Marstersverse - Джеймс Марстерс

VasquezE(09/14/06 07:10:52)

Еще одна порция отчетов Helcat/ (Я не представляю себе, сколько же труда она вложила в эти отчеты! Спасибо Helcat!)

Al and Miles Q & A extra bit

Q – About how things have changed in television

A – Jerry Bruckheimer has got involved and all the movie producers have seen how much money can be made in TV so they’re all trying to develop shows now.

Q - About casting decisions that didn't work

A - Mentioned that they'd had Ian Sommerhalder (?sp) come on as a love interest for Lana and after a single episode it was clear it wasn't working. They then switched the role to one of a Lana stalker.

Writers Q & A extra bit

Q – What was he Jossverse term for the relationship between a vampire and a vampire they sired?

A – No one recalled ever having included a specific term in the show. Fury suggested siree. Jane mentioned child ‘spelled with a y or an e’ which amused both Fury and Steve. They all agreed Joss wouldn’t have liked that. There was a little discussion about the sire/grandsire situation regarding Spike and Angel. The questioner raised Andrew’s use of spawn in “Storyteller”. Jane said that was just Andrew making up his own terms and wasn’t by any means indicative of what Jossverse vampires were termed.

Jane’s Q & A

Q – Why does she report what she’s had for lunch on her blog

A – When her web person set the site up she wrote that Jane would be discussing everything from her writing to what she had for lunch and Jane just thought that was a wonderful idea and thus has been doing it.

Q – Drama or comedy

A – She loves both. However she’s just done a Battlestar Galactica script which has reinvigorated her love of drama. In drama you can also add more comedy while it’s hard to add drama to comedy. There are also very few comedy jobs at the moment and which makes it harder to break into that as most of the jobs go to writers who the studios have deals with.

Q – About her current project

A – She’s now working on a new Andy Richter project which is based on the idea that he gets mistaken for a private eye and ends up being one. It’s due for mid-season on NBC who she has a deal with.

Q – Does she prefer writing for long running or new shows best

A – The long running shows as the characters have established histories which she finds more interesting to explore.

Q – About her studying linguistics in college

A – She’d always wanted to be a writer but didn’t know how to get into the business so she’d done linguistics. While in college she heard about submitting spec scripts and started doing that and felt she was returning to her first love.

Q – What happened to “Jake in Progress”

A – It was picked up for a second season specifically to partner ‘Emily’s Reason’s Why Not’. When that show bombed on its first showing and was pulled there was no real place for Jake. It wasn’t officially cancelled though until the network announced it’s fall schedule which was odd. She also claims that because of the disaster of “Emily’s Reasons Why Not” a cable show in development had its name changed from “Emily’s Eyes” to “Angela’s Eyes”.

Q – Working in the jossverse vs. working on other shows

A – She loved working with Joss. She loved the way he developed his shows and the writers never got to the point where they could see where he would take a story. She has also loved working on Battlestar Galactica. She was told there that the creator likes to be surprised and if he likes some plot development in your script he’s prepared to change other scripts to incorporate the idea.

Q – Can a genre show be mass appeal

A – She doesn’t think so. You can get a show like Lost which has a large audience but you don’t have Lost conventions which she thinks is because it isn’t until an audience feels it’s a select group that they bond together that way.

Q – What one thing in the Buffyverse would she change if she could

A – Spike’s soul quest. They tried to be too clever and do a mislead and instead of clearly showing that Spike chose to go get a soul because of being so horrified at what he’d done it appeared as if he was tricked. She thinks that uncertainty made it much harder to redeem Spike than it should have been.

Q – How she got involved in a book of essays about Buffy

A – She was asked to write an introduction which she agreed to do and then they asked if she’d also act as editor. She is amazed by some of the analyses she reads of scripts especially when they’re of her lines as they make a lot of lines she threw in with no thought as to deeper meaning.

Q – Do things turn out on screen as she expected or does she get frustrated

A – She has no urge to direct. For her the job is done when she hands in the script, if there was a way just to hold a script up for the camera and film it she’d be happy. Mostly things come out as she anticipated and the only episode she could think of that didn’t was “Band Candy” if only because it was her first Buffy script and she wasn’t used to how things were done.

Q – Writers block

A – She doesn’t have time to get stuck so the time pressures mean you just have to press on regardless.

Q - About the big picture elements of writing vs. craft of writing

A - She keeps coming back to the craft aspect as that often takes up most of the time. When your writing for television you don't have time to worry about the big picture and being a good television writer is as much to do with knowing how to write a compact script.

Q – Plans for the future

A – She’s written a pilot which she’s really hopeful for and thinks we’d love. When asked if there might be a role for James in it she said absolutely.

David Fury Q & A (beginning only)

Q – Favourite characters to write for

A – On Buffy started out as Xander but ended up preferring characters like Spike. On Lost loved writing for Locke because Terry O’Quinn was amazing and the character was so interesting. Also liked writing for Jorge as his character was the really funny one and he did so much with the funny lines. It’s harder on 24 because it’s so plot driven. He could say Chloe because she has one or two quips an episode but mostly it’s stuff to do with the plot and what’s happening to Jack which doesn’t make for a fun character to write.

Q – Do the producers on “Lost” know the answer to all the mysteries

A – No. They have some things worked out but mostly it’s a juggling act and they decide on things as they go along to increase the intrigue and aren’t really concerned as to how they’ll explain them later.

