Guest Post: Writer on Set! Writer on Set!

The following is a guest post. The writer is a top industry writer/producer, who's worked in Canadian TV for over two decades.

I'VE ESSENTIALLY TAKEN a break from showrunning for the last three years – partially by design and partially because no one will fucking hire me (which is not really a good example of “intelligent design’). Recently I have returned to active duty – it is not showrunning by any stretch (so don’t credit or blame for anything you see) but I’ve been on a show.

Now in the three years I have been away there have been some changes to the way shows are “run” in Canada – the most striking of these is that you can’t walk onto a set without tripping over a writer – and you end up doing that ‘cause they just get in the way. We are awkward people and putting us on set is usually a recipe for disaster or, at the very least, collisions with grips and gaffers and the like.

Even the current name for this activity “set sit” is derogatory as it suggests we need to have some writer on set all the time so that the kids don’t misbehave – well sometimes the kids should be allowed to misbehave. Any writer who’s spent time with me knows I encourage it in their scripts if only so the network “pull back” doesn’t de-nut the thing completely.

Now lets get this straight – I was born and bred a writer (a small stud farm somewhere in County Antrim) and I respect writers more than any other people in the business but, jesus fuck, it is getting a little out of hand. This new development -- writers spending the entire day on set, or attending all the casting sessions etc, etc is just sullying our good names.

We are becoming no better than network executives and, in my less than humble opinion, it has to stop. What we are doing to directors is the equivalent of having a network executive standing over your shoulder and looking at the screen as you try to write a script. On some level it comes down to a matter or respect -- I hate being a typist for some wrong headed network person – won’t do it (hmmm maybe that’s the answer to the ‘no one will hire me’ thingee) and I don’t expect the director to just be a cipher on set. Just as we lose interest when our stories are dictated to us, they lose interest when their authority and creativity in undercut by some clown wearing cans whispering to the continuity girl after every take.

This is the position we are putting our directors under. Every decision they make, every chance they take, every attempt at improvisation or improvement now has to be vetted by a writer (who under normal circumstance would likely be willing to go along for the ride) who sits in a chair scared that if someone on the stage actually attempts to do something interesting with the material they are going to have to “answer to” the network. This is not true across the board – but I’ve certainly seen it in action on more than a few sets.

Being a director is a scary thing – I’ve had the pleasure of doing it a number of times and I know (even of a set that I essentially own) that the amount of second guessing that goes on throughout the shoot (despite the bravado of some) is enormous. We have no idea if we are doing the right thing, the actors have no idea if they are doing the right thing but we are trying to create something that “lifts the material” off the page –I know I have done it innumerable times and often I’m the one who has written the material that I and trying to save.

Given that the Canuck TV world is now moving to six day shoots for an hour of TV you got to give the “traffic cops” some leeway because simple logistical truth means that all the precious beats or moments that you write into a script will not be covered. They just won’t. And having someone tap you on the back to tell you you are running out of time or saying “well what I meant was…” (that’s what pre-production is for) – in the middle of yet another back against the wall day – is not helpful.