everybody’s a critic.(c) BK
транскрипт встречи Shawn Postoff и Michael Perlmutter с фанатами на каф коне 2006
читать дальшеШона, и то, что он говорил на этом коне у меня мы обсуждали в прошлом апреле тут moveforever.diary.ru/p156339569.htm
теперь, благодаря Daisylita-qf это можно прочитать в переводе на русский yurkuna.diary.ru/p171023119.htm
транскрипт этот, как бы полный, я обещала выложить когда писала про музыку в скринерх (в нем Michael Perlmutter, ответственный за музыку, в частности говорит и об этом), но привычно отвлеклась, а сейчас мне про него напомнила
ripplesofinnersea, выложив интервью с ним тут pay.diary.ru/~ripplesofinnersea/p172354995.htm
объяснила путано, но надеюсь, кому надо, поймут))
собственно транскрипт:
Shawn/Michael
Richard: So let’s start off with what are you both doing now? What are you doing with your lives? What have you been doing since QAF ended?
Shawn: Well I’m unemployed. I’m not on a regular show. As a writer you always have to have something to keep the balls in play & keep hoping that one of them will score and a couple of them are getting toward the goal area but um nothing yet.
Richard: Last year I remember you said you wanted to take the time to do some of your own writing to get into that so any regrets?
Shawn: No
Richard: Okay good so it’s all going the way you wanted
Shawn: It’s going very well, um I guess that’s the most promising thing right now is a network out in L.A it’s one of the 3 gay networks I deal with. They actually called me in and said we want our own signature gay show, we want our QAF. 3 boys in New York trying to make it as actors called Triple Threat, and they loved it. “We’re moving very fast on it Shawn” and of course a year and a half later. *laughter* It’s moving they’ve got the second draft now the ball is in their court for the pilot and hopefully this summer we’ll be shooting the pilot. So my fingers are crossed, and hopefully I’ll have my own show.
Richard: Are you ready Michael?
Michael: I’ve been waiting for this day.
Richard: Marking the days off with big X’s on your calendar.
Laughter
Michael: I was working for a company…for a long time a marquee show and I left the company last June and just doing some stuff on my own and taking some time off. I haven’t been selling off everything I own like some people. I’ve been working managing a band hip hop duo that’s going to have a record coming out on a UK label called Global Underground. The band is called …. Like everybody knows everything it’s really deep and dark. I’m trying to create a TV series based around emerging musicians
Richard: So things are kind of happening. It’s a reality show?
Michael: No it’s not a reality show, putting a bunch of bands together the band will have to collaborate. I’m working on a few other different projects.
Introduces Stacy worked on fifth season of QAF
Richard: Now we need a tiny bit of gossip. Is there any gossip? Who did we have yesterday? We learned who needed to trim; we got all sorts of good dirt.
Shawn: Patrick is the one to ask. Now the writers we were sequestered in our own little room, with a skull and crossbones on the door.
Richard: Okay, so were you happy with the way it all played out? Were you happy with the way it all ended? *laughter*
Unidentified Attendee: Your answer is a matter of life and death.
Brit: You’re kind of taking your life in your own hands.
Shawn: I certainly understand, I feel good about where it ended I felt that it was a mature ending. It felt right when you’re dealing with first love With Justin and Brian, they were both each other’s first love and as fabulous and enthralling as a first love is it’s also not always the most mature kind of love it’s also not the most nourishing kind of love that you can get from a relationship, it can’t clarify… what love should be and all that kind of stuff. It felt right to me that they left on a parting note yet still acknowledging that they will always love each other because when I think about my first love I still love him I haven’t spoken with him in over 4 years we lost touch but there’s a special place in my heart that is his and my current husband knows that and accepts that. And so…
Richard: Current husband? How many have you had? *laughter* We have Elizabeth Taylor up here.
Shawn: Um yeah so anyway what I’m saying is that they were each other’s first love they had a fabulous love and they will always love each other, but that does not necessarily mean that they will be together and that makes perfect sense to me. I know it doesn’t make for great series finale and fireworks but it made sense to me.
Richard: You came to the very first con and then you left and went back to the real world did you take back ideas and stuff like that. How did that con, umm did that play a role into anything that you participated in with the writing? And then after the last con again did you take anything back?
Shawn: The question being did I bring back to the table new reconnaissance from the con?
Richard: Yeah
Shawn: No. I didn’t need to tell them that, they knew. Sheila Hockins, a producer from Showtime would peruse the boards; they knew what was going on.
They knew what the fandom was saying what they loved and what they hated and Ron and Dan quite frankly didn’t want to do it. They didn’t care, it was their show they had a particular kind of story they wanted to tell.
(I think Richard said they were god or something. Then laughter.)
Michael: Can I ask a question? What are these shirts everybody is wearing? (Looks At The HORS)
Shawn: These are the HORS.
Madam: It’s an internet community.
Shawn: House of the Rising Sun. Don’t Ask Me How I Know That!
Madam: We were the number one thread on the sho.boards for the last three years and we have several internet communities.
Richard: They are total Brian and Justin lovers and they are not happy with you.
Madam: There are lines out of our thread, it could be coincidental but the last line of QAF was something I had written in the opening of my thread during the season 3 hiatus and during all of season 4. The Gloria Gaynor line. It was amusing to see it end up in 513 of Queer As Folk.
Shawn: Ron and Dan claim they didn’t read the threads.
Madam: They read the threads. You have people who monitor them, we all know that. It was obvious.
Shawn: I don’t know. Season 5 my last episode was 7. I was still in the room contributing but I had no input into 12 and 13.
Madam: 507?
Shawn: 5 and 7
Madam: I didn’t mind 507; I wanted him to leave… He needed to leave.
Richard: I love this, I have no idea what you guys are talking about except that 507 was an episode but the fact that he wore a blue shirt and he walked out.
Madam: He needed to leave. He was wearing the white jacket.
Shawn: It’s a blur, what stands out for me when I think back to those episodes are critical lines that I wrote that I felt were strong that weren’t cut.
Some of them obviously were cut.
Madam: It’s a year later now; you said that you identified with Justin more last year. I think you said at the last convention you feel he’s the character you identify more with is that still the case and why?
Shawn: I feel that because he was the youngest character on the show I was the youngest writer in the writing room. Very much similar to how he would then… to New York or whatever in Hollywood wherever I felt as when my agent called me up and said guess what this is happening I kind of felt like wow. Many of the things that happened you know, the very first episode I penned I think was the Ethan episode with the violin and he’s offered that deal and the emotion and the residence (?) what he was going through and what I was going through was quite striking personally and not so much the Justin character as the Justin age where I felt like certainly I was never a Babylon boy I’d never you know a lot of the stuff
Madam: Well I never thought Justin was a “Babylon Boy” either.
Shawn: Right, but the stuff that he engaged in, how old was he? He was 17 when he stood on the corner and watched the people come and go from Babylon. That was never me. I came out in a completely different way. I’ve evolved as a gay man in a really different way with my relationships…
Richard: You’re gay? *laughter*
Shawn: Yeah.
Richard: Oh my god. *laughter*
Shawn: So yeah. It was just the age group and what he was going through, thinking about career and his identity.
Richard: You’re looking at it more in an artistic form in that there were a lot of similarities between how you are typically and how he is and all of that. Whereas you’re looking at it in a different more figurative way as he’s a real person and Justin…
Madam: I know what I’m saying. You apparently just don’t get it. Did you find that maybe season 5 contradicted everything we had learned about the characters from season 1 to season 4? Cause I felt like in 4 we were seeing Gale’s character become more open for instance “I want to spend time with Gus, & the whole your drawers in my drawers comment” you know he’s making the move to spend more time, that maybe he can commit and love.”
Shawn: I don’t see it as a contradiction; I see it as wearing shoes that are the wrong size. I think Brian went a little too far in the direction of what he thought the world wanted him to be and realized it’s not working.
And that’s how it made sense to me how I justified it to myself in the writing room. Because the impulse always and we’re culturally conditioned to think this way, the impulse is that two people have to fall in love and get together to live happily ever after.
Madam: Now we all know that doesn’t happen all the time.
Shawn: I know but it certainly doesn’t happen in real life.
Madam: Hmm, Right in some cases maybe not.
Shawn: But as soon as you fictionalize something and call it a story, you give it a beginning and an end and that ending doesn’t happen in real life, there is no end in real life except for when you die. You know today is going to stream into tomorrow and be punctuated by a whole bunch of really mundane events which are not television and which are not any kind of fiction and as soon as you say I’m putting an ending on this story you’re automatically calling forth a certain kind of expectation about what that ending is going to look like and that ending is culturally conditioned. So if you’re in western civilization we believe that these two people should live happily ever after and they very seldom do. So in the writing room I was constantly fighting with the notion of now wait a minute this is Brian and Justin don’t we want them to get together and then also trying to struggle with the notion of we want to do something intuiting and different and unconventional.
Richard: You almost had to have that sort of teeter totter where they’re together they’re apart in order to keep people intrigued.
Shawn: Right.
Richard: Or then all of a sudden they’re like Melanie and Lindsay and stop getting airtime you know what I mean? But you had to lead people in.
Shawn: Right.
Richard: Or it would become boring.
Shawn: Well yeah I think season 5 was five seasons is really pushing it in terms of storytelling we were struggling and I was not personally the whole bringing the political aspect of state politics I recognize it was state politics and as opposed to municipal politics this time around, but it was still politics you could tell that the storytelling was kind of going in circles. I would’ve liked if you want to tell a political story don’t worry about an election because the election is the tip of the iceberg. But you know.
Madam: Do you not feel that you might have left your lead character as the oldest most pathetic club boy known to man, you know the guy in the club wearing the polyester pants, the open silk shirt, the gold chains for the rest of his life? Because that’s sort of how I felt.
Shawn: Okay well, first of all
Madam: He’ll be the oldest guy in the club and that’s pathetic.
Shawn: Why is that pathetic?
Madam: Because it just is, do you like those kinds of guys? I mean that’s not who you hook up with when you’re out at a club is it?
Shawn: Well, but that’s not who I am. I’m not a club person in general. It’s only pathetic because we’ve been culturally conditioned under a certain cult of youth that says only young people are allowed to go to clubs and dance and have a good time. And Brian here is saying okay I’m getting older but this is still my world this is still where I want to be.
