![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A thing that I think really good ensemble shows do is mix up the interactions. I really don’t like when all the cast members are basically just satellites of the technical lead. The show I think that did the best job of this was Parks and Recreation, which always made a serious effort to have storylines with many different combinations of characters, and each had meaningful and specific relations with the others. Mike Schur shows in general are good at this— Brooklyn 99, The Good Place —but Parks and Rec is my specific model for how to do it well.
In Dream Machine I’ve got five leads— Leah, Ryan, Meredith, Josie, and Derek—with a handful of secondaries like Jeremy and Devon with intentions to expand. I want them all to have unique reasons to deal with each other. Here’s some building for Meredith and Ryan.
They are meant to be a clashing of opposite ends of the spectrum— she comes from a straight-laced, academic, nerdy place while he is a slick bad boy power player type. But I’m also trying to build to a place where Ryan sees Meredith’s potential as a producer. Right now she’s a writer’s assistant— which as a position is somewhere between assistant writer and assistant TO the writer —but he’s going to come to recognize how good she is at organization, planning, and reading the room. It’s taking inspiration from how on 30 Rock Jack decided to be Liz’s mentor, but instead of directing it at Leah, he’ll connect with Meredith on this level and help her move forward in her career.
But first he’ll have to get past how… uncool he finds her. Right now he’s too distracted by that. Here’s a scene depicting that, from the idea for when shooting delays prevent anybody from traveling for Thanksgiving and Meredith tries to get everybody to come to her celebration instead. So here’s a scene of that journey beginning.
I did another scene for this episode earlier this month, Day #9 - “Friendsgiving”.
If you'd like to check out the episodes of Dream Machine so far, you can find them as follows:
1.01 - "The Show Must Go Off"
1.02 - "Requiem For a Dreamer"
1.03 - "Change or Die"
( Day #28 - Extreme Rendition )
In Dream Machine I’ve got five leads— Leah, Ryan, Meredith, Josie, and Derek—with a handful of secondaries like Jeremy and Devon with intentions to expand. I want them all to have unique reasons to deal with each other. Here’s some building for Meredith and Ryan.
They are meant to be a clashing of opposite ends of the spectrum— she comes from a straight-laced, academic, nerdy place while he is a slick bad boy power player type. But I’m also trying to build to a place where Ryan sees Meredith’s potential as a producer. Right now she’s a writer’s assistant— which as a position is somewhere between assistant writer and assistant TO the writer —but he’s going to come to recognize how good she is at organization, planning, and reading the room. It’s taking inspiration from how on 30 Rock Jack decided to be Liz’s mentor, but instead of directing it at Leah, he’ll connect with Meredith on this level and help her move forward in her career.
But first he’ll have to get past how… uncool he finds her. Right now he’s too distracted by that. Here’s a scene depicting that, from the idea for when shooting delays prevent anybody from traveling for Thanksgiving and Meredith tries to get everybody to come to her celebration instead. So here’s a scene of that journey beginning.
I did another scene for this episode earlier this month, Day #9 - “Friendsgiving”.
If you'd like to check out the episodes of Dream Machine so far, you can find them as follows:
1.01 - "The Show Must Go Off"
1.02 - "Requiem For a Dreamer"
1.03 - "Change or Die"
( Day #28 - Extreme Rendition )
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}