Masthead

Shadows is a scifi/supernatural thriller television series produced by Growling Dog Productions for Boston University's butv10.

Created in 1995 by Pilar Flynn and David Kalbeitzer, the show has produced over 50 half-hour episodes. This blog supports the Shadows Wiki in documenting the series.

Watch Shadows online

If you have memories of working on Shadows that you would like to share, please email shadowswiki@gmail.com



Thursday, March 1, 2012

Writing Guidlines/Show Bible 2005

Written in 2005, I think, I called it the "shadows writing guidelines" but it's really the show bible. The idea was to commission playwrights and screenwriters to write for the show, in order to get outside writers who would only be writers, specialists, if you will. It was more difficult than I thought. In the end, I was only able to get Emma Tosch for The Prisoner's Dilemma. Everyone else came from the Shadows team. But I do think the idea still has merit. In any case, this is what I would sent to prospective writers:

SHADOWS

Writing Guidelines

By

Justin Rivers

The format for Shadows is designed to be flexible. The most important rule to keep in mind is that an episode of our show, in order to qualify as an episode, must take place within the Shadows universe. It cannot break the basic rules within the story’s setting. It must be unified within itself, while at the same time maintaining a complementary relationship to the show’s canon.

The Script Development Process

This process is guided at each step by the input the script editor/head writer, and supplemented by the producer.

  1. come up with an idea

  2. tell us about it, by explaining it to the head writer

  3. write up a treatment (prose summary, not too long) of the episode

  4. if we like it, go write it

  5. the head writer will oversee the script’s development and make sure you meet your deadlines. Meeting deadlines is extremely important.

  6. after the script is submitted, it will be reviewed and edited; the production team will sit down with you and go over everything.

  7. the production team begins pre-production on the episode, then shoots it.


Physical Guidelines

We broadcast in a half-hour episode format. This means that essentially, each episode should run about twenty-five minutes. This also means that scripts should be at least thirty pages in length. The general rule for screenwriting is that one page of a script in the proper format (using film form, in Courier New font) equals about a minute of on-screen time. It is always better to write more at the outset than to write less. If a script is longer than it should be, it is always easier to condense and abbreviate rather than to pad it with extraneous scenes or dialog. Each episode has a segment airing before the title sequence, called a teaser. The teaser sets up conflict, hooks the viewer with a highly dynamic sequence, usually of action, and establishes the basic parameters of the subsequent episode. If there is a radically new element being introduced into the Shadows universe, it should be set up in the teaser, at least to a certain extent. The classic rule for screenwriting is that if the laws of your story’s universe are different from the laws/parameters of real life, then they have to be introduced within the first fifteen minutes of a film. For an episode of Shadows, they need to be introduced in the teaser. The laws/parameters I’m referring to are magic, fantasy, aliens from outer space, things like that.

Our Basic Story Format

  1. Teaser – introduce problem, show some action, make it compelling (3-5 minutes)

  2. Act I – Two agents (one male and one female, preferably) are given an assignment by Jakob Resh. They begin the assignment. The act ends with a commercial break. (12 minutes)

  3. Act II – Coming back from the commercial break, the two agents solve the problem, which is related to some basic theme. The episode ends. (12 minutes)

Arcs and Themes

There are two types of characters. Supporting characters are those people who are used to populate the story, to move plot, set an environment, etc. These people don’t change. They remain themselves and instead serve to help the story to enact change on the main characters. Each main character, in experiencing conflict, should have an arc. In a half-hour format, we don’t have room for a lot of Ally McBeal-type stuff, but a basic rudimentary arc of some kind, no matter how brief, is necessary. Likewise, a central theme is also important. We don’t need to tackle issues that are heady and grand, although we can. But for each story, there should be some type of unification in it, a central premise or message or idea that ties the story together, that answers the question of “why is this story worth being told?”

