[HN Gopher] The Eleven Laws of Showrunning [pdf]
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The Eleven Laws of Showrunning [pdf]
Author : luu
Score : 139 points
Date : 2023-02-20 11:32 UTC (11 hours ago)
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| qazxcvbnmlp wrote:
| "For many, the undeniable triumph that is pitching a series idea,
| having a pilot ordered, successfully producing it, and then
| having it ordered to series is nothing less than a validation:
| not only their voice and talent, but also of their Way of Doing
| Things. This often translates to an intractable adherence to the
| notion that "my creative process" is so of the essence to success
| that all other concerns must be made subordinate lest the
| delicate alchemy that made success possible be snuffed"
|
| Also seen in other fields as "I raised money for my company, so
| you will do this my way" doesn't matter if the way is good.
| KerryJones wrote:
| I have almost no interest in showrunning but I enjoy the slightly
| biting writing style:
|
| "So you finally have the Brass Ring... and guess what? It won't
| make that you never found a publisher for your first novel any
| less painful, and it won't make your daddy finally love you, or
| your spouse more sexually compliant, or your kids less disdainful
| of your bad puns and clumsy attempts to make them understand that
| you really DID like and understand that last Sky Ferreira album."
| reillyse wrote:
| I got to number 5 but I'm guessing brevity never features?
| tdoggette wrote:
| It's not until the Third Law that the author names a show of his:
| The Middleman (2008) on ABC Family, a one-and-done cult classic
| comedy show. That show's quality lends strong credence to the
| expertise backing up his second and third laws. That show really
| knew what it was, and every decision top to bottom worked to
| convey the show's very particular tone and style.
|
| It must have been a real trick to communicate that effectively--
| The Middleman was like "X-Files meets Doctor Who, but less
| serious than either, and with a sense of ironic detachment, but
| not so much detachment that we can't tell stories about emotions,
| and also everyone talks like they're in a comedy sketch making
| fun of the dialogue in Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
| ajkjk wrote:
| This is so good.
| jasmer wrote:
| It's amazing that in an industry with so much money they don't
| have accepted norms of professionalism baked in.
|
| Even for startups.
|
| It's almost like VC land should have the rule, 'once the cheque
| is >$1M, you do this required 2-week long training' hopefully jam
| packed with essential goodies.
|
| Most of our time in school is academically oriented, nothing in
| particular applied.
|
| I find that very odd.
| andrewflnr wrote:
| It's a young industry, as these things go. Just about a
| century, I think? And that's counting generously, not taking
| into account growing faster in headcount and budget than it can
| learn (sound familiar?). A lot of the serious "professions",
| I'm thinking of e.g. accounting, engineering, or medicine, have
| histories that go back several centuries, with rules written in
| blood.
| zug_zug wrote:
| I love this.
|
| "You can also [motivate] by instilling fear - of job insecurity,
| of the loss of political capital in the show's hierarchy, or
| simply the harsh judgment of a capricious father figure. You have
| the power to be either an enabler of your employees's creativity,
| or make them the enablers of your whims."
|
| It's refreshing when I find a piece that doesn't reduce the
| workplace to naive fix-all tropes like "assume positive intent."
| Of course the film industry just had "me too," so perhaps the
| lesson is particularly clear there, but it's not like quid-pro-
| quo doesn't happen in software.
| Animats wrote:
| That's been around for years. There are two versions. This is the
| longer, tougher version.
|
| The interesting thing about the culture is that 1) US practice is
| that TV showrunners are writers, and 2) that all the writing for
| the season isn't done before starting production. Movies are not
| usually made that way. The script is usually set before
| production gets a green light.
| crazygringo wrote:
| > _1) US practice is that TV showrunners are writers_
|
| Is that different in any other countries? I'm having a hard
| time imagining what other background a showrunner would come
| from. E.g. the directing skillset is somewhat related but
| ultimately very different.
|
| > _2) that all the writing for the season isn 't done before
| starting production._
|
| Well you certainly can't do that for a 22-episode season,
| especially as writers very much adapt in real time to what's
| "working" in the show. It's quite common for a character
| intended only for a single episode to turn out to be
| unexpectedly extremely charistmatic and quickly turn into a
| main character, because of the actor's performance.
|
| But for an hourlong 8-episode prestige drama for HBO, it's not
| uncommon for all of the writing to be done ahead of time. Or at
| the very least, the entire story is "broken" (outlined) in
| detail, even if the dialog isn't written out.
| ghaff wrote:
| >E.g. the directing skillset is somewhat related but
| ultimately very different.
|
| Certainly. That's why the showrunner mostly doesn't direct
| episodes and film directors mostly didn't write the script
| (though they probably influenced it).
