Rebecca Eschliman <76072.2345@compuserve.com> asks:
> Given (for those of us who have read your TCOS script in your
> scriptwriting book) that you give quite detailed visual details
> in your scripts (angles of shots, focus-points, mood), what is
> the contribution of the director as far as the visual outcome?

It was shot for shot what I wrote...but at the same time, a
director can realize that well, or poorly. I thought that Goran did a
terrific job.

jms

Philip Hornsey <74053.2101@compuserve.com> asks:
> I am, however, moved to ask, are you getting a lot of repeat
> business from the naysayers?

Oh, I still hear plenty from the naysayers...they can't argue
with the quality of the episodes now, so they say, "Well, it's too
little, too late," totally ignoring all that went before to set this
up.

Screw 'em. This season, there wasn't any pressure, there wasn't
any fighting for renewal since we knew this was gonna be it, so I wrote
exactly the show that I wanted to write. As long as more folks like it
than don't, which is precisely the case here, that's all that matters.

jms

Tom Knudsen <72347.1626@compuserve.com> asks:
> That was Goran's episode??

"I have to say this was one of the best episodes of the entire series.
If this is any indication of what the rest of the season is
like.......watch out."

Well, the next episode is even more so...and the one after that,
more so still. You get a slight breather for an episode or so -- still
very strongly arc, though, just not as in-your-face hardhitting -- and
then the last are whammers.

"I suspect a stream of apologies to your are about to begin."

Yeah, right, and pandas will fly out of my butt.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Yeah, that was a visual pun written into the script, the other
shoe dropping...but also reflecting that kind of low energy thing in
the morning, when you put one slipper on, and you just *don't* want to
leave...and you just let the energy drain away, and the slipper falls
from your hand...which also overlaps the gavel dropping, as scripted.

I took a great deal of care in blocking out every shot in that
one, as opposed to some other cases, as with Mike Vejar, where I wrote,
in "The Face of the Enemy," "They pull down Sheridan like a pack of
wolves bringing down a lion" knowing that he would then take that and
turn it into art. And he did.

jms

{original post had no questions}

I come from a similar background. Hence the truthfulness in
some of this.

jms