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December 07, 2007

Half time

Sorry for the late entry - it's been a busy week for those executive producer types, and hence it wasn't until late in the week that I got my chance to talk to showrunner Joseph Mallozzi, who penned tonights half-season cliff-hanger "This Mortal Coil" based on an episode concept by show creator Brad Wright. Truth be told, Joe's been holding down the executive producer duties while Paul has been off traipsing around Hawaii. But apparently it's been raining on the Big Island so there's no joy all around. But I digress. We were going to talk about This Mortal Coil.

Well, first off, a word about spoilers. I appreciate fandom. Heck, it makes the show go. And I know the fans are curious about upcoming episodes. But there's got to be a limit. I've met Darren and the Gateworld guys, and I appreciate what they do for the show. It's great that real fans can have a social networking site like that to discuss all things scifi (and not so scifi). But when you can go onto Gateworld a week before an episode and read a pretty accurate synopsis of the upcoming show, I just wonder if it's good for the viewer. Maybe I'm on an island here, but I just despise movie trailers that tell you the whole story so that there's no surprises left. So bah humbug.

Now, here's some spoilers!

Just kidding.

So I talked to Joe about writing This Mortal Coil. And he said, first off, that the script almost killed him. He's not being dramatic. I walked into his office one day when he was writing This Mortal Coil and looked at him and... he was nearly lifeless. There was a look in his eye that suggested the script was taking all... the.... life..... out .... of.... him. He could barely type. But he recovered. And talking to him about why the script was so hard actually gave me some insight on the job of the writer.

Joe described the act of writing a script like This Mortal Coil like playing a game of Jenga. You see, each episode's story is structured into acts. The acts are broken down into scenes, the scenes into beats, and the beats into dialogue and action. The whole script, and each scene, only works if it's in a rhythm, and the rhythm is dependent on who says what. The trick, especially in an episode like "This Mortal Coil", as you shall see, is to get the information out in the least expository way so the audience doesn't know they're being spoon-fed the information they need to understand the story. Examples of poor exposition: the end of every scooby doo, where Shaggy or Velma explains the backstory of the haunting (just before the villain says: "And I would have gotten away with it too, if not for those meddling kids.")

So anyway... Jenga. Joe writes the first draft. He pares it down so it's nice and tight and hums along in rhythm. He circulates it (actually that part was me) and receives feedback. And there's a lot of notes. Lots and lots. So he starts to try and incorporate the other writers' notes, which means pulling a piece out here and another piece out there... and ..... JENGA! The whole thing collapses. And he has to rebuild it. So there you go. Now, Joe does admit that unlike other writers he's one who gets a little too close to the script he's working on. But he knows as well as anyone WIlliam Faulkner's words still ring true: you have "kill all your darlings"; meaning, nothing is sacred when a writer takes to editing his own material. But hopefully this gives you some idea of the psychological discomfort that goes with writing. I pray you never have to suffer it.

Joe mentioned that Joel Goldsmith did an excellent job on the score. And, of course, we get our beloved Dr. Weir back for this episode.

Enjoy!

ATL

Posted by Alex Levine at 07:55 PM