Great notes on notes, Marc. 😜 It's my tendency to be the logic police, but I learned to give better reads by getting a lot of crappy notes. I learned to read the PAPER script twice (vibes first, then technical) toward two ends: what's the goal, and did the writer accomplish it; and how, if requested, I might assist them with that goal. Macro to micro. Keeps me more objective.👍🏽
I am gonna name drop. Was working with Marc Pedowitz on a project. At ABC at the time, now the CW maestro. Best exec I have ever worked with. His notes were specific, simple, direct and given with a sense of collaboration. They were ALWAYS helpful.
Giving notes can be great fun; even getting notes can be fun, or at least helpful. I learned how to take notes from watching Dick Wolf get notes from NBC execs. He played them like the cheap, untuned, tone-dear violins they were….
Compare Pedowitz with a former Bruckheimer exec on a show I was working on. This guy was a loon. One day he came screaming into a writers room to tell me, in charge of the room, that I had ignored his notes, waiving an outline at me. I pointed out that the outline in his hand was almost two weeks out of date, that the notes on that outline had been executed, that the teleplay was almost ready and suggested we might wait for the tp to come out to get further notes. He insisted on giving notes on the outdated outline. He then insisted that a teleplay and an outline were virtually the same thing. I demurred. He objected. I suggested that, had they — the outline and teleplay — been the same thing, there would be only one word for them/it, not two. He then said that his notes were not suggestions, but orders. I suggested that I took orders from the head writer, who was not in the room, but that he might want to take it up with said head writer. He took umbrage. I was fired soon thereafter. I asked that they send my remaining checks for the next 9 episodes to Hawaii….. VERY WELL PAID vacation…..
Great notes on notes, Marc. 😜 It's my tendency to be the logic police, but I learned to give better reads by getting a lot of crappy notes. I learned to read the PAPER script twice (vibes first, then technical) toward two ends: what's the goal, and did the writer accomplish it; and how, if requested, I might assist them with that goal. Macro to micro. Keeps me more objective.👍🏽
I am gonna name drop. Was working with Marc Pedowitz on a project. At ABC at the time, now the CW maestro. Best exec I have ever worked with. His notes were specific, simple, direct and given with a sense of collaboration. They were ALWAYS helpful.
Giving notes can be great fun; even getting notes can be fun, or at least helpful. I learned how to take notes from watching Dick Wolf get notes from NBC execs. He played them like the cheap, untuned, tone-dear violins they were….
Compare Pedowitz with a former Bruckheimer exec on a show I was working on. This guy was a loon. One day he came screaming into a writers room to tell me, in charge of the room, that I had ignored his notes, waiving an outline at me. I pointed out that the outline in his hand was almost two weeks out of date, that the notes on that outline had been executed, that the teleplay was almost ready and suggested we might wait for the tp to come out to get further notes. He insisted on giving notes on the outdated outline. He then insisted that a teleplay and an outline were virtually the same thing. I demurred. He objected. I suggested that, had they — the outline and teleplay — been the same thing, there would be only one word for them/it, not two. He then said that his notes were not suggestions, but orders. I suggested that I took orders from the head writer, who was not in the room, but that he might want to take it up with said head writer. He took umbrage. I was fired soon thereafter. I asked that they send my remaining checks for the next 9 episodes to Hawaii….. VERY WELL PAID vacation…..