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Post by Major Hathaway on May 23, 2009 5:26:09 GMT -5
A HUGE THANK YOU to Gina Gionfriddo for taking the time to do this interview for us. If any of you are going to quote or copy any of this article - please provide a link to this complete article and site that your quote is coming from this site. Due to the size - I will have to post this interview in several windows. Feel free to enter comments. General Professional Questions Which is the bigger challenge – writing a play for the theatre or an episode for a TV show, why: The only TV episodes I’ve written have been crime procedurals, so I can only speak to that kind of TV. A play feels like a bigger challenge, for me, because I’m starting—alone!--with a totally blank page. I’m inventing everything and the only point of view at the table is mine. With “Law & Order,” we take inspiration from newspapers and from experts in various fields. Our principal characters are well-established. Even though we only use “headlines” as jumping off points, it’s incredibly helpful to have a few rudimentary ingredients at the table when you begin. It reminds me of when I was in grad school for playwriting… We used to do this exercise called a “bake-off” play. The instructor would give you 4 things that had to be in the play and then you had 48 hours to write it. And the 4 things were like… an image, a scrap of dialogue, a character. It seemed impossible on its face, but when you sat down, it was awfully helpful to have those 4 things to focus you.Do you suffer from “first night” nerves (do you go to first nights)? I go to all the previews of my plays because we’re usually still making changes. Opening night tends to be a very lively audience because everyone involved with the show has friends and family in the house. So I do go to openings. The shows I sometimes like to dodge are the press previews—right before we open.Do experiences in your own life inspire you to write a play? They do, but I don’t write about the actual events. I use the feelings and the emotional discoveries, but I create different characters and different events. I don’t think I’m very objective about my own life. I don’t think most people are, honestly. I try to steer clear of direct autobiography because it helps keep me honest.What drives you to write for the theatre when the big audiences and money are in TV and film: I control the script 100% in theatre. In film and television, that’s not the case. You can get to that level, of course. I’m pretty sure, for example, that Rene has final say on our scripts. But in TV and film that tends to be a privilege you earn after a lot of years and success.What made you decide to write plays rather than articles or fictional novels: I have written short stories and I have an abandoned novel. I find writing fiction incredibly lonely. A play might take just as long, but you’re having readings, workshops. I feel like fiction writers go out to sea for such a long time without much support, much company. Also, I think I have a very argumentative way of processing ideas. I get excited by characters trying to navigate important stuff through argument.Has writing plays made you a better TV Script writer - vice versa & why: I think TV has made me a better playwright. I was very precious about my plays before I worked in TV. I was squeamish about cutting and rewriting. TV taught me that if you have to cut, you usually can, and if you have to rewrite quickly… you can do that, too. The deadlines in TV are so unforgiving you have to throw out certain romantic ideas about process and inspiration. It’s made me a more disciplined playwright. How did you become a writer for the L&O world: My play, “After Ashley,” had done well in the Humana Festival (Actors’ Theatre of Louisville) and was about to go up in New York. My agents sent me on a bunch of TV meetings and one of them was “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” I’ve been reading true crime since high school in a kind of obsessive way, so Rene and I talked a lot about the cases that fascinated us. I know he really liked my writing, but I think it also helped that I had a real passion for the show’s subject—the anatomy of criminal behavior.Is there a bible for the shows (are there “no go” areas for specific characters): There’s not a bible I’ve ever seen. We’ve never been given any “no go” areas as far as the principal characters. I feel free to propose anything. I may not get it, but I’m free to ask.
