Indelible Freckles

Some of you may have been wondering if you’ve stumbled onto a wannabe-homegrown-Teevee site rather than the wannabe-homegrown-johnaugust.com I aspire to. Well, I could say that sing -

- but I’m in one of my rare moments of adult-ness so I’ll say this: someone wrote those shows, and a large part of our enjoyment derives from the stories they tell and the characters within. And if the show turns me on, I like to share the love.

(Some of you more sharp-eyed surfers may be confused about my relationship with Medium. That show’s lack of character consistency and surfeit of expository dialogue may set my teeth on edge but I watch it because it tells some wicked cool stories, sometimes with style aplenty.)

Those TV nuggets were, of course, hiding on the VCR.

• Jimmy McGovern’s The Street is an excellent example of an involving drama that shows fully-realised individuals and their complex, interconnected relationships with their loved ones and the wider community. Such material may be grist for the soap opera mill, but in the hands of Mr McGovern, his collaborators and an ensemble cast that includes Jane Horrocks, Jim Broadbent and the ever excellent Timothy Spall, we’re in meaty Mike Leigh and Ken Loach territory. It took me a while to warm to it but The Goddess loved it because it’s all about relationships.

• Equally satisfying was Burn Notice, a spy/P.I. series cut from the same cloth as Eighties classics Stingray and MacGyver, and lined with the cool absurdity of David Niven’s Casino Royale and the sudden violence of True Lies. It’s got a light touch that’s rare in American television, and enough home-made gadgets, action set-pieces and one-liners to have me grinning by hour’s end.

(Am looking forward to Pushing Daisies after reading the Vidiots‘ review - particularly since its premiere inspired one of them to poetry.)

It’s pretty quiet on the box at the moment. The last few months were very pleasantly crowded with:

• Desperate Housewives (Mon)
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Mon)
• Medium (Mon)
• Extras (Mon)
• The Closer (Wed)
• Law & Order (Wed)
• Studio 60 on Sunset Strip (Thur)
• Kingdom (Sat)
• Doctor Who (Sun)

Most of them have finished now (or in the case of Studio 60, I stopped watching). The Goddess and I have tried some new and returning shows, without great success.

• Despite the presence of Six Feet Under alumnus Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters tried so hard to stop us from switching channels, we turned the box off completely.
• Having read somewhere that Hu$tle had shuffled up to the big con in the sky, I was surprised to see it return - only to find that it was sans Adrian Lester. Who cares about a bunch of grifters, no matter how funny (Danny), pretty (Stacey), reliably versatile (Ash) and wizened (Albie) they are? We want the cool black guy back!
• Saving Grace looked very promising with Holly Hunter in the lead. Unfortunately, for us, yet-another-cop-show with a smart-mouthed, promiscuous, boozin’, law-bendin’, gun-totin, ass-grabbin’ protagonist who happens to be female just doesn’t wash.

So far, not so good. Still no sign of my beloved Shield or the satisfyingly dense Wire. And waiting for us on the trusty VCR are the pilots for The Street and Burn Notice. The Law of Averages is on our side.

Okay, I’m back. Had a few deadlines to meet this week. Which I did, of course. Exciting, exhausting times. Here’s a quick round up with a decent post to come this weekend.

• A second review for Five, this time from the Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand, which is now available for rental (the film, not the review) - and if your local doesn’t have it in stock, demand to see some Made in New Zealand.

• The Writers Guild’s newfangled online forum is awful quiet. Are we Kiwi screenwriters so reserved?* Or are there enough distractions with TV, DVDs, Playstation/Wii, online gaming, Bebo/Facebook/Myspace and, uh, blogs/blogging?

• People who spell definately and your rather than definitely and you‘re in correspondence to me will join my growing list of newfound friends asking me to help free up some money.

• I now have a Data Book listing. I almost feel like I’ve arrived. Except for the nonsensical www.dfmamea.com/http://if.dfmamea.com link.