Richard: He was happy, he wasn’t miserable. I think at the end when he’s dancing, I don’t have a photographic memory, but I do think he was happy, he’d come full circle he’d tried all sorts of other things which didn’t work and he found out what worked.
Shawn: I think the difference is when you see an older person at a club who’s at a club purposely for lecherous reasons, that’s pretty pathetic. When you see an older person at a club who’s having a great time and dancing and they’re sixty years old and they’re on the floor and doing their thing you really admire that person and say way to go! And that’s certainly my opinion. And there are certainly many boy toys out there who’d say oh my god but….
Madam: Well they brought in the new ranks with Brandon that’s his competition now. I don’t know I just thought wow, what a way to fuck up a character.
Shawn: What are you going to do? *laughter*
Richard: Let’s talk music. I did notice the last season I thought the songs were a lot more adventuresome. If there was any soundtrack I ever would buy, I probably wouldn’t, but if I would it would be the last season. Some of the songs were really good.
Unidentified Attendee: Were you instrumental in the placement of the music?
Michael: Yes
Unidentified Attendee: In 511 was it?
Someone else says yes it was 511.
At this point Michael took out a couple of papers from his pocket and everyone started to laugh.
Michael: (Looking at The HORS) Look I brought notes this time!
Michael: About five days ago I’m like you know what they’re going to ask me the most craziest questions like last year and I just sat up here and wasn’t able to answer anything.
Madam: Actually I come here for you. So that’s why I’m here! To talk to you about the music. And a little bit to rag on Shawn…*laughter* but really that scene in 511 where they go into Britin, that’s what we’re calling it, you play the song “Sleep” which I thought was a really great placement for that song because in season 1 you played “Sleep” when Brian was giving his “I don’t believe in love speech”.
Michael: Yeah we played “Sleep” in 513.
Madam: Right but in the screeners *laughter* I’m just curious because for me when “Sleep” was played in season 1 it was when he’s out there saying I don’t believe in love I believe in fucking, I don’t do boyfriends blah blah blah you’re getting the speech this is who I am and I’m not going to do this. But it’s full circle five seasons later when they play “Sleep” where he’s actually saying he wants to marry him. It made more sense in that episode because he was “eating his words”.
Michael: If I can recall because my memory isn’t as good as yours and you’ve got the screeners. Is that when the two of them are in front of the fireplace?
Madam: Right.
Michael: Okay, that was very, very difficult
Madam: But that would’ve been perfect,
Michael: We probably went through about 20 or 30 songs for that particular scene that was probably the most “Dawson’s Creek” scene we had in the entire series. *laughter*
Madam: I know that dialogue was unfuckingbelievable.
Michael: In front of the fireplace with their clothes off and the wine, I was waiting for the grapes to drop down.
Madam: We were gagging at the “my prince” thing.
Michael: So what happened was we tried a lot of different songs. We actually had an Arcade Fire song in there called “Wake up” which had the big chorus, “Ahhhhh” (Michael singing) and that’s the last time you’ll hear me sing. We had that in there and they really loved it and I loved it. But, Arcade Fire hadn’t licensed any songs to any shows or movie and they declined our request. We felt like we were kind of close and then they wrote a song for (can’t hear name) So what happened was we didn’t know exactly what to do with that scene because nothing worked nothing at all. “Sleep” worked but we wanted to save “Sleep” for 513.
And so we used “Ambition” by Doves, which
Everyone: No…everyone talking at once shouting the name of the song that was played.
Madam: When you do placement of music don’t you listen to the lyrics and see if the lyrics from the music will fit the scene?
Michael: That’s not always our intention though I mean not every single lyric every single syllable, consonant, adjective is perfect for a scene we do that sometimes but if you do that you hit the nail too much on the head then it becomes way too cheesy and we try to stay away from that as much as possible in the five years we were working.
Madam: But in 513 “Love Burns” was an awesome song perfect for the scene.
Michael: Okay here’s the story, do you know the story about “Love Burns”? It’s a great song, the editor found that song and it was brilliant and I love that band also we put that song in and everybody freaked everybody loved it.
Convention Attendee: What are you talking about?
Michael: I am now talking about the OC season 2 *laughter* I am now talking about 513 the last time they’re together in bed we used a song called “Ambition” by Doves but what they’re talking about is the screener version which had “Love Burns” So it was perfect we all loved it.
We spoke to, well the first thing was they wanted to change the lyrics because it said “she” we were adamant it wasn’t going to be a problem we didn’t think the fans were going to care we thought we could use “she” in a bit of an abstract sense she meaning love. And we fought and fought against the producers the writers Ron and Dan and one of them sided with us, and the other one, I’m just going to leave it out there, Ron, *laughter*, was very, very difficult and adamant and I can understand it. I mean I can understand there’s two sides to every coin but you sometimes have to take things not so literal so, what I did was I called the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club manager, a guy named Grant who was really great, and I spoke with him two, three, four times to convince him I wrote a letter like this long (makes hand gesture) I had everybody involved he was going to speak with Peter the writer, so this went on for about a week they said yes, they said no, they said yes, what we were going to do was to have Peter go into the studio get the master tape with all the original music get the singer to go into the studio to re-sing the line replacing all the lines with he or you.
Madam: Lame
Michael: Hey listen I didn’t write my own checks okay, unfortunately it wasn’t our show
Madam: Okay
Michael: With Shawn’s new show, knock on wood; he can do anything he wants. So then I get a call from management, Peter’s gone away on vacation with his girlfriend and we’ll know in a week. Meanwhile two, two and a half weeks later we were mixing and this is the most one umm of the most important songs not only of the year but probably of the whole series so I get a call while Peter’s on vacation from the manager saying he just can’t do it, he can’t justify it, his heroes are like Bob Dylan and he just felt that for his fans for his conscience he just couldn’t change the lyrics so we were very, very upset. And I said are you sure, so he said well let me try one more time, so he spoke to another guy in the band, it’s a very long story. I get back from location and I get a call from Grant the manager who says no, he says no and apologizes profusely. Two hours later I get a phone call from Peter the writer and I actually still have the message on my cell phone
Madam: Oh let’s hear it!
Michael: Okay, no, no. Anyhow and he was apologetic beyond belief, then I spoke with him for about half an hour. Anyways, how did we come up with “Ambition” by The Doves? I have no idea. You know we were 70/30 on it we weren’t as sold as the “Love Burns” track we thought that it had a really beautiful sound quality to it.
Many people talking at once. Someone said “Ambition” was good but once you heard “Love Burns” that was so much better.
Michael: Well if you guys wouldn’t go digging for everything. *laughter*
Richard: Once you look for the music it’s like a hurry up and wait. You got all this time, you start season 5, you’ve got 13 episodes, I’ve got all the time to find the music, you’re doing research, you’re having fun, and then at the 11th hour someone pulls out, somebody says no, you’re scrambling, is that the way it works?
Michael: Yeah you know in some cases you have to make quick decisions. We scrambled, it’s true we scrambled a few times this year. I think that was the worse scramble we’ve had as far as I’m concerned that and the Dawson’s Creek scene by the fireplace. We did one show a week almost, and so even though we had time to get a lot of music together, we had to put cds together and get with the editors and they’d work with those songs and placement in the show and we’d know what songs were easier to get than some you know a Rolling Stones song would be difficult to get or Prince songs were difficult to get. But in terms of these kinds of things yeah, like two years ago we got turned down by Jennifer Lopez and we had to find a song by Soul Decision and we did Save the Last Dance. That was fine because we realized it wasn't an important scene but they were so gung-ho on Jennifer Lopez. I don’t know whether they thought it would give the show more credibility or because it sounded so great but it was a dance at a high school it wasn’t one of the most important scenes. But that’s a couple of stories. Okay let me just say this. We placed over 900 songs in 5 years and we sold over 350, 000 soundtracks worldwide.
Who here bought a soundtrack? (people raise their hands)
Madam: There are web sites within the fandom that have the title and artist of every single song you’ve ever placed. Then we go out on the internet and find them and make our own mixes. I have almost every single song.
Michael: You have over 900 songs?
Convention Attendees start shouting answers: (can’t hear) Too many people talking at once.
Michael: I’m going to tell you my favorite songs of season 5. Then I’ll hear what some of your favorite songs throughout the years were. Shawn can jump in and talk about writing whenever he wants to. *laughter*
Reach up for the Sunrise, I love, we actually wanted to put that song right when the lights and the disco balls go on, but we got overruled because of the comic strip there. This is a remix of the original song, in Oct/Nov it wasn’t going to air for like 3 or 4 months and I was watching I think it was the OC and they used that song I jumped out of my seat because we couldn’t use it then.
Looking Good and Feeling Gorgeous: Ted looks in the mirror after surgery that was fun.
Fever by Super Pitcher: which I think the group is from Germany, which was great we really liked that a lot. 503 you know that whole crazy circus thing. We had a song by Prodigy in there which was great! Breathe, we thought it was perfect, but they thought it was a little too heavy. I thought it worked very well I really liked it a lot.
One of my favorite ones of the year was when Hunter goes to school after the swim meet. Awake The Unkind by Uncle. That was really great. That was really beautiful. That was why we do our job.
You are my Sunshine, which also took a little bit of prodding. The producers weren’t a hundred percent sure.
(muffled can’t hear): That whole episode you guys were like okay?
Michael: Exactly. And that had a pumped kind of a feel.
Brit: I honestly remember looking at my tv and saying Michael you bastard.
Michael: I bet you’re not the only one that said that.
Shawn: Which episode was that?
Brit: 507. You both were responsible for my pain that night.
Michael: So you hated both of us at the same time? *laughter*
509 at the end the whole … at Babylon. 510 for the very first time Bright Eyes
Cyndi Lauper’s Shine.
Craven: The version on the album is different, a little bit different from how it sounded on the show
Michael: It’s just longer so we edited the long one to make it fit.
Craven: And it doesn’t have like the drumbeat from when she had the straight jacket on. I liked that part of it.
Michael: It might, it might not that it was actually created for the picture to get that feeling. I don’t remember. I haven’t heard the soundtrack in awhile. That was kind of cool, we were happy Cyndi wanted to be on the show, you probably all know the story. We wanted her to do a song we were thinking of a remix of Girls Just Want to Have Fun but you know we thought that’s over with.
Madam: Oh I’m surprised they didn’t have a freak out over the “Girls” and make her re-write it!
Richard: I went to Ryan’s wedding in August there was like fourteen guys dancing to that song at the reception.
