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!!!