2008: The Directors and Writers Thread

[sudz4u]

Not 100% positive but it's my understanding that Jean Passanante and Leah Laiman write the breakdowns on ATWT. They don't have a breakdown team anymore but they still have industry-standard breakdowns.

[LeClerc]

Thanks! Guess Carruthers didn't want to burden her friends B&E with writing breakdowns because if Passanante and Laiman can do it (not that they should have to) B&E could have.

And there's no way they'll make a big name like Pratt write breakdowns.

[brimike]

Correct.

Higley and Draughon write all five breakdowns a week on Days, and Laiman and Passanante write all five on ATWT.

It definitely helps to have an actual breakdown to work from, but there's still an issue of burn-out involved. Two writers just can't sustain Must-Watch-TV momentum 250 episodes a year.

[NYC123]

AMC needs writers with experience. Like many said Walsh, Beldner and Hayes have experience. Cohen, Hall, Taylor are not that experienced.

Is Tracey Thomson experienced in BDW and SW?

Also Pratt has to do ALOT of recustructing if no BDW are causing a bad work enviornment.

[LeClerc]

TT has only done scripts.

If they were going to do this they should have fired the script writers and then bumped all the beakdown writers (Walsh, Hayes, Demorest, Beall, Patrick) to scriptwriters. It's still sucks to fire half your staff but this would have been better IMO.

Will Pratt really care if there's a bad work environment for the scriptwriters? I'm not so sure.

[Toups]

She just started writing scripts in 2006.

[AddictedToSoaps]

You mean B&E's writing team/structure, right?

[NYC123]

How about we get rid of Cohen and Taylor and get back Michelle Patrick and Stephen Demorest.

As of right now its ABC decision

[Toups]

It's not B&E's fault. It's ABC eliminating the BDW position.

See Sudz4u's post above.

[AddictedToSoaps]

Oh, I see.

[brimike]

Exactly. The execs (NOT B&E) felt that since the shows "survived" so well during the strike without breakdown writers, they didn't need them anymore.

[MarkH]

Dena is SPECIFICALLY addressing burnout issues in her blog. It shines through. She is already frayed, and you can clearly see it.

It may be that Passanante/Laiman are spending so much time on breakdowns that they can't keep the big picture in mind...which is why the overall storytelling on ATWT is so lousy?

Just some naive theories....

[LeClerc]

I don't see why AMC can't do something like this:

(Headwriter)

Charles Pratt, Jr.

(Breakdowns)

Jeff Beldner

Chip Hayes

(Scripts)

Addie Walsh (script editor; part-time scriptwriter)

Rebecca Taylor

Joanna Cohen

Kate Hall

Tracey Thomson

(This isn't my ideal staff but I'm being realistic based on where the team is now)

It's a small team and half the writers are relatively inexpensive. If Richard Culliton can write 4 scripts in a row at ATWT I don't see why AMC can't get by on 4 regular scriptwriters.

[soaplvr02]

first of all toups, you can take cinquamani and bugler off the "not yet in credits" list... their last episodes have already aired.

one reason they couldn't keep demorest, patrick, etc is because they are way more expensive. and there were personality conflicts. recently, as everyone's cycles came up, they were mostly all renegotiated for

a. less money or

b. shorter cycles (they can be fired more often) or

c. a smaller guarantee

most writers are guaranteed a script a week. or in the case of assoc HW, a "piece" most assoc headwriters are guaranteed more than a piece a week. they write a thrust and BD, etc. some writers are only guaranteed a 26 scripts a year... so that way, they don't always write every week or if they do some "reorganizing" they aren't paying people more. a few people who were let go got extra pay because AMC hadn't reached their guarantees. most of the new writers only work a litte about scale, so they're as cheap as they come.

and word on the street is daran little isn't staying for long. he's been working on thrusts and the "Structures"... which is essentially a BD without calling it a BD ( and thus having to pay for it) and under this new system is kinda of unneccessary

[LeClerc]

Make me wonder why Tracey Thomson would leave GH for this mess. Or maybe she didn't really have a choice?