|
| The difference is that films can go through a multi-year
| development process with things hopefully largely nailed down
| before production starts--because that's when the bills
| really start mounting fast.
|
| TV, on the other hand, historically had a lot more writing
| and production values were often a lot lower. So writing was
| important (and had to happen relatively quickly) while a
| solid journeyman director was probably fine. Certainly their
| name was mostly not a draw for audiences.
|
| (Obviously something like Rings of Power is a lot different
| from a season of Law and Order.)
| wpietri wrote:
| Wow, I have worked for this boss for sure:
|
| > In the 1980's, the members of the Berlin Symphony told joke
| about their notoriously imperious conductor, Herbert Von Karajan.
| It went like this: The maestro gets into a taxi. The driver asks
| "Where to?" "It doesn't matter," Von Karajan declaims, "I'm
| needed EVERYWHERE!"
| xbar wrote:
| In this quote, there is truth:
|
| "The simple answer is that "simple" doesn't necessarily mean
| "easy". In my experience, the simplest decisions are often the
| hardest because they demand a painful concession to an unpleasant
| truth. "
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| From the article:
|
| _The dark side of the drive to prove one 's primacy of vision
| (colloquially better known as "I'LL SHOW YOU FATHER THAT YOU WERE
| WRONG TO NOT LOVE ME!") is that inefficient and self-indulgent -
| and more often than not abusive - senior management is endemic to
| the television industry. As cable, streaming, and Internet
| services adopt the television production model to generate
| content, the problem only gets worse._
|
| For me, this was one of the surprises from Netflix, Amazon, and
| Apple jumping into funding series production. The observations
| the author makes are anecdotally confirmed by the various "leaks"
| in the industry (and yes, this biases the view because people
| often don't complain about a good thing, I know), and yet rarely
| is the content produced by the studios working for these new
| entrants much different than the content produced "en masse" so
| to speak.
|
| When this started, I expected more "Love Death Robots" kinds of
| things and less "Game of Thrones wannabes" kinds of things. I'm
| really curious how it went on the team doing "The Peripheral" (a
| show that I really liked), vs "Carnival Row" which seems to be
| "Jane Austen + Steampunk + Fairys" and, again for me at least,
| not particularly compelling.
|
| As a result I've always wondered if studios did "retros" or look
| backs to understand how the product evolved, and if the people
| paying them ever tried to evaluate their process as a means of
| managing their investments.
|
| I doubt I'll ever know, but I will remain curious about these
| things.
| ghaff wrote:
| Cable TV also mostly evolved into more channels of more or less
| the same thing.
|
| Streaming (outside of YouTube/TikTok/etc.) has done mostly the
| same thing--albeit with something of a bias towards prestige
| drama and away from slot filling procedurals. But there's less
| strikingly original and good stuff than one might like. And
| even the anthologies have been a mixed bag.
| TchoBeer wrote:
| not totally related, but I read this initially as "the elven laws
| of shadowrunning"
| 6gvONxR4sf7o wrote:
| Lots of parallels with silicon valley corporate life in here.
| This one in particular rings true to me:
|
| > So, once they have a show on the air, even the most inept of
| managers - or the most sociopathic of abusers - muddle through
| and keep their show on the air on something resembling time and
| on budget: usually by the sweat of a lot of talented individuals
| who are then denied credit for their toil at the altar of the
| "visionary auteur"'s brilliance.
|
| As I keep reading, this document is great advice for any manager
| or project lead, and very well written.
| jobu wrote:
| It's really a treatise on good leadership and management from
| the perspective of a showrunner.
|
| There are a bunch of great quotes, but this bit from 4th Law
| (Make decisions early and often) really hit home for me:
|
| > _But you know what "nice people" and "good bosses" actually
| do? They rip off the Band-Aid early, make the case for their
| decision, hear out any remaining arguments to a reasonable
| degree, then shut down the discussion and send everyone off to
| get on with their work._
|
| Even worse than making the wrong decision is not making a
| decision at all, that's true in any leadership position.
| lylejantzi3rd wrote:
| Out of curiosity: Has anybody ever heard of an engineering
| manager making the transition to showrunning?
| jasmer wrote:
| Mike Judge is almost that.
| crazygringo wrote:
| It's not a lateral move. Aside from the management aspect, it's
| an entirely different skill set.
|
| If you're an engineering manager who wants to become a
| showrunner, the process would basically be:
|
| 1) Take a bunch of screenwriting classes until you know you're
| reliably good at nuts-and-bolts screenwriting, which is far,
| far harder than you might ever guess. Writing a single
| compelling scene is hard enough, writing a good TV pilot is
| shockingly difficult. Time: ~3 years full time, but realize
| there's a 95+% chance you'll quit as you realize you ultimately
| don't have the writing chops or discover you simply don't enjoy
| it after all.
