Friday, May 28, 2004

I've been a bit quiet lately because I am on a new gig as Head Writer for a science fiction show shooting in Cape Town, South Africa. "Charlie Jade" is a mystery show about a detective from a parallel universe who's blown into ours by an industrial accident. He wants to get back home, until he discovers that the nasty corporation that screwed up his world is trying to screw up our world...

We are working intense, long days. The part of Cape Town I'm in, Sea Point, is a dead ringer for Santa Monica, except with rocks for a beach. There are Jewish delis, white stucco 1963 buildings with names like "Avalon" and "Costa del Sol" and "Costa Brava," warm weather and irregular fog. And, of course, poor homeless people.

I don't actually see much of Cape Town. We're working long hours and 7 day weeks. It is huge fun to write a big expensive sf show after writing an intense little comic drama like "Naked Josh." It is a relief to be writing a show for which I am not actually responsible, since as Head Writer I am not the person who has final say over the scripts. (The Creator and Exec Producer does.) While it is nice to have final say, it is also enjoyable to work as a craftsman and just do the best job you can as a craftsman.

Science fiction is fun to write. It's what I most like. While I put a lot of heart and soul into "Naked Josh," if I had my druthers I'd create an hour long sf or fantasty drama... so it is good to write this.

It's also a good thing to go from being one of two people co-writing a small show, where I wasn't in the thick of the production, to supervising a staff a brief walk from the lot where they're shooting. It's nice to be in a production meeting and come up with a solution to a problem on the spot. I missed that on NJ.

6:03 AM

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