Picking up from yesterday –
Some other stuff I enjoyed hearing the writers talk about: They mentioned how fun it was to have such opinionated characters. They talked about “Danny rants,” and how you can give basically any topic and know exactly how he feels about it.
Matt Warburton talked about this thing he learned from Dan Harmon: When you let your character have something great, give that the seed to make it something challenging. (Something wonderful should be on the verge of exploding into the exact opposite.)
The example that was given was the shower scene in the Frat Party episode of The Mindy Project. You think it’s gonna be this great thing for Mindy to have this sexy shower with her boyfriend. But in the end, it’s pretty much a disaster.
During the Q&A, someone asked about how the panel members deal with writer’s block. What was so interesting to me was that none of them seemed to really have an answer. All their faces sort of immediately said, “Huh, I have no idea, because I never get writer’s block.”
Then, they actually talked about the very idea so evident on their faces. They said writer’s block basically just can’t exist. You have deadlines and you have to do it. They also said that the successful writer is not necessarily some naturally gifted person – the successful writer is the one who writes every single day.
Because you just have to.
They did also say that being in the writer’s room helped, because you build off of other people. And Mindy said that if there’s a day when you’re not feeling particularly funny, you can just write the straight version of the script. Write it out where the plot unfolds and you take all the story turns you need to, with just straight dialogue. Go in and put those jokes in later.
I also found Mindy’s take on network notes interesting. I find that many people are quick to disparage network notes, and usually want to fight with them. Mindy said she’d learned from Greg Daniels that network people are just smart audiences trying to help make your show better. That structure breeds creativity. And that it’s always better to listen first, instead of immediately fighting a note.
In the end, you might not change things the way they suggested. But anything they do point out gives you an opportunity to re-pitch and re-visit, and maybe find something even better.
Last but not least (not chronologically that night, but here in this post), someone asked about how Mindy makes it so the show doesn’t seem self-serving. Mindy’s playing a character that has a lot in common with herself. So, how does she write it without it seeming like she basically gets to kiss these hot guys all day?
The answer was basically that for every cute or sexy thing Mindy’s character does, she does something else that’s incredibly embarrassing. She also mentioned that wish fulfillment for the audience can be okay sometimes. You can give them what they want now and again. (She mentioned loving watching Sex and the City, and seeing some of the fun Carrie had with her fun wardrobe choices and great boyfriends.)
But, what I found most interesting about that question (which I had actually wondered myself), is would we have asked that question to a man?
I recently read Lean In (blog post coming soon). So, this stuff is kind of on my mind. Would we have ever even thought to ask Jerry Seinfeld, “How do you play a character so close to you, and not make the show seem self-serving by the parade of women coming through Jerry’s life each week?”
I kind of feel like generally that would not be a question he (or any male star) would’ve been asked. We accept it as natural fact, “Obviously this male star will have as many attractive girlfriends as we need to go through – and we won’t bat an eye about it.”
Yet, when it comes to Mindy’s character, we (including me!) wonder, “Hmmm… How many hot guys can she kiss on the show until we start judging and stop separating her character from the writer?” And basically, “How believable is this that this normal girl can get so many interesting, attractive guys?”
Yet, we don’t have the same wonder about normal male leads…
I dunno. Something to think about, maybe?