|
| 2) Write a few pilot scripts and use them as a portfolio to get
| hired in a writer's room on a TV show. Time: 2-3 years because
| it's going to take a while to write and take a while to get
| hired, at least on a show that is even somewhat similar to the
| type of show you ultimately want to showrun
|
| 3) Work for that TV show and then a couple others to build up
| actual experience, and don't just hang out inside the writer's
| room. Use the opportunity to get deeply familiar with all
| aspects of production. Time: 5 years
|
| 4) Now with your knowledge of the industry, write 2-3 excellent
| pilot scripts you think actually line up with what studios are
| looking to produce commercially. Shop them around until you a
| studio funds you. Showrun a pilot. Time: 3-5 years
|
| 5) Your pilot doesn't get picked up because it's too similar to
| another show that premiered on another network last month and
| doesn't have great ratings. This has nothing whatsoever to do
| with the quality of your own show. Repeat step 4, maybe more
| than once. Time: 3 years
|
| 6) This time your pilot gets picked up. Congrats, you're a
| showrunner! Total time: 18-ish years??
|
| So obviously it's better if you quit your engineering manager
| job at age 22 or 25. But age doesn't really matter in
| showrunning except for your own energy level. Being 50 or 60
| and running a show is pretty normal. So even if you want to
| make the move at 40, it's totally doable, if you have the
| writing talent.
|
| Now of course yes there are a few genius/lucky types that made
| a hit YouTube series on their iPhone and got their own show a
| year later (e.g. _Broad City_ ). But that's not usually how it
| works, unless you've really truly got something _incredibly_
| fresh and relevant to say. If you _know_ you 've got lightning
| in a bottle, then the above timeline doesn't apply.
| walterbell wrote:
| Documentary director rather than TV showrunner, Charles
| Ferguson was the founder of Vermeer which created FrontPage,
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ferguson_(filmmaker)
|
| He also wrote one of the best startup failure-and-recovery
| books, _" High Stakes, No Prisoners"_,
| https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2719001
| sogen wrote:
| In The Offer, the tv series deals about The Godfather, and the
| main guy jumping from tech to show running.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| I don't think people with no knowledge of entertainment
| productions typically "transition" into the highest position
| orchestrating the use of many millions of dollars and hundreds
| of people.
| CalChris wrote:
| No, Hollywood attracts talent broadly. You'll still serve an
| apprenticeship, reading scripts, ..., but my anecdote is
| walking across the parking lot on the way to a meeting at
| Paramount and seeing a US Naval Academy license plate frame.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| No, I don't think transitioning to an entry level position
| is the same as 'transitioning' to the highest possible
| position.
|
| That's like someone asking if they can 'transition' to
| being the CEO of a nationally known company.
| tough wrote:
| If the millions are yours you can certainly do as you wish
| with them tho.
| dylan604 wrote:
| the old adage in show business was to never spend your own
| money. with the plethora of streaming options, that has
| been turned on its head. look at all of the shows where the
| lead talent is also an executive producer (the ones that
| write the checks).
| rtsil wrote:
| Most of these are either vanity credits, or just a way
| for the star to participate in the profits beyond salary
| and royalties.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| I assume this is why everydamnthing has like 20 producers
| now.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Or you have a project that as an actor you really want to
| perform a certain role so you show your commitment by
| putting up some money to get the project rolling. One of
| the common ways for financing media projects is where
| someone is willing to match someone else's contribution.
| The slimey parts come in when the original funding that
| is matched is guaranteed to be paid back first before
| others are paid, but that's not unique to the film
| industry
| klodolph wrote:
| Writes the checks [?] spending your own money.
|
| The executive producer is in some senses a liaison
| between the people providing the money and the people
| spending the money.
|
| I may be mixing this up. I know that "producer" and
| "executive producer" are somewhat different roles
| depending on whether you're doing TV or film.
| CalChris wrote:
| Studio = Yale Investment Office, limited partner
| Producer = VC, general partner leading a funding
| Writer = Startup CTO, founder Director = Startup
| CEO
|
| It's a little different because studios greenlight and
| producers generally don't. But there are a lot more
| startups than movies or tv shows. Well, maybe studios
| don't greenlight development deals (seed startups).
| dylan604 wrote:
| Depending on the studio, they can be much more than a
| limited partner. They can be providing the facilities to
| office out of for pre-production and development, the
| actual production work using their soundstages and other
| properties, and to do post-production.
| gamblor956 wrote:
| No, sorry, you have it all wrong.
|
| Investors = Investors
|
| Studio = VC, etc.