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Post by Major Hathaway on May 23, 2009 5:37:12 GMT -5
Please describe the process for writing an episode:
On our show, the writers work in teams. Each team sort of “pitches” story ideas to Rene in a very general way. The ideas are gleaned from reading newspapers and magazines, mostly. But a single real-life story can’t carry an entire episode. So you wind up—generally—finding a few stories that interest you and figuring out a way to weave the elements you like together to create something wholly new. The episode “Driven,” for example… There was one summer when there were about 4 different news stories about parents giving their kids rides to commit crimes. So that interested us, and Rene sparked to that idea, as well. But that’s not enough for a whole show, obviously. You have to brainstorm around the kernel idea, and that brainstorming may involve other news items or events in your life. At that time, my writing partner (Richard Sweren) and I happened to live in the same area of New York City, the Upper West Side. And we’d both lived there off and on for a couple of decades. We’d chat frequently about the changes we’d seen and the tensions those changes had wrought. So we began to imagine this kind of crime—parents facilitating children’s acts--in our neighborhood. Why might it happen? What would light the spark? Who would the different parties be? Generally we’re not off-and-running until Rene has OK’d a rough sketch of what the episode is. Maybe all we know about the “back half” is that—to stick with “Driven”—we want to wrestle with the culpability of the parents. We think they’re the big fish we’ll go after more so than the kids. Once we have an OK from Rene on a rough sketch, be start beating out each act. We’ll usually beat an act, then send it to Rene for feedback. At every stage, he both giveth and taketh away! You lose stuff you like, but you get new ideas from him that push you in a more interesting direction.
Is there a moment where the actors sit down and read the script with the writers present, describe if so (table meetings? – can you compare and contrast them for the different shows you have written for):
We do two actor read-throughs on this show, because it’s rare that the cops and the DA’s will be filming in the same place on the same day. So we do one with the cops and one with the DA’s, and the writers are either present or on speaker phone. On “Criminal Intent” we did one read-through with all the actors. I should insert here… We never do a read-through with guest stars. They arrive the day before they film, generally. So in the read-throughs, the cast reads their roles and the other folks in the room—producers, assistants, etc.—read the other roles.
Are there other writers, particularly of crime and /or mysteries, that influence you or that you admire:
I love nothing more in life than a really well-written, thoughtful and wise true crime book, and there are precious few of them. Some of my favorites: “Under the Bridge” by Rebecca Godfrey; “Invisible Eden” by Maria Flook; “Strange Piece of Paradise” by Terri Jentz; “While They Slept” by Kathryn Harrison. Wow! All my favorites are by women. I never realized that. I also love true crime books by Robert Graysmith and Joe McGinnis. I’m really looking forward to reading “Columbine” which just came out. I’m drawn to crime writers who ask why, who see their subjects as more complex than good guy/bad guy narratives. On the non-crime front, I like Mary Gaitskill’s fiction a lot. She’s just fearless and unsparing in the way she looks at human behavior and motivation.
You write for other TV shows – is it different than writing for the L&O world:
I’ve only written for one non-L&O show. I wrote one episode for “Cold Case” which was my first TV job and not a staff position. They hired me to write one episode because the show runner, Meredith Stiehm, liked “After Ashley” and liked helping playwrights break into TV. That was a great opportunity. The major difference was that music is such a huge part of that show. You have to tell parts of the story purely visually, and understand that whatever you write… If the scene is scored with recognizable music, that’s gonna play a big role in the audience’s experience of the scene. And I found that sort of fascinating and crazy-making because we all bring our personal baggage to popular songs. A lot of times you can’t nail down what kind of feeling a song’s gonna evoke. Also that show delves into crimes from the past, so you have to research the period you’re writing about. I had a close call on my episode! The episode involved cooking meth. The whole phenomenon of using cold medicines to make meth didn’t come about until years after our crime had occurred. No one told me that, and I didn’t know that. I’m just kind of a research hound and figured it out accidentally. Fortunately, it wasn’t a huge adjustment to make at that stage of the outline.
Which source do you find most fertile for L&O stories and why:
There are a bunch of websites that cull crime stories from all over America. I like those sites a lot, but you really have to use the New York daily papers, too. There are so many fascinating cases I’ve come across that I just cannot set in New York City. The population density here, the fact that most people don’t have cars… We have to stay in touch with the kinds of crimes actually being committed here. I mean… I wanted to write about polygamy so we found a way to make it happen, but it wasn’t easy.
