ANOTHER FLAWED STUDY

According to Alex Mindlin in The New York Times

...adults in households that have digital video recorders watch less TV than adults in the general population, according to a recent analysis by Mediamark Research, an audience-measurement firm

Well, duh.

The research contradicts earlier network-funded research that claimed that DVR ownership boosts viewership.

As Mindlin fails to point out (learn some sociology!) this study fails to compare people's viewership before and after they get a DVR. Instead, it compares people who buy DVR's to people who don't buy them. The study is meaningless because they're different groups.

People buy DVR's because they are busy people and they are not always around the house in time to watch their favorite shows, and they can't be bothered to program their VCR. I think it's safe to make the assumption that busy people watch TV more selectively, which means less. Therefore, DVR owners will tend to watch less TV. But they were probably watching less TV than average before they got their DVRs, too.

Also, people who buy DVR's tend to be better off than the average TV watcher. DVRs are expensive gadgets, y'know. I bet you richer folks watch less TV than poorer folks, because money opens up other entertainment options: movies, restaurants, anything involving babysitters.

This study could have been meaningful if it measured TV watching among people of the same income and employment levels, some of whom have DVR's, some of whom do not.

I do think the networks are talking out of their hats when they claim that DVR ownership will boost viewership enough to compensate for many people not watching the ads. I gather some people do watch the ads, but I find that unfathomable. I'll sometimes stop and view what looks like it might be a clever ad -- and I'll almost always stop to watch a trailer for a movie I'm interested in -- but usually I'm hitting the "forward 30 seconds" button too fast to notice what I'm skipping. When DVR penetration reaches the same levels as VCR penetration, free TV paid for by ads is done for.

STEALING

Q. One of my deepest fears is that I'm ripping something off without realizing it. Something buried deep in my subconscious that I saw in a movie 20 years ago--reborn as a "new" idea. My mind hates me.

This is called "culture." You're allowed to steal from your subconscious, regardless where you got it. Stuff from the late 80's feels and looks very little like stuff you'd make now; and you are a different person than whoever made the "something" (book? movie? TV show?), so you'll write a different story.

Used to be, bards all told the same stories, they just told them with slightly different words, changing minor plot points. It was called having a "tradition."

Don't stress about where you get your inspiration. The urge to tell an original story is overrated. What the audience mostly wants is an entertaining story and, sometimes, a truthful story. By making it your own, you'll make it original enough.

Look at Miami Vice. For some reason Michael Mann decided not to remake his series, but to make a modern action movie instead. No silk suits, I gather from the trailer, and no sense that the cops are torn and tempted by the vice they're fighting. Who needs it? If he'd just remade his TV series, I'd have gone to see the movie already.

KEVIN PROPOSES A RUCKUS

From Kevin Arbouet:

So I'm sure everyone here knows about what's going on over at the CW & The Tyra Banks Show. After reading Friedman's blog, I got a little bit inspired and a whole lot pissed off. As someone who also produces reality television, we can't let this type of stuff go on any longer.

I'm pretty sure most of us have some sort of PR person in place and I'd love to start some kind of petition or something like that where we would all boycott the show until they got their act together. If Friedman can make a big stir about some snakes on an airplane, I hope we can all do the same for the writers of that show and any other show that tries to fuck over our fellow writers.

Is there any way we can take some time out from our schedules, organize, and make something happen? Maybe it's all futile but I think that we can probably embarrass them into doing something ESPECIALLY if we make this about Tyra Banks and not Ken Mok. Because at the end of the day...who the hel is Ken Mok? I'm guessing Tyra would rather die than hear that more than 2 people are mad at her.

A MESSAGE ABOUT THE MEDIUM

I ran a comics pitch o'mine past my comics artist friend-I've-never-met Kody Chamberlain, asking if I'd successfully adapted my thinking to the medium of comics. He had some really smart points to make about comics in general, which deserve reprinting:

The usual conversion problems from film scripts I've seen adapted for comics is the subtle stuff and the times a screenwriter might rely on acting or direction to bring something new to the words. For the most part, subtle things don't work well, unless it's a still image. A photograph of a moment instead of a subtle motion. An easy example that comes to mind is something like a head nod. It just doesn't translate to comics well. So instead of a head nod, it might be a wink, because a wink doesn't require motion. We can just show one eye closed in the panel with a little bit of a smile. Stuff like that.

