So You Want to Make a TV Show- 2nd Period- Class #1

[fear_of_fish]

As the last student walked into the classroom, Dana greeted them all with a smile and said in a voice that was just quick enough to make you realize that you were going to have to work to keep up with her, "So you're here. You made it. If you're not supposed to be in So You Want To Make a TV Show you have one of two choices. One, you can slip quietly out the door and we'll pretend never to speak of this again while we really snicker behind your back after you leave, or two, you can pretend you're really supposed to be here and just not show up next week, which is the safe bet since I'm not paying enough attention to remember your names yet anyway.

"If you are supposed to be here, congratulations, you get to have me as a teacher. My name is Dana Whitaker, and you've probably never heard of me but if you've watched Sports Night anytime recently you know my work. I run that baby and I run it well. And you may be here because you thought that this sounded like fun, or you think television is a blow-off thing, something a monkey can do, and if you think so, I'd like you to know that this monkey would have to be some NASA-trained ape, with possible genetic engineering and maybe even some psychic abilities to be able to put up with the egos, the drama, the last minute fires that pop up around you every day during the extremely long and hard hours that you spend trapped in a building with the same people whose egos create the drama which sparks at least half of those last-minute fires. Time is valuable, which is why I will tell you right now that the fastest way to get yourself detention is to waste mine. If you show up late, that's an automatic one unless you have a good reason or a damn entertaining excuse.

"We're going to be covering a lot of different aspects of putting together shows, but this week you're gonna be winging it," Dana went on. "Forget syllabuses- syllabi? Someone get me a right answer on that- that's cheating. I want you to go ahead and start making your own show.

"This is what TV is. It's a fast-paced environment where half the time you have to figure out what you're doing as you're doing it, so this is exactly what I want you to do. What do you think goes into putting together a show? Do you think you need a script? Are you going to write one? Are you going to make someone else write one? What kind of show do you want to work on? Are you going to work with other people to get things done or are you going to take it on alone and figure that gives you the right to boss people around later? I want to see how you work, so, show me how you work, so get going."

Comments

Sign In

[fear_of_fish]

Like it's your first day!

Re: Sign In

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah Lance

Re: Sign In

[armybrat-lois.livejournal.com]

Lois Lane

Listen to the lecture

[fear_of_fish]

There's a lot more of it than I'm used to writing, yes. Talk, ask questions, do your thing.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was taking notes-- well, Dinah was trying to take notes. Mostly she was outlining and looking intimidated at Dana, who was really not slowing down there, was she?

"Syllabi," she muttered softly. Barbara had made her look it up.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[fear_of_fish]

Dana stopped talking when she heard that, asking, "I'm sorry, what was that?"

Re: Listen to the lecture

[armybrat-lois.livejournal.com]

Lois started to take notes and then quickly realized it was kind of useless. So she just sat back and listened.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack had given up on writing. "So we're just...creating a show?" His face looked like a cross between surprise and...more surprise.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[fear_of_fish]

Of all the questions Dana figured she'd get on the first day, she thought it'd be like 'Can I go to the bathroom' or 'Are you on speed'.

"Yes," Dana said, slowing down her speech a great deal. "Exactly like the name of the class."

Re: Listen to the lecture

[ashockingbitch]

Jenny didn't bother trying to take notes; she just stared.

And she was pretty sure it was syllabi.

Eventually, she raised her hand to ask a question.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[fear_of_fish]

"Yes, blonde girl," Dana said, then looked at the others in the class. "Blonde girl with her hand up," she corrected.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[fabulous-secret.livejournal.com]

Amazed by how quickly words moved out of this woman's mouth, Adora was more than a little lost already with all this talk of sports. She considered that they were perhaps expected to participate in one of Emmett's many games.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

Hannibal scribbled a few things, circled 'holy crap, professor is a machine gun' and then just sat back and listened. He'd remember a lot better than his notes would look if he ever tried to get all of this down.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

Claire listened and jotted down a few notes, though she couldn't really keep up with the teacher and didn't even try that much. (Sports Night wasn't exactly a show she watched, you know, ever, but she wanted to learn how to make films and it seemed like this might be the closest thing the school offered.)

Eventually, she raised a hand.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[fear_of_fish]

"Yes, the redhead," Dana called on her. Apparently we were going by hair color today.

Re: Listen to the lecture

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

Okay, yes. This lady...was a lady that Turtle was starting to like. It had really been a throw-away class, but now she was glad she decided to take it as she jotted down some of the little bits of Miss Whitaker's lecture that she liked the most.

Get to work!

[fear_of_fish]

Meet up with one or two people, discuss what you think you need, or just go it alone and write out a list or something. No, you don't need to like, have a completed script or anything.

Re: Get to work!

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Okay. Show ideas. News report? Or... something like Mister What or that Wendy the Werewolf Stalker thing?"

He was weighing his options. Please, someone talk sense at him.

Re: Get to work!

[robinthefrog.livejournal.com]

"I'm fond of variety shows." Robin suggested.

Re: Get to work!

[decoder-rings.livejournal.com]

Hannibal sat down and started jotting down a few things that he figured a television show would need.

-Actors
-Equipment
-Money
-Talent
-Money

He figured money was a big one.

Re: Get to work!

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

Claire hunched over a piece of paper. She had started trying to plan something, but got distracted and really was just trying to design an interesting logo for her program.

She liked the font she was drawing.

Re: Get to work!

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

At the very start of things, of course Turtle knew one thing was need more than anything else, and so she wrote that in big, underlined letters on her notebook:

Money, money, money!!

Talk to Dana

[fear_of_fish]

She's here for questions or whatever needs you might have. Well, needs she can help you with.

OOC

[fear_of_fish]

YAY FIRST CLASS.

She'll have a more normal class next week, promise. As for me, I work from 6:30 am - 3 pm PST but am around before and after that. Today I will likely be working some overtime, but I'm trying to get home as soon as possible and will answer pings then!

Re: OOC

[armybrat-lois.livejournal.com]

One, you can slip quietly out the door and we'll pretend never to speak of this again while we really snicker behind your back after you leave, or two, you can pretend you're really supposed to be here and just not show up next week.

I WILL ADMIT TO HAVING DONE THE LATTER. AND I SIGNED MY ATTENDANCE THING AS BLAIR WALDORF FOR THE LULZ.

*takes off capslock*