Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron006.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 3/3/97 8:51:00 PM From:  RonDMoore

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No.

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I was in the class of '86. I didn't know that about Ethan.

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Ira, Hans, and I discussed this scene at length. I believe it was Ira's idea to have Eddington send Sisko a book and that Hans and I came up with "Les Miserables."

<< Are we going to see more of the Romulan woman in "By Inferno's Light"?>>

Possibly, but we don't have anything planned.

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I won't give you a daily schedule, but these are the steps we go through on every episode and which might give you a structure for your work:

1) The story idea.  This is either a pitch from a freelancer or an idea cooked up by a member of the staff.  A pitch is about 2 pages, double-spaced and it is the basic idea of the show you're proposing.  It's little more than the basic beginning, middle, and end of your story and it's a good place to start.  BTW, EVERY story can be boiled down to this level.  If you're saying "my story is too complex, too big to be put down in 2 pages," you're WRONG. "The Illiad" can be boiled down to 2 pages.  It won't do Homer justice, but it can be done.  The purpose of making it this brief is to get to the core of the idea, the basic premise which you're going to wrap your story around.

2) The story outline. This is a more detailed document that expands on the pitch you just did.  Our outlines are 5-9 pages double-space.  The focus here is to flesh out the story and describe the "character arcs" within the episode which are the individual stories of the lead characters in your piece.  Is it a tale of Worf's redemption?  Sisko's struggle with an ethical dilemma?  Whatever -- this is when you describe the REAL story of the episode.  Why are we going to watch this show?  What's it REALLY about?

3) The Beat Sheet.  This is a detailed outline of the entire episode, broken down "beat" by "beat" or scene by scene.  Each beat tells you: a) where the scene takes place; b) who's in it; c) what happens. Example:

1) INT. OPS - Sisko, Kira, and O'Brien at their stations. Some chit-chat about O'Brien's latest adventure with Bashir in Holosuite.  A ship comes through the wormhole and hails us.  It's the Exeter and her Captain has a shipment of dangerous TECH on-board that he needs to off-load immediately. Sisko clears him to dock and sends Kira to...

2) INT. DOCKING BAY.....

The beat sheet is usually produced on the show by the entire writing staff. We all sit in a room together and "break" the story on a large white board. This is where the real heavy lifting of the show gets down. The structure of the show is determined by the beat sheet and the structure IS the show. The final beat sheet often changes radically from the story outline and you shouldn't be afraid to do that if you suddenly get a better idea. This is a tough document to produce by yourself, but I find it much preferable to do this step rather than plunge blindly into the teleplay armed only with my story outline and then find myself in trouble in Act Three when I realize that the structure isn't working. Much better to have that realization while you're working on the beat sheet and change is a matter of a few strokes of the pen (or keyboard) rather than chucking out 30 pages of teleplay.

(More on this in the next post...)

Subj: Answers Date: 3/3/97 9:01:52 PM From:  RonDMoore

Writing steps continued from last post:

4) The Teleplay. You learn by doing.  And re-doing.  Write a 1st draft, then set it aside and let someone else read it and give you notes.  Let several people read it and give you notes.  Listen to what they say, take a hard look at your work and then decide which notes make sense and which don't.  Then go back and WRITE IT AGAIN.  Rewriting is not only part of the game in TV, it's A LOT of the game and you better get used to it.  On the good side, things usually only get better as you rewrite, not worse.  And at some point, you have to decide that enough is enough, you're done with this script, put a title page on it and move on to the next one.  And start the process all over again.

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There's plenty of blame to go around, but Rene did the lion's share of the work.

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We have some ideas, but nothing firm.

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This has just sort of developed over the course of the seasons. We didn't really plan for DS9 to become the island of misfit toys, but it seems to have worked out that way. I dunno, I kinda like it.

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Theorectically, the uniform change is still occuring out there in the Fleet. This gives us freedom to still use the old uniforms and not have to constantly build new ones or alter them to fit new actors, both of which are pricey considerations.

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The DS9 uniforms were intended to set the show apart from TNG. The FC uniforms grew out of a disatisfaction with the way the DS9 and TNG costumes looked on the big screen.

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I get the feeling I'm going to be answering this question for quite awhile, but here goes: There is no definite word one way or the other on season 7. The studio has said on several occasions that they would LIKE the show to go 7, but there's nothing firm and the betting right now is that 6 will be the last -- but that's just a guess at this time.

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There are several books out there (The TNG Technical Manual, The TNG Companion, The Trek Chronology, etc.) but as for websites, I think someone else will have to refer you to them.