Q – About Spike and the attempted rape scene

A – It was needed to demonstrate that unsouled Spike was not a good guy and wasn’t a good partner for Buffy. If Spike could be good just through wanting to be it undermined Angel’s story. Spike was an anomaly in the vampire world though because he somehow retained some humanity after being vamped rather like his mother.

Q – Humour in 24

A – He misses it but it really doesn’t fit into the show and they just won an emmy so clearly they know what they’re doing.

Q – About the possibilities of a 24 film

A – It’s being worked on and it wouldn’t be in real time as that would be a very long film

Q – Did he prefer acting or writing

A – He’s basically a frustrated actor. He loves having a chance to act and was grateful that he had the opportunity on Buffy and Angel.

Q – Any help on writing English roles

A – Not really. Tony Head would put them right on some things (eg you don’t spell bollocks like that) but mostly he relied on having watched Monty Python in the past. The questioner explained the meaning of starkers to him and how that changed the meaning of the scene Spike used it in. Fury asked if he had written that line, when told no, said of course he knew what it really meant and it was just ridiculous that someone could misuse it like that!

Q – Writing for the Jossverse in particular

A – Joss showed him the key was the emotional truths. Without those Lineage for example is just an episode about a bunch of ninjas and a magic stick.

Steve De Knight Q & A (beginning only)

Q – As a writer did he know the actors would struggle with Seeing Red and what as a writer can you do when that happens

A – They did know that the bathroom scene would be tough on James and especially on Sarah. He was on the set for it and thought everyone did really well with the scene. He also stressed that at this point in the show he was still very junior. He ran through the hierarchy of writers (story editor, executive story editor which both are listed in the end credits, then producer, supervising producer who go in the opening credits) so really did what he was told. Marti came up with the story and she was also a woman so he felt she knew what she was getting them in to. He reiterated the idea that it was necessary for the development of Spike to show he couldn’t really be good without a soul.

Q – How did he get into screen writing

A – He’d always wanted to do it. He got a job writing for MTV’s “Undressed” which was awful. His agent was working out of her bathtub. He wrote a spec script for Buffy which he gave to his agent who sent it on to the head of ME at the time who was one of the few people his agent knew in Hollywood. The script was about Xander getting slayer strength and through that demonstrating why slayers were women in the first place because men couldn’t deal with the power. The ME person got back to him and told him he loved the script but would have to give it to Joss and Joss hated all Buffy spec scripts. Later he got a call from Joss inviting him for a meeting (he did a very good impression of Joss during this) about possibly doing the animated Buffy series. They had a meeting at which Joss offered him a job on Buffy proper which was wonderful for Steve.

Steve De Knight and Dee Dee Bradley Q & A (end only)

Q – About James coming onto Smallville

SDK – Al Gough and Miles Millar came into the writing room and said that as he’d worked with James what did he think about James joining the show. He told them to sign the papers right away. Not only was James a wonderful actor but he also had a great love of acting and brought a real energy to the set as he so clearly loves working. He said that this was actually unusual with actors as many seem very unhappy having to be on the set. He told an old joke of how to make an actor miserable – make them a star.

DDB – Because James was offered the role without needing to audition Dee Dee hadn’t actually ever met James until this weekend.

Q – How do actors get auditions

DDB – The shows tell her what roles they need casting. She sends out a ‘breakdown’ which goes to all agents and then agents and managers contact her if they think their clients would be good. She then sees those she thinks look promising and it goes from there. She tries to throw in some unexpected options ie bringing in an actress for a male role or a black actor when the role specifies white. She noted that the role she cast for Tony Todd on Smallville was originally written for a white guy in his 30s.

Q – How to break in to Hollywood

DDB – You need someone who believes in you. By law only agents can get you work but in reality managers also do that. The most important thing is to find someone who believes in you and will work for you.

Q – Casting Smallville

DDB – It’s hard when you are so restricted by the pre-conceived ideas about the role. Clark for instance had to be played by a particular type of looking actor though they did audition some African American actors for the role.

SDK- He thought Michael Rosenbaum as Lex was interesting because he’d only seen him in comedy roles and hadn’t expected him to be so good as a villain.

Q - How much does Dee Dee know about plots for Veronica Mars

DDB – Very little, the producers are very secretive about what they have coming up

Q – Quoted Patrick Stewart saying his carreer was limited by being famous for a role on a sci fi show and a syndicated one at that.

A – Neither Dee Dee or Steve seemed to think Patrick Stewart would have any problem being cast in anything. They didn’t see that there was a bias against genre actors and really it was all to do with being a good actor or not. Steve talked about some earlier sci-fi film Patrick Stewart had done which was amazingly good.

Q – About physical and regional stereotyping in casting

DDB – They try to fight against it but it certainly does happen. Because of the process of casting a lot of decisions are based purely on looks so if producers don’t like the look of an actor they can veto the casting.

Q - John Glover said that the final script for season 5 changed at the last minute what happened?

SDK - Stressed he was on vacation that week. It was mostly a matter of having to change things to cut costs. However because Al and Miles were off shooting Aquaman in Florida the changes came later on than usual for a script. He was still amazed at how good the finale looked and thought the writers did a great job.

Q - Thoughts on the CW.

SDK - No one really knows what it will be like. It killed a lot of pilots including Aquaman and one that Steve had pitched. Both Dee Dee and Steve really liked the Aquaman pilot and were very disappointed to see it fail.

Q - What actors bring to roles

DDB - The best thing in casting is when an actor brings something totally unexpected to a role and it just comes to life in front of you.