What are the legal ramifications when dealing with “ripped from the headlines” storylines:
I’ve never done an episode that was based on a single story. I’m not sure that you could, frankly. Our show requires a certain number of startling reversals and most real-life crime stories don’t have that many. So you cherry pick for inspiration… an interesting legal question from one case, an interesting character trait from another. Most of the legal scrutiny is on character names, actually. We have a company that does just that—runs the names of our characters through a database and applies some formula to determine if we can use those names. If, for example, I write about a murderous plumber named Frank Jones, there can’t be an actual plumber in New York with that name. Do you feel that writing essentially “true” stories has inhibited your creativity:
No. Like I said, we never co-opt a real story in its entirety. We read magazines and newspapers looking for this and that scrap to gnaw on. And because we’re in teams and overseen by a show runner, what often happens is we have three different scraps of story or obsession that we throw together. Then it’s like the play “bake-off” I described. With “Crimebusters,” for example, I wanted to write about internet true-crime groupies and Rene was interested in anti-war activism. There’s ample room for creativity, then, in a collaboration/negotiation that births a new story.
Which L&O world character do you relate to – find easiest to write – find most difficult to write:
I loved writing Goren on “Criminal Intent.” That character was fun to write because of his inherent eccentricities, the way his zeal to solve a puzzle could take over and render him insensitive or oblivious to the situation at hand. It was a really conflict-ready character in that way. From the initial script that you submit, what % makes it to the screen – at what point is your script most vulnerable to changes & by whom:
It varies a lot, so it’s hard to name a %, but it’s high, relative to other shows, I think. The changes all come from Rene. We’re lucky in that we’re not subjected to the rounds and rounds of executive notes that I’ve heard other writers complain about. I think the longevity of the show and the guys at the top (Wolf, Balcer) insulates us from the kind of micromanagement by too many cooks phenomenon you see with newer shows.
What does a story editor/executive story editor do:
I honestly don’t know how it works on a non-L&O show. Here, these titles really just designate experience, how long you’ve been working in television. It’s possible that these titles denote different degrees of privilege or responsibility on other shows. Here, there is not a sense of high-rank and low-rank writers. And that’s a good thing.
Do you think that product placement interferes with the quality of L&O shows:
As far as I know, we haven’t done any product placement, and I’m not sure how we could, frankly. I think it’s easier to do on a comedy where you can crack a wink-wink joke about the Snapple you’re promoting. Our show is so tightly plotted and serious, it’s a little hard to imagine wedging in product placement. I hope we won’t have to.
How do you prepare to write for a show that is new to you – any elements you look for – watch past episodes:
I would watch all the episodes of any show I was preparing to write for. Since “Law & Order” has been on so long, I was given a list of “don’t miss” episodes when I came on to the show. So I watched those right away.
