JULY 16, 2006
THE HOME FRONT
by Craig Sweeny
This week, a few words about how we actually write the scripts. Although we're not technically a writing team, Ira Steven Behr and I collaborate on episodes of The 4400 quite frequently. People often ask me what that means. Do we work separately or together? Why collaborate at all? Is it faster? Who’s in charge? After today, I'm going to refer them to this web site... because today all the questions get answered.
When we're writing an episode together, we actually sit at the same desk and do the whole thing side by side. Here's how it works: we each have an outline, and a yellow legal pad. Working separately, we read the next scene in the outline, then write a "quick and dirty" version on our legal pads. We share what we’ve got, then type the "final" version of the scene into the actual script. Repeat that process about fifty times, and you've got a script. We do the same thing with rewrites. Because we've done so many scripts together (I'm guessing something like 15), we work very quickly now.
In the case of THE HOME FRONT, we knew we were losing Karina Lombard, who plays Alana, for some time (she'll be back before the end of the year), and we wanted to do a story that sent her off in dramatic fashion. Throughout the first half of the season, she's gradually been coming to align herself with the 4400 – and this story demonstrates just how far she's willing to take that.
We also knew we were coming to the end of the NOVA group's arc, and we didn’t want to finish it without wrapping up the story of Gary Navarro, the telepath who became a radical after the government coopted his ability. I think Sharif Atkins is remarkable in the role, so I always look forward to writing for him.
THE HOME FRONT is obviously a change of pace. We’ve never done an episode that's quite this "domestic." No new 4400s are introduced, and the story is focused very intently on Tom and Alana's relationship. It's also very much a "shades of grey" episode. There's no clear "victory" for any of the characters – no choice for either Tom or Alana to make that doesn't bring with it some dire consequences. That's one of the pleasures of writing for this series – the world of THE 4400 is broad and flexible, so you can experiment with story format and structure.
Sorry for the short entry this week – I'm just back from the wrap party in Vancouver. Maybe I'll talk about that a little next week. By the way, we have a fan who shows up on the set in a "GOT PROMICIN?" t-shirt, and spends entire days posing as a member of our crew. I think you all need to ask yourselves – are you giving as much of yourselves to The 4400 as she is? Why not?
Until next week...
Past Entries:
- (7/9) Graduation Day
- (6/25) Gone
- (6/18) Being Tom Baldwin
- (6/11) The New World, Parts I & II
- (6/1) Ira Steven Behr's Season 3 Sneak Peek
