Posted on May 28th,

Script Magazine interviewed Streamy Award winning writer Bernie Su.

Bernie talks about writing dark, foot trucks, and writing for online media.

Craig Frank (right) and Janna Bossier in Episode 1: Unleash

Thank you everyone for reading my previous blog on Writing and Structuring Drama for the Short Form.  I was worried that the subject matter would get too deep into the thinking I put into my craft as a writer. So now I follow it up with an even deeper writing blog post.

I’d like to showcase how I tried to make Compulsions a truly thematic based series. As a writer/story teller, one of the challenges I placed on myself in tackling this show was whether or not a short form web series could be presented thematically.  And adding to the challenge, could a short form series support not only an overarching theme, but showcase different individual themes from episode to episode.

Stanley Kubrick once said, “A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what’s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.” (continue reading…)

Nathan Atkinson directs Seth Caskey and Craig Frank

It’s always good to do as much rehearsal as you can. Alas, many times it just can’t be avoided, sometimes you’re moving so fast in pre-production you barely have enough time to write your lines before going out to roll camera. But in preparing for our show, our team was adamant about doing as much rehearsal as possible.

In the one month we had in between casting and production, we scheduled 3 rehearsal sessions a week. Granted we weren’t calling in our entire cast each time, but it’d be 2-3 of the actors per session.

Why rehearse so much? First off it saves you time and money. When you’re on set you have a team of people working around your actors and director. Plus you have location fees, food, and the lot. Why should all those resources be taxed while the director and actors are trying to work out the characters to each other’s likings and comfort? Let’s get that done in rehearsals, and let’s get it done right.

Secondly, it makes the quality of the story better. When I got to sit in on rehearsals, I was able to hear the lines being said as Nathan and co were going through them. Sometimes I’d hear a line which looked great on the page, but just didn’t sound right spoken by the actor. I would then be able to address the line right then and there, or make a note, digest it, and then come back with revisions a day later. The rehearsal process  made it so that the characters became as much as the actors themselves as the characters were mine. In our show each character is multi-layered, and the key to multi-layered characters is rehearsal