Gloria

1:00pm Improv Story Telling

Guests: Allison Lonsdale (Erotic SF, fantasy, and horror. Singer.), Terry Pratchett (Discworld Series author), Tad Williams (Writer Guest of Honor--author of two series and one stand alone), Phil Foglio (SF, comics, gaming, art)

This was a total hoot! Terry Pratchett is a ham and Tad Williams was pretty funny as well. For a complete transcript of the actual improv story, see Melanie Fletcher's comments on this panel. Too funny. And, I'm happy to say, I was actually able to give a suggestion on this one. An old in-joke with my hubby and some of his gamer friends -- biker nuns. Heh.

Terry Prachett kept setting Tad Williams up with the most horrific plot spots.  Not that Tad wasn't doing as mercilessly a thing to Phil Foglio. Heh. And Terry kept bringing back the nuns! Whoohoo!

Titles given for the insanity created during the panel:

1.    Talking About my Grill

2.    Eight Legs into Danger

3.    90 Minutes of Death

4.    Things to do in Baker, Ca with a Cat

Yes, saw cut throat story making live!

2:30pm Getting a TV Series off the Ground

Guests: George RR Martin (Writer, story editor for Twilight Zone, story-consultant), David Gerrold (Trouble with Tribbles, Land of the Lost, Writer, script writer), Craing Engler (General Manager of SciFi.com and of Sci Fi Magazine), Craig Miller (Award winning author/illustrator), William C Dietz (20+ SF novels)

How is a series sold?

1.        Work up the idea and where it will be in the middle of second season. If you can do this, then you can see if you have something that can go somewhere.

2.        Write up an outline on the characters and the stories to be told. (Basically how many stories can you tell before you hit the evil twins episode or resort to the couple having a baby.) Jumping the Shark--coined phrase from the Happy Days episode where the show took a left turn and Fonzie jumped over a shark on his surfboard. Thought to be the turning point where the series is going down. For an example for us to follow through, the idea for the show was called Amazon Babes in Space (or something like this).

3.        Put together a presentation. (Already dinged with an editorial change as the name gets shortened to Space Sluts.) If the story is from something which already exists, you've already gotten the artist/writer talked into wanting to do this and reserving the rights. (Otherwise the TV people might go behind your back!)

4.        Go to a channel with the presentation, picking one the show would be suitable for. Possibly prearrange some of the backing, financing, basically the attached auspices. Can the studio make the show, are these people capable. (There's no real cookie cutter method on how shows are arrived at or pitched.)

5.        How do you get financing? Germany has law that facilitate them doing such things--one of the reasons a lot of projects are backed by them. Canada also has a lot of laws to help, giving tax breaks which turn into subsidies for show creation. Quebec is even better as you get the Canadian benefit and you get a loan based on the subsidy amount. With ∏ the cost plus the exchange rate benefits you could do a $300K show for $100K. Then get German money! The standard cost for a show is about $1m per episode. On something financed like the above, the Sci Fi Channel would only have to pay $300K.

6.        For Hollywood sales, you'd talk to an agent, figure out how to pitch it and who to pitch it to. Decide whether you'd go straight to the channel or the studio. The studio normally sells the stuff to the channel as a backer. And Agent will also see if they can do a package deal--the show plus a specific director or actors, and they too get dragged to the meetings.

7.        The Pitch or Dance for Grandma: You never know who you're going to see or what kind of mood their in or even if they know anything about what you are there to see them about. Pigeon toe it to a previous show to give a quick understanding of the project. A lot of meetings happen just to talk to people and not because there is any actual interest.  It's all about making contacts, fishing, testing the waters. The meetings are often used to get/give a sense of self. Showing your front. Everyone wants people who are easy to work with. 

8.        So the network buys the pitch and okays a pilot. Now you write a draft and this gets given to the network and all other parties involved. They all send back notes for changes. The title gets changed again. (This seems almost inevitable and occurs multiple times.) It is now called Rocket Babes. If the pilot flies, then they will talk series. If the tons of notes are ignored, they may kick you off the project and have someone else write it--that is unless you're big enough to hand a finished script upfront. Count on any number of drafts.