Content Guidelines

Anything prior to Episode 36, “The Agency,” is considered quasi-canon. That is, elements of the original series, such as the character of Jakob Resh, have been retained and morphed into their current identities. But the plots and villains of the original run of the show are not be used, recycled, or revisited in any way. They should not be alluded to. This isn’t terribly hard, since nobody has seen the original episodes anyways. We set our canon-meter at Episode 36, which serves as the pilot episode for our new format.

The Agency

Episode 36 introduces us to the Agency, a private investigative organization that deals with supernatural phenomenon of a wide variety. The Agency’s purpose is investigation and containment of harmful and threatening things that public institutions, such as the FBI and the local police forces, cannot deal with. The real world cannot recognize supernatural threats and circumstances, so The Agency is left to deal with them. It does not have a large budget, and relies mainly on the grunt work of a loose, rag-tag network of devoted but often rough-around-the-edges agents. The Agency is led by a mysterious man named Jakob Resh. The stories are usually investigative-driven, focused around a mystery that the agents need to solve. Some characters may reoccur throughout the series, but the main agents driving the story do not have to be the same from episode to episode. This is designed so that the lead actors for each episode do not have to be the same. Unity for the show relies on adherence to the general environment of The Agency, and by the unifying factor of The Agency’s leader, the mysterious Jakob Resh.

Jakob Resh

Resh is a holdover from the original series. During his college years, he encountered and fought an ancient, evil being who was the president of the college Resh attended. President Hawthorne tried to bring about the destruction of the world by merging it with his own dimension, called simply, “the shadow world.” Resh and his friends, aided by a member of The Agency, succeeded in stopping Hawthorne and sending him back to his own dimension. During the battle, several of Jakob’s friends were killed, including Reese Doyle, “the chosen one.” Jakob fled to Europe, to escape his past. This element of his backstory is not to be referenced, since it occurs before the new format was put in place. But this experience has helped shape his character, so be aware that his past is filled with tragedy, death, and desperate struggle.

In Europe, Resh he devoted his life to battling evil in a variety of capacities, and eventually became host to a parasitic, alien organism. This organism was a renegade from its own species, an army of parasites slowly proliferating within the human race with the intent to conquer and enslave Earth. Returning to America, Jakob became a member of the Agency, and was later appointed the head of it. He has no official title, since bureaucratic conventions seem to be counter to the Agency’s general rules of operation. By the time we meet him, Resh has been running the Agency for some time. The parasite he carries within him has absorbed his mind and his memories, and because it is feeding off of his life-force, Jakob’s body will eventually wear out. In Episode 38, that is what happens. This sets a precedent for changing Jakob’s body whenever it becomes necessary to do so. In other words, the character of Jakob, for all episodes subsequent to Episode 38, can be played by a different actor each time, without any explanation. In fact, there shouldn’t be an explanation. Once we have set the precedent, it would be cheap to keep alluding to it. Jakob’s role is similar to Bosley in “Charlie’s Angel’s.” He is the boss who hands out assignments from his desk and guides the directions or emphasis of certain cases. He has the experience and intuition to understand a great deal more than many of his agents do, and often manipulates them into achieving his goals. He only cares about the end result, not about the means or methods. He has the big picture in mind. Because of this, his actions may at times seem opaque to us. Jakob always has a good reason for what he does, but he is not infallible. He sometimes shares the big picture with select senior agents.

Jakob is, essentially, immortal. While his body may change frequently, his goals and motivations are always the same. His personality is different, and should be different. This allows us to change the tone of the Agency and of the series as needed, and keep the character fresh. Since Resh is the only character who has a constant presence in the show, this is an important function of the body-switch device.