You have written several scripts concerning religious cults – do you have any personal knowledge of such groups, or is it just your excellent researching that makes it seem so:
Thank you so much! I did a lot of research for the episodes you mention, but I also pushed to get those topics green-lit. I think these cults appeal to me because a small part of me finds them appealing. Let’s be clear, I see how corrupt and destructive they are. But I understand the impulse to join. Interestingly, the piece that’s seductive to me is the same piece that would ultimately become intolerable to me—the ban on independent thought. It’s exhausting to build a life, a career, a morality. There’s something very appealing about a person or a group that claims to have all the answers and offers you a clear formula for how to live. I’ve also had friends go through various self-help programs that I found cultish. A major feature of these groups seems to me that they give you a language and a belief system to justify… whatever you want to justify. When we did the episode “Bogeyman,” I looked at the most popular self-help books and groups (currently)and it was amazing how fundamentally similar they are
How much influence does the TV writer have over casting, direction or editing – have you ever been surprised by the post-edited episode in that it varied significantly from your original vision:
The “Law & Order” shows are all bi-coastal productions, to varying degrees. All three shows cast in New York and film in New York, and edit in Los Angeles. As far as the writing staffs… I believe SVU and Criminal Intent have all their writers in LA now. Our show—the “mother ship”—has writers on both coasts. So the degree of involvement a writer has is somewhat dictated by where they live. I can sit in on casting for example, but not editing. I do, however, see several different “cuts” of my episode before the final cut airs, so there’s room to give feedback. The only time I’ve ever really been disappointed was on “Lost Boys.” I thought the episode turned out great, but they had to cut a scene because the episode was too long. And it’s a scene I really missed. We had a “happy” polygamist wife get on the stand to refute Michelle’s claims of oppression. I was sorry we missed hearing that perspective, but we couldn’t make it fit.
A Questioner read you consider yourself “an absolute encyclopedia of true crime”. In the lexicon of fictional (and then non-fictional) villains – who has most impressed you with their intelligence and audacious behavior and why:
You know… I think characters like Hannibal Lecter have helped perpetuate the idea that lots of murderers are geniuses. And I think very, very few are. Even the Zodiac killer… The guy who wrote the books about him clearly thinks he was a criminal mastermind. And I don’t. I think he was lucky to be “working” in an era when we didn’t have DNA testing or computers. The criminals that fascinate me are the sort of average Joes who transgress, who kill family members or lovers without guilt or regret and seem, on the surface, completely normal. Someone like Scott Peterson. Possibly Casey Anthony. There was a series of trials on Court TV a couple years back… teenagers who had killed parents or grandparents because they stood in the way of the kids getting something they wanted. Sarah Johnson was one I was sort of riveted by. She was a teenage girl in Iowa who shot her parents because they were keeping her from being with her boyfriend.
Please expand on your position that “crimes motivated by money, power and status are the most compelling and transgressive”:
I have found, writing crime for TV, that it’s hard to get an idea green-lit when the motivation for the crime is money. There’s a reluctance to believe that it could really be that simple. And, I suppose, financial gain is not as sexy from a story standpoint. Lust is more interesting than, say, life insurance and a mortgage. But if you look at, say, Scott Peterson, I would argue that that crime is about money. It’s a guy with low earning potential who—this is just my theory, mind you—wanted to be a playboy bachelor and figured he couldn’t live that lifestyle if he was a divorced guy saddled with alimony and child support. People say, why didn’t he just divorce his wife? I think that’s why. I say this kind of crime is the most transgressive because it seems to me so much colder than, say, murdering your wife because you hate her. Obviously, murder is always wrong, but I have an easier time understanding it when the violence is motivated by emotions run amok. To kill to preserve a lifestyle, or because someone has become inconvenient to you… I think that’s the more evil act.
