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Days Documentary on GSN Right Now; - wish the producers would watch this
Topic Started: Nov 19 2007, 02:06 AM (745 Views)
Steve Frame
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The Days Documentary is reairing on GSN right now.

They are talking about how the soaps pull out stops for Sweeps Weeks. Deidre Hall is talking about how important sweeps months are.

They keep talking about how this is the time budget is set. How a good sweeps means job security but a bad sweeps can mean cancellation.

Did the people in charge of Days ever watch this documentary? They have not pulled out all the stops for sweeps in so long.

Sad but only GH is pulling it out this year. Sure soaps need to have good stuff all year but when soaps are in so much trouble especially with budget Sweeps is ever more important right now.

If you don't get the money, you won't be doing anything at any time of the year.
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Rick
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Dreamlander

Oh wow!


This is cool
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Steve Frame
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I love what Peter Reckell & Bryan Dattilo just said. They both said that no matter what they are given by the writers - how ridiculous it is or how bad it sounds - their job is to sell it. That is what they get paid for.

That is why I can't give writers like Hogan any slack. There may be some truth to what some are saying that his stories keep getting changed or he is being interfered with. Well too bad. He is paid to write. He is paid to make the stories good and make them believable. Corday is his boss no matter what. Sheffer answers to Corday and Scott and Corday & Scott to Sony and NBC. Each person has to do the job they are given.

Actors like Kristian and Peter and Alison and Bryan have been turning shit into gold for years. They are given their scripts and no matter how bad they are they have been giving the best performances they could because that is what they get paid to do.

Well Hogan should do the same.
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PhoenixRising05
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And, again, how is Hogan supposed to do that if people keep interfering and telling him to shift gears? Most of JER's second run sucked but this is the same thing that happened to him too, only the day to day writing made it worse while Hogan's is better to make it tolerable and actually watchable.

If someone's heart isn't in their writing or anything for that matter, the product will never be as good. Hogan was so excited when he joined and that excitement was evident onscreen the first 3 months. Then, when the show began it's spiral in January, notice how he stopped talking and said nothing until June, when Days brought back the Dimera's. He seemed excited then too about what he was writing and the vets were featured much more actively in June and early July and then August fell into the same trap as the winter months and, once again, no one hears a thing from Hogan.

Coincidence? I think not. The man shoots his mouth off when he is happy and enjoying what he is writing and shuts up when he's not, probably out of fear of losing his job. We haven't heard from him in months and I think Scott is letting him write now but telling him not to preview or spoil anything. However, I do think Hogan is happy right now because that excitement is once again popping off the screen, at least to me it is.

It's not making excuses. It's about being human and I don't care if you are supposed to be professional or not. If your plans get derailed or if you are constantly forced to do things others want and not what YOU want, the product is going to be of a lesser quality or completely horrible if the person can't handle it at all.

Blog writers, hypothetically and I know this would never happen, if someone was forcing you to write what they wanted or telling you what to write and who you could use and so on, would the product be as good as now when you are giving free reign? I know it wouldn't be for me because I would feel held back and it would be depressing not to be able to get my vision out there.

Having said all that, I do agree with what Peter and Bryan said about making the material work because it's that same quality that turned me off to Drake and Melissa Reeves, who did not make the material work at times in the past few years. However, on some level, I understand it because if you are performing something your heart isn't in for some reason or another, the product won't be the same no matter how hard you try. I just think it's more manageable for actors to overcome that hindrance then writers, who have to churn out stories and alot of material to give these actors the material to perform.
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Steve Frame
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The blog writer and the soap writer comparison is not applicable because blog writers don't get paid.

Hogan is getting paid to do a job. If he can't do what is required of him then he needs to quit or be fired.

Even book writers have to answer to their editors and publishers at times.

If Hogan doesn't want to answer to anyone, then he needs to go to work for himself.
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Ellie


SteveFrame
Nov 19 2007, 03:06 AM
The Days Documentary is reairing on GSN right now.

They are talking about how the soaps pull out stops for Sweeps Weeks. Deidre Hall is talking about how important sweeps months are.

They keep talking about how this is the time budget is set. How a good sweeps means job security but a bad sweeps can mean cancellation.

Did the people in charge of Days ever watch this documentary? They have not pulled out all the stops for sweeps in so long.

Sad but only GH is pulling it out this year. Sure soaps need to have good stuff all year but when soaps are in so much trouble especially with budget Sweeps is ever more important right now.

If you don't get the money, you won't be doing anything at any time of the year.

Sweeps used to be (and should be) very different than it is now. Any storyline payoff or climax would happen during sweeps. The joke was that no matter when a baby was conceived, he/she would be born during a sweeps month.