The body-changing aspect of Resh's character solves a major problem that Shadows has struggled with since the original run of the series in 1995 – namely, how do we retain some type of continuity when there is a complete personnel turnover every four years, at maximum? The answer is two-fold. One type of continuity comes from the Shadows “universe”, the overarching world we have created and the mythology we develop with it. The other source of continuity is Jakob Resh, a character who can essentially be played by any actor, and still retain a continuity of purpose and design. Jakob's most significant role is as a plot device, a dispatcher to keep plot moving when needed, and to retain the credibility of an Agency that over time seems to burn through a lot of agents. His body-hopping characteristic can also be used for dramatic deaths and revivals, sparingly. It is the universe, and the struggles within it, that are the story of Shadows. Not Jakob Resh.

The Board of Directors

Although he is nominally in charge of The Agency’s operations, Resh is not the true head of the organization. He is the front-man for an even more mysterious Board of Directors, a group of individuals who guide the overall efforts of the Agency and coordinate its true functions and intensions. Resh is privy to most of this knowledge, as he is the only direct connection the Directors have to the Agency. Throughout the series, the true identity of the Directors MUST NEVER BE REVEALED. The show hinges on this secrecy and the constant uncertainty surrounding their purpose. One thing is clear – they are the mortal enemies of the alien Parasites. Characters on the show may encounter people who are members of the board, but their purpose or exact identities can never be explained. We can show the Board meeting, in a limited way. For example, it would be appropriate to have the Directors meet in a dark room where their identifying features are concealed by shadows. It would NOT be appropriate to show them meeting in broad daylight and discussing domestic topics while sipping stale coffee. The implication is that the board may in fact be alien or supernatural beings disguised as humans, and concealing themselves for unknown security reasons. Jakob, as their secret-keeper, is closely guarded and well protected, and rarely leaves the Agency.

In episode 38, “Salesman,” the Board is visualized as a series of pinprick lights, like glowing eyes, that swirl in a black vortex emitting a shrill alien sound. Since this has proved a highly effective and popular realization, I suggest this be continued. In the future, however, it may be necessary to give them a specific “voice” that can articulate actual speech. A simple booming voice, or a figure cloaked in shadows would suffice as a “speaker” for the directors.

The Parasites

We have shown the parasites briefly onscreen, but as of yet have not named them. Their history is somewhat obscure, but we do know that they come from another planet or dimension that is very distant from ours, and that their goal is to conquer earth in order to harvest humans as host organisms. The parasite that lives inside Jakob Resh is friendly to earth, and works with the Board of Directors to protect the earth from being conquered. The specifics of this are shrouded in mystery. The parasites can jump from body to body, and when they infect they leach the consciousness of the individual and acquire that knowledge as their own. This is why it is imperative that Jakob Resh be protected. He alone can give away knowledge of the Board of Directors and what is going on behind the scenes at the Agency. The Parasites do not actually know who runs the Agency above Jakob Resh, but they suspect that it may be the Board of Directors. The Board and the Parasites are ancient enemies…

Content Guidelines

We broadcast on a closed-circuit cable station run by students and funded by the school. There have been no attempts to censor us as of yet, and we are not planning on pushing the envelope or fighting battles that we cannot win. To do so would be detrimental to our show. Therefore, we should refrain from extensive swearing when possible. Shit, damn, and ass are probably ok if used moderately. Fuck is off limits. We also cannot have actual nudity, but sexual content itself will not be a major problem if we are careful and respectful. Violence in relation to sex is probably not a good idea to put into a story. Remember, we can put ANYTHING into a story by implying it, so if such an element is justified by the story and worth including, its best to imply the notion rather than explicitly stating or showing it.

Rules of the Universe

There aren’t a lot of specific rules. Rather, I will describe how the design of the show functions, and what design points to keep in mind.

The Agency operates within a modern American context, utilizing a wide network of field agents and informers to carry out their tasks and investigations. They keep lots of dusty files on various things, but have little in the way of technology. They do not use computers, unless they can help it, and their level of technology is very Industrial and seems cobbled together, makeshift, from a variety of sources. The Agency technician, Wilbur, picks through scrap heaps of other more powerful and wealthy institutions in order to get the materials he needs. In other words, the Agency is dirt poor. It relies on favors and covert usages of mainstream sources. It operates behind the scenes, with the Agents tricking their way onto crime scenes, using the powers of suggestion and persuasion to get into a situation, get what they need, and get out of it. They do not fly on planes; they do not have cars on their own. If they met up with the X-Files crew, they’d laugh at how pampered Mulder and Scully seemed.