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Post by Major Hathaway on May 23, 2009 5:41:25 GMT -5
Original L & O specific Questions (our members think season 18 & 19 are great!) Questioner’s Fav Episode is “Pledge” – the ending; was it fact checked by a legal team on using a false witness or just TV land (because questioner’s loved it) AND more about Cutter’s background came out – will we learn more about his personal life in the future: I love that episode, too! We tried to make it clear in the episode that Cutter was really on the line, if not a hair over it with that stunt. What I’ve learned, in terms of legal vetting, is that “will we be sued if…” is a pretty easy yes/no question. Questions about legal strategy and legal rulings… Four of our writers are lawyers and you’ll never get the same answer out of all four of them. I think that’s what makes the back half of our show cook—dueling interpretations of the law. As far as Cutter’s personal life, I’m not sure what the future will bring!The % of episodes credited to female writers differ between Original and CI – has the gender disparity made a difference in their respective development (stories, protagonists, female characters): I know my episodes are more female-heavy character-wise, and I tend to gravitate towards subjects with twisty psychology in play—simmering grudges from the past, the lure of cults, religions, Internet groups, self-help movements. I think you’re right to perceive a difference between the kinds of stories told on CI versus the kinds of stories told on the mother ship, but I think the difference stems from the design of the shows not the gender make-up of the writing staff. I love cases with very complicated, strange motivations and long, weird histories between victim and killer. CI is better set up to accommodate that kind of case. On the mother ship, we absolutely have to have a legal conundrum to animate the second half of the show. CI is about understanding the crime, I think, whereas the mother ship is more about… What the hell do we do in the aftermath? What constitutes justice, fairness, mercy, etc. Crossovers in L&O world – why aren’t there any; is it a possibility especially with Goldblum’s star power to bring in ratings / same question with other TV series i.e. Cold Case/L&O world crossover: I’m not sure, but my guess is that scheduling is the obstacle. We did one on CI that was pretty great (“In the Wee Small Hours”), but it was a two-hour episode. I can’t see doing a crossover in a single hour. These shows are so tightly plotted, that you need more time if you’re going to deal with the dynamics of characters crossing jurisdictions, stepping on toes, getting to know each other, etc. It’s a lot of work to coordinate logistically, but I agree… They’re really fun. I loved the crossovers the mother ship did with “Homicide” back in the day…YOUR fav original L&O episode: If the criteria is that it’s stuck with me… I would choose an episode called “Breeder” from 1994. Angie Phillips plays a pregnant woman who has promised her baby to multiple couples. I thought the couples were incredibly real and compelling. They were sad and angry and desperate—but each in a different way. That kind of nuance is hard to pull off under these time constraints, and I thought it was done really well. A couple of other favorites are “White Rabbit” and “Mad Dog.”
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Post by Major Hathaway on May 23, 2009 5:50:14 GMT -5
Criminal Intent Specific Questions Questioner’s Fav Episode is “Vacancy” – are the writers told not to write any love or sexual relationships for Goren – Is that a rule & if so, by whom: Thank you!! “Vacancy” is my favorite episode I’ve written, and it’s how I met the actress, Emily Bergl, who did my play in New York (“Becky Shaw”) recently. There was no official mandate not to write love or sex plots for Goren. In that episode in particular, nothing happened because Goren would never have crossed that line. Emily’s character was a witness, then a suspect, and pretty obviously unstable. But it was a lot of fun to write the scene where she flirts with him.Additional “Vacancy” question – D’Onofrio is seemingly winking at the audience with his take on actors & the method acting approach – was this YOUR intent – how much collaboration went into this: You all are very perceptive! That episode had an unusual evolution. It came about as the intersection of something I was interested in (false confessions) and something Vincent D’Onofrio was interested in (the boundary-blurring dangers of method acting). I was already pitching the false confession stuff to Rene and he said, “Vincent has this idea, maybe there’s a way to weave them together.” I think Rene’s instinct was a good one, because both the ideas had the same kernel of danger: characters who blur their reality after opening themselves up to a fictional story. It seems to me most false confessions happen after the interrogator has essentially told the person the story of their guilt a la “Is it possible that…” or “Here’s what I think happened…” Vincent and I had one conversation about method acting because, even though I write plays, I haven’t really encountered it. Then I beat the story with Rene and I wrote the script. Your Fav CI episode: I really love “Vacancy” and “Masquerade” (the episode we did with Liza Minnelli). I’m also really fond of an episode