Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: Stranger than Fiction

Yes.

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: Borat

Yes very nice.

The Art of Coarse Writing

There's a writing buddy of mine who will never tell anybody what he's working on. If he does, he's afraid there won't be any motivation to write it. Once he tells somebody what the story is about... there's no reason to tell it anymore.

I think he's on to something.

Some writers are lucky. They'll never get the "On the nose" note.
For the rest of us, it's about constant vigilance.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term. "On the nose" writing tends to be scenes or dialogue that is very obvious. It's very explicit about... what it's about. And for some of us, it's a lot of the television writing we grew up watching.

Any scene that wraps things up... watch out. Any dialogue that people talk about their feelings... danger. And when the scene wraps things up with characters talking about their feelings... "Alex, maybe if I could talk to my dad like this, I wouldn't have this drinking problem." "Listen Les, you told me what you felt, and I respect that, but there's a part of me that will never get over Johnny."

Yikes.

But is there a place for On the Nose in your process? I think so, but I might just be justifying this to myself because I see it my own stuff. I think in an outline or first draft, there's lots of room for obviousness. You're explaining motivations to yourself, to producers, to broadcasters. It allows for a real discussion of why characters are doing what they're doing and what ramifications it might have on other episodes.

But... after the first draft... the second draft has gotta be spent covering it over. Otherwise, it's a short-cut that lets writers off the hook-- the hook being: to find a way to actually dramatize all those feelings. And like my buddy, when the writer tells the audience what he's writing about, instead of writing it, what's the point.

And it's not just writing that can be "on the nose". Some of the best examples of "on the nose" work I've seen is acted or directed, particularly in amateur theatre.

And productions of classical work is the worst. The actors have been directed by people who don't trust the audience to understand what the play is about and instead of staging it in a way that will heighten the drama and make it relevant and exciting, they make the poor actors (many of whom don't know any better) accomplices in their crimes. Characters are broadly drawned; scenes aren't performed, they're pointed out; jokes aren't played, they're explained.

It kills any drama or comedy that's there.

Don't believe me? Watch any university production of Shakespeare and see what happens when they make a joke about a "cod's piece". Trouble is, it's never bad enough to be really entertaining, cf: The Art of Coarse Acting.

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Yes.

Looking for Intelligence

After trying-- and failing-- to find Intelligence on CBC this past week, I decided to poke around Bit Torrentland to see if I could find it.

No Luck. Except...

I stumbled across it here. Only the first two episodes but it's a chance to catch up if you've missed it so far.

Sidebar: Is Guba a place that everyone has heard about but me?

Edit: According to the Intelligence website the show airs Tuesdays at 9pm and repeats at Midnight and 11pm Friday. Apparently I tuned in on the wrong night... heh. What a dope.

Cell Phone Travel Question

I've got a question maybe somebody can help me with.

When I was travelling recently I put my fully charged cell phone in my bag up in the overhead bin and when I landed (about 8 hours later) it was drained.

This happened again on the return flight.

Again, both times, fully charged. I've had no trouble with battery power otherwise. In day to day usage it's great.

Was it too cold up there in the bin, is there some kind of crazy battery draining thing doing on or what?

Feeding the Writer II

It's great to be back home after my whirlpool trip to Vancouver for the screening.
For all you bi-coastal travellers my advice: Commit to the change in time zone! Don't constantly calculate what time is "really" is. Your body will thank you.

Restaurantlly there were three highlights on this four day trip:

Tropicana: a Thai restaurant where I rediscovered the deliciousness of Sambal Bunchies. It's a dish of shrimp and green beans that is crazy good.

Shanghai Chinese Bistro: (on Alberni) A return for General Tsao's Chicken and sautéed snow pea shoots. Ka-yumbo.

Speaking of Yumbo, Ouisi's Bistro: (Granville and 16th) My first time here where they specialize in New Orleans cuisine. Although my pepper-encrusted chicken on beans and spanish rice was fantastic the House Sample Plate: Jerk Chicken, Gator Bites, and Louisiana Crab Cakes was the highlight.

Robson Arms Screening

I flew up to Vancouver this week to attend the cast and crew screening for Robson Arms Season II.

It was held at one of the theatres at the Paramount on Burrard and the place was packed. We screened the first three episodes: Ordinary Assholes by Karen MacLellan, Saultology by yours truly, and I Did Not Have Sex by Susin Nielsen.

The response was quiet and polite as we began but as the screening continued it was relief to hear what sounded, to my admittedly biased ears, like geniune laughter fill the screening room.

I'm not particularly objective about this, but I believe everybody was kind of surprised, even though they worked on the show, how different it was from the first season. And not to take anything away, but this season feels bolder, more confident, and frankly a lot funnier.

I think everybody raised their game. The directors, actors and writers took a lot more chances. We shot on HD and Kamal and the camera crew have made everything look great. The original songs by our "troubadours", these incredible musical summaries of the episodes, are tightly integrated into the show. By the end of the screening there was a real buzz through the theatre.

We still don't know when season two will hit the air, myself I've got my fingers crossed for a mid-season launch in January, but that's up to somebody working away in Toronto.

I'd been reading Denis McGrath's blog lately and can't help but wonder how many of his concerns about the state of canadian television are addressed in our production. More on that in another post.

In the meantime, I worry: How the show will be received by the audience? Will anyone even remember season one? Will they tune in? Will they love and appreciate the show... not because everybody worked so hard on it but because it's smart and funny and entertaining? That's been the goal.