Michael: We thought about it but then we liked the idea of Shine. And the lyric. So that was a lot of fun to work with her a true New Yorker.
Slash: Yes she is!
Michael: 511 we were talking about before Two Rights Make One Wrong by Mogwai.
512 at the very end (can’t understand tape muffled) very happy one of my favorite songs of all times. That was also difficult. Then there’s Sleep in 513 that was also in 102 and then Ambition we just talked about The Doves and then finally there was Proud. Did anybody like that?
Everyone talking at once, they liked the song.
Madam: It’s also on that other show. The Biggest Loser, so that blows it for me now.
Michael: We heard it was on The Biggest Loser. It was also, the remix was chosen for London England theme song for the Olympics, the remix which is great to have created an idea and have it span over a lot of different cultures and countries.
Woman from England: Talking about the song Proud, and how moved she was that they chose to use it for the Olympics. (Can’t hear her on tape not important anyway! lol) .
Michael: We were really happy with using that song we were actually going to rerecord it we were going to have a male vocal record it and then we decided we’ll see if we could get the original vocal.
Thumpa: Where can you get the full version of Want by Jack Knife Lee used at the end of 505?
Michael: The record?
Thumpa: Well that song. We can’t find it anywhere
Michael: You can’t find the full song anywhere to download it?
Thumpa & Madam: No we can’t find it. You get like about a 2 and a half minutes of it and that’s it. You can’t even find that listing anywhere on the net of just that song you see all these other songs but not that one.
Michael and Stacy talking…can’t hear.
Michael: You give me your email address and I will send it to you. *clapping*
Craven: In season 5 promos there’s a song and I won’t sing it, but it says Freedom in it, but it’s just in the promos I can’t find it.
Michael: We didn’t do that. Showtime probably went and found a song.
Craven: They told me to talk to you about it. I won’t sing it. That’s the only word they use in the promo.
Michael: It’s not George Michael’s version is it?
Craven: No, I have the snippet there’s Showtime talking in the background and I emailed them about it and they told me I’d have to contact you about it, and then I knew I’d see you here so I thought I’d wait.
Michael: Do you have it with you?
Craven: No, oh wait a minute it might be in my ipod.
Stacy talking too far away.
Unidentified Attendee: (who hated the HORS lol) I’m sorry I know you already talked about this but I couldn’t hear everything that was said.
So did you mean that you would’ve preferred “Love Burns” to “Ambition”?
Michael: I think it would’ve been a great, great match.
Unidentified Attendee: I really liked “Ambition”
Michael: I really liked it a lot, but it’s hard to compare like apples to oranges. The fact that they’re different is good and evoke different emotions in people.
Unidentified Attendee: They mean different things to different people.
Michael: That’s right and it gives you a whole different feeling inside had you heard that song first.
Unidentified Attendee: And also I’d like to say there are so many different songs and artists I’d never heard of before and probably never would’ve heard of. I really appreciate it. I play QAF music all the time. You’ve opened up a whole world of music to me.
Michael: And I have to tell you it opened up a whole slew of music to me and to Stacy and the crew who worked on the show because there were times we’d get a hundred cds a week or times when we’d get 20 we’d get thousands of cds a year. There are certain kinds of songs we want to use and we opened the music up around the world. We wanted to use as much of everything that we had as we could. And we also tried to get Canadian music on there as well. What percentage was Canadian? Does anybody know? I must say out of 900 songs we must’ve used 50 to 100 Canadian songs. That’s pretty good.
Richard: What song would you come up with to sort of engulf or encompass this event?
Michael: I think I would say a song from the show called “Unbelievable” *laughter*
Richard: All right a couple of more questions and then we’ve got to wrap it up.
Brit: Okay this is kind of different from what everyone else was asking about.
Richard: It’s about QAF?
Brit: Oh yeah.
Richard: It’s from the OC.
Brit: When we would see scenes between a lot of the characters when the tv was on did you have any part of that? I don’t want to be like everyone else and say in this season in this episode, even though I have been.
Richard: Say it.
Brit: Okay fine. In the second episode of the third season when Justin talks to Brian about paying for school he’s watching that Brando film on the television did you have any part of doing that because I always thought that what was going on in the movie was kind of like what was going on between them in the episode.
Michael: The music in the scene on tv was either the actual music from the movie or because it was so expensive we would find it cheaper in what they call library music it kind of sounded like a sixties western tv movie or whatever it was.
Brit: Yeah it was just Brando on the tv, there actually wasn’t any music.
Richard: And he was wearing the brown shirt. *laughter*
Brit: So basically if like the movie whatever was on the tv had anything to do with the scene.
Michael: I’m sure there was significance to the scene.
Brit: Did you have anything to do with that?
Michael: No
This might be Shawn: Wasn’t there James Dean?
(Muffled TapeToo many people talking all at once!)
Shawn: The thing with James Dean was that wow wouldn’t it be great to have James Dean, but we’ll never get the rights and then Brad actually suggested well I just saw a documentary about James Dean perhaps we can get the rights to the documentary and suddenly we’re referencing James Dean without necessarily getting the rights. It would’ve been great to get the James Dean movie but…
Unidentified Attendee: Did you ever get any crap from the character about your writing? Did they come in and say I’m not doing this, this is ridiculous?
Shawn: What they thought about the writing? I’m sure they probably hated some of the writing but at the same time you don’t bite the hand that feeds you right? Ron and Dan were feeding us all so they had, I think I went through this last year, they had a window of opportunity like an hour or so after the table read to approach Ron and Dan and say I’m concerned about this. Not like an hour probably more like a day 24 hours. I think if it got out of hand, if an actor was doing it constantly as punishment
Richard: They would be killed.
Shawn: No, they would be re-written and they would be re-written down they would get less lines and that is like death to an actor.
(There’s laughter and noise during which they started talking about killing off Vic.)
Shawn: (Talking about Jack) Cause he’s such a wonderful guy to have around and a good actor. That was just something to create a story. That if he dies it cascades throughout all these people and look at what we can create. But it sucks because we’re in the writing room and we’re firing an actor but not because they’re being a bad actor but because it’s required with what we want to do with the story.
Richard: I think we talked about this last year as well because you said that there were regrets. Not that you regretted something but a storyline that you didn’t like what was that one back in season, oh I don’t know the numbers like you all do.
Madam: Speaking of “Regrets” You said that Cowlip didn’t like it that they wished they’d never had him (Justin) top Brian in season two.
Shawn: Because it created an inconsistency.
Richard: The pink posse or something that’s what it was called I just got that because somebody said it earlier today. You didn’t really, but it was kind of a waste it was like a filler.
Shawn: It wasn’t a filler. I remember when we were hashing that idea out and we all sort of thought wow this is pretty intense and early on while we were writing and the actors had a break. Randy and a bunch of us actually went and saw Peter Paige in the play he was in La Hoya (??) and so we all piled in and went to the play. As expected all the actors cornered me in Starbucks and talked about it what are my storylines? And we were hashing out that pink posse and I said to Randy you’ve got a great storyline coming up, we were in the very beginning of centralizing it the character of um what was the character, Cody, was still very embryonic we hadn’t gotten an actor or anything like that. It was still in the very early stages I was thinking, wow this is going to be a really great story and I got a real sense as we were going towards those first 5 episodes with the pink posse coming in and that story evolving, that Randy was not really involved with where it was going. I would say that we kind of messed up on that one. It kind of got out of hand.
Richard: It might sound fantastic but it may not play out fantastic.
Shawn: Right and when you actually see Randy Harrison with a gun it just doesn’t play out. Wasn’t he in a movie with a gun?
Everyone: Yeah Bang Bang You’re Dead
Shawn: Okay so there you go.
Madam: I have just 2 questions.
There was an interview given by Randy in The Advocate and in that interview he said a few things about his character and then kind of almost verbatim the words he spoke in The Advocate article were spoken by his mother in season 5. Coincidence or what?
I mean you can almost put those answers right up against it. And then the other issue was about the Simon thing the art critic where his name is Simon and that was odd because Randy’s character actually called Simon (the art critic) a cunt and I was kind of freaked out and then later on Brian is reading the magazine and says “oh that Simon likes to use big words” or might not be verbatim and I’m thinking to myself Jesus the guys’ boyfriends name is Simon and he’s a writer! Was that a bitch slap or am I just crazy. So can you elaborate on that?
Shawn: I can’t speak for Ron and Dan but I think it’s fairly obvious there was animosity towards the end of the show and I think that was quite tragic because it came as a result of an equation in my opinion. Randy Harrison is a very quiet private person. Dan Lipman in particular is not. He’s a very outgoing guy says hi to everyone in the hallway he’s a very loving kind of guy. And I think early on not early on when I started when I was first brought onto the show I got a sense of noses being out of joint simple things like oh I said hello and no one said hi back
Madam: How professional is it to let your real life (personal life) into your professional one?
Shawn: I can’t comment on that but you know at the same time there’s a whole lot of ego involved. It’s all about people who put a great deal of personal stock and personal identity goes into it.
Richard: And it’s about money.
Shawn: Yes thank you it’s about money. And you know what this sounds cold and bitter but it’s about storytelling
Madam: We were thinking well was that a bitch slap or what the hell happened here?
Shawn: It wasn’t a bitch slap in the sense of hey world look at what we’re doing to Randy, but it was if anything it was a little tickle for Randy in a very covert way to say watch yourself but you know Hollywood has such a short memory like it will all blow over. And it will all be forgotten.
Madam: You think?
Richard: Are you kidding?
Shawn: But it’s true though in a sense though on one level you can go oh my god they did this they said that but then another.
Madam: About that Advocate article it was like you said this about us and you said this about our character well we’re going to make you say that he wasn’t all that so that was kind of crappy.
Shawn: Well, it makes good copy right?
Madam: Yeah if say so.
Richard: I think that a movie or tv or like that article is supposed to tell it’s version of it whatever that may be and then it’s supposed to make you go and talk about it. If you’re not talking about it that you agree or disagree with it then it wasn’t poignant at all it didn’t create a sort of raucous within you but the controversy the fact that we have a room divided you know that fact that we have people that are agreeing and disagreeing that was what it was all about. It was a gay having a gay tv show makes somebody money while trying to educate people you know what I mean you’ve got to take it back into the generic that’s what it’s all about.
