Bab 12: Drama selection
Opposite Lynn's bar, there is a seemingly inconspicuous film company: this company has at most ten people and has only made one film. In Hollywood, there are so many such film companies, and many of them were established to shoot a movie, and since then, they have ceased to exist. The same is true for this film company called Enigma. The company hadn't been in business for as long as one could remember for nearly a month, and to many, it appeared to have gone out of business. However, on this day, Enigma Company once again opened the door. Several young people began to discuss their work inside until the sun was about to sink into the horizon, and everything around them was stained with the afterglow of the setting sun. They still need to finish discussing the work at hand.
"200,000 is not enough to make us happy! We need an order for further pilot episodes, and that money makes us sigh of relief. Guys, we have to find a way to get the order. This is our biggest job right now."
From the moment he came to the company, Levi has directly stated the critical points of the discussion: the US TV series market is not large, and the four major US TV networks add up to only around 100 pilot episodes in total. With a script production fee of 200,000 dollars, you will still get a trial broadcast opportunity. How to make a TV series so that the TV network can adopt it is a big problem. "First of all, we have to have a good script. We must determine what we want to shoot to make a good drama series. So, the question is, what kind of theme should we write about in our script?"
Bob's enthusiasm for work is much higher than Levi imagined. Among the several partners, only Bob has experience in writing scripts before. Now that everyone wants to create together, Bob is naturally the most active, "Crime dramas, supernatural dramas, medical dramas, sci-fi dramas, horror, these are the types you can choose."
The first thing to determine when writing a script is the division of script types. Only when several people think about the same kind of script can it be possible to create a successful script? Otherwise, we will part ways if we each believe in our way.
"What you're talking about is drama." Alexander interjected, "Who of you didn't overlook something?"
"Alex, we just encountered difficulties, and it's not time to give up on the future. We can't touch things like sitcoms and soap operas." Sitting beside him, Michael retorted.
Levi didn't say a word; he just listened to their conversation with great interest. He knew exactly what these people were discussing. When Bob talked, he directly filtered out the two most significant categories of sitcoms and daytime soap operas. This is where Alexander raised objections. However, Michael explained that kind of thing they won't touch. It's not without reason for him to think so.
There are many kinds of TV dramas in the United States, and the broadcast time is also different. Among them, daytime soap operas are broadcast to housewives without jobs who rest at home. Generally, the broadcast time is during the daytime. The main content is super chaotic emotional relationships, such as adultery, bad debts, and third-party involvements. Anyway, it's just for people who have nothing to do to kill time. This kind of thing is tedious, leading to this kind of TV series. Except for housewives or extremely boring people, not many people are willing to watch it. In "Friends," Joey himself is a soap opera actor. When he was interviewed and asked what soap operas he likes to watch, he would say, 'I have my own life; I'm not that boring.'
They all understand that even if they are filming TV dramas, they cannot shoot soap operas: there is a big difference between daytime soap operas and TV dramas. In TV dramas, there will be about 24 episodes in a year. But daytime soap operas are different. Soap operas have one episode a day, five episodes a week, coming to about 260 episodes per year. Shooting TV dramas only takes up part of people's energy, but if shooting soap operas, then a few people don't have to do anything; they shoot soap operas every day.
Moreover, because soap operas are easy to produce, they are likely to be extended indefinitely. Once infected by them, it isn't easy to get out. The long-lived American soap opera "Days of our lives" has compiled more than 11,000 episodes. It started broadcasting in 1965 and has continued for 40 years. The CBS TV series "Guiding Light" aired a total of 72 seasons, with as many as 18,262 episodes-some TV series are very long and attractive, but some are so long that people will lose the number of episodes at a glance.
These things are endlessly sticky, the story is monotonous and old-fashioned, and the plot itself is not strong, so shooting these things is not very interesting. Although the small company of a few people is at a low ebb now, what the few people want is to rise again. They want to shoot some outstanding works to attract the attention of others instead of relying on TV dramas to make a living from now on. They naturally don't think about things that don't reflect their creative ability.
