Production

Okay, now we're into the fun part (kind of) of the whole production process. We're moving forward with the Diana project with some changes to the overall story which I won't bore you with. I'm also doing an hour on Charles Manson for MSNBC, so my dreams are going to be really weird this summer.

Diana comes first and we're shooting interviews for that now with "experts" in different fields. I try to think of the interview subjects as characters, and ideally your characters are passionate and animated, because if they're not excited about what they're talking about then Elma in Iowa's going to change the channel. My stand-up teacher (story for another time) talks a lot about the idea of joyous communication and it helps me with casting.

I can't get specific about characters because that's proprietary and I could lose my job :( I can, however, tell you how I cleverly found them. I used the internet. See how clever we are at NBC. Actually, I started with the internet and found authors and journalists who sounded authoritative and then called them up to get a sense if I would want to interview them. Youtube is a real boon to Producers because now you can see subject interviews and get a read on how they deal with lights, camera and action. Some people are scared to death of cameras. I had a Doctor in Zambia who was a warm and articulate, but just before we sat down for the interview she warned me that she was "photophobic." The poor woman proceeded to blink like you read about for the majority of our 40 minute interview. I can't tell you how painful that was for me.

That's all for now, more on production next time around.

David