Shawn: I really have a sense that Randy and possibly Gale, you know I don’t really know these guys I’ve probably spoken to them like 5 times because we were so sequestered and so removed and were on different schedules so I don’t really know who I would imagine he walked away from the show feeling very bitter because of how he was portrayed on the show. Where his character went, all that stuff. Okay fine. I think you give him 10 years or even 20 years and ask him to look back on that and he’s going to say wow, I wouldn’t be surprised you give them 10 to 20 years, Ron and Dan will talk with Randy Harrison.
UPD: добавлю сюда же, пожалуй
это не транскрипт, скорее пересказ Q&A Шона на кафконе в январе 2005
by stillife
SHAWN POSTOFF Q&A
Shawn Postoff wrote 505 and 507. All the writers are done except Ron
and Dan who are currently working on 513.
Postoff on the series finale: "I think it's a very appropriate ending.
I can't say you're gonna love it because I know how different
people's opinions are, the various shippers, but I felt it ended in a
way that this is genuine, this is real."
читать дальше
Postoff has been a writer for QAF since S3. He mentioned that when he
first came on board, he checked the messageboards and saw everybody
ripping S2 to shreds. So clearly TPTB knew there were problems and the
writers (or some of them) are aware of what is said on the Internet.
Shawn wrote 310, 405, 409 and 413. I use the term "write" loosely,
because as you shall see (and as some of us have long suspected),
Cowlip hold the reins at all times. Shawn got the job when his agent
sent some of his feature film spec scripts to C/L. He talked about
the adjustment from writing feature films to writing for a TV show.
His own personal writing process is that "it all kind of happens in my
head and only when it's done and I see it in my head as a story,
that's when I write it." He said he struggled with the "pressure
cooker scenario" that is episodic television (5 days to get out a
sсriрt). In writing for QAF (like any TV show), ideas evolve on the
table rather than in the heads of the writers. They sit in a room and
toss ideas around. "A lot are crap and a lot get tossed out."
He went on to say that his QAF experience "trained me to think very
critically about story." Ron is "an expert in pinpointing when we
were repeating ourselves." *dies laughing* Shawn said that sometimes
when Ron pointed out these redundancies, he wouldn't see it at first,
but upon analyzing the structure of the scene and whatever else was
happening, he would see that Ron was right. He said QAF helped him
with structure.
Shawn says: "My job as a staff writer is to give themwhat they
want....suggest things and off it goes. Published rewrites come back
and sometimes I barely recognize what I've written. It comes back
rewritten." He said he'd been warned in advance by Sheila and by
Cowlip that this is not like feature film (in other words, he'd have
no control over the final product). Writing for QAF, he just learned
to let it go, "cut the cord" as he put it.
He said he doesn't feel as though he contributed as much as he
would've liked to in the writing room, that most of his contributions
were more in the form of drafting scripts. He said, "All of the
stories I would have told very differently." Part of the process was
learning to tell story thru C/L's voices. He said that his experience
on QAF helped him get out all the "queer stories" out of his system.
Thanks to QAF, he says, he finally wrote his very first straight sсript.
In 413, he wrote a different marriage ceremony, much less traditional
than what appeared onscreen. His version had more humorous dialogue
and was more casual because the ceremony itself was to be simple, not
formal. The director had wanted to put Ben/M in tuxes but C/L said
no. So Shawn figured a lighter, more non-traditional wedding ceremony
would be appropriate, but C/L changed it to a more conservative
version so that people would take gay marriage seriously.
On a technical note, he mentioned that QAF is written as a 3-act story
rather than a 4-act like most TV shows because there are no
commercials. This 3-act structure makes for some odd commercial
breaks when it airs on Showcase.
Someone asked him how hard he fights for a scene. He said "sometimes
we'll get really detailed with character motivation," debating over
whether something in the sсript is right for a character. He said,
"You state your opinion, fight for it a second time but don't go for a
third." At this stage, now that he's been with the show for three
years, he conceded that he might be able to go back and argue a third
time, but definitely not in the beginning. His rationale: It's not
about giving in. The way they phrase it is "You've sold me" or "I'll
buy that." He said that emotional motivation always trumps the
structural, but then he went on to contradict that with much of what
he said later.
His favorite character, believe it or not, is Justin. He relates to
him the most.
A member of the audience expressed her (our) frustration about the
missing conversations implied by "I thought we were partners" and "I
thought we had a commitment." The Q&A guy interjected with the
standard "you don't need to see everything" response, but Shawn was
respectful and seemed to understand what she was getting at. He said
they have conversations in the writing room where Ron will ask, "How
do we know Brian loves Justin?" To which all the writers respond that
we just know. Action, not words. This is just my own interpretation,
but the way he talked about it, in the present tense (i.e., "Brian
doesn't do such-and-such") made it seem unlikely that Gale will get
his wish (expressed in his DNA interview) that Brian will open up in S5.
Shawn was asked why Justin confided in Mikey about Brian's performance
problems. His explanation: "We don't get the luxury of letting these
characters breathe over several months. We deal with emotional time.
Some people will care but the vast amount of people won't." Perhaps
this explains QAF's peculiar timeline. Another rationalization he
used for the Justin/Michael 409 scene is that they try to ensure that
characters are not in isolation. They try to put the characters
together in different configurations.
Shawn said that Ron has deeply regretted for many (well, at least
two!) years that Brian let Justin top him. He felt that changed the
nature of Brian's character "where they didn't want the character to
go there." I did not get the impression that Ron regretted it because
it happened too soon, but rather that he regretted that it happened at
all.
At that point, I stood up and asked him about Brian's growth arc,
attempting to draw a parallel between the topping issue and C/L's
reluctance to let Brian express his emotions. He picked up more on
the topping issue, joking about it a bit. Then he said that Brian's
control issues are what make him such an interesting, complex
character. He also said that Brian had grown from S1 to S5 but that
much of that growth wasn't "visible".
Shawn said that QAF is written in a Ron and Dan voice. "The rest of
us are the hired guns." One characteristic of C/L's writing, he said,
is that you'll very seldom see scenes of people sitting in silence
thinking. He attributed this to Cowlip's theatre background. In 405,
he wanted a few seconds of that for Justin, but it wasn't written into
the episode. The reason why it happened is that Kelly Makin, the
director, suggested to C/L that it might be good to get a few minutes
of silence.
He said the tone of S5 is extremely political. He attributed this to
the results of the recent election, which may partly be true. When
asked about his favorite storylines since he's been on the show, he
picked the Stockwell arc, particularly mentioning the way it all came
together in the finale. He acknowledged that the S4 finale was
weaker. No shit, Sherlock.
It's absolutely clear that they put political issues first, characters
second. They decide what issues they want to tackle, then they try to
figure out a way to work it into the story. For instance, Cowlip
wanted to do a vigilante storyline. They picked Justin because of his
youth, but
Shawn admitted that all of the writers would probably now agree now
that it's not really Justin.
Somebody asked if actors have input. He said that after the cast
reading for each episode, there's a one or two day window of
opportunity where an actor can go to C/L and plead his case. In the
most recent episode, Peter took issue with a word Emmett was supposed
to use ("penance"). They had a 15 minute conversation about that.
Sounds like there may be a big focus on Mel/Lindz in the finale. He
seemed to feel their storyline (the custody battle?) was very
important. He said the way the characters end up is a reflection of
the political climate.
Ron and Dan exercise complete control over everything. Shawn says
that the writers take a roadmap provided by Cowlip and hammer out the
dialogue. Each episode has a "tone meeting" where Ron and Dan tell
the director what they want.
Shawn said that the writers felt the show really couldn't continue for
any more seasons. He said they had a tough enough time trying to come
up with storylines for S5. They have considered at some point or
another bringing in more characters but decided there was insufficient
screentime since there are already 9 main characters.
I give Shawn a lot of credit for showing up and talking to the fans.
His answers were thoughtful, respectful and gave a lot of insight into
the writing process on QAF.
I have deleted most of my snarky editorializing I'm well aware that my
opinions are not shared by this group. Shawn didn't give away any
spoilers, but the general sense I got is - to phrase it tactfully -
that how you felt about S4 is a pretty good predictor of how you will
feel about S5.
*****
и пара дополнений
This is a very good overview of the Q&A. It meshes with how I recall it.
A couple side notes and a comment:
I was speaking with Shawn after the Q&A during which one of the things we
talked about were the problems with Season 2. I mentioned it felt like things
fell apart in Season 2 and starting with Season 3 they worked to fix what went
wrong. Like a true professional, he said the problems were not the fault of the
writers that came before, but that the show moved away from story arcs and
tried to tell complete (or as complete as possible) stories in each episode. He
pointed out that with Season 3 they returned to story arcs over several
episodes which made it possible to tie things together and made the seasons flow
smoother. He indicated the attempt to tell 20 independent episodes made the
season
jerky with a lot of ups and downs. (This is really paraphrased. I'm going
from memory.)
Shawn's spec scripts got him the job and it's not surprising he relates
strongly to the Justin character. It is Justin's character...his voice, Shawn
was
hired on the show for.
As for Richard interrupting when the subject of missing conversations between
the end of Season 3 and the beginning of Season 4...he was right to do so.
The question was stated and Shawn answered but then that person continued to
reiterate the question as if Shawn didn't understand what they meant and another
jumped in to elaborate the issue...to the point it looked and felt like an
attack on Shawn. Shawn is no longer employed by the show and was very generous
to
share a few hours of his time at the convention. He wasn't the only writer on
the show and wasn't the one with the final decision but because he was there,
he was a convenient target to grill. Richard was also correct in saying you
don't have to see everything. There was a good eight months between those two
episodes and there is the potential for a lot of things to happen in that
amount of time. Through the dialogue of "I thought we were partners," "We are"
you
know they had either a conversation or an unspoken understanding develop since
the previous episode. It's the result that matters. For those that feel it
necessary to have every little detail that went into the decision that they are
partners, there is always fan fic.
Janet
Shawn knows how it ends because all the writers plan the episodes together
with lots of notes going up on a white board to build the story before the
person who is actually writing it (in the case of the finale, Dan and Ron) takes
over to write the episode. Normally, after the sсript is written it is given to
Dan and Ron to revise and edit but that obviously doesn't apply to the
episodes they write themselves. It was only after they planned the episode that
Shawn's (and all the other writers') contracts were finished. He didn't say and
I
didn't ask if Dan and Ron sent the sсript they wrote based on the collaborative
storybuilding session for the finale to him or any of the other writers but
even in the unlikely (in my opinion) event they did not, since he was involved
in the writers' meetings to plan the episode he is fully aware of what will
happen.
