Archive for July, 2009
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Running out the door…
I had plans to blog everyday this week but that didn’t happen (clearly).
I’ve been rushing around getting a few bits ready as I’m just heading out the door for a few days in London with lots going on.
My main meeting is to receive my first round of feedback for my feature film treatment (blurrily pictured) mentioned in this post before I go onto write my first draft of the script. I’m also going to meet up with one of my absolute favourite writers and all round gentleman Mike Carey who not only writes comics (as discussed in this post) but, I also just discovered, will be writing for radio on a show created by the person who ran the writing for radio course I mentioned in this post.*
Nice bit of synchrnocity, huh? And considering that’s one of the main aspects of the feature film treatment I’m getting feedback on anyway…that’s got to be a good (if slightly weird) omen, right? 
Anyway, fingers crossed it all goes well and I don’t just miss my train and ruin everything the universe had planned!
(*Those writing for radio notes are coming soon, I promise. As a lot of what we were taught was based on specific examples we heard on the day, I am translating what we talked about into more general points)
Monday, July 27th, 2009
POLL: So why don’t you read comics?
And if not, why not, dagnammit!! 
As San Diego Comic-Con nerds its way to a close and Watchmen makes its way to DVD, I’m wondering why there is still such a stigma against the medium.
When a film is a labelled a ‘comic-book movie’ it is generally implied that it means it’s a ’superhero movie’. But there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with that in the public’s eye either as, while comic-book sales decline, the big summer movies of the last few years have mostly had Batman, Spiderman or Iron Man in them. So it can’t be that mainstream audiences think superheroes are just for kids.
But comics aren’t just about superheroes either. Comics are a medium - not a genre. I always find myself pointing out that the big-star movies below are also based on comics:
Often anything adapted into a film (ie - a novels, TV shows, comics) is not necessarily dumbed-down but is certainly simplified for mass consumption. That’s not a criticism, but comic book stories can be far more complex and detailed and they are designed to be read at your own pace.
I constantly rotate my comic book collection as half of it seems to be on loan at any one time. Mostly to people who don’t normally read comics who I’ve managed to convince to give certain series a go. One of the most popular lenders is definitely the award-winning ‘Y The Last Man‘. A series where a mysterious plague wipes out the entire male population of the planet except for Yorrick Brown and his pet monkey.
Similarly, the best new comic I’ve read in ages is ‘The Unwritten‘ in which Tom Taylor, whose father based the successful boy-wizard ‘Tommy Taylor’ books on, finds that his whole life might be a work of fiction and is the centre of a conspiracy connecting all stories from the Bible to Frankenstein. Click either of the links or pics above to read some of these comics and see what we’re all on about - before movies try and cram several years worth of stories into two hours.
Soooo… please vote in the poll below or leave a comment if comics have never done it for you. What has put you off? Is it the fact that a large portion of comic shops seem to be scary dungeons staffed by Avril Lavigne’s playmates? Are they too expensive? Do you just figure that all the good ones will be made into movies sooner or later anyway? If you do read comics, what do you think comics do better than other mediums? Do you think comic book collections are doing more harm than good to the industry in the same way that DVD box sets and TIVO are damaging TV ratings?
Looking forward to the arguments either way. Meanwhile, I’m off to smirk more at the picture of Rorschach squatting out the window at the top of this post. Tee hee hee 
Loading ...Friday, July 17th, 2009
Radio Days (full notes coming soon!)
Nipped down and back to London yesterday for the Scriptfactory’s course in Writing for Radio Drama. The course was really good and very encouraging and informative - as well as very discursive so it was much more like a seminar than a lecture and I strongly recommend it. (I will blog the notes I took here as soon as I can)
I’ve always listened to audio drama since I was much younger, especially when I suffered from insomnia as a teen - Orson Welles broadcast of ‘War of the Worlds’ being a strong favourite. But I never really listened to drama on the radio until I heard that comic book supremos Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean were adapting their own DC Vertigo graphic novel ‘Mr Punch’ for Radio 3. How do you adapt a graphic novel for radio?!? Tuning in for that, I realised that radio was for far more than just ‘The Archers’.
We spent a good amount of time discussing the example of the BBC’s adaptation of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Yes, I was scratching my head too - this wasn’t just how do you adapt a comic book for radio but how do you re-tell a silent film!! The answer is very very well. One of the main things I learned about adapting ideas for radio is don’t just re-tell it. You have to re-invent it. Click the pic below to download an mp3 of the whole brilliant thing.
In the mean time, here’s a brief script for radio I’ve written based on my ongoing bemusement at people struggling with the seat reservation system on public trains
SCENE 1: A BUSY TRAIN
IRRATE MAN: Well there’s 39 - so where’s 40 for god’s sake?? Are YOU sitting in it?
