Mmm. Give Me The Damn Marrow! (Showrunner stuff)

I'M PUNCHY, AND when I get punchy I like to give obscure titles to posts. In this case, a funny Onion article I half remember about an old man writing an Op-Ed explaining why he needs to suck out your bone marrow.

The Marrow today comes courtesy of the great Jill Golick, and the equally great Karen Hill, who's in Banff as part of the Canwest Showrunner Training Program. Karen had a session with Friday Night Lights' Jason Katims, the writer crush of many a scribe right now because of the absolute deliciousness of that show on just about every level known to man.

During a session, Katims outlined his rules for showrunners. They're awesome.

Coincidentally, around the story room table at lunch last week on The Border, a bunch of producer, writer, key types were speculating over why things seem so chaotic in our few Canadian shows this year. There seems to be a lot of creative turmoil, showrunners coming and going, writers being replaced, things being thrown out and around. All of it under the surface. Oh, and the pilot thing hasn't helped -- big creative fights are still happening and it's kind of ... icky.

Well, besides the usual Canadian problem of "too many cooks" -- I think that maybe a solution could be found by really sticking to Katims wonderful rules here. They show a lot of insight and experience. (Of course, they also come from a tradition where they actually recognize the Showrunner-Writer paradigm, but never mind. We're getting there.)

Katims Rules For Showrunning:

1. Decide what you need.
Look at your skill set critically and determine your weaknesses. Then, hire accordingly.

2. Embrace input.
Even if your initial input is to push people away, fight that impulse. Embrace the collaborative nature of the medium. Listen to your actors, execs, keys.)

3. Give yourself permission to say no.
Once people feel they’ve been heard, then you can tell them it’s not the way you envision the show.

4. Success is determined before principal photography.
Once you put together your team, most of your work is done. When you interview folks, really pay attention. You’ll learn what you need to know in the first five minutes.

5. Be open to change when reality hits.
For example, if you’re in editing, don’t hang onto your fantasy version of the script. Deal with the material that’s actually been shot and cut the show accordingly.

6. Not everything is your fault.

7. Some things are your fault.
When you can cop to your fuck ups, it’s a good thing. It fosters an atmosphere of trust. Own your mistakes so it won’t happen again.

8. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Pay attention to lifestyle stuff. Katims prides himself on being able to go home and have dinner with the kids. Losing perspective from overwork doesn’t help the show. Hiatus is a sham.

9. Believe the cards.
Put the story up on a board on index cards. If you can’t talk your story from start to finish, it’ll show up on the screen. Story holes always show. Be willing to throw out the cards and rewrite. Know how your story tracks.

10. Be honest when conflicts arise.
If an actor complains about their character and you disagree with them, tell them. Be honest. People will respect you. Nobody wants to tell the truth but you need to remember you are being paid to do the things that are hard. No exec has ever said anything wrong. When a show fails, it’s because of us.

11. Empower your team.
Believe in the people you hire. Don’t make it seem like you’re indispensable. You will be rewarded by empowering talented people. They’ll do better work.

12. Don’t hire anyone who wants your job.
They’ll make your life difficult as they try to take your job.

It's funny. My plan was always about learning the craft and working my way up -- which is hard to do in Canada because the shorter show orders mean less opportunity. There's also a culture here that seems, foolishly, to think that the solution is to give shows to people with no experience. Eight months at the film centre does not make you qualified to run a show.

So I've had, in my time, the chance to see the execution of each one of these rules. How it works when it's done, and how it's worked when it's not done this way.

One of the things that struck me about the BSG podcasts is how often Ronald Moore cops to being wrong. "We screwed that one up," he'll say. "That's on me."

For the other rules, I've seen masters use them to handle network notes they don't like, and preserve relationships, and I've seen the absence of this kind of coolheaded approach lead to chaos. I've embraced wonderful situations working for people who followed these rules -- or most of them -- and I've walked away from projects because I could see that the people in charge just didn't have the wisdom to follow a skillset like this.

Katims has articulated the thing that just about every writer looking to showrun should know, without really knowing why.

But like my poker playing friend Gus would say, palming the "order of hands" card -- It's still nice to have a cheat sheet.

Thanks to Jill and Karen for passing this along. Sweet.