Janet
читать дальшеШона, и то, что он говорил на этом коне у меня мы обсуждали в прошлом апреле тут moveforever.diary.ru/p156339569.htm
теперь, благодаря Daisylita-qf это можно прочитать в переводе на русский yurkuna.diary.ru/p171023119.htm
транскрипт этот, как бы полный, я обещала выложить когда писала про музыку в скринерх (в нем Michael Perlmutter, ответственный за музыку, в частности говорит и об этом), но привычно отвлеклась, а сейчас мне про него напомнила
ripplesofinnersea, выложив интервью с ним тут pay.diary.ru/~ripplesofinnersea/p172354995.htm
объяснила путано, но надеюсь, кому надо, поймут))
собственно транскрипт:
Shawn/Michael
Richard: So let’s start off with what are you both doing now? What are you doing with your lives? What have you been doing since QAF ended?
Shawn: Well I’m unemployed. I’m not on a regular show. As a writer you always have to have something to keep the balls in play & keep hoping that one of them will score and a couple of them are getting toward the goal area but um nothing yet.
Richard: Last year I remember you said you wanted to take the time to do some of your own writing to get into that so any regrets?
Shawn: No
Richard: Okay good so it’s all going the way you wanted
Shawn: It’s going very well, um I guess that’s the most promising thing right now is a network out in L.A it’s one of the 3 gay networks I deal with. They actually called me in and said we want our own signature gay show, we want our QAF. 3 boys in New York trying to make it as actors called Triple Threat, and they loved it. “We’re moving very fast on it Shawn” and of course a year and a half later. *laughter* It’s moving they’ve got the second draft now the ball is in their court for the pilot and hopefully this summer we’ll be shooting the pilot. So my fingers are crossed, and hopefully I’ll have my own show.
Richard: Are you ready Michael?
Michael: I’ve been waiting for this day.
Richard: Marking the days off with big X’s on your calendar.
Laughter
Michael: I was working for a company…for a long time a marquee show and I left the company last June and just doing some stuff on my own and taking some time off. I haven’t been selling off everything I own like some people. I’ve been working managing a band hip hop duo that’s going to have a record coming out on a UK label called Global Underground. The band is called …. Like everybody knows everything it’s really deep and dark. I’m trying to create a TV series based around emerging musicians
Richard: So things are kind of happening. It’s a reality show?
Michael: No it’s not a reality show, putting a bunch of bands together the band will have to collaborate. I’m working on a few other different projects.
Introduces Stacy worked on fifth season of QAF
Richard: Now we need a tiny bit of gossip. Is there any gossip? Who did we have yesterday? We learned who needed to trim; we got all sorts of good dirt.
Shawn: Patrick is the one to ask. Now the writers we were sequestered in our own little room, with a skull and crossbones on the door.
Richard: Okay, so were you happy with the way it all played out? Were you happy with the way it all ended? *laughter*
Unidentified Attendee: Your answer is a matter of life and death.
Brit: You’re kind of taking your life in your own hands.
Shawn: I certainly understand, I feel good about where it ended I felt that it was a mature ending. It felt right when you’re dealing with first love With Justin and Brian, they were both each other’s first love and as fabulous and enthralling as a first love is it’s also not always the most mature kind of love it’s also not the most nourishing kind of love that you can get from a relationship, it can’t clarify… what love should be and all that kind of stuff. It felt right to me that they left on a parting note yet still acknowledging that they will always love each other because when I think about my first love I still love him I haven’t spoken with him in over 4 years we lost touch but there’s a special place in my heart that is his and my current husband knows that and accepts that. And so…
Richard: Current husband? How many have you had? *laughter* We have Elizabeth Taylor up here.
Shawn: Um yeah so anyway what I’m saying is that they were each other’s first love they had a fabulous love and they will always love each other, but that does not necessarily mean that they will be together and that makes perfect sense to me. I know it doesn’t make for great series finale and fireworks but it made sense to me.
Richard: You came to the very first con and then you left and went back to the real world did you take back ideas and stuff like that. How did that con, umm did that play a role into anything that you participated in with the writing? And then after the last con again did you take anything back?
Shawn: The question being did I bring back to the table new reconnaissance from the con?
Richard: Yeah
Shawn: No. I didn’t need to tell them that, they knew. Sheila Hockins, a producer from Showtime would peruse the boards; they knew what was going on.
They knew what the fandom was saying what they loved and what they hated and Ron and Dan quite frankly didn’t want to do it. They didn’t care, it was their show they had a particular kind of story they wanted to tell.
(I think Richard said they were god or something. Then laughter.)
Michael: Can I ask a question? What are these shirts everybody is wearing? (Looks At The HORS)
Shawn: These are the HORS.
Madam: It’s an internet community.
Shawn: House of the Rising Sun. Don’t Ask Me How I Know That!
Madam: We were the number one thread on the sho.boards for the last three years and we have several internet communities.
Richard: They are total Brian and Justin lovers and they are not happy with you.
Madam: There are lines out of our thread, it could be coincidental but the last line of QAF was something I had written in the opening of my thread during the season 3 hiatus and during all of season 4. The Gloria Gaynor line. It was amusing to see it end up in 513 of Queer As Folk.
Shawn: Ron and Dan claim they didn’t read the threads.
Madam: They read the threads. You have people who monitor them, we all know that. It was obvious.
Shawn: I don’t know. Season 5 my last episode was 7. I was still in the room contributing but I had no input into 12 and 13.
Madam: 507?
Shawn: 5 and 7
Madam: I didn’t mind 507; I wanted him to leave… He needed to leave.
Richard: I love this, I have no idea what you guys are talking about except that 507 was an episode but the fact that he wore a blue shirt and he walked out.
Madam: He needed to leave. He was wearing the white jacket.
Shawn: It’s a blur, what stands out for me when I think back to those episodes are critical lines that I wrote that I felt were strong that weren’t cut.
Some of them obviously were cut.
Madam: It’s a year later now; you said that you identified with Justin more last year. I think you said at the last convention you feel he’s the character you identify more with is that still the case and why?
Shawn: I feel that because he was the youngest character on the show I was the youngest writer in the writing room. Very much similar to how he would then… to New York or whatever in Hollywood wherever I felt as when my agent called me up and said guess what this is happening I kind of felt like wow. Many of the things that happened you know, the very first episode I penned I think was the Ethan episode with the violin and he’s offered that deal and the emotion and the residence (?) what he was going through and what I was going through was quite striking personally and not so much the Justin character as the Justin age where I felt like certainly I was never a Babylon boy I’d never you know a lot of the stuff
Madam: Well I never thought Justin was a “Babylon Boy” either.
Shawn: Right, but the stuff that he engaged in, how old was he? He was 17 when he stood on the corner and watched the people come and go from Babylon. That was never me. I came out in a completely different way. I’ve evolved as a gay man in a really different way with my relationships…
Richard: You’re gay? *laughter*
Shawn: Yeah.
Richard: Oh my god. *laughter*
Shawn: So yeah. It was just the age group and what he was going through, thinking about career and his identity.
Richard: You’re looking at it more in an artistic form in that there were a lot of similarities between how you are typically and how he is and all of that. Whereas you’re looking at it in a different more figurative way as he’s a real person and Justin…
Madam: I know what I’m saying. You apparently just don’t get it. Did you find that maybe season 5 contradicted everything we had learned about the characters from season 1 to season 4? Cause I felt like in 4 we were seeing Gale’s character become more open for instance “I want to spend time with Gus, & the whole your drawers in my drawers comment” you know he’s making the move to spend more time, that maybe he can commit and love.”
Shawn: I don’t see it as a contradiction; I see it as wearing shoes that are the wrong size. I think Brian went a little too far in the direction of what he thought the world wanted him to be and realized it’s not working.
And that’s how it made sense to me how I justified it to myself in the writing room. Because the impulse always and we’re culturally conditioned to think this way, the impulse is that two people have to fall in love and get together to live happily ever after.
Madam: Now we all know that doesn’t happen all the time.
Shawn: I know but it certainly doesn’t happen in real life.
Madam: Hmm, Right in some cases maybe not.
Shawn: But as soon as you fictionalize something and call it a story, you give it a beginning and an end and that ending doesn’t happen in real life, there is no end in real life except for when you die. You know today is going to stream into tomorrow and be punctuated by a whole bunch of really mundane events which are not television and which are not any kind of fiction and as soon as you say I’m putting an ending on this story you’re automatically calling forth a certain kind of expectation about what that ending is going to look like and that ending is culturally conditioned. So if you’re in western civilization we believe that these two people should live happily ever after and they very seldom do. So in the writing room I was constantly fighting with the notion of now wait a minute this is Brian and Justin don’t we want them to get together and then also trying to struggle with the notion of we want to do something intuiting and different and unconventional.
Richard: You almost had to have that sort of teeter totter where they’re together they’re apart in order to keep people intrigued.
Shawn: Right.
Richard: Or then all of a sudden they’re like Melanie and Lindsay and stop getting airtime you know what I mean? But you had to lead people in.
Shawn: Right.
Richard: Or it would become boring.
Shawn: Well yeah I think season 5 was five seasons is really pushing it in terms of storytelling we were struggling and I was not personally the whole bringing the political aspect of state politics I recognize it was state politics and as opposed to municipal politics this time around, but it was still politics you could tell that the storytelling was kind of going in circles. I would’ve liked if you want to tell a political story don’t worry about an election because the election is the tip of the iceberg. But you know.
Madam: Do you not feel that you might have left your lead character as the oldest most pathetic club boy known to man, you know the guy in the club wearing the polyester pants, the open silk shirt, the gold chains for the rest of his life? Because that’s sort of how I felt.
Shawn: Okay well, first of all
Madam: He’ll be the oldest guy in the club and that’s pathetic.
Shawn: Why is that pathetic?
Madam: Because it just is, do you like those kinds of guys? I mean that’s not who you hook up with when you’re out at a club is it?
Shawn: Well, but that’s not who I am. I’m not a club person in general. It’s only pathetic because we’ve been culturally conditioned under a certain cult of youth that says only young people are allowed to go to clubs and dance and have a good time. And Brian here is saying okay I’m getting older but this is still my world this is still where I want to be.
Richard: He was happy, he wasn’t miserable. I think at the end when he’s dancing, I don’t have a photographic memory, but I do think he was happy, he’d come full circle he’d tried all sorts of other things which didn’t work and he found out what worked.