Congratulations and thanks to everybody that worked on the show. I'm sorry to say that the job is only half done. Now we have to make sure, when it makes it to air, that everybody sees it.

Robson Arms gets its first Gemini

We didn't hold out a lot of hope for the Geminis after we wound up only getting one nomination... but guess what?

Congrats to Mark McKinney for: Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series- Robson Arms Season 1 - Material Breach.



And congrats to New Brunswick's own Tony Sekulich who wrote the episode! Tony, my man!

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: I'm Your Man

Yeah, baby.

HOT FUZZ

Thanks to dave s. for sending me this link and this link to trailers for what I'm hoping will be the best thing to happen to cop movies since Shaun of the Dead happened to Zombie movies.

From the folks who brought you the fantastic SPACED.

More Studio 60...

You know you've got this new girlfriend. And she's really smart, really funny and really pretty... but your friends all hate her.

Why?

Because she won't stop looking in the mirror and tossing her fucking hair!

Your favourite Television Scene

Callaghan has a post asking folks to nominate their favourite scene from a television show.

It didn't take me long to pick mine.

Star Trek: TNG Episode #118.

"Cause and Effect".

The teaser.

The Enterprise is sailing along when out of nowhere comes this ship. They try to turn, to push it away, it's no use. The Enterprise collides with the ship and explodes into a billion pieces.

Holy Shit!

Studio 60 and the Simpsons' Turn

One of the great things about the Simpsons is that you don't really know what any episode will be about until ten minutes in. You think it'll be about Marge and the new toll road, but it turns out to be about who Homer's real father might be. I call this: The Simpsons Turn and I think I just saw one on #104 of Studio 60.

I'm sure there are many better writers than me out there that saw the turn coming. But when I watch some shows the critical software turns off, and the act turn totally surprised me. There I was thinking, it was going to be about Matt and Harriet and knowing that he was going to see her and her new beau smooching, and wondering how Sorkin was going to make that fresh. Or it was going to be about Ricky and Ron and "the piece" and, what, were they gonna take credit for it? How were they going to try and turn this small success to their advantage?

Nope. With that act turn discovery, they made the episode gave our hero's their monkey paw wish: Ron and Ricky are offering to quit and Matt gets shaken out of his Harriet slump and is given a reason to concentrate on the show.

And not only that, the Turn actually gave the last piece of the show's theme puzzle-- what does it mean to call something "yours", and in doing so gave me a new way to think about writing About Something.

The show ended a little neatly for my taste but, I gotta say, Best Episode Yet.

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: The Departed

YES!

BattleStar Galactica this Saturday

Just a reminder, for those who need it. Season Three of BSG begins this Saturday, October 7th, on Space here in Canada.

The Best Television of the last 25 years

Over at Scanners they're having a discussion about the best films of the last 25 years. Lots of great fodder for discussion.

But what about television?

I think there's a case to be made that we're entering a new age of great television. Over the past five years I think we've seen some of the best television ever... and, as it makes a kind of sense, some of the worst.

How 'bout it... what is your top TV pick from the last 25 years... Or your top five. Let's put this in a little perspective. 25 years ago tonight I could have been watching: One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, CHiPs... maybe looking forward to the ABC or NBC Sunday Night movie... A little later in the week my "must see TV" would include: WKRP, Mork and Mindy, Magnum PI, and that Saturday Night killer combo "The Love Boat" then, "Fantasy Island."

Canadian shows I'd watch during fall 1981? SCTV, for sure. The production values were getting really good and Martin Short was introducing all kinds of new characters to the show. This is the Law (the other quinessential canadian "game show" after Front Page Challenge). The Irish Rovers...what the hell? I wasn't a kid, but I definitely remember watching... and enjoying it! But not much in the way of "canadian drama." The King of Kensington...maybe... if I had to.

How's that for perspective.

That's the season where we begin. Let's start with the "best" or "most influential" or "favourite"... then we can follow up with the guilty pleasures, best canadian, etc.

For me, top ten. In no particular order:

Twin Peaks (season one)
Band of Brothers
Seinfeld (season four)
The Simpsons (season four)
Six Feet Under (season one)
Deadwood (season one)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The West Wing (season one)
The Office
Star Trek: TNG (season five)

And I haven't even got into Good Rockin' Tonight!

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: Jackass II

Yes.

"Is he having a laugh?"

I just saw Season II Episode One of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Extras. It was a surprise. I'm not sure if it's going to please people but I enjoyed it and it made me excited to think where the series might possibly go.

As a writer, particularly when you're thinking about spec script, you're always looking to break the spine of a series. How is every episode of a show the same as every other episode. And I think I'd argue it's usually the things that are consistent in the shows you like that keep you coming back. And when a show messes with that-- they've either run out of ideas, or they've changed the show-runner, or they've lost their minds.

Ricky Gervais has obviously lost his mind. And that's an exciting thing for me. Last season I knew what every episode of Extras was going to be about more or less: Ricky is stuck with an bit part in some big movie, he tries to make something bigger for himself, he gets smacked down. I thought this season was going to be more of the same... But if this season's first episode is any indication what the show is going to be about is very different. It's seems it's about what happens when we get what we say we want.

I'll save spoilers for the comments sections so people can avoid them if they want.

Dave's Yes/No Movie Review: Jet Li's Fearless

Yes.