Agents can and will carry guns. Firepower is cheap, especially when purchased on the black market. Quality is not cheap. Their guns, thus far, have proven reliable. But that is no doubt the exception rather than the rule. To an Agent, it is more important to have common sense and a good eye for details rather than to be a good shot. Guns are often a useful threat against human activity, but most monsters do not respond well to bullets. It is worth keeping in mind that a de-emphasized use of guns, forensic gimmicks, and legalese, in contrast to the current mode of police procedurals (i.e. shitty Jerry Bruckheimer shows) allows us to stay within our budgetary limits. It also gives us the ability to exploit our strengths and hide our weaknesses by concentrating on characters, monsters, and stories, rather than on expensive gimmicks to lure viewers.

The Agency has everything stacked against it. They succeed against economic, logistic, and political odds. They are underdogs, underground, and underpaid. This basic setup has two important functions. It ups the ante, and makes the Agency’s problems more insurmountable. It also keeps our costs down. Visually, the show is dirty, worn, and cluttered. It is easy to dress a set in garbage and grime. It is not easy to make crappy wall flats or unused rooms look like a brand spanking new forensics lab. We don’t want things to look nice, because it gives an air of despair to our stories, and is a visual design we can realistically accomplish.

Overall, our world is grittier, more surreal and bewildering, and shabbier than the world portrayed on most modern TV shows. There is a distinctive Noir quality to our show, which is in part because we’ve been overdoing the melodrama, and also in part a result of another aspect of visual design: shadows.

Lighting

Lighting and shadows are used to create depth, form, dimension and texture. All the things I have been talking about in reference to what our show is trying to convey is reflected in the lighting design, and this should be kept in mind while writing or planning an episode. Darkness is good. It is our best friend. The worst thing we can do is turn up the lights and let the audience see our flaws. If things are dark and murky, then they cannot see our mistakes or notice how flimsy everything looks. A dark, expressively lit Allston college ghetto looks less like the place we party on Friday nights, and more like an interesting location. When there is a technical aspect of the story, a special effect such as a monster or something that proves problematic, its always worth keeping in mind that if we imply something deftly, the audience will buy it and not linger on our inability to portray a big effect. This also applies to action. One character punching another doesn’t make much of an action scene in comparison to most big budget Bruce Willis flops. But, if we spend the time and make that one punch come from one character to another in a poignant, biting, actively tragic circumstance (in other words, if we make that one punch COUNT more) and if we portray that punch as if it were a real live punch, then we have achieved something more than the biggest Matrix rip-off could ever achieve. We will have gained credibility and have impacted the audience in a visceral way. Keep in mind, a punch in real life hurts more. If we keep our action to a realistic level, the fantastical elements of our stories can be carried with much less effort. The responsibility we inherit from being science-fiction/fantasy is that our stories, which are inherently less realistic on the surface, must be more tangible and thoughtful than a realistic drama.

Sound

Play to our strengths. Another trick to keep in mind is that we can provide a soundtrack for any circumstance. We can make the audience hear the most out-of -this-world crazy shit you could possibly thing up, no matter how expensive it might be to visualize it. Sometimes leaving things to the imagination and just sticking a sound effect into a shot can work wonders. So, don’t be afraid of going over the top visually, if there is enough of an audio component to correspond.

A look of fear on someone’s face is scarier than the fearful thing itself.