Shawn: I think the difference is when you see an older person at a club who’s at a club purposely for lecherous reasons, that’s pretty pathetic. When you see an older person at a club who’s having a great time and dancing and they’re sixty years old and they’re on the floor and doing their thing you really admire that person and say way to go! And that’s certainly my opinion. And there are certainly many boy toys out there who’d say oh my god but….
Madam: Well they brought in the new ranks with Brandon that’s his competition now. I don’t know I just thought wow, what a way to fuck up a character.
Shawn: What are you going to do? *laughter*
Richard: Let’s talk music. I did notice the last season I thought the songs were a lot more adventuresome. If there was any soundtrack I ever would buy, I probably wouldn’t, but if I would it would be the last season. Some of the songs were really good.
Unidentified Attendee: Were you instrumental in the placement of the music?
Michael: Yes
Unidentified Attendee: In 511 was it?
Someone else says yes it was 511.
At this point Michael took out a couple of papers from his pocket and everyone started to laugh.
Michael: (Looking at The HORS) Look I brought notes this time!
Michael: About five days ago I’m like you know what they’re going to ask me the most craziest questions like last year and I just sat up here and wasn’t able to answer anything.
Madam: Actually I come here for you. So that’s why I’m here! To talk to you about the music. And a little bit to rag on Shawn…*laughter* but really that scene in 511 where they go into Britin, that’s what we’re calling it, you play the song “Sleep” which I thought was a really great placement for that song because in season 1 you played “Sleep” when Brian was giving his “I don’t believe in love speech”.
Michael: Yeah we played “Sleep” in 513.
Madam: Right but in the screeners *laughter* I’m just curious because for me when “Sleep” was played in season 1 it was when he’s out there saying I don’t believe in love I believe in fucking, I don’t do boyfriends blah blah blah you’re getting the speech this is who I am and I’m not going to do this. But it’s full circle five seasons later when they play “Sleep” where he’s actually saying he wants to marry him. It made more sense in that episode because he was “eating his words”.
Michael: If I can recall because my memory isn’t as good as yours and you’ve got the screeners. Is that when the two of them are in front of the fireplace?
Madam: Right.
Michael: Okay, that was very, very difficult
Madam: But that would’ve been perfect,
Michael: We probably went through about 20 or 30 songs for that particular scene that was probably the most “Dawson’s Creek” scene we had in the entire series. *laughter*
Madam: I know that dialogue was unfuckingbelievable.
Michael: In front of the fireplace with their clothes off and the wine, I was waiting for the grapes to drop down.
Madam: We were gagging at the “my prince” thing.
Michael: So what happened was we tried a lot of different songs. We actually had an Arcade Fire song in there called “Wake up” which had the big chorus, “Ahhhhh” (Michael singing) and that’s the last time you’ll hear me sing. We had that in there and they really loved it and I loved it. But, Arcade Fire hadn’t licensed any songs to any shows or movie and they declined our request. We felt like we were kind of close and then they wrote a song for (can’t hear name) So what happened was we didn’t know exactly what to do with that scene because nothing worked nothing at all. “Sleep” worked but we wanted to save “Sleep” for 513.
And so we used “Ambition” by Doves, which
Everyone: No…everyone talking at once shouting the name of the song that was played.
Madam: When you do placement of music don’t you listen to the lyrics and see if the lyrics from the music will fit the scene?
Michael: That’s not always our intention though I mean not every single lyric every single syllable, consonant, adjective is perfect for a scene we do that sometimes but if you do that you hit the nail too much on the head then it becomes way too cheesy and we try to stay away from that as much as possible in the five years we were working.
Madam: But in 513 “Love Burns” was an awesome song perfect for the scene.
Michael: Okay here’s the story, do you know the story about “Love Burns”? It’s a great song, the editor found that song and it was brilliant and I love that band also we put that song in and everybody freaked everybody loved it.
Convention Attendee: What are you talking about?
Michael: I am now talking about the OC season 2 *laughter* I am now talking about 513 the last time they’re together in bed we used a song called “Ambition” by Doves but what they’re talking about is the screener version which had “Love Burns” So it was perfect we all loved it.
We spoke to, well the first thing was they wanted to change the lyrics because it said “she” we were adamant it wasn’t going to be a problem we didn’t think the fans were going to care we thought we could use “she” in a bit of an abstract sense she meaning love. And we fought and fought against the producers the writers Ron and Dan and one of them sided with us, and the other one, I’m just going to leave it out there, Ron, *laughter*, was very, very difficult and adamant and I can understand it. I mean I can understand there’s two sides to every coin but you sometimes have to take things not so literal so, what I did was I called the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club manager, a guy named Grant who was really great, and I spoke with him two, three, four times to convince him I wrote a letter like this long (makes hand gesture) I had everybody involved he was going to speak with Peter the writer, so this went on for about a week they said yes, they said no, they said yes, what we were going to do was to have Peter go into the studio get the master tape with all the original music get the singer to go into the studio to re-sing the line replacing all the lines with he or you.
Madam: Lame
Michael: Hey listen I didn’t write my own checks okay, unfortunately it wasn’t our show
Madam: Okay
Michael: With Shawn’s new show, knock on wood; he can do anything he wants. So then I get a call from management, Peter’s gone away on vacation with his girlfriend and we’ll know in a week. Meanwhile two, two and a half weeks later we were mixing and this is the most one umm of the most important songs not only of the year but probably of the whole series so I get a call while Peter’s on vacation from the manager saying he just can’t do it, he can’t justify it, his heroes are like Bob Dylan and he just felt that for his fans for his conscience he just couldn’t change the lyrics so we were very, very upset. And I said are you sure, so he said well let me try one more time, so he spoke to another guy in the band, it’s a very long story. I get back from location and I get a call from Grant the manager who says no, he says no and apologizes profusely. Two hours later I get a phone call from Peter the writer and I actually still have the message on my cell phone
Madam: Oh let’s hear it!
Michael: Okay, no, no. Anyhow and he was apologetic beyond belief, then I spoke with him for about half an hour. Anyways, how did we come up with “Ambition” by The Doves? I have no idea. You know we were 70/30 on it we weren’t as sold as the “Love Burns” track we thought that it had a really beautiful sound quality to it.
Many people talking at once. Someone said “Ambition” was good but once you heard “Love Burns” that was so much better.
Michael: Well if you guys wouldn’t go digging for everything. *laughter*
Richard: Once you look for the music it’s like a hurry up and wait. You got all this time, you start season 5, you’ve got 13 episodes, I’ve got all the time to find the music, you’re doing research, you’re having fun, and then at the 11th hour someone pulls out, somebody says no, you’re scrambling, is that the way it works?
Michael: Yeah you know in some cases you have to make quick decisions. We scrambled, it’s true we scrambled a few times this year. I think that was the worse scramble we’ve had as far as I’m concerned that and the Dawson’s Creek scene by the fireplace. We did one show a week almost, and so even though we had time to get a lot of music together, we had to put cds together and get with the editors and they’d work with those songs and placement in the show and we’d know what songs were easier to get than some you know a Rolling Stones song would be difficult to get or Prince songs were difficult to get. But in terms of these kinds of things yeah, like two years ago we got turned down by Jennifer Lopez and we had to find a song by Soul Decision and we did Save the Last Dance. That was fine because we realized it wasn't an important scene but they were so gung-ho on Jennifer Lopez. I don’t know whether they thought it would give the show more credibility or because it sounded so great but it was a dance at a high school it wasn’t one of the most important scenes. But that’s a couple of stories. Okay let me just say this. We placed over 900 songs in 5 years and we sold over 350, 000 soundtracks worldwide.
Who here bought a soundtrack? (people raise their hands)
Madam: There are web sites within the fandom that have the title and artist of every single song you’ve ever placed. Then we go out on the internet and find them and make our own mixes. I have almost every single song.
Michael: You have over 900 songs?
Convention Attendees start shouting answers: (can’t hear) Too many people talking at once.
Michael: I’m going to tell you my favorite songs of season 5. Then I’ll hear what some of your favorite songs throughout the years were. Shawn can jump in and talk about writing whenever he wants to. *laughter*
Reach up for the Sunrise, I love, we actually wanted to put that song right when the lights and the disco balls go on, but we got overruled because of the comic strip there. This is a remix of the original song, in Oct/Nov it wasn’t going to air for like 3 or 4 months and I was watching I think it was the OC and they used that song I jumped out of my seat because we couldn’t use it then.
Looking Good and Feeling Gorgeous: Ted looks in the mirror after surgery that was fun.
Fever by Super Pitcher: which I think the group is from Germany, which was great we really liked that a lot. 503 you know that whole crazy circus thing. We had a song by Prodigy in there which was great! Breathe, we thought it was perfect, but they thought it was a little too heavy. I thought it worked very well I really liked it a lot.
One of my favorite ones of the year was when Hunter goes to school after the swim meet. Awake The Unkind by Uncle. That was really great. That was really beautiful. That was why we do our job.
You are my Sunshine, which also took a little bit of prodding. The producers weren’t a hundred percent sure.
(muffled can’t hear): That whole episode you guys were like okay?
Michael: Exactly. And that had a pumped kind of a feel.
Brit: I honestly remember looking at my tv and saying Michael you bastard.
Michael: I bet you’re not the only one that said that.
Shawn: Which episode was that?
Brit: 507. You both were responsible for my pain that night.
Michael: So you hated both of us at the same time? *laughter*
509 at the end the whole … at Babylon. 510 for the very first time Bright Eyes
Cyndi Lauper’s Shine.
Craven: The version on the album is different, a little bit different from how it sounded on the show
Michael: It’s just longer so we edited the long one to make it fit.
Craven: And it doesn’t have like the drumbeat from when she had the straight jacket on. I liked that part of it.
Michael: It might, it might not that it was actually created for the picture to get that feeling. I don’t remember. I haven’t heard the soundtrack in awhile. That was kind of cool, we were happy Cyndi wanted to be on the show, you probably all know the story. We wanted her to do a song we were thinking of a remix of Girls Just Want to Have Fun but you know we thought that’s over with.
Madam: Oh I’m surprised they didn’t have a freak out over the “Girls” and make her re-write it!
Richard: I went to Ryan’s wedding in August there was like fourteen guys dancing to that song at the reception.
Michael: We thought about it but then we liked the idea of Shine. And the lyric. So that was a lot of fun to work with her a true New Yorker.