But on the writing end, I'd say try to avoid leaving anything up to the acting to tell the story. Depending on the artist, some can do acting and some can't. Most are able to do talking heads and maybe a hint of emotion in the faces and body language. I do try and pride myself on being able to do some acting in the comics since I try and use photo reference of myself whenever I can. I get up in front of the camera and act out the scene when I shoot the reference. Body language, facial expression, etc. I think it helps a bit in the final product.

I also try and control lighting and color for mood when I can. As a safe bet, it's probably smart to assume your art may come in as nothing more than stick figures with no faces. As long as your dialogue and panel descriptions hold up (and your artist actually follows those) you're in a pretty good spot. You've covered the story and it works. Hopefully your artist will bring in some new things, that's his job, fill in the blanks and pull that reality that directors and actors and sountrack bring to a film or TV, or add some unexpected angle to a panel that makes it come alive.

But they may not. Your artist may see something different in the panel, or miss some emotional beat you expected. Most things are open to interpretation. A lot of the Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore stuff has incredibly well written dialogue and pacing. I imagine they mostly write for the balloons and detailed settings instead of putting too much guesswork in the hands of the artist. They could probably use stick figures in their comics and the stories would still work great. Not as well, but they'd still work.

In your books you talk about how we have the internal in novels that we don't have in film. We have to see or hear everything, or it's not there. I suppose this is the equivalent in comics. From what I've seen working with writers like Niles and Giffen, they put the important stuff in the balloons and the setting. When they get the art, and I've done my job and made it come to life or hit the emotional beat they intended, they'll sometimes remove that part of the dialogue in the final rewrite of the page. If I suck, they might leave it in.

But the advantages of comics make up for a lot of that. We can be very personal, very direct, and not have to rely on a committee, egos, and the whole set of problems that come with that. The storytelling vision is very direct, and can usually be presented in the exact form you intended it to be without creative limitations or bullying from outside forces. That's really one of my favorite things about comics. It's very direct from the creator to the reader. But we can also hold a moment in time longer since the page turn controls the pace, not the projector. We can hide a million clues in a single panel and hold the reader's attention for as long as we'd like. We can show them something on page 9 that makes them flip back and study page 2 again. Something they missed and we point it out later on. It can be interactive. An often overlooked storytelling device in comics.

Alan Moore and Warren Ellis write a lot about these sorts of things and have some amazing insights into the storytelling advantages in comics.

SPARE ME THE DISCOUNT, K?

I sent my script as a query to an agency in New York City, and they have accepted it and want to work with me.... However, they are putting into effect a "critique," sort of a legal evaluation of my work for a fee I have to pay up front for a discount rate of $95.00.

Discount? Heh.

I've said it before, but it's worth saying every few months or so: if an agency asks for money for anything but photocopying and postage, don't work with them. If you want the details, look in Crafty Screenwriting, but that's all you really need to know about it.

NICE REVIEW OF BON COP BAD COP

Here's a nice review of Bon Cop / Bad Cop, the bilingual buddy cop comedy I did the production rewrite on. Can't wait to see it at the official premiere on Monday!

Courtesy of Martine...

TELEFILM LIKES ME, IT REALLY REALLY LIKES ME

I'm in Toronto fighting the good fight -- meetings with execs and producers. I just got the very good news from home that Telefilm Canada's given me a grant to write a feature. The Writers First program pays you to write a feature, which you own. If you sell it, you give the money back. How's that for friendly?

Since no one's picked up my comedy series The Alternative, I decided it would make a fine low budget romantic comedy. And so, apparently does Telefilm.

Nice to have a bit of good news to relate to the people I'm meeting today and tomorrow.

SIMILAR CHARACTERS

The spec I'm writing has a guest character (the Patient of the Week) who, from what I've heard, is very much like Tony's mother from The Sopranos. Should I take the time to sit down and watch all the episodes that she was in to make sure I'm not ripping them off?

I don't see why you would. Tony's mom is a type. We may not have seen that type so forcefully portrayed on TV, but she's a type. David Chase doesn't own the mom-as-martyr type any more than Joss Whedon owns Teens With Snappy Banter.

If you haven't seen Sopranos, you probably won't seem to be ripping off Sopranos. It's usually the other way around. If you've been immersing yourself in a show, be careful you're not ripping it off too blatantly. I have a very Neil Gaimanesque TV pitch. I had a homeless angel character who was very close to a character from one of his short stories, and I didn't notice. Fortunately my crafty assistant noticed my character was a go-to. I changed the character to something less derivative, and much edgier, and much more original.

Don't worry about influences too much. So long as you're putting a lot of yourself into a script, you won't steal too much from other people. It's when you write too much from other writers, and not enough from yourself, that you get into trouble.