9.        Channels pick 1 out of every 10 ideas or 1 out of every 50 to film a pilot. Name change again to Big Red Rocks (something having nothing to do with the show). Big Red Rocks goes to film. Though the decision was made in Jan, they don't tell you till May, and the need the finished product by Sept. Casting needs to be done, some of the people in the original package may have moved on. You try to recast and the network doesn't like the choices. They try to make suggestions (more like commands) until you reach some kind of compromise or you give in. (The example was the network pushing Jud Reingold (sp?) to play the lead 3 breasted babe.) You do the pilot as a sample, except they give you a much larger budget for it than you'd actually have for the show. They also let you have your director only for this one time. (Pilot directors and show directors are considered different breeds.) If you didn't get a director as part of the package, they'll want to change your pick.

10.    You shoot the pilot! Lots of things happen during filming, you go over budget, you get a composer to do the rough cut, you screen it and get more notes. (Suicide rate in Hollywood is higher than just about anywhere else.)

11.    The pilot gets delivered to the network with other pilots completed. The network then watches them. Then they do the testing and focus groups on them. Little of the testing has value but they love to do those. They grab crowds off the street and show them the pilot. No though is given as to who these people are or if they even like the genre. Then the ask the audience what they thought of the pilot. (Some get shown over and over again with different commercials.) And if the people don't like it… (Sci Fi Channel doesn't do testing.) Focus Groups: this are groups of people are either SF fans, not SF fans but like SF, basically a focused group of people. 

12.    The media now gets info on what's going on good or bad. 

13.    If everything bombs, the pilot is pulled and you now can go shopping around and try to sell it. It's now an orphan. Life just got harder.

14.    If they like it, they'll order about 13 episodes or make more changes to the series and this can lead to reshoots, or backup scripts. Usually will use it as a mid season replacement. Might also pay for 6 scripts but not shoot them, then go from there.

4:00pm Squishing the Notes

Guests: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (Known for her St Germain vampire series, has sold more than 70 books and 60 novels of shorter fiction), Kim Stanley Robinson, Seanan McGuire (Published poet, magazine columnist, vocalist and author), Peter Heck

Panel discussing music in books and how to portray it.

Things forgotten about music in books--instruments need tuning. They are affected by changes in temperature. Singing is a physical workout, exhausting.

It is hard to write about music. It gets worse if the writer has no idea how to play music. It's like transcribing a difficult language. There are several main tactics you can use to get music on the page.

1.    Technical description of the music

2.    Context of the music--the concert began, amps blew out

3.    Metaphorical--my veins filled with glorious wonder…

4.    Stream of consciousness from the performers POV

5.    Mention names of actual pieces so the reader fills that in. This only works for the near future, current music would more than likely not survive to the future aside from possibly classical.

6.    Physical manifestations from listening to the music--goose bumps, foot tapping.

A mix of the above work well, but it is still unsatisfying. The panel members as a whole felt the task to be impossible.

Brahms, in their opinion, has a lot to teach writers from the structure to his music. Like themes in music, passages can be used in a novel subliminally in the work to evoke emotion. Writing itself is like music, for it has its own rhythm and pace.   

5:30pm Ethical Systems in Alien Societies

Guests: Keith Hartman (Fiction and non-fiction writer), Sheila Finch (Linguist. Has published 7 novels and more than 30 short stories, also teaches writing), Vera Nazarian (short story fiction, 1 novel)

This one almost got ugly. Luckily it was stemmed off before it went far. Just defining ethical proved problematic. So they picked what they were going to go by as the definition and went from there.

Ethical Systems--How do you decide? Humans--philosophy determines a lot of culture and religion. Some cultures' lack of religion was determined the same way. Different social factors will change results. What does society consider right and wrong? Moral mindset and personal understanding of what is convenient. Science of judging actions.

What types of things would make a difference in an ethical system?

1.    Philosophy

2.    Importance of components. A drone might not matter if killed as long as its DNA was not being used to further the species otherwise it would be considered murder.

3.    Biology--instincts--but don't forget some of these are overridden with progress.

4.    Religious beliefs

5.    Hunting Strategy--Is the race the hunter of the hunted? Pack tendencies, solitary? Gatherer.

Can a society evolved without the concept of a higher being? None of Earth's developed that way, though later in a civilization's growth they might be ditched as in a number of current ones here. 

An empty sky at night--how would this change the philosophy of an emerging society since no lights in the sky would lead them to think that is where the deities live?

Right and wrong--specified by what is best for the survival of the species. History shows many cases of this.

Ethics rise to support the race depending on the enviroment.  Male/female balance. Languages. Inability for certain types of mental thinking. Survival is the biggest key and promoter of beliefs/ethics. Lack of food or food surplus, weather, longevity of life, desire for patterns, logic. Do we dehumanize others when the need arises?