Thursday, December 08, 2011
The Nerdist Writers Podcast
The latest in the very excellent series of TV writer interviews done by the infamous Acker and Blacker is up. This one features myself, Zach Whedon, and Jeremy Carver(Being Human US). The lads do a great job with this, and I think we get down into the nuts and bolts of writing a bit more than most of the panels so far. Go and (hopefully) enjoy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Hi John,
"Leverage" is one of our family tv night shows, but the language makes it difficult at times. Any way you can tone it down? It doesn't add value -- indeed, my kids are disappointed whenever their favorite character blurts out a curse word. My wife and I dropped "In Plain Sight" because of it. We don't want to do the same with "Leverage." Thanks. Joe in Northern Virginia
This is great. I always loved martial arts especially Kung Fu.
Considering the five leads on Leverage are crooks who, in every episode, break the law repeatedly (admittedly for the benefit of others), I'd consider them all a bit sanitized already for the sake of television. For self-professed "bad guys", there's less cursing than you'd likely hear at a gathering of young high school kids, let alone professional law-breakers. Please, John, remain as true to the characters as television will allow, and even though Leverage takes place in their own self-styled "CrimeWorld", keep them as "real" as they can be in that context.
And to Joe Doc... you realize your "family tv night show" features an angry "functioning" alcoholic, a socially malajusted thief, a man whose profession is essentially beating up people when necessary (and has killed people in the past), and two others who, either socially or technically, can (and do) regularly take people for everything they're worth. Depending on how young the kids are, I'd be having some serious talks about role models and such, instead of worrying about minor cuss words that are still tame enough to get the show a PG rating.
Keep up the good work, John, and thanks for the podcast and the blog (and, of course, Leverage!)
@Joe Doc
I appreciate you're trying to raise your kids in a certain way. However, you should know that TNT already has a very strict set of Standards and Practices we adhere to. We can never use what would be considered standard swear words. We can never us swear words associated with God -- we have even had to go in and reloop when a character says something that just SOUNDS LIKE "Jesus", even though that's not what they said.
The only recurring swear I can think of is Eliot's "Dammit, Hardison', which is both a.) character appropriate from an ex-soldier and b.) rarely uttered, maybe once every other episode.
I get what you!re trying to do. But I can!t really "tone down" swearing that is both fantastically mild by television standards and intermittent at its worst.
Again, I respect your choices. But I'm sure you're aware your standards are very, very far outside the mainstream. It's going to be very hard to find any TV, broadcast or cable, that will abide by the level of cleanliness you're going for.
Rogers, that was exactly the kind of response I was thinking, only, y' know, articulate.
I've loved this show since the first episode aired (Gina Bellman & Christian Kane were the initial draws for me, as I watched Angel and LOVED Coupling) and I think the language is perfectly appropriate, and I do think it adds value. These are bad people doing not-always-good things. If they never cursed it would seem unrealistic.
Doesn't Joe Hortua live in Northern Virginia?
Thank you for posting this podcast. There is so much to learn here and I enjoy learning all I can about writing and the workings of the industry in general.
I did not know you were involved with the Jackie Chan series?! WOW! I liked that cartoon very much. Learn something new every day! :)
May I ask a question about spec scripts? (is that the right term?) I think I understand what a spec script is supposed to be. But, what I do not know is how to get anyone to read the spec script?
And how does a writer go to an interview for a tv show, in an effort to be a writer for that show, if the spec script is for a completely different series?
On a side note, does a spec script have to be a completed and scripted episode including dialogue, or can it be a detailed outline of an episode?
It's still a little strange for me. I'm not quite getting how that works exactly, and I am so close. Any advice on this topic?
This one features myself, Zach Whedon, and Jeremy Carver(Being Human US). The lads do a great job with this, and I think we get down into the nuts and bolts of writing a bit more than most of the panels so far. Do best, no regret!giubbotti moncler outlet 2012 good topic, I will concern on.
You need to get Jackie as a guest star now.
Listened to the entire thing. Defiantly thinking about checking out that book on screenwriting you mentioned. I love the idea of writing. I’m not fond of the thought of having to sit through years of college for it.
Post a Comment