Today’s question comes from Lew, who wastes no time:
I am past age 50 but love to write. Does TV discriminate age wise?
And here’s today’s answer, in which I also try to waste as little time as possible…because we get older each minute, right?
For the solid success of any creative property – whether it be for television, film, the stage, new media, or the printed form – it’s all about the writing; getting the story right (write!) and flushing out the proper development of the characters.
When it comes to the superhero genre, in particular, attaining the proper casting and wardrobe (i.e the costume) plays heavily into the creative process in very real, tangible and pertinent ways.
Disney/Marvel have hit the nail on the head with Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, if not with the X-Men film franchise, which was ignited by Bryan Singer (The First Class film featured atrocious casting and acting, while the earlier X-Men destroyed the colorful costumes, displayed so wonderfully in the comics and the animated TV series from the early 1990s.)
I don’t live in Seattle, but I’m close. All it takes for me to get there is a 45 minute drive and a 20 minute ferry ride. (Plus all the ferry waiting time. Aargh! But I’m not talking about that now.)
And I don’t live where I live because of the Seattle art scene. (Or any other art scene either, but I’m also not talking about that now.)
But…
Yep, that’s a direct quote – from Dan Harmon, of course. He’s already at it again.
Bashing Sony, we mean.
Ain’t it cool?
…But the post below is still worth reading cuz arguing about this shit is always fun:
by Craig FehrmanOur best TV shows may be more complex than ever, but our theory of their greatness has become utterly reductive: In this reputedly golden age of television, it all boils down to the showrunner, television’s own auteur.
According to this theory, the villain is a clueless suit, sending along absurd notes; the hero is the courageous iconoclast, ready to fight the tiniest battle. Here’s one example from the set of “Mad Men,” recounted in Alan Sepinwall’s recent book, The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers, and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever: A costume designer presented the perfect button-up dress for a love scene to showrunner Matthew Weiner. “Unzipping is sexier,” he replied—and off she went to find a new dress. Everyone seems to thrill at these stories of micromanaging prowess. It’s why novelists are trying to write cable pilots; why The Hollywood Reporterpublishes its annual “Top 50 Power Showrunners”; and why, in 2010, no less an outlet than Cahiers du Cinéma—the French publication that popularized the original film version of auteur theory—put “Mad Men” on its cover. This narrative has been reinforced by long magazine profiles of David Chase (showrunner for “The Sopranos”), David Simon (“The Wire”), David Milch (“Deadwood”), Shonda Rimes(“Scandal”), Lena Dunham (“Girls”), Liz Meriwether (“New Girl”), and others.