Guest column: How to make your TV show silent

I love television. I love all types of television. I didn’t cut the dresses, I subscribed to all the streamers. I have an NBA league pass. I’m in two different fantasy leagues related to MTV. Challenge. I am also 3 months old so she has been spending a lot of time at night while feeding the baby. I’m a user who loves content. And as a creator, I also like the possibilities of telling long stories, whether limited or current series.

That said, as a creator, it’s awful. In such a content-rich landscape, I had to ask myself: is there a chance of a breakthrough? Wait. I think so.

I admit that I am part of the ‘saturation problem’. I’m the executive producer of two shows and co-showman of one of the true crime shows whose debut I’m in the context of this genre’s trend lately. It wasn’t planned that way. abandonmentAbout the dishonest technique Elizabeth Holmes would be filmed in 2020 and then a pandemic hit. And then for some reason this sister plain girl, Focusing on “Text Messages Suicides”, the premiere was produced a few weeks apart, while being part of other shows in the same genre.

I believe that to dismiss any of these shows as simply “true crime” is to ignore the difficulties and differences that make them special. The challenge is working in a genre that has certain rules. There may be expectations on the part of the audience of what this series will bring us. But within those expectations I found an incredible pocket of freedom. Because there is no way to satisfy everyone. There is no way to give every person the perfect story to tell.

with llanoville, We consciously accept these differences. We loved the challenge of telling a story about a very inner character and understanding how we could convey that in a way that challenged us as writers. Our room was awash with “there” ideas. We called it “Crazy Idea Time,” where none of the ideas were bad. The idea was not fully baked. And these are some of the most special moments. plainville Appeared. [Protagonist] Michelle Carter’s fantasies became an opportunity for us to express her inner monologue, which was directly inaccessible to the narrative we lived in for most of the show. If it weren’t for this weekly hour, we wouldn’t have a crew making fun of Michelle for playing “Teenage Dirtbag” or most of the finale.

with llanoville, We faced the challenge of displaying text messages on the screen in media that for decades reproduced different ways of doing so. And many of those ways are wonderful, but here we had the added challenge of two characters who had met only three times in real life, who were constantly texting each other with the most intimate details of their lives, and who were both emotional and dramatic. The essence of the show.

My co-showman, Patrick McManus, had already come up with the idea of ​​representing these texts as personal conversations. So we spent a year deciding what it would be like: are they in the dark void of technology? Are they always in the same place? How are they dressed? Eventually, we decided to have the prospect who initiated the conversation bring their stage partner into their space. With that and the presentation of real texts, he offered as a solution to the screen of our text messages, but also to the deeper question of how texts are intended, read and interpreted, and the lack of communication that occurs at every moment. .

I think it’s the fear of flooding the public with familiarity that, in my opinion, leads us all to find a different path, to lead us in search of a new path. A little more jealous when I see a brilliant answer to this dilemma I could never have imagined. And that’s why it drives me to go further. In addition to thinking more. I go on with my crazy idea hour for a week.

I love television. And now that my son is finally dead, I’m going to reach him.

The story first appeared in the June 1 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.