• And finally, having prepared a well-I-didn’t-need-your-money-anyway post as a follow-up to my grant application, they approved it. Yes, of course I’m chuffed - especially once the panic attacks subsided - and am beginning to savour the impending adventure.

Toodles.

*   I keep wanting to start a thread about the winding up of the Signature telemovie initiative: Isn’t it a bit short-sighted to finish up now? Won’t the wheel have to be rebuilt if when the broadcaster change its mind and returns to cheaper reality observational-documentary television-making? … But I’m too chicken.

Dear Mr Sorkin

I’ve been a big fan, Mr Sorkin, for a looong time.

I first noticed your work when Jack and Tom chewed the scenery (and each other) in A Few Good Men. Even though Det. Steve Keller Michael Douglas played The American President, I still enjoyed how you mixed in the love and politics.

And then there was Sports Night. A comedy with no laugh track? A drama that played for just half-an-hour? A show which wasn’t really about sports but about relationships? That used sports as a metaphor for what it meant to be a decent human being in this world? You sly dog, you: I was hooked. You showed me that not only was it possible to be funny and enlightening, you made me a believer in intelligent television - sometimes less was more.

The West Wing did not disappoint. Only you could create a drama about politics without regularly resorting to situations in which the world was saved at the last second. I only got to Season Three unfortunately - life had plans for me and I drifted away. I hear that around Season Four, life had its own plans for you, too.

I’m not afraid to say that I had a flutter when I heard you were returning with Studio 60 on Sunset Strip. So what if Teevee quickly tired of the numerous rants soliloquoys. And you have to admit Ken Levine was pretty funny with his if Aaron Sorkin wrote a show about baseball. I knew without question that I was going to tune in whenever it reached our shores.

The first half-dozen eps were classic Sorkin. I lapped it up. Whatever industry japes and spikes were there went straight over my head. So you wanted to vent - I was cool with that. And maybe your signature back-and-forth dialogue wasn’t so fresh a third time around - I didn’t mind; it was nice to have you back on the box. But then there was the The Harriet Dinner two-parter. Then the 4am Miracle ep. Then The Disaster Show.

Mr Sorkin - all due respect but… WTF?

I’m sorry, Mr Sorkin, but I just… I can’t take any more. I’ve stopped watching. I may never know how Danny and Jordan go with the baby, or if Matt and Harriett’s rollercoaster love will straighten up and fly right, or even if the New Black Guy will get his first sketch aired. I don’t care. I feel insulted. If I wanted will-they-or-won’t-they relationship arcs or idiot-plots-A through to -Z, I’d be watching CSI or Medium. I wanted to enjoy your last outing but it didn’t work out. It wasn’t me, it was you.

Please don’t take this to be a beatdown. I’m a big fan of your work - even if Studio 60 plumbed some depths, it was still superior television. Whatever your next show is, you can count me in, no questions asked.

Yours sincerely


d f mamea

So many things to post about. So few braincells to spare. Meantime, I give you these wonderful links to enjoy:

• Alan Moore is interviewed about his career and latest work, Lost Girls.

• Jeremy Slater has same cry-out-loud posts (here and here) about Heroes creator Tim Kring. Mm… maybe not for Heroes fans.

• Phill Barron is writing a feature screenplay in one week. The man is insane. Virtual rubber-neckers can follow his progress so far: Day One and Day Two.

• It’s that wonderful time of year when the Vidiots hold their annual Dead Pool competition. They may only be in it to see which newbie show karks it first, but for me it’s a good indicator of what to look forward to in the near future. Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money seemed to pass muster; here’s hoping The Bionic Woman and the long-silent Josh Friedman’s The Sarah Connor Chronicles do the same.

• Stephen Fry - yes, that Stephen Fry - has a blog. Nuff said, mm?

Okay, it’s been all fine and dandy to be as opinionated as Ianthe of Timaru about various media, but what about what I do?

Good question.

• Five is in the excellent hands of Amit - sliced, diced and packaged for a premiere. I should stop counting that as a pot on the boil now.