The other one that was excluded was sitcoms. Sitcoms are for everyone's entertainment. The highlight is that the lines are funny, and the plot setting should be simple. There are only two or three sets after hundreds of episodes for indoor dramas. The characters often need to sacrifice their IQ for the plot. You can be happy as long as the audience watches; no one takes what happens seriously. These attributes determine that the work of filming such a TV series is also effortless. Producing these works naturally won't attract much attention.
Since you want to show your ability and let film producers invest in making movies for you, you can only rely on those soap operas with plots or funny dramas that rely on lines to amuse children. If you want to shoot TV dramas, you must rely on dramas with excellent stories and fascinating shooting techniques to win.
"What we shoot has to be a drama—it has to be a drama for the Emmy Awards. Put aside sitcoms or such; we will never be able to create that thing in our lives. We need a drama—crime drama, sci-fi drama, medical drama, ghost drama, school drama; now we need to consider which type of thing to shoot."
There are more than these drama categories, but these are the categories that a few people can film. In other types of TV dramas, a few young people can't play them. The historical ones are all significant investments, and the political ones are likely to touch the red line. It's better not to think about those things. Without that capital and network, it would be impossible to shoot that thing.
"Let's rule out the school drama first. It won't do us any good if this thing is filmed." Clark hesitated and spoke first. As soon as he said this, several people agreed with his statement.
Among these types of TV series, campus drama is another type that can be easily thrown away. Good dramas can be filmed if the actors are handsome enough because filming school dramas requires not shooting techniques but mostly attractive men and beautiful women. Throw two or three handsome men and beauties over, and then they love each other, lie to each other, and when there is nothing left to do, rearrange and reorganize, change the combination, and continue to love and continue to cheat. This kind of TV series has low requirements for the editor, and a few people will find it naturally.
"So, which of the remaining genres can we exclude?" Bob raised his head and asked, "I suggest excluding sci-fi and supernatural. These two categories don't make much sense." "Can't science fiction stories work?" Levi asked back.
"Now is not the golden age of the Big Three. The quality of sci-fi works is not as high as that of Asimov's. Moreover, this is especially true in the TV drama industry. Too many sci-fi and supernatural stories are unsatisfactory. It's just stuff made up of fantasies that can't be explained. Too many random things have been made up for the story's needs. And these cost too much money and make it very difficult to attract investment. Whether it's science fiction or supernatural, the quality of the shooting depends largely on the amount of investment. Don't think about it if you don't have enough money." Unexpectedly, it was Alexander who was familiar with this. Although he doesn't know much about creation, he is very clear about funding issues.
The biggest problem with sci-fi and supernatural TV dramas is that sometimes the producers are too foolish. As the story progresses, the settings will often be changed at will. Such a thing is not worth much to shoot. And the effect of such a TV series depends on the amount of investment. If you pay more and the special effects are sound, you can produce a good TV series. If you don't pay much, then it's nothing.
"Then, there are two choices left. Medical drama and crime drama." Bob said, "But that's okay; these two are the biggest categories."
"It's also the two most difficult categories to shoot." Alexander said," 'Law and Order' and 'ER,' these two works are now recognized as the top level of this type of TV series, both in terms of word-of-mouth and ratings, they are unparalleled. It is tough to shoot this type of TV series. It is easy to be suspected of imitating these two, and it is challenging to surpass them."
Levi has long been known for these two NBC TV series. Now that Alexander mentioned it, he immediately agreed, "That's right, it is indeed difficult to surpass 'ER.' Some TV series have epoch-making significance, and this one is like that. The theme of the TV series is 'professional' and 'humanity,' and it will be challenging for future TV series to surpass it. In a sense, this TV series is a regal show—a show that cannot be surpassed."
"What about 'Law and Order'?" Clark seemed to hear something, "You mean, 'Law and Order' can surpass it?" "'Law and Order' is indeed a good TV series, but there are still some gaps between this and the epoch-making TV series. I have an idea that can surpass this TV series and have an epoch-making significance for the development of the entire crime drama. Levi laughed, "I already have an idea; the name of the idea is CSI - Crime Scene Investigation."
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