Slash: Yes she is!
Michael: 511 we were talking about before Two Rights Make One Wrong by Mogwai.
512 at the very end (can’t understand tape muffled) very happy one of my favorite songs of all times. That was also difficult. Then there’s Sleep in 513 that was also in 102 and then Ambition we just talked about The Doves and then finally there was Proud. Did anybody like that?
Everyone talking at once, they liked the song.
Madam: It’s also on that other show. The Biggest Loser, so that blows it for me now.
Michael: We heard it was on The Biggest Loser. It was also, the remix was chosen for London England theme song for the Olympics, the remix which is great to have created an idea and have it span over a lot of different cultures and countries.
Woman from England: Talking about the song Proud, and how moved she was that they chose to use it for the Olympics. (Can’t hear her on tape not important anyway! lol) .
Michael: We were really happy with using that song we were actually going to rerecord it we were going to have a male vocal record it and then we decided we’ll see if we could get the original vocal.
Thumpa: Where can you get the full version of Want by Jack Knife Lee used at the end of 505?
Michael: The record?
Thumpa: Well that song. We can’t find it anywhere
Michael: You can’t find the full song anywhere to download it?
Thumpa & Madam: No we can’t find it. You get like about a 2 and a half minutes of it and that’s it. You can’t even find that listing anywhere on the net of just that song you see all these other songs but not that one.
Michael and Stacy talking…can’t hear.
Michael: You give me your email address and I will send it to you. *clapping*
Craven: In season 5 promos there’s a song and I won’t sing it, but it says Freedom in it, but it’s just in the promos I can’t find it.
Michael: We didn’t do that. Showtime probably went and found a song.
Craven: They told me to talk to you about it. I won’t sing it. That’s the only word they use in the promo.
Michael: It’s not George Michael’s version is it?
Craven: No, I have the snippet there’s Showtime talking in the background and I emailed them about it and they told me I’d have to contact you about it, and then I knew I’d see you here so I thought I’d wait.
Michael: Do you have it with you?
Craven: No, oh wait a minute it might be in my ipod.
Stacy talking too far away.
Unidentified Attendee: (who hated the HORS lol) I’m sorry I know you already talked about this but I couldn’t hear everything that was said.
So did you mean that you would’ve preferred “Love Burns” to “Ambition”?
Michael: I think it would’ve been a great, great match.
Unidentified Attendee: I really liked “Ambition”
Michael: I really liked it a lot, but it’s hard to compare like apples to oranges. The fact that they’re different is good and evoke different emotions in people.
Unidentified Attendee: They mean different things to different people.
Michael: That’s right and it gives you a whole different feeling inside had you heard that song first.
Unidentified Attendee: And also I’d like to say there are so many different songs and artists I’d never heard of before and probably never would’ve heard of. I really appreciate it. I play QAF music all the time. You’ve opened up a whole world of music to me.
Michael: And I have to tell you it opened up a whole slew of music to me and to Stacy and the crew who worked on the show because there were times we’d get a hundred cds a week or times when we’d get 20 we’d get thousands of cds a year. There are certain kinds of songs we want to use and we opened the music up around the world. We wanted to use as much of everything that we had as we could. And we also tried to get Canadian music on there as well. What percentage was Canadian? Does anybody know? I must say out of 900 songs we must’ve used 50 to 100 Canadian songs. That’s pretty good.
Richard: What song would you come up with to sort of engulf or encompass this event?
Michael: I think I would say a song from the show called “Unbelievable” *laughter*
Richard: All right a couple of more questions and then we’ve got to wrap it up.
Brit: Okay this is kind of different from what everyone else was asking about.
Richard: It’s about QAF?
Brit: Oh yeah.
Richard: It’s from the OC.
Brit: When we would see scenes between a lot of the characters when the tv was on did you have any part of that? I don’t want to be like everyone else and say in this season in this episode, even though I have been.
Richard: Say it.
Brit: Okay fine. In the second episode of the third season when Justin talks to Brian about paying for school he’s watching that Brando film on the television did you have any part of doing that because I always thought that what was going on in the movie was kind of like what was going on between them in the episode.
Michael: The music in the scene on tv was either the actual music from the movie or because it was so expensive we would find it cheaper in what they call library music it kind of sounded like a sixties western tv movie or whatever it was.
Brit: Yeah it was just Brando on the tv, there actually wasn’t any music.
Richard: And he was wearing the brown shirt. *laughter*
Brit: So basically if like the movie whatever was on the tv had anything to do with the scene.
Michael: I’m sure there was significance to the scene.
Brit: Did you have anything to do with that?
Michael: No
This might be Shawn: Wasn’t there James Dean?
(Muffled TapeToo many people talking all at once!)
Shawn: The thing with James Dean was that wow wouldn’t it be great to have James Dean, but we’ll never get the rights and then Brad actually suggested well I just saw a documentary about James Dean perhaps we can get the rights to the documentary and suddenly we’re referencing James Dean without necessarily getting the rights. It would’ve been great to get the James Dean movie but…
Unidentified Attendee: Did you ever get any crap from the character about your writing? Did they come in and say I’m not doing this, this is ridiculous?
Shawn: What they thought about the writing? I’m sure they probably hated some of the writing but at the same time you don’t bite the hand that feeds you right? Ron and Dan were feeding us all so they had, I think I went through this last year, they had a window of opportunity like an hour or so after the table read to approach Ron and Dan and say I’m concerned about this. Not like an hour probably more like a day 24 hours. I think if it got out of hand, if an actor was doing it constantly as punishment
Richard: They would be killed.
Shawn: No, they would be re-written and they would be re-written down they would get less lines and that is like death to an actor.
(There’s laughter and noise during which they started talking about killing off Vic.)
Shawn: (Talking about Jack) Cause he’s such a wonderful guy to have around and a good actor. That was just something to create a story. That if he dies it cascades throughout all these people and look at what we can create. But it sucks because we’re in the writing room and we’re firing an actor but not because they’re being a bad actor but because it’s required with what we want to do with the story.
Richard: I think we talked about this last year as well because you said that there were regrets. Not that you regretted something but a storyline that you didn’t like what was that one back in season, oh I don’t know the numbers like you all do.
Madam: Speaking of “Regrets” You said that Cowlip didn’t like it that they wished they’d never had him (Justin) top Brian in season two.
Shawn: Because it created an inconsistency.
Richard: The pink posse or something that’s what it was called I just got that because somebody said it earlier today. You didn’t really, but it was kind of a waste it was like a filler.
Shawn: It wasn’t a filler. I remember when we were hashing that idea out and we all sort of thought wow this is pretty intense and early on while we were writing and the actors had a break. Randy and a bunch of us actually went and saw Peter Paige in the play he was in La Hoya (??) and so we all piled in and went to the play. As expected all the actors cornered me in Starbucks and talked about it what are my storylines? And we were hashing out that pink posse and I said to Randy you’ve got a great storyline coming up, we were in the very beginning of centralizing it the character of um what was the character, Cody, was still very embryonic we hadn’t gotten an actor or anything like that. It was still in the very early stages I was thinking, wow this is going to be a really great story and I got a real sense as we were going towards those first 5 episodes with the pink posse coming in and that story evolving, that Randy was not really involved with where it was going. I would say that we kind of messed up on that one. It kind of got out of hand.
Richard: It might sound fantastic but it may not play out fantastic.
Shawn: Right and when you actually see Randy Harrison with a gun it just doesn’t play out. Wasn’t he in a movie with a gun?
Everyone: Yeah Bang Bang You’re Dead
Shawn: Okay so there you go.
Madam: I have just 2 questions.
There was an interview given by Randy in The Advocate and in that interview he said a few things about his character and then kind of almost verbatim the words he spoke in The Advocate article were spoken by his mother in season 5. Coincidence or what?
I mean you can almost put those answers right up against it. And then the other issue was about the Simon thing the art critic where his name is Simon and that was odd because Randy’s character actually called Simon (the art critic) a cunt and I was kind of freaked out and then later on Brian is reading the magazine and says “oh that Simon likes to use big words” or might not be verbatim and I’m thinking to myself Jesus the guys’ boyfriends name is Simon and he’s a writer! Was that a bitch slap or am I just crazy. So can you elaborate on that?
Shawn: I can’t speak for Ron and Dan but I think it’s fairly obvious there was animosity towards the end of the show and I think that was quite tragic because it came as a result of an equation in my opinion. Randy Harrison is a very quiet private person. Dan Lipman in particular is not. He’s a very outgoing guy says hi to everyone in the hallway he’s a very loving kind of guy. And I think early on not early on when I started when I was first brought onto the show I got a sense of noses being out of joint simple things like oh I said hello and no one said hi back
Madam: How professional is it to let your real life (personal life) into your professional one?
Shawn: I can’t comment on that but you know at the same time there’s a whole lot of ego involved. It’s all about people who put a great deal of personal stock and personal identity goes into it.
Richard: And it’s about money.
Shawn: Yes thank you it’s about money. And you know what this sounds cold and bitter but it’s about storytelling
Madam: We were thinking well was that a bitch slap or what the hell happened here?
Shawn: It wasn’t a bitch slap in the sense of hey world look at what we’re doing to Randy, but it was if anything it was a little tickle for Randy in a very covert way to say watch yourself but you know Hollywood has such a short memory like it will all blow over. And it will all be forgotten.
Madam: You think?
Richard: Are you kidding?
Shawn: But it’s true though in a sense though on one level you can go oh my god they did this they said that but then another.
Madam: About that Advocate article it was like you said this about us and you said this about our character well we’re going to make you say that he wasn’t all that so that was kind of crappy.
Shawn: Well, it makes good copy right?
Madam: Yeah if say so.
Richard: I think that a movie or tv or like that article is supposed to tell it’s version of it whatever that may be and then it’s supposed to make you go and talk about it. If you’re not talking about it that you agree or disagree with it then it wasn’t poignant at all it didn’t create a sort of raucous within you but the controversy the fact that we have a room divided you know that fact that we have people that are agreeing and disagreeing that was what it was all about. It was a gay having a gay tv show makes somebody money while trying to educate people you know what I mean you’ve got to take it back into the generic that’s what it’s all about.
