Leonard Chang

23rd May 2013

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What to Watch on Netflix Flowchart

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17th May 2013

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From The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell

WHAT I HAVE LIVED FOR

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy — ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy.

I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness — that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss.

I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined.

This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what — at last — I have found.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.

I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux.

A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be.

I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

14th May 2013

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Lieber’s Showrunner Rules

Showruner Rule #1: All scripts are essentially math. Bad scripts are algebra. GREAT scripts are string theory.

Showrunner Rule #2: Black out the character names on a script. If after you can’t IMMEDIATELY identify your characters voices, ya fucked up.

Showrunner Rule #3: I’ll take a great person over a great writer any day. I can fix writing, but I can’t get back time an asshole wastes.

Showrunner Rule #4: No matter how many times you tell yourself, you can “get that scene shot in an hour-and-a-half”… it’ll take two hours.

Showrunner Rule #5: The SHOCKER on page 45, MUST be set up on pgs 9&26. Cause any moron can write, “Only now do we realize she’s an alien!”

Showrunner Rule #6: Writers waste early time coming up with GREAT dialogue. Dialogue’s for later. What’s paramount now: what HAPPENS next.

Showrunner Rule #7: With the notable exception of the stealth dickwad a staff is only as good as you let them be. After all, you hired them.

Showrunner Rule #8 (that I failed): If network DEMANDS you cast Tara Reid circa 1995 as “hot, young” lead, say NO… even if they then fire you.

Showrunner Rule #9: Rather then interrupt writer’s pitch, write questions anywhere close. Like… say… the window!

Showrunner MATH Rule #10: S*2/D less than 12. AKA number of scripted scenes * 2 hrs (average length per scene)/# of shoot days MUST be less than 12. Learn it.

From:
http://gointothestory.blcklst.com/2013/02/showrunner-rules-from-jeffrey-lieber.html

The Complete List:

https://sites.google.com/site/scottdistillery/showrunner-rules-by-jeff-lieber

7th May 2013

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Dale Carnegie’s advice [for writers’ rooms]*

• Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.
• Give honest and sincere appreciation.
• Arouse in the other person an eager want.
• Become genuinely interested in other people.
• Smile.
• Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
• Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
• Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.
• Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.
• The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
• Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say “You’re Wrong.”
• If you’re wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
• Begin in a friendly way.
• Start with questions to which the other person will answer yes.
• Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
• Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.
• Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
• Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
• Appeal to the nobler motives.
• Dramatize your ideas.
• Throw down a challenge.
• Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
• Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
• Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
• Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
• Let the other person save face.
• Praise every improvement.
• Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
• Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
• Make the other person happy about doing what you suggest.

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* Not really meant for a writers’ room, but pretty good advice. Adapted from Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People 

3rd April 2013

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Justified Season 4

Justified has finished its fourth season, and we’re grateful for the response from fans and critics. What an amazing ride. Below is a link to a handful of reviews of the Finale and, to some extent, the season. Thank you so very much for watching, and we look forward to entertaining you in January of 2014. Stay frosty, everyone.

http://www.metacritic.com/feature/justified-season-4-finale-reviews

1st April 2013

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Script Pages from Episode 412

Sample script pages from episode 412, annotated. The original link on the FX Production blog is here.