Have you been watching American Idol as I suggested in my last post? We've had the usual run of terrible performances mixed with people rising to the occasion and outperforming expectations. Once again it's the number one show on television, even if ratings are down from last year. How do they do it? The answer is two words -- High Stakes.
Each performance on American Idol can literally break, if not make, the performer's career chances. It doesn't matter how much you've performed before, or even how you performed during the dress rehearsal. It comes down to your three minutes of singing, with millions of people watching. If you survive, you go on. Those are high stakes -- and people watch.
It's the same reason why there are so many police and doctor dramas on television. In these occupations the stakes are life or death -- at least during their hour on television.
When you're creating your program, make the stakes as high as possible. Even if the stakes aren't literally life and death, it must feel that way to the character. Look at this year's Oscar winning film, The King's Speech, for a great example of how to make something that isn't life or death (stuttering) feel like it is.
As always, feel free to send me any comments you have.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
What Are You Watching?
In his book On Writing, Stephen King said the two most important things an aspiring writer can do are: 1)Read a Lot, and 2)Write a Lot. If you're an aspiring television or content producer, the same advice applies: 1)watch a lot of content; 2)Create a lot.
What shows are you watching? If you want to create a content for a specific medium, whether it's movies, television, or a web site, you need to be familiar with the other content that's already successful. You don't need to imitate that contentbut you do need to understand what elements make a piece of content successful. If you can incorporate the successful elements into your own story, you will go a long way toward making your story succeed.
That's also important if you want to sell your content. When I was in network programming, nothing made me more upset than a producer who proposed a program idea we already had on air. Clearly, they weren't watching.
So watch your favortie shows. And watch the shows you don't like, but are popular. Don't watch just to enjoy them -- watch critically. Analyze why a show is successful. Learn from its successes and its mistakes. Remember almost nothing that you create will be perfect the first time. Apply the lessons you learned from other content in the revisions. Your work is important to you; it's worth putting in the time necessary to make it as good as possible.
What shows are you watching? If you want to create a content for a specific medium, whether it's movies, television, or a web site, you need to be familiar with the other content that's already successful. You don't need to imitate that contentbut you do need to understand what elements make a piece of content successful. If you can incorporate the successful elements into your own story, you will go a long way toward making your story succeed.
That's also important if you want to sell your content. When I was in network programming, nothing made me more upset than a producer who proposed a program idea we already had on air. Clearly, they weren't watching.
So watch your favortie shows. And watch the shows you don't like, but are popular. Don't watch just to enjoy them -- watch critically. Analyze why a show is successful. Learn from its successes and its mistakes. Remember almost nothing that you create will be perfect the first time. Apply the lessons you learned from other content in the revisions. Your work is important to you; it's worth putting in the time necessary to make it as good as possible.
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