2012: The Directors and Writers Thread

[Khan]

For all intents and purposes, Ann Marcus was KNOTS' head writer during the latter half of s13 as well as all of s14. Lisa Seidman was just one of the writers on her team.

[Scryber96]

Everybody always complains that daytime is nothing but recycled writers, so they finally bring in new blood and now you'd rather have another recycle? Make up your minds, people!

[Soapsuds]

Seidman sucked on Dallas big time and was ok on Knots. She sucked her last time on Y&R.

[Khan]

Bring in new blood? Yes. Give them a significant amount of responsibility without some experience writing soaps? No.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

To be fair, he was the Script Editor on Hollywood Heights, which was a rushed production on a similar cutthroat production timeline as most daytime soaps (even if it was only 80 episodes).

The results are to be seen, but I thought Milstein did a terrible job editing this show, not that it was all her fault though. Everything was so inconsistent and all over the place, and characters never had a unique voice from day to day.

I assume most contract cycles aren't up yet, which is why Griffith isn't firing and adding too many people all at once and is taking his time like Carlivati did earlier in the year at GH. Then again, it seemed like Tomin and Whitesell fired everyone and their mother within 5 minutes of being re-hired at DAYS, but DAYS has never played it safe when it comes to contract cycles.

[SOAPSFOREVER]

Script editing for a soap is very different than writing scripts or breakdowns. A topnotch script editor needs to be very familiar with the show's history, especially a soap like Y&R that still has a number of characters rooted in the early years of the show. A really knowledgable script editor can play lines of subtext, bring rich backstory to enhance current story, give a nod to past story and relationships, etc. It's not just about editing the daily scripts and catching inconsistencies. Mr. Boyd seems like a "friend of Josh and Jill" choice to me. Perhaps he would be better suited for scripts or breakdowns, but not script editing, certainly not that this point.

[Wales2004]

The editing was noticeably bad at times. Scenes ended abruptly and the most glaring one was when they Max appeared to be in two different locations at the same time (in the club next to Nora and in the back talking to Chloe).

I do think that if Brent Boyd learns the show's history and speaks to the cast about their characters so he can "learn them," so to speak, that he should do better than with HH. He may be better off with established characters since he only needs to build on them as opposed to building them from scratch which seems to be a weakness. The strengths of the show seemed to be the formation of romantic relationships which actually gave the illusion that there were more to some of the characters than was the case.

Even though I know I'm ultra picky, my biggest gripe was the fact that he chose not to eliminate the Chloe killed Eddie's mother plot from the show. Without it, Chloe would have been a character and not become a caricature. It was too glaringly ridiculous to have a killer blaming the son of the woman she killed for not forgiving her for cheating on him, setting out to win him back, and subsequently blaming him for ruining her life. Since her only punishment was to end up without a man then the cheating was all that was needed. Otherwise, rational viewers who weren't starry eyed shippers would want to see her in handcuffs and on her way to prison at the end--which of course, did not happen. They do have Phyllis and others who never pay so maybe this is right up his alley.

How he handles recasts and new characters will tell whether the issues with HH had more to do with him (outside of some of the terrible acting, the low wardrobe budget that affected Jake the most, and poor editing).

[RavenWhitney]

So, Sally McDonald is back directing episodes starting with October 4 (with JFP on the set) that must mean she's losing her Supervisory Producer roll...not surprising. I expect Scott McKinsey to show up as another director soon.

[Wales2004]

When there are major contradictions in a character's dialogue from one episode to the next, is that usually because different writers wrote the episodes? Should the script editor catch that sort of thing?

[sheilaforever]

yes. And the use of nicknames in case of Y&R and a certain style of dialogue etc.

[Toups]

The credits on Friday's US episode of Y&R differs from the script Muhney posted. MAB is still listed as EP - JFP wasn't listed. Writing credits goes:

Griffith

MAB

Sheffer

Hamner

NMS

Kanelos

Boyd

Milsten

Cwikly

JFE

I don't know how to list this. Do I list Boyd as Co-script editor? Josh and MAB as Co-HWs? I hate confusing credits.

[Wales2004]

Thanks. It's amazing what I notice about writing and editing when I am actually paying attention to it.

[LondonScribe]

Just watched the episode. Let's just say it's obvious why Maria Bell is still in the credits. In my opinion, she still lurks over the (main) stories. I don't think she was involved in the construction of the script.

[dannigold]

Has Chris Whitesell always been listed above Gary Tomlin in the Days credits; because I have only just noticed that he has been all week.

[jcar03]

I thought Tomlin and Whitesell alternated who was on top just like Meng and De Cazotte do for co-executives.