“Emmys 2011: 10 War Stories From the Writing Trenches”
From THR:
TV scribes are likely the most put- upon of all writers. They not only create the blood and guts of their shows, but many also lead the charge in the writers room, troubleshoot on the set and, in one case, direct, edit and produce. (Looking at you, Louie.) Here, this year’s 14 nominated scribes reflect on their toughest creative moments, the power of comic relief and how The Real Housewives can be a terrible distraction.
Some excerpts:
Greg Daniels
The Office “Goodbye, Michael”
“My favorite scene from ‘Goodbye, Michael’ is a talking-head interview with Michael [Steve Carell] just after he has given Oscar [Oscar Nunez] his going-away present, a pathetic homemade burlap doll, which Oscar receives with great seriousness. We cut to Michael, who is laughing so hard he can barely breathe over Oscar’s low opinion of him. Michael shows the top of his intelligence here: He is aware people think he’s sometimes stupid, and he can play with it and laugh about it. Steve has an incredibly infectious laugh, and it is impossible not to be carried along when he really goes for it, providing a great moment of joy that this somewhat sad episode really needed. Also, for me over the seven years, those interview segments in his office were the most intimate scenes that I did with Steve. I would sit just off to the side of the camera and ask him questions, and he would look at me and often improvise. This scene was shot early in the week, and when Steve left to prepare for the next scene, director Paul Feig and I looked at each other and realized at the same time that, without anywhere near the appropriate fanfare, we had just shot Michael’s very last talking-head.”
Steve Levitan, Jeffrey Richman
Modern Family “Caught in the Act”
Levitan: “The story idea came to me after my wife and I realized that our daughter had walked in on us [having sex]. We didn’t say anything for a while about it; we just let it hang there for a bit. I brought it up at dinner one night with my daughter in a fun, joking way, and she said, ‘Oh yeah, that was horrible.’ I keep hearing from people who were involved in one side or the other, and it is apparently much more common than any of us realized. The other funny thing I’ve heard was because Modern Family is a show that a lot of families watch together, it creates some awkward moments. Everyone felt a bit closer after that episode or totally creeped out.”
Richman: “I accidentally spilled wine on a friend’s expensive rug then tried to turn the rug so that the stain was hidden under a piece of furniture. That was the genesis of the Mitchell [Jesse Tyler Ferguson] and Cam [Eric Stonestreet] story. At one point, we had the boys move the rug, and then we decided that was an unlikable quality. After having pitched the story from my life and finding out I had done something so unlikable, to have actual characters on television do that, I realized America wouldn’t like them. That made me think twice about what to pitch next time.”
David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
Game of Thrones “Baelor”
“Originally we planned on shooting a large-scale battle scene. Tyrion [Peter Dinklage] rallies his troops and leads them into the fray. As we neared the end of the shooting calendar, though, we realized the battle wasn’t going to work. We didn’t have the money for all the extras and VFX work, we didn’t have the shooting days to cover all the various set pieces properly, and Belfast in December gets about eight hours of daylight. So we had to come up with something else, fast. We ended up with a drinking game involving three of our favorite characters: Tyrion, Bronn [Jerome Flynn] and Shae [Sibel Kekilli]. Aside from a few nighttime scenes becoming daytime scenes, there were no drastic changes from the final shooting script. One of the reasons we love working with [director] Alan Taylor is that the scenes remain true to our conception but also mysteriously become much better. In the drinking-game scene, we were nervous about shooting nine pages in a tent. However, with those actors and that director, we could’ve set a whole episode there. But we are probably most proud of the execution scene. It was key to the whole season. It was complicated because it involved crowds and CG backgrounds. Typically we don’t have time for writer’s block. There’s too much to write and revise, in addition to producing duties. Because of the complexity of the schedule — this season, we’re shooting in three different countries with 150 speaking roles — we have to shoot scheduled scenes on the scheduled days. That means the writing deadlines are merciless. If one of us stalls, the other has to shove the car down the road. If both of us stall out? Luckily, that hasn’t happened yet.”
For more of the article, go here.