called “Faith” from 2002. It’s the one about a sick child who has written an inspirational book. Only no one has ever seen this child. Goren has a fantastic scene in that episode where he’s on the phone with the kid trying to get to the truth.Personal Questions Favorite thing to do when not working: Lie on my couch and watch true crime! I also love thrift-store shopping, garage sales, word games, beaches, horror movies, and rock concerts.Favorite Music, Food, Animal, dinner to cook (& why if you care to share): I love music. Some of my favorite artists: Kristin Hersh, Throwing Muses, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Hole, Queens of the Stone Age, Elliott Smith, Britney Spears (the last two cd’s), Afghan Whigs. I can’t cook at all. I’d love to have a cat, but I’m not home enough.What is your favorite scent & why: I love perfumes—the spicy, woodsy, oriental scents tend to be my favorites. Anything with Vetiver. I wore Yves St. Laurent’s Opium for so long, I fatigued on it. Right now I’m wearing Azure by Estee Lauder. I like to have a few that I rotate.What type of shoe do you wear most often: Clog sandals.What is the thing in your home that you like the most (non-human): My paper moon lamp.Do you blackberry – if so do you like it or need to: No—not yet.Do you tend to have friends who are of like mind, or diverse mind & which: Like mind. I’m not very flexible about my politics and I need my friends to be people who will see horror movies with me.Was there a pivotal moment when you knew writing was what you wanted to do: I always knew I was good at writing, but not necessarily creative writing. I didn’t get into that until college, really. But I was always really good at writing papers and letters. I think I always knew my job would involve writing, but choosing it as a career came fairly late.What are your thoughts on mainstream films these days: I wish we could have a five year ban on remakes. I think they get made because studios feel they’re safer than original screenplays, and I think that’s too bad. I’m also confused by what’s going on in indie film right now. It seems like in the last few years, people have recommended movies to me that went straight to video and they were just great. I worked with a director on “Lost Boys” (Christopher Zalla) who won a big prize at Cannes with his film, “Padre Nuestro,” and then couldn’t get a distributor for it. I feel like that’s happening a lot and I’m not sure why. Has filmmaking gotten easier (in terms of access to technology) so the field is glutted with product? The other aspect of mainstream filmmaking that I worry about is the whole trend towards bigger, louder faster. I feel like CGI has been something of a mixed blessing. I re-watched the three “Alien” films recently and I found the leap from #1 to #2 to be really sad. In the first film, you see almost nothing. It’s all about the terror of what you can’t see. And then #2 is just a big, loud, bloated gore fest. I don’t think that’s CGI, per se, but it’s the same impulse… to sort of bombard and dazzle the viewer visually instead of doing the story work to create true terror. The scariest moment I’ve had in a movie in the last decade was in the Australian movie, “Wolf Creek.” It’s the moment when the girl wakes up in captivity. She escapes and finds that her friend being tortured in another room. And when she looks away from that what she sees is… the outback. This great expanse of night and space, and… nothing. For miles and miles. Now, that’s scary. Nothing can be really, really scary.Anything else you’d like to add? Yes. Taking off my “Law & Order” hat (kind of) for a minute, I want to say, “Free the West Memphis Three”! I re-watched the HBO documentaries “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Lost 2: Revelations” recently. For those of you who haven’t seen them, SEE THEM. They’re about three teenagers in Arkansas convicted of murdering three children in 1993. These guys were convicted with zero physical evidence on the basis of a coerced confession from one of the teens who is mentally disabled. In spite of a huge movement to get them released (one of them is on death row), they are still in prison. DNA testing performed in the last two years links other suspects to the crime scene, but not these boys (now men). At this point, even the victims’ families don’t believe in their guilt. The website www.wm3.org is a good way to keep updated on the fight to get justice in this case. Periodically, there are letter-writing campaigns and benefits for the cause. I think most of you probably know about this story, but those of you who don’t will find it—I think—fascinating. This is a story of law and order gone hideously wrong.
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Post by DonnaJo on May 23, 2009 7:33:33 GMT -5
Fantastic interview! Thank you so much Major Hathaway & Annabelle for setting this up and providing this gift to us. I'll post more later. I just wanted to express how kind, gracious and articulate Ms. Gionfridda is. Also Major, you did an outstanding job condensing, reforming and preparing the questions. And Ms. G's answers were thorough and generous. Well worth the wait! It's rather thrilling having her answer several of my questions, especially the one about method acting and Goren winking at the audience in "Vacancy." That's something several of us noticed and were always wondering about.