Where we are going

The goal of our show is to produce as much quality content as possible. We should be able to produce at least two episodes per semester, and have a que of scripts in development to feed our production team. That way, when we have extra scripts waiting to be produced, we can pick the best of the crop and also ensure that, if there are problems with an episode or a script falling through at last minute, we will not be compromised by this. It is also important to remember the structure of the show, since it is critical to the successful execution of the series. The reason each episode needs to be self contained is that we can’t guarantee that the actors will last for more than one semester. Another reason is that, if we do multiple episodes per semester, we will need to have one primary writer do the script for each of them, and have each episode shot separately as if it were a different production, with different crews and actors.

In terms of story, the possibilities are endless. Monsters always make good stories. Espionage/intrigue can work well too. We’ve done werewolves, vampires, gremlins, and we have the alien parasite angle as well. The basic mystery of what the Agency is really here for and where they are going is a driving force behind the future of the show. It should seem like the audience is getting closer to the truth, while in actuality, no such thing is happening. Throwing little bits of truth and hints of the “bigger picture” can make that happen, while successfully guarding our secrets. Remember what happened with Twin Peaks. After the mystery was solved, nobody cared any more. And remember what happened with the X-Files. Once people knew the truth, or thought they knew the truth, it collapsed in on itself. The more self-referential we are, the weaker our stories will be.

There are two types of stories.

Case-based stories – problems or cases are investigated by Agency personnel, or involve them in some way, in which the central problem exists outside The Agency itself. A vampire clan attack, a vengeful zombie, etc, can all be case-based stories. These types of stories should comprise about 2/3rds of the output of the show.

Agency-based stories – these episodes will delve into The Agency itself – how it works, what’s really going on, how the alien Parasite people are fighting with The Agency, the Board of Directors, etc…wherever the central problem lies within or directly related to The inner Agency. This type of story should only comprise about 1/3 of the show’s output, and is akin to the X-Files “conspiracy” episodes. They advance the central mythology of the show and are built, in part, upon the previous continuity of the show.

Influences

The Shadows format bears similarities to many different shows and movies, the most prominent being Kolchack: The Night Stalker, and The X-Files, which was inspired by the former. These two series exemplify the best and worst of what we are trying to do. They are a source for inspiration and also caution, especially in the case of X-Files, where Chris Carter’s work gradually devolved as the conspiracy-stories grew wildly out of control. The reason the show failed in the end was because it became masturbatory and self-referential, to the point at which it no longer worked to present stories to the general public. This same problem is found in the mid-80’s seasons of Doctor Who, which is another essential influence on the template for this show. In surviving for 26 years (and then being revived recently in several wildly successful new seasons) Doctor Who shows how a variety of format changes can directly impact the quality of content. The script editors periodically changed the format compensate for various problems, technical limitations, and the changing concerns of new generations of viewers. Where they went wrong is instructive for us. Where they went most right (in the last two seasons of the original series) is where they realized the limitations of their f/x budget, and instead crafted compelling drama with rich conflict and complex, layered characters around what minor f/x they could successfully produce.

Explore New Directions

There is only one more thing necessary to address. It is this: you are not bound by a formula, so much as a conception of a world. As long as the Agency is somewhere in the background, an episode can count as part of Shadows. It doesn’t always need to follow the two investigators/procedural template. Different episodes can focus on different parts of this world, including characters outside of the Agency, or loosely connected or even not connected at all but having some proximity to the Agency that is meaningful. The biggest asset we have is a format that is flexible enough to accommodate different tones and types of story from episode to episode. As long as a script is true to the Shadows design, it can work for us. Experimentation is fantastic, as long as it is grounded in a unified purpose with logic and structure. Flexing the format of the show is, at times, extremely necessary. Breaking new ground is essential. But none of these things can be done without keeping in mind, and ultimately returning to, the basic format I have outlined here.

And remember, all rules can be broken if you break them with specific purpose and vision. But don't forget the long-term aspect of that vision. Keep in mind that, underneath all of this work, is an effort to build and maintain a storytelling structure that can survive subsequent production teams and ensure that Shadows will continue to be a vital part of the butv lineup for many years to come.

Now, it is time to write.


No comments:

Post a Comment