Watch Gilmore Girls this Sunday

It's a defining episode in the 5 year run of this great series about a very complicated mother-daughter-grandmother relationship. If you're a casual viewer, then this is one you won't want to miss.

[TV] The Smile Time Comic

For those of you who've been watching Angel S5, this unofficial web-comic is a sequel to an episode that'll air in about 4 weeks (Smile Time). I reckon it's in the top 3 of best Angel eps ever, but beware of the click: massive spoilers lie beyond.

The Smile Time Comic

[TV] No more ads ...

As I speculated way back when, product placement inside TV shows is taking a big step forward.

[Script] A Quote about writing passionately.

“In my screenwriting class we set out to discover what would happen if you treated your screenplay-in-progress like someone you had recently fallen in love with. What if you courted your story, wooed it, gave it your very best, and loved it madly?

"The results were extremely promising. Our conclusion was that if we were willing to throw ourselves into falling in love with our work, risking heartache, holding nothing back, the inner muses responded in kind."

Cynthia Whitcomb
‘Writer’s Guide to Writing Your Screenplay’

[TV] F&G does drugs, gets dark.

Ken finally gets a sub-plot and it involves an equally sarcastic tuba-player. Neil finds out some truths about his cool dad – and the show reaches its darkest ever point. All of which is brushed over in the next episode when Bill nearly dies of a peanut allergy (also the show’s darkest point) and a heavy handed anti-dope message is saved by a bunch of heavy-handed anti-dope comedic setpieces.

Interesting reveals including a backstory for the school bully that ties him closer to the geeks, a change of romantic focus for Sam and growing evidence of class differences between Sam and Neil.

[VW] Another way to waste time

This one's a massive on-line riddle called NotPr0n. It's been around for about a year.

[VW] Ways to waste time

A couple of on-line SF worldbuilding communities for you:

Orion's Arm - explores 10,000 years of transhuman culture.
The Lattice - is a communal story being told among massive interstellar artifacts left by a previous civilisation.

[TV] Next Season ...

Kristin at eonline has some inside information on developments next season for shows like Veronica Mars and Alias, and ...

... a way to find out what the creators of Lost could be planning for a second season. Here's what she says you should do:

1. Go to the "official" Oceanic Airlines Website.
2. At the bottom, where it says "Travellers," enter Hurley's unlucky lottery numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.
3. Click the "Find" button.
4. Click on the row numbers on the flight's seating chart that match Hurley's numbers.
5. Don't blink.
6. Change shorts.
7. Figure out what the hell it all means.
8. Keep digging. The site has much more to spill.

[Film] Mean Girls

***½ (out of 5)

Definitely not perfect but definitely fun. A teen movie, social satire, Wiseguy parody, revenge movie, date flick, therapeutic life lesson black comedy with a heart of gold.

Great beginning and end. Highly variable second act. And just like Primer, crams an awful lot into its relatively short running time.

[Film] Primer

****½ (out of 5)

Very satisfying. Validates my idea that low-budget SF movies are going to be the next big thing. A group of inventors build a time-machine in their garage. Things go bad.

It’s not a perfect movie because a crucial plot point involving a girl, a shotgun and a party isn’t developed. In fact it's so undeveloped that it’s hard to care about the major reason the movie exists at all: the twist.

Yes, there’s a twist. But the way the film is presented (with gaps in the narrative and oblique hints) makes it impossible to develop a definitive timeline of what went (or will go) on. However, I trust the film-makers that it all makes sense and look forward to watching it a second and a third and a fourth time.

[Film] In Good Company

*** (out of 5)

Slow, very mechanical set-up that creates a drama more than a comedy. Obviously Paul Weitz has been influenced by working on About a Boy, because this is a very simple story: Topher Grace becomes Dennis Quaid’s boss. Play up the age difference.

What saves it is an amazing cast: Grace, Quaid and Scarlett Johannsen. I didn’t understand what the fuss was about her until I saw this movie. Now I agree, this woman is a star.

[Script] How Neil Gaimen gets ideas

I really like this essay - it's practical and terrifying, which describes about 50% of the time I spend writing.