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Post by Patcat on May 23, 2009 13:25:11 GMT -5
Yes, thanks to everyone involved for their time and commitment on this. I don't feel quite so bad about my semi-obsession with true crime.
Patcat
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Post by Metella on May 24, 2009 7:20:15 GMT -5
Thank you Ms. G - very much. This was a fun and informative interview ..... While I think it is the actors that originally are the cause of me stopping on a show; I really think it is the writers who are the ones responsible for me to actually set my machine (or brain) to make sure I don't miss a show.
On the 3 - thanks for providing the website, I had heard of this; but had been too uninformed to put more research into this. Amazing how our "justice" system can be so inflexible once the initial energy has been put into a case.
I really thank you for the fun personal questions - there are no right or wrongs -but it is very connecting for me to see a glimpse of a real person behind the name I see on the TV screen.
Thanks
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Post by bermuda on May 24, 2009 11:27:24 GMT -5
Thank you to all who were involved in putting together this interview. Thank you, Gina Gionfriddo for your interesting answers. I have re-read this again. There is quite alot to take in and digest so I will post comments later. However, The West Memphis 3, is a very serious situation. Many people are supportive to have all three released. Some individuals are actually involved with help paying for extra legal costs and such. The two documentaries mentioned are a must see, imho. It's a very sad story that continues on. I am happy to see that Gina Gionfriddo brought this up and the website. Thanks so much again to those involved with this interview and the interviewee. I like her thought processes. I am thoroughly impressed even more so after this interview.
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Post by tjara on May 24, 2009 14:26:29 GMT -5
Thanks to our boardrunners, as well as AL, for organizing this. And thanks to Gina Gionfriddo for investing her time.
I thought she mentioned quite a few interesting things, though the answer to the first question surprised me. I thought it was easier to write when you can "make your own rules", but then again, I guess she's right. Maybe that's why Fanfiction is so popular (and I'm by no means saying that all of it is quality, just a comparable situation).
I was very surprised to hear that the writers choose the songs that are played during each Cold Case episode and I never thought about how it changed the dynamic of writing an ep if you're gonna write 3-4 minutes without any dialogue. (If anybody ever wants to check it out, she wrote the episode "Schadenfreude")
I also thought her comments on religious cults was interesting, because I couldn't agree more with her. It's fascinating and frightening at once.
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Post by caitlen on May 25, 2009 1:26:55 GMT -5
Thank you to Gina Gionfriddo and all involved, for this very interesting interview.
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Post by jeffan on May 26, 2009 12:49:50 GMT -5
A BIG thank you to Annabelle and a salute to the Major for organizing this interview.
I also thank Ms Gionfriddo for taking the time in fully answering the questions. Yet, paradoxically, answers generate even more questions! Hopefully, there will be a GG Interview II some time in the future.
I was particularly interested in the background research for the show and Ms Gionfriddo's comment on the "accidental research" - that resonated. Also her remark that less is more where some films are concerned.
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Post by outerbankschick on May 26, 2009 19:36:49 GMT -5
Very interesting interview. Thanks to Ms. Gionfriddo for answering our questions. I especially enjoyed the bit about "Vacancy".
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Post by Major Hathaway on May 27, 2009 6:03:18 GMT -5
i know many of you have had that question about Vacancy for years !!!
how nice to have an answer and some "closure" on that issue
i was thrilled when i saw we got an answer to that question
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Post by Techguy on Jun 2, 2009 0:03:00 GMT -5
A big thank you again to all who made this interview possible. My questions were answered, and I'm very grateful for that, and also for the other excellent questions others asked and were answered. It's stuff like this that enhances my understanding and enjoyment of CI.
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