ME: Yeah, um, that’s not 39. That’s 19.
(Pause)
ME: 39 is probably about twenty seats that way?
IRRATE MAN: (tuts) Guh…typical!
ME: (possibly sarcastic by this point) Yeah, I dunno how they get away with it!
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
POLL: How would you like your online story?
Would really appreciate your help on this. As I mentioned in this blog post, I am writing an online narrative for the Slung Low Theatre Company’s new vampiric theatre spectacular, ‘They Only Come at Night: Resurrection’ at the Lowry in Salford. (click the lovely spooky picture below to watch the kick-ass trailer and find out more)
My brief is to not only provide a good build up to the show in September but also provide a fun story for those who can’t make it or who aren’t even in the same country. Something for everyone!
And, as it is intended for everyone, I wanted you to have your say. My current idea is to run the narrative intensively (and interactively) over one week with two or more brief updates a day (as well as the fictional characters responding and interacting with the audience). This way the audience can drop by when they like and the narrative does not become drawn out. There are also puzzles to solve and the chance to win tickets to the show as well as copies of the fantastic spin-off graphic novel that proves integral to the plot of the play.
But, plagued by my usual neuroses, I’d like your opinion on my plan. So please vote below and leave any comments on my ideas for the format. And thank you in advance!
Loading ...Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Resurrecting TV Characters
There was one protagonist who came back from the dead and it was quite significant to the plot…Christ, I can’t remember his name now
But to follow on from yesterday’s post, do we undermine a character’s dramatic death by bringing them back to life? More to the point, I always feel bad for the characters left behind if they have to dredge up characters who have already snuffed it - it pretty much means that the other characters couldn’t carry the show without them
The death and rebirth of a character that always had me the most worried was Mr Bennett or ‘HRG’ as he’s known in ‘HEROES‘. As most of you probably know, his death was predicted in a painting - which he’d also seen - several episodes before so it was more of a Sword of Damocles finally falling rather than a shock when it actually happened.
Now it seems I am one of the few people left in the world who still has a soft spot for the show but what bothered me wasn’t that they killed my favourite character - it was that he was alive again by the end of the episode. When the one major ‘non-powered’ character in the show can still cheat death, a great deal of the jeopardy goes out of anything that happens in the future. Similarly, he is my favourite character on the show - I didn’t even have time to be upset (not that I let things like TV shows upset me, you understand!)
Obviously genre shows like ‘Heroes’ can plausibly bring characters back to life, but even British drama staples like Eastenders need to be careful. The BBC still cite the 1986 Christmas episode where Dirty Den announces he’s divorcing Angie to the tune of 25 million viewers - but what does bringing him years later say about the show? That you’ve run out of ideas? You do have to be careful. I think we have to make sure there’s always a really good reason they’re back.
Also, by bring back a much beloved character who went out on a high, you always risk sullying what people remember through rose-tinted nostalgia. Obviously the two examples I’ve given at either end of the scale - resurrecting a character 20 minutes and 20 years after they ‘died’. If it’s part of a master plan then I might be okay, but do be careful. If you want to create genuine emotion from the audience losing a character, you can actually take something away by bringing them back!
Maybe tomorrow we’ll discuss zombies and ghosts
Monday, July 13th, 2009
Killing off Characters
TV characters die. Sometimes we even care too. Which ones hurt you?
For the record, I haven’t seen the last few episodes of last week’s Torchwood: Children of Earth five-nighter. The DVD should be in the post today but, despite somehow managing to stay SPOILER FREE, most of my internet haunts seem to be involved in various flame wars, upset at how it ended. A million possible scenarios are now running through my head, mostly involving the deaths of various characters (my brain is mean) so got me onto the subject of killing off members of your cast.
Now, as a comic book fan, I am used to seeing leading characters die only to be mysteriously resurrected later(currently both Captain America and Batman are ‘dead’ btw) . It’s not so much that I mind them coming back rather than that their deaths are largely ignored (or glibly acknowledged by self-referential writers). But comic writers don’t have to worry about season breaks or actors’ contracts plus TV shows do, more often than not, rely on a consistent format.
‘Why don’t we kill Mulder?‘ they always asked in The X-Files only to be told that they would risk turning ‘one man’s quest into a crusade’. Yeah, that and the fact The X-Files without Mulder just wouldn’t be the same show (and, indeed, it wasn’t - as much as I really really liked Reyes and Doggett).