|
| Executive Producer = CEO, COO, CLO, anybody with
| decision-making power
|
| Lead Writer = lead designer, i.e., the Johnny Ives
|
| Writer = designer
|
| Director = project manager or product manager
|
| Producer = the weird old guy who let you use their house
| during your ramen phase, that investor who thinks he
| cofounded your startup because he gave you a bunch of
| money, the salesperson who landed the really big client
| and was given the recognition for it
| dylan604 wrote:
| Wow, I think this is probably one of those things trying
| to be funny but just isn't. Maybe you're just totally
| misguided on what a producer does, which may be the joke
| you're trying to make that nobody knows what a producer
| does.
|
| The producer would be closer to the president of the
| board while the director would be the CEO. The producer
| and director work closely to get the project off the
| ground, with the director have say on who is hired for
| the key roles (the lead person for each craft). These
| keys then can staff out around them and the director
| rarely interferes unless there's just something personal
| going on.
|
| Who the creator/founder equivalent is really differs
| between projects. Sometimes, the producer has the idea
| and staffs around it. Sometimes, the director has the
| idea and also acts as a producer or just staffs the
| producer out to someone. Sometimes, it's the studio's
| idea and staffs everything out.
| [deleted]
| swatcoder wrote:
| Nah, I don't know _specific_ examples that satisfy the OP 's
| original question, but writing for entertainment (and
| showrunning as a management-level tier of that track) is just
| a career transition like any other.
|
| People who've had one professional career and been grinding
| on their writing on the side absolutely make the leap and
| move their way up. Often, their break comes from writing from
| their expertise. If you dig through shows about medicine,
| law, policing, etc etc, you'll often find several writers who
| were worked in those fields.
|
| Not every writer was a barista until they made their break.
| Some of them were indeed lawyers and engineers.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| This sounds like you are talking about people transitioning
| to being a writer, not a show runner.
|
| That's like someone saying "has anyone transitioned to
| running cartoon network?" and someone else saying "people
| have transitioned to being an animator, which is almost the
| same thing".
| swatcoder wrote:
| No, there are _many_ showrunners. It's essentially just a
| management-like writing position for any of the thousands
| of scripted programs that produced each year.
|
| It's an achievement to be proud of, just like being a
| partner at a law firm or an mid-high position at a high-
| profile FAANG, but it's not as rarified as you seem to
| think.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| No, it can't be a middle management position if you're
| the one in charge of the entire project.
|
| Also no, people don't transition from middle management
| in one industry to the top position of another industry.
| swatcoder wrote:
| They're not in charge of the project any more than any
| other project/product manager.
|
| Somebody else is still making final go and stop decisions
| on their projects, setting their budget, demanding stupid
| details, etc. They're just in charge of wrangling _some_
| of the creative and production processes and get to take
| credit for the overall creative vision of the project (or
| blame their execs /peers/staff if they're unhappy with
| it). Literally the same as in any other industry.
|
| I don't know why I keep replying, but any reasonably
| social 40+ adult who had lived in SoCal personally knows
| showrunners as well as people in most other roles in the
| industry. Some have even held some of those roles! This
| isn't some made up basement-dwelled bs that I'm sharing
| with you; this is actual ground knowledge.
| CyberDildonics wrote:
| You might be confusing a 'runner' on a show, which is an
| entry level production position with 'show runner' which
| would be the person in charge of the entire show.
| gamblor956 wrote:
| I don't think you understand what a showrunner is.
|
| The showrunner _is_ in charge of the stop-and-go
| decisions, the details, spending the budget allocated by
| the studio. They hire the key crewmembers (DOP, lead
| writer if not the showrunner, casting director, etc. who
| then build out the cast and crew. They are as in charge
| of production as they choose to be: some showrunners
| micromanage, while others let their crew have a
| relatively free hand to do their jobs.
|
| Of course the studio (usually) has final approval;
| they're paying for the show. But that doesn't mean the
| showrunner isn't the boss. It just means that...like
| every CEO...they still answer to the person with the
| piggy bank.
|
| Also, showrunners aren't as common as you seem to think
| they are. You might be mixing up showrunners with
| producers? Producers are as common as weeds. Frequently,
| writers and cast members are given producing
| responsibilities and credits for an episode or two, as
| are many investors, and generally anyone who handles a
| task that is in any way related to production and has the
| leverage to demand some sort of credit.
| ghaff wrote:
| Very few people don't operate under constraints. Even an
| executive producer (= showrunner) who owns their own
| production company needs to sell their projects to
| clients though there are presumably more options these
| days and people supplying money do expect some say in the
| final product most of the time.
|
| But that's true of Oscar winning directors and senior
| partners at architectural firms. It's even true of the
| studio boss if he's had a string of flops.
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