Sheffer seems to be completely ignorant of this fact. Sami's twins were born in October. Sheffer's stories do not seem to have any climaxes or payoffs at all, but whatever small revelations or payoffs there have been have not happened during sweeps. The "strategy" for May sweeps was Tinda Lao. November seems even more devoid of the usual sweeps stunts. I have no idea why Sheffer's writing does not account for sweeps, nor why those higher up than him give him license to write like this.
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PhoenixRising05
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SteveFrame
Nov 19 2007, 12:19 PM
The blog writer and the soap writer comparison is not applicable because blog writers don't get paid.

Hogan is getting paid to do a job. If he can't do what is required of him then he needs to quit or be fired.

Even book writers have to answer to their editors and publishers at times.

If Hogan doesn't want to answer to anyone, then he needs to go to work for himself.

So, I guess your not human? Just because someone gets paid to do something doesn't magically mean they are able to overcome the fact that they are still being forced to do things they don't want to do. There are emotions involved and a person can try to do what they are employed to do but the impact and product will never be truly as good as it were if the person was happy and given at least mostly free reign. I'm sure if Hogan knew what he was getting into he would not have taken this position and before you say he should quit, why should he? He's making money and he needs to make a living. He may hope things will get better now with Scott on board, which they are.

I used the blog writer example hypothetically. I know that no one gets paid for that. My question was how would you feel if someone was forcing you to write your blog a certain way and to only use certain people?

I know you hate Hogan and I am willing to admit the man is not perfect. He's been far from it, actually, However, the man is not trash and I can only blame him for how he has written the characters he has been told to use. I can not blame him for the stories and how they turned out, especially when most of the year he was reporting to an EP who is notorious for not keeping his ass out of the writer's room and letting his writer's write and also especially when he has an EP who is trying to kiss NBC's ass by putting on Ali Sweeney and the young cast in hopes he can stay on NBC and make the show cheaper.

There are many extenuating circumstances that I don't feel are taken seriously by some . Instead, Hogan gets more blame then he should get when there is enough evidence and precedents to prove that a majority of the blame should go elsewhere.
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Steve Frame
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I have never said I hated Hogan. I hate some of his writing - yes but I do not hate him.

Again I point to the fact that every writer, every person, every actor, every actress has to answer to someone. Guza answers to Phelps, Higley answered to Frons, Guza & Phelps both answer to Frons, etc. etc. etc. etc. When you have a job you have someone you answer too all the time. You do your job the best you can do or the fact is you get the blame for it if you don't. You can't go through life blaming someone else for your failures.

I am a graphic artist and let me tell you my creative mindset is set back all the time. Yes every once in awhile I get to come up with an idea and run with it - but that is very very rare. Usually the customer comes to me and he tells me what he wants. And you better believe I have to do what he wants or he won't come back again - whether I feel like it is a good idea or not. And many times I don't, but I have to do it and I have to do it right and I have to do it good. If I don't I don't get paid.

Every writer on the air right now is interfered with but yet they are blamed for the stuff they put on the air. A lot of the stuff that Latham is blamed for was not even her - it was Barbara Bloom and the Bells who made some of those changes. That's a proven fact. But she gets the blame for them. And as she should. Whether it was her fault or not, she should have made it work.

Hogan is a talented man, and even if he was interfered with he could have made things better. And that part about him writing for who he is told too. Sorry that don't wash. Hogan has a proven track record of writing for these type of characters. So that is all Hogan. No one will get me to believe anything else.
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Sindacco
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What the fuck is sweeps :huh:
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Ellie


Sindacco
Nov 19 2007, 05:33 PM
What the fuck is sweeps  :huh:

Advertising rates are set based on a TV program's ratings in certain months, known as sweeps months. These are generally Feburary, May, July, and November. Because the ratings in these months are so crucial to the revenue of a show, shows often have special programming (or in the case of soaps, storyline payoffs) to bring in more viewers during these time periods.
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Rick
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Dreamlander

Here is a couple Hogan quotes from a 2002 SOD


Quote:
 
on the mistake of characters with to much airtime: "I had to get it through my head that like in a movie, if you create two con people, they've got a storyline. You're cutting away to them because they're driving the action. You can't do that here. I had invested so much of my writerly energy in them, and I should have invested it much more in the characters who were on and used them much, much less. It's just the mistakes you make and you learn and say 'I won't do that again.'


Guess he didn't learn from his mistakes <_<


Quote:
 
"Nobody wants to hear about AIDS," he says. No smoking, no drugs. I think they have to move faster, be sexier. If the audience writes hate mail, good."



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Steve Frame
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He didn't learn it then and still hasn't. Even after 2002 he just kept on using the same people over and over on ATWT.
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