• Earlier in the year I finally finished a first draft of a semi-biographical feature script. The producer/director I did it for is currently having a whack at the next draft. It’s been interesting to work through the inevitable tension in the creative process where the producer/director wants authenticity while I’m trying to argue for dramatic impact.

• My long awaited 2007 spec script has really only had its outline tweaked - it even had a one-page pitch done - but I haven’t started writing it yet. I’d like to blame the non-start on some of the following projects - but I’d be lying.

• I was asked to write a low budget thriller a while back. After duly speccing an outline, I mentioned the word “contract” and scared the producer away. Ah well. Still, there’s something about the outline that’s really hooked me: I approached the project from an oblique angle to try and be ‘fresh’ as well as make it interesting to write. I’ve made it my 2007 spec* - and, yes, I’ll give the producer first dibs on it when it’s finished.

• I met with another producer recently about some development work on an half-hour series. I did some work for him last year that was great fun - not only did I get paid, I was writing cool shit. I’ll give with some details

• The T.V. concept got cleaned up and sent out… and has so far flatlined. Oh well. At least it’s a good reminder to not pin so much hope on just one project. I can’t help it, but.

• The T.V. speccing got me going a bit - well, it was avoiding work on one of the above scripts - so I’ve got a couple of ideas to inflict on interested parties. I’m well aware of the odds against but at the very least I’ll be making some noise.

• And finally, despite earlier unsuccessful applications to the Screen Innovation Production Fund, I’m going three for three. What the hell.

So that’s… wow. Seven. It sounds so… productive.

I think I might make this - like my sometimes-monthly Point & Click fillers posts - a sometimes-quarterly update on what’s cookin’. Because I know you’re just busting to read it here first - and I know your need because I’m psychotic canny.

*    And what will this mean for my other ‘long-awaited’ 2007 spec? Good question.

Daniel Power, the force behind Hunting the Phoenix, has hisself a website: Daniel Power Films.  Those who haven’t caught that neat wee film - it screened on Rialto recently - can find it streaming here.

Impressed?  Of course.  Looking for a director or writer who’s based in Sydney?  Hop to it.

I managed to get the number of Unread posts down to less than 200 when I add a few new feeds - and phwappp as the Unread posts leap gaily to 315. Fine. I can keep up with my essential daily reading out of the way. If I don’t sleep.

• There is life after How To Write Screenplays - Badly - scribe Jeremy Slater has himself a new blog: Hi My Name is Jeremy Slater. The blogging scriptwriter field may be pretty crowded but few - very few - blogs are as deliciously laugh out loud as Mr Slater’s.

• For a hands-on approach to TV-writing, Jill Golick’s Running With My Eyes Closed is a fantastic resource complete with case studies. (Look! A breakdown of The Wire pilot!)

• TV writer and producer (Millenium, Medical Investigation, and Killer Instinct) Kay Reindl has a badass blog called seriocity. Her honesty about her travails are searing and refreshing - and a reminder that you mess with writers at your peril.  (Fedora-tip to the once quiet Lee Thomson for Mesdames Golick and Reindl.)

• Check out ammani over at filthy, funny, flawed, gorgeous for bite-sized prose that resonates. Personal favourites so far are this and this.  (Fedora-tip to The Goddess who I’ve recently gotten addicted to blog-reading.)

• And finally, thanks to National Radio, I discovered that the mercilessly acerbic and clinically hysterical comedian Mike Loder has a website. Sweeet. No blog but it has some brilliant pieces on jury service and the annual Erotica expo.

Enjoy.

Over at Magimation, Mike Heffernan and his gang are this much closer to rolling out Alpha, an everything-goes soap set on an intergalactic cruiser.

Soaps not your thing? There’s Holy Hell!, about a demon gumshoe who kicks demon arse and takes souls.

Oh, looking for some action, are we? Look no further than - to describe it would be superfluous - Maori on Mars?