When You're A Jet, You're a Shark...

STRANGELY, THOUGH We come from different worlds and opposite sides of the line, I feel, because we're both currently in prep, like Ken Girotti and I share a bond that is realer than real, and closer than close. For a writer, this kind of how the other half lives should be de rigeur.

By the way, I feel an equal sense of connection with Kate Beckinsale. No, I can't explain it. Must I?

True story: a few weeks ago, I was on set, shooting my first episode of The Border, in a downtown Toronto alley, and down the alley comes Ken. Disoriented, slightly puzzled, definitely bemused. Turns out someone was scouting while I was praying to get a Tiger to deliver the goods for Director Michael DeCarlo.

It was like a little Love Boat cameo. I feel sorry that we couldnt' deliver Charo for you, Ken. But know that in the solidarity of the prep-smashed, I feel your pain...

I've been surprised at times how well badly prepped shows have turned out. Go figure.

I find the more difficult scenario to be the one where you have a script, you've committed to it, you've found all or most of the locations, it's been cast, most of the requisite meetings have taken place...and now you're told on the eve of shooting that a major rewrite is to come. Of course there's always the proviso that production won't be affected because all of the aforementioned elements are already in place, and that the rewrite will stay the course in those areas. But what about my needs? What about the actors' needs? What about all the elements we've put in place...like...I kind of liked that script the way it was (sometimes because I simply had to commit to the material) or, I wanted to shoot that scene with the car on its side and the ambulance guys climbing in the elevated passenger door because it's going to look great in the location we picked? Now what? You mean we're doing the climactic scene in an elevator lobby. Hey, on Law & Order I wouldn't blink...but this ain't...that.

Largely prep on a TV show is about answering everybody's questions...except those of the director. Prep is a series of Q & A sessions with various department heads across the table demanding answers to questions I haven't yet had time to consider or apply in any kind of overarching storytelling way. I'm still trying to figure out what the centre of the story is and I'm already answering detailed questions that will give that centre its shape and feel. It's an odd, counter-intuitive way of doing things. But it's what television is. Perhaps it's that challenge I relish. Or perhaps it's the simple fact that many of the questions I'm asked only require a yes or a no. In that case, whether I know what the hell I'm talking about or not, I have a 50/50 chance of being right. With the wrong answers I can always fall back on the director's prerogative and say I've changed my mind.