The Schadenfreude Writing Retreat: A Brief History

Okay. So I got back from Japan (to sum up, don't trust non-Japanese in Rappongi, Tokyo) and immediatly went to the weeklong Schadenfreude writing retreat in New Buffalo, MI. To get you up to speed; back in November '03 we were screwed, getting Episodes 1-20 of the show up was like pulling teeth; the shows were written over the previous 11 months in a piecemeal manner, over the course of the standard workweek, meeting at night, the same way our stageshows had been written. But around November we were running out of episodes and we needed ten more to finish out our contract. We needed ten episodes written fast, so we altered the way we had been working and decided to get all ten episodes done over a 5 day period in a secluded location. Stephe's wife's parents had a summer house in Michigan and it was as far from summer as it got. So off we went. But much like everything to do with Season 1, we had no idea how to do it.



Let me take a step back.



We had no idea how to do any of Season 1. Season 1, in total, would require us to produce 15 hours of content over the course of a year and a half, at that point Schadenfreude had not written 15 total hours of content from 1996 to 2003.



Process 1: Episodes 1-10



Originally each member of the group brought in whole shows, the shows were comprised of ten sketches based on pitches they had previously made to the group. The sketches and shows were entirely written by them alone. Despite the fact that these shows were themed, the sketches were broken up and a new theme was chosen. I think that's how we did it, it might have even been more counterproductive than that. We edited and rewrote each other's sketches as a whole group and eventually shitted out ten episodes this way and realized how in dire need we were of a writing process.



Process 2: Episodes 11-20



This time the group did not bring in whole shows or written sketches, the group brought in pitches for sketches, which would then be clarified, given structure and new ideas in a group-writing setting. Then themes would be found amongst the large number of sketches, sectioned off and then produced as shows. After each sketch had been recorded we would find links between each sketch or transitions and then record them the week of the broadcast. If you listen to episodes 1-10, and 10-20, you can hear that they are much more disjointed and haphazard. They wreak of the process by which they were created.



Process 3: Episodes 21-30: Writing Retreat 1



Which brings me back to where I left off. For Retreat 1 we all brought pitches for show concepts, the ten concepts were chosen and then we pitched sketches, adding to and clarifying the ideas through group-writing. Then we figured out which sketches would go best with what themes. Then we split into two (three?) smaller groups and wrote the episodes as a whole. We also brought in the first member of our writing staff, Joel Friend, to write with us. The process was still flawed, the shows still came out very disjointed and ROUGH, but we were miles away from where it had started one year previous.



Process 4: Episodes 31-45 Writing Retreat 2



After a bit of time off between seasons, we reconvened in Lake Geneva in the middle of acres of solitude while Justin's parents were away. This time we wrote for 6 days and were assisted by the very talented Katie Watson of Sirens. This time we had decided on our themes weeks in advance of the retreat to give us time to write sketches specifically to the themes of each show. The theme was put up and each sketch was pitched as a part of that show, some migrated because they were closer to other themes. A new process of Group Conceptualizing for each show was implemented to really get the shows down before everyone split off into three groups to write the shows. The process was getting much better, as you can tell from listening to this season the shows are much more integrated (listen to Episode 32: Reign), but we realized a couple flaws. Despite the amount of group-conceptualizing given to each show, it wasn't enough. Sketches came back a little off the mark or with the original idea somewhat forgotten and floundering, requiring rediscussion and more rewriting. Also, the time period between large-group-writing and small group writing was too long, we were writing some of the shows a full four days since we had conceptualized them and we had forgotten a lot of detail from the conceptualization stage. In this retreat we also added a table read on the last two days in which the rest of the production team, Michael Ognisanti, Michael Schwartz, and Shiow Jau-Young came up to Lake Geneva to listen to the weeks work be read. Two shows did not get completed and were completed much the way we would have in the first season, and you can tell. This was definitely a step up from what had come before.



And that brings us up to...



Process 5: Episodes 46-60



to be continued on tomorrow's blog; WRITING RETREAT 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES!!!

Kyoto, Nara, and Random OBservations

So prior to New Years I visited Kyoto with Miron and his Japanese girlfriend, Rocky. Rocky is short for something, something longer I'm assuming. Kyoto looks like Park City minus the film-festival, a little town at the foot of a mountain. And if you climb that mountain you can see Monkeys! Running in the wild. This is why they call it Monkey Mountain. Monkeys are cool.



Did you know that the starting price to buy a cat here is $85? And I don't mean pedigree, I mean the same cats that get offed daily in pro-kill shelters all across America. A puppy? $1,200.



I find myself forgetting I'm in Japan when I'm hanging out with Miron and his English-Speaking friends, drinking, chatting, trading The Office quotes, what-have-you. Then we all leave the dormitory and hop on a Subway headed for somewhere and all-of-a-sudden I'm surrounded by Japanese people. It's always shocking. I also can't get over that I'm speaking a foreign language when I converse in English. I always think of the people chattering away in Chinese on the El in Chicago and realize that I'm now that person.



So I went to Nara, Nara is one of the oldest cities in Japan. It was founded in 700 AD and is the home of the Great Buddha an enormous Bronze statue of the Buddha that boggles the mind as to how ancient people cast such a thing. It is housed in the biggest temple in Japan. Actually it might not be the biggest temple in Japan but I doubt I'll see a bigger one. Anyway, it's as big as all those old antiquitites that you can't believe how big they are are.



The only other foreign country I've been to is Scotland (not all that foreign, in that they speak english and drink a lot). One thing I love about going to foreign countries is pocket change, since all other countries have coins for the dollar and even a five dollar coin here, your pocket always gets filled up with change in foreign country. We should do away with the dollar and go to the dollar coin in American. Oh, I know, we "have" the dollar coin, but we don't. The problem is the Dollar coin is being used as a liberal propaganda platform with an Indian or a Women's Suffrage Leader on the coin. That's bullshit, nobody's going to buy into that. Tell you what, put Reagan on the Dollar coin and see how quickly congress makes that and the elimination of the dollar bill happen. The Republicans haven't gotten their way in a month, give it to them. I love the veneration of Reagan (the Lenin of the Conservative Revolution) by the Republicans, but also the hesitancy of those same Republicans to state in any way that W (the Stalin of the Conservative Revolution) is the heir to that legacy. Because he sucks and they know it. Feels like America's living under a Czar, Bush II, Henry V, Reagan III.



Oops, talking about Bush from a country with an Emperor, that's my cue, I'm going to go get coffee in a metal can from a machine and cigarettes from a machine and go to Universal Studios Japan so I can go on a lot of non-subtititled video event rides.



shinsaibashi,



adw