Shawn: I really have a sense that Randy and possibly Gale, you know I don’t really know these guys I’ve probably spoken to them like 5 times because we were so sequestered and so removed and were on different schedules so I don’t really know who I would imagine he walked away from the show feeling very bitter because of how he was portrayed on the show. Where his character went, all that stuff. Okay fine. I think you give him 10 years or even 20 years and ask him to look back on that and he’s going to say wow, I wouldn’t be surprised you give them 10 to 20 years, Ron and Dan will talk with Randy Harrison.
UPD: добавлю сюда же, пожалуй
это не транскрипт, скорее пересказ Q&A Шона на кафконе в январе 2005
by stillife
SHAWN POSTOFF Q&A
Shawn Postoff wrote 505 and 507. All the writers are done except Ron
and Dan who are currently working on 513.
Postoff on the series finale: "I think it's a very appropriate ending.
I can't say you're gonna love it because I know how different
people's opinions are, the various shippers, but I felt it ended in a
way that this is genuine, this is real."
читать дальше
Postoff has been a writer for QAF since S3. He mentioned that when he
first came on board, he checked the messageboards and saw everybody
ripping S2 to shreds. So clearly TPTB knew there were problems and the
writers (or some of them) are aware of what is said on the Internet.
Shawn wrote 310, 405, 409 and 413. I use the term "write" loosely,
because as you shall see (and as some of us have long suspected),
Cowlip hold the reins at all times. Shawn got the job when his agent
sent some of his feature film spec scripts to C/L. He talked about
the adjustment from writing feature films to writing for a TV show.
His own personal writing process is that "it all kind of happens in my
head and only when it's done and I see it in my head as a story,
that's when I write it." He said he struggled with the "pressure
cooker scenario" that is episodic television (5 days to get out a
sсriрt). In writing for QAF (like any TV show), ideas evolve on the
table rather than in the heads of the writers. They sit in a room and
toss ideas around. "A lot are crap and a lot get tossed out."
He went on to say that his QAF experience "trained me to think very
critically about story." Ron is "an expert in pinpointing when we
were repeating ourselves." *dies laughing* Shawn said that sometimes
when Ron pointed out these redundancies, he wouldn't see it at first,
but upon analyzing the structure of the scene and whatever else was
happening, he would see that Ron was right. He said QAF helped him
with structure.
Shawn says: "My job as a staff writer is to give themwhat they
want....suggest things and off it goes. Published rewrites come back
and sometimes I barely recognize what I've written. It comes back
rewritten." He said he'd been warned in advance by Sheila and by
Cowlip that this is not like feature film (in other words, he'd have
no control over the final product). Writing for QAF, he just learned
to let it go, "cut the cord" as he put it.
He said he doesn't feel as though he contributed as much as he
would've liked to in the writing room, that most of his contributions
were more in the form of drafting scripts. He said, "All of the
stories I would have told very differently." Part of the process was
learning to tell story thru C/L's voices. He said that his experience
on QAF helped him get out all the "queer stories" out of his system.
Thanks to QAF, he says, he finally wrote his very first straight sсript.
In 413, he wrote a different marriage ceremony, much less traditional
than what appeared onscreen. His version had more humorous dialogue
and was more casual because the ceremony itself was to be simple, not
formal. The director had wanted to put Ben/M in tuxes but C/L said
no. So Shawn figured a lighter, more non-traditional wedding ceremony
would be appropriate, but C/L changed it to a more conservative
version so that people would take gay marriage seriously.
On a technical note, he mentioned that QAF is written as a 3-act story
rather than a 4-act like most TV shows because there are no
commercials. This 3-act structure makes for some odd commercial
breaks when it airs on Showcase.
Someone asked him how hard he fights for a scene. He said "sometimes
we'll get really detailed with character motivation," debating over
whether something in the sсript is right for a character. He said,
"You state your opinion, fight for it a second time but don't go for a
third." At this stage, now that he's been with the show for three
years, he conceded that he might be able to go back and argue a third
time, but definitely not in the beginning. His rationale: It's not
about giving in. The way they phrase it is "You've sold me" or "I'll
buy that." He said that emotional motivation always trumps the
structural, but then he went on to contradict that with much of what
he said later.
His favorite character, believe it or not, is Justin. He relates to
him the most.
A member of the audience expressed her (our) frustration about the
missing conversations implied by "I thought we were partners" and "I
thought we had a commitment." The Q&A guy interjected with the
standard "you don't need to see everything" response, but Shawn was
respectful and seemed to understand what she was getting at. He said
they have conversations in the writing room where Ron will ask, "How
do we know Brian loves Justin?" To which all the writers respond that
we just know. Action, not words. This is just my own interpretation,
but the way he talked about it, in the present tense (i.e., "Brian
doesn't do such-and-such") made it seem unlikely that Gale will get
his wish (expressed in his DNA interview) that Brian will open up in S5.
Shawn was asked why Justin confided in Mikey about Brian's performance
problems. His explanation: "We don't get the luxury of letting these
characters breathe over several months. We deal with emotional time.
Some people will care but the vast amount of people won't." Perhaps
this explains QAF's peculiar timeline. Another rationalization he
used for the Justin/Michael 409 scene is that they try to ensure that
characters are not in isolation. They try to put the characters
together in different configurations.
Shawn said that Ron has deeply regretted for many (well, at least
two!) years that Brian let Justin top him. He felt that changed the
nature of Brian's character "where they didn't want the character to
go there." I did not get the impression that Ron regretted it because
it happened too soon, but rather that he regretted that it happened at
all.
At that point, I stood up and asked him about Brian's growth arc,
attempting to draw a parallel between the topping issue and C/L's
reluctance to let Brian express his emotions. He picked up more on
the topping issue, joking about it a bit. Then he said that Brian's
control issues are what make him such an interesting, complex
character. He also said that Brian had grown from S1 to S5 but that
much of that growth wasn't "visible".
Shawn said that QAF is written in a Ron and Dan voice. "The rest of
us are the hired guns." One characteristic of C/L's writing, he said,
is that you'll very seldom see scenes of people sitting in silence
thinking. He attributed this to Cowlip's theatre background. In 405,
he wanted a few seconds of that for Justin, but it wasn't written into
the episode. The reason why it happened is that Kelly Makin, the
director, suggested to C/L that it might be good to get a few minutes
of silence.
He said the tone of S5 is extremely political. He attributed this to
the results of the recent election, which may partly be true. When
asked about his favorite storylines since he's been on the show, he
picked the Stockwell arc, particularly mentioning the way it all came
together in the finale. He acknowledged that the S4 finale was
weaker. No shit, Sherlock.
It's absolutely clear that they put political issues first, characters
second. They decide what issues they want to tackle, then they try to
figure out a way to work it into the story. For instance, Cowlip
wanted to do a vigilante storyline. They picked Justin because of his
youth, but
Shawn admitted that all of the writers would probably now agree now
that it's not really Justin.
Somebody asked if actors have input. He said that after the cast
reading for each episode, there's a one or two day window of
opportunity where an actor can go to C/L and plead his case. In the
most recent episode, Peter took issue with a word Emmett was supposed
to use ("penance"). They had a 15 minute conversation about that.
Sounds like there may be a big focus on Mel/Lindz in the finale. He
seemed to feel their storyline (the custody battle?) was very
important. He said the way the characters end up is a reflection of
the political climate.
Ron and Dan exercise complete control over everything. Shawn says
that the writers take a roadmap provided by Cowlip and hammer out the
dialogue. Each episode has a "tone meeting" where Ron and Dan tell
the director what they want.
Shawn said that the writers felt the show really couldn't continue for
any more seasons. He said they had a tough enough time trying to come
up with storylines for S5. They have considered at some point or
another bringing in more characters but decided there was insufficient
screentime since there are already 9 main characters.
I give Shawn a lot of credit for showing up and talking to the fans.
His answers were thoughtful, respectful and gave a lot of insight into
the writing process on QAF.
I have deleted most of my snarky editorializing I'm well aware that my
opinions are not shared by this group. Shawn didn't give away any
spoilers, but the general sense I got is - to phrase it tactfully -
that how you felt about S4 is a pretty good predictor of how you will
feel about S5.
*****
и пара дополнений
This is a very good overview of the Q&A. It meshes with how I recall it.
A couple side notes and a comment:
I was speaking with Shawn after the Q&A during which one of the things we
talked about were the problems with Season 2. I mentioned it felt like things
fell apart in Season 2 and starting with Season 3 they worked to fix what went
wrong. Like a true professional, he said the problems were not the fault of the
writers that came before, but that the show moved away from story arcs and
tried to tell complete (or as complete as possible) stories in each episode. He
pointed out that with Season 3 they returned to story arcs over several
episodes which made it possible to tie things together and made the seasons flow
smoother. He indicated the attempt to tell 20 independent episodes made the
season
jerky with a lot of ups and downs. (This is really paraphrased. I'm going
from memory.)
Shawn's spec scripts got him the job and it's not surprising he relates
strongly to the Justin character. It is Justin's character...his voice, Shawn
was
hired on the show for.
As for Richard interrupting when the subject of missing conversations between
the end of Season 3 and the beginning of Season 4...he was right to do so.
The question was stated and Shawn answered but then that person continued to
reiterate the question as if Shawn didn't understand what they meant and another
jumped in to elaborate the issue...to the point it looked and felt like an
attack on Shawn. Shawn is no longer employed by the show and was very generous
to
share a few hours of his time at the convention. He wasn't the only writer on
the show and wasn't the one with the final decision but because he was there,
he was a convenient target to grill. Richard was also correct in saying you
don't have to see everything. There was a good eight months between those two
episodes and there is the potential for a lot of things to happen in that
amount of time. Through the dialogue of "I thought we were partners," "We are"
you
know they had either a conversation or an unspoken understanding develop since
the previous episode. It's the result that matters. For those that feel it
necessary to have every little detail that went into the decision that they are
partners, there is always fan fic.
Janet
Shawn knows how it ends because all the writers plan the episodes together
with lots of notes going up on a white board to build the story before the
person who is actually writing it (in the case of the finale, Dan and Ron) takes
over to write the episode. Normally, after the sсript is written it is given to
Dan and Ron to revise and edit but that obviously doesn't apply to the
episodes they write themselves. It was only after they planned the episode that
Shawn's (and all the other writers') contracts were finished. He didn't say and
I
didn't ask if Dan and Ron sent the sсript they wrote based on the collaborative
storybuilding session for the finale to him or any of the other writers but
even in the unlikely (in my opinion) event they did not, since he was involved
in the writers' meetings to plan the episode he is fully aware of what will
happen.
Janet