Doing it on Deadline

I finished re-watching season 8 of SUPERNATURAL on dvd.  I’m currently listening to commentary and extra behind-the-scenes stuff from directors and writers who work on the show. I love listening to that kind of “insider” experience. I’m comforted by knowing other creative types sometimes struggle to get the job done with the time and resources at hand.

Remember, these people have been doing this stuff for years. They are experienced professionals talking about their jobs as directors and some of the doubts that come with trying to get a show turned in on time. These quotes hit home for me as a writer, so thought I’d share.

Some situations come up and you just, you know, you say…why did I even start this, you know? This is no way for a grown man to make a living. –Robert Singer

It’s a scary challenge. You get cornered all the time. And you can not escape the reality of time moving forward.  –Ben Edlund

This is a tough job at times. It’s the best job at times and it’s the worst job at times. You know when things are going wrong I feel like I’m you know…going to lose out and I’m not telling the right story, and now that’s my bad.  If you don’t have that doubt, then I think something’s missing. –Phil Scriccia

You know it’s a very interesting thing. I mean I’ve worked with directors every single day. I stand next to their chair. I watch them do their blocking, I listen to the dialogue, I am right next to the chair. But I am not *in* the chair. And you have no idea what that is like until you are in the chair. Because you’re on a little island, basically, you got all these wonderful people around to help you but there’s mortars coming from all over the place. –Jerry Wanek

There is a moment, usually right before I get picked up in the morning, where you kind of go: “can I do this?”  And that part of me is just figuring…maybe I don’t know how to do this. –Phil Scriccia

There were absolutely moments when I would just look up, you know, take a breath and I would be like: “what have I done–what have I gotten myself into?”   –Jensen Ackles

Tell the story. – Jerry Wanek

Tell the story first. – Robert Singer

You’re going to make some compromises. End of the day, you say to yourself does it hurt the story? If the compromise hurts the story, then you find a way around that, you don’t do it.  – Robert Singer

I am a fan of those really big directors who work in…it’s not *brute* cinema language, but it’s like this perfect mainstream parlance of how to move people’s emotions around.  I think people who do that well are pretty amazing. –Ben Edlund