It always feels a bit easy to go for the big dramatic death - especially if someone’s sacrficing themselves for the greater good in the final episode etc etc - but, sadly, as in life, Death is all the harder for those left behind. If Martin Sheen, Sarah Michelle Gellar or Tom Welling were leaving The West Wing, Buffy or Smallville early, chances are, the news would have broken early. But killing off more ancillary characters can be more powerful. The heroes of the series are always willing to sacrifice themselves but what if their friends and loved ones get caught in the crossfire? What’s special about all three examples above is that none of them were killed by the ‘baddies’ in the series. Even a President, a Chosen One and Superman were helpless 
Back in April I wrote this post about how supporting characters creep up and become the principal draw to the show while the protagonist props up the format. If we’re supposed to identify with the protagonist then won’t we feel the same grief if their friends or family die? Which deaths hit you most? And, if it wasn’t the main character, why does it even matter?
Maybe because endings define us? Maybe giving a character an epic death and letting them go out on a powerful high is the best tribute you could provide. For example, I’ll always ALWAYS remember Dr Romano!
I’m also thinking of episodes of House, Cracker, Angel, The Wire and even Scrubs that suddenly killed off characters I didn’t even really think I’d really miss until it was too late. While each one made me sad in the moment, the real power of this deaths wasn’t the loss but how it affected and changed the main characters - beyond just making them sad in the moment. In my opinion, the only bad deaths are the ones that don’t really alter the series (beyond that particular actor not being in it anymore.) What function did they have that new or existing characters will now have to perform?
While a TV death can certainly change or ’shake-up’ a show, do you agree its principal purpose should be to move the series forward? Your favourite examples are welcome.
EDIT: And maybe tomorrow we’ll do Resurrecting TV characters - I’m looking at you, Harold Bishop
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Touch wood for TORCHWOOD
After series two’s vast improvement over it’s first crack at the whip (which still had some great highlights) I am eagerly awaiting tonight’s premiere of Series 3 of Torchwood: Children of Earth and it proves that the third time really is the charm. It’s looking pretty darn promising so far though!
But with British drama budgets being slashed across the board and science-fiction obviously being quite a costly genre, I do worry that this series of Torchwood has more riding on it than just the future of Torchwood itself.
The switch from BBC2 to BBC1 means it gets a bigger budget but will it now get its bigger audience? Secondly, the show is running as a stripped serial over five consecutive nights this week. Personally, this has never been a format that I’ve been too fond of as its highly unlikely that I’ll be in for every episode. Fortunately enough, the BBC is releasing the complete DVD only three days after the series finishes (pre-order now!) (plus there’s always iPlayer, Sky+ etc)
On the other hand, I think this bold technique has a lot going for it. Firstly…
Lovely. Also, the BBC has proven this format already works with its excellent Five Days written by the fantastic Gwyneth Hughes which (if you haven’t seen it but could probably work out) also ran over five consecutive days. I missed the 3rd episode so then decided to deliberately skip the final two parts and buy the DVD. I don’t know what the DVD sales were like in general but I know the series did well enough to warrant a sequel.
As well as that, the stripped one-week serial should also allay fears that audiences can’t cope with multiple plot strands (something I never quite understand what with the high ratings of soap operas etc )
Do you think Torchwood will benefit from this new format? Will the switch to BBC1 persuade you to tune in when you haven’t really been bothered before? Is this format a good thing in your opinion to really create telly events (as well boost DVD sales?) Either way, tonight’s Torchwood has a lot going for it but a lot hanging on it - will it be able to justify original big budget alien stomping stories and the like for the future? Fingers and tentacles crossed!
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Back from Barcelona (or ‘What do you do when the Head of BBC Drama North is on your plane?’)
Hola. So we’re back from the much-needed break to Barcelona. Birthday girl Heather caught the sun and I caught a mammoth. Also I was informed that I sound even more like Roger Moore when attempting to speak Spanish so a good time was had by all (even the mammoth seemed happy).
Flying from and back to Manchester, we also realised we were sharing the plane with Head of BBC Drama North (and uber-producer of all the recent Doctor Who series), Phil Collinson. But as he was clearly on holiday himself, despite the golden opportunity to corner a very influential drama figure whose work we really like for a meeting while he was trapped with us in a winged steel tube, our natural response was to leave him alone (or, more specifically, to blush quite a bit). We did the right thing, right?
Anyway, we’re back now and I’m working on fleshing out the treatment for my film project for the Scriptfactory course. Even though it had a previous incarnation, I am starting over to a certain extent to get a lot more unique selling points and new ideas into this version. Hopefully this cool graffiti opposite our hotel will turn out to be a good omen for writing!
It was great to have a break from it all because now I’m really looking forward to getting back into it. Onwards 
