JaneEspenson.com

I love it when people write in with concerns I never would’ve thought of. We all know the frustration of having some question that everyone else seems to know the answer to, so it’s never even discussed in the books.

Gentle Reader Carrie writes in with one of those questions. She asks:

After reading about copyrights regarding song lyrics not long ago, I got to wondering if there might be any copyrights associated with place names? For instance, let’s say San Francisco. Is there process I would need to go through to use a certain place in a script, or would it be okay to just plunk a story down in the middle of any given town?

Plunk! Plunk away! You can set your show anywhere you want, without fear of legal problems. From San Francisco to the Pope’s bedroom, you can use it all without fear.

Your main concern about setting should have to do with (imaginary, for a spec script) shooting expense. I mean that if you had a big exterior shot in which your actors have to interact with some big iconic piece of the landscape that cannot be recreated on a soundstage, that you might have a problem. For example, if your script called for your hero to blast through the canals of Venice on a jet ski, well, that sounds a bit pricey and it might be off-putting to a reader looking to see if you can write to a TV-sized budget.

The only other setting problem I can think of regarding locations is that U.S. network television has been traditionally wary of shows set overseas, but I’m not sure that should stop you from writing a London-set spec pilot (or wherever), if you’ve got a seriously brilliant idea. Just be aware of the bias because, again, it might, might, make a reader peg you as unsophisticated in terms of the preferences of the market.

Lunch: avocado, lettuce, tomato on olive bread. Too much mayo, but good.

Friend-of-the-Blog Jeff sent me this link which I’m delighted to find references not only an interesting script style, but also a couple mentions of moi-self. Heh!

The issue is the use of earthy expletives in the non-dialog portions of your script. Apparently this is done with frequency and enthusiasm over at Lost. There is some talk in the referenced piece about whether or not this is a good thing. Someone speculates there that I might not approve. Well, it depends. I like a script to have force and energy and enthusiasm. I dislike scripts that read like gas grill assembly instructions. And these certainly look like scripts with verve. If I were on that staff, I think I’d probably have fun varying my style by tossing in a few zesty words.

Friend-of-the-blog Jeff raises the even more important issue, however. What if you’re writing a Lost spec? Should you follow the general rule of making it look like a produced script, and thus “fuck” if all up? Or should you avoid the dirty talk?

My inclination is to either refrain, or to split the difference. If you’re comfortable doing so, you can certainly write your stage directions with rather more punch than you might otherwise do, perhaps even get profane here and there. But be very careful about going overboard, because while there is little cost to avoiding the profanity, there might be a big one to overdoing it. And I’m not talking about easily offended readers. I don’t think that’s the hazard. I’m talking about coming across as flippant about the contents of your own script.

Joss never liked it when Buffy was referred to as “camp,” because that word suggests a style that doesn’t take its characters seriously, and we always took our characters very seriously. Similarly, you don’t want to seem to be making fun of all the people and actions in your spec script, and if you think about how a script with flip and exaggerated stage directions might read, I think you’ll see how it could easily give that impression.

Lunch: those darn stuffed jalapenos at Jack In The Box again. I can’t stay away!

Someone reminded me, yesterday, of this moment from “The African Queen.” My recollection was that there was a moment in which, even in a tense situation, Katharine Hepburn’s character was charmingly concerned about having possibly used the wrong word. Just now I looked up the relevant exchange.

They’re talking about repairing a broken boat part — about how to reattach it after it’s fixed.

He laughs again. At first, Rose is afraid that his laugh is
caused by desperation, but when she sees that it is not, she
laughs with him.

This is an amazing example of sneaking character moments into plot moments. This is my favorite kind of writing in the world. They’re focused on finding a solution to their problem. Really, really focused, and yet look at all the character stuff — first, it says something about her that she misses the irony, and then there’s more character because she’s embarrassed about having possibly used the wrong word, and EVEN MORE about her that she thinks the two of them can attempt a solution on such a large scale. On his side, we get to see, first, his ironic inclination, and then his reaction to all those quirks of hers that I just mentioned. My god, this is dense. (Also note the wonderfully specific stage direction at the end. Perfect.)

Analyzing it that way makes it look impossible to write, I know. But it’s not. Just always think, even when you’ve got characters frantically pushing through the moves of your story… always think about what they’re really thinking and feeling, especially about the other characters in the scene, and let them express it in some little way. Are they nervous or confident? Who feels subservient to whom? Is someone playing dumb, being coy, or trying to impress? If you let those considerations come out in how they talk, you’re going to end up with lovely dense character-rich exchanges even when the plot is galloping along.

Lunch: chicken quesadilla

Guess what happened in the room today? The nature of the episode we were breaking caused someone to say, “Hey, you know what we should do? Go back and look at the show bible!” So, well, there you go. Sometimes it really is used in the room. How ’bout that?

Lunch: grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup.

Gentle Reader Julie in New Jersey writes in to ask about show bibles. She wants to know how they’re organized, what exactly is in them, whether they’re ever published for the general public, whether they’re updated as the show continues, etc. These are all great questions.

My impression is that this varies. Not all shows have bibles, and when they do, they can look very different. There is no standard format. In fact, there is no standard function.

Once, years ago, I got my hand on a copy of the “Frasier” show bible, and it was a wonderful and meticulous document that was scrupulously maintained to reflect everything known about the characters and their history. If something was established on air — the name of Frasier’s mother, Niles’ favorite professor, Martin’s favorite bar, it was reflected in the bible which then served as a resource for the writers to keep everything consistent. I remember with particular delight a list of Maris’ food allergies that must have been fifty items long.

That’s the only bible I’ve seen that worked that way, though. (It may be a half-hour vs. hour distinction.) The other ones I’ve come across (and there have only been a couple) have generally been sales documents used to help a television network or studio understand a new show, and are sometimes given to new writers as they join the staff, for the same reason. They discuss the characters, especially their back stories, and the world of the show. In the sales document version, essentially a much-expanded pitch, there may be a discussion of plot lines projected into the future of the show, perhaps in the “season one will be about…” form. But since shows often take off in unexpected directions, this kind of feature is quickly outdated and irrelevant. It’s possible that a bible may contain some firecracker of information about the way the creator envisions the eventual end of the series, but since everything is subject to change, that firecracker may be a dud. Especially if the fuse was lit many years earlier.

I haven’t seen this kind of bible get updated as a show continues. This means that they often contain information about the characters or their world that has been changed by subsequent scripts and is no longer valid.

Often, shows rely on their writers’ assistants or script coordinators to be walking bibles, in that they’re often tasked with remembering or researching questions like, “What did we name our lead character’s childhood pet hamster?” or “How much time passed between episodes two and three?”

Julie asks if show bibles contain “rules” for how that particular series’ universe operates. Yes, this is one of the things a bible can contain. I haven’t looked at it for a while, but I remember that the Battlestar bible has lots of detailed explanation for how the ship itself operates, including the function of various features of the hangar deck, and a discussion of the technical language used by the pilots, and even a neat little essay on why it’s not plausible for anyone to abscond with a viper.

As you’ve probably gathered, show bibles sound really cool — and they can be — but they just aren’t as important as you might think to the daily life of the staff. The truth is that once you’re living inside a show, you’re swimming as fast as you can from one island to the next, and there is neither the time nor the need to record decisions that have been made (these are in the scripts), or that are in the process of being made (these are in the notes taken in the room as the writers work).

I don’t know for certain of any show bibles that have been published the way that scripts are sometimes collected and published. If anyone has done this, it would probably be one of the Trek series. Let me run to Amazon… Yes, it looks like a version of the Voyager bible is included in the “Star Trek Voyager Companion.” You might want to look at that, Julie and other interested parties, to run your eyes across one of these in the flesh.

If I receive any emails from my friends on various shows saying that what I’ve written here doesn’t reflect the role of a bible on their show, I will let you know.

Lunch: avocado, lettuce and tomato on olive bread. The olive bread tends to dominate.

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »