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breakinglight11Finished the script for Dream Machine episode 4 last night, so the cast could have a chance to look at it if they chose before our rehearsal on Sunday. I’m excited for it, since these have been a ton of fun for me. This one turned out a bit unbalanced in terms of what characters it focuses on, but that’s something that happens over the course of a serial ensemble show.
Though the episode 4 script is light on Ryan, it does something important for what I’m trying to do for his character. I want to set him up as being ruthlessly practical and business-minded about the process of making the new show— to the point where he actually doesn’t have faith that the project can be anything more than a moneymaker at best. But Leah is getting more and more invested in doing a good job with it, so when she’s confronted with how little concern he really has about the craft of it, it’s going to be a big deal. Even a betrayal. A major part of the Dream Machine story is dramatizing and satirizing the creative process, and the conflict between business and art is a major aspect of that.
I don’t know which episode or where exactly in the season this scene would fall. But it would be a crisis point in the relationship between these two characters that they’d have to work through. So of course I am spoiling that moment here.
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"
“Should Have Known”
From Dream Machine:
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~
LEAH LUCCHESI, a showrunner for Dream Machine, mid thirties
RYAN DRESDEN, head of programming for Dream Machine, early fifties
Los Angeles, 2020
~~~
RYAN: Calm down, okay? Calm down.
LEAH: I can’t calm down! What are we going to do? How are we going to fix this?
RYAN: It’s going to be fine.
LEAH: How? If we’re not ready in time, everything’s going to look like garbage!
RYAN: Maybe that’s not the end of the world, you know?
LEAH: No. I don’t know.
RYAN: Look… why stress out to make it perfect when nobody’s going to know the difference anyway?
LEAH: What?
RYAN: You think the wine moms and the depressed college girls binge-watching at 3am are going to notice, or care? Have Tom take his shirt off, have Josie cry over something. Have Elena crack out the real crazy evening gown shit. That’ll be enough.
LEAH: That’s not enough. That’s not how I do it.
RYAN: Leah, what do you think we’re doing here?
LEAH: Telling good stories! With everything that entails.
RYAN: This is a cable backwater where chick flicks go to die. Nobody has any expectations except return on investment. As long as it comes in under budget… does it really matter?
Beat.
LEAH: Oh, my God. I should have known.
RYAN: Known what?
LEAH: Of course you weren’t going to fight for us. You never believed in us from the start.
RYAN: Oh, come on. I dragged you kicking and screaming into this project. You didn’t want anything to do with it!
LEAH: Because I was afraid I couldn’t do a good job! But then I worked my ass off— we all did! Building the story, finding the right people. I did what I had to to make it good.
RYAN: Everybody is doing what they can.
LEAH: Really? You took the path of least resistance at every possible turn. As long as it makes more than it costs, you couldn’t give a damn.
RYAN: I’m trying to build something here! This isn’t the most important thing any of us is ever going to work on!
LEAH: And that’s it, isn’t it? This is nothing to you. All of this is nothing to you.
RYAN: I used to win Academy Awards, not pander to mouth breathers on Reddit!
LEAH: Yeah, I get it! You’re better than all this. This is just a stop on the way back to the top.
RYAN: I don’t— that’s not all it is.
LEAH: Except you know what? This is where you are right now. This is the level you got kicked down to. You may think you’ve above everything we’re doing here. But the rest of the world sure doesn’t— or you wouldn’t be here. So if this is the kind of work you’re doing, that’s all anybody going to see.
Though the episode 4 script is light on Ryan, it does something important for what I’m trying to do for his character. I want to set him up as being ruthlessly practical and business-minded about the process of making the new show— to the point where he actually doesn’t have faith that the project can be anything more than a moneymaker at best. But Leah is getting more and more invested in doing a good job with it, so when she’s confronted with how little concern he really has about the craft of it, it’s going to be a big deal. Even a betrayal. A major part of the Dream Machine story is dramatizing and satirizing the creative process, and the conflict between business and art is a major aspect of that.
I don’t know which episode or where exactly in the season this scene would fall. But it would be a crisis point in the relationship between these two characters that they’d have to work through. So of course I am spoiling that moment here.
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"
“Should Have Known”
From Dream Machine:
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~
LEAH LUCCHESI, a showrunner for Dream Machine, mid thirties
RYAN DRESDEN, head of programming for Dream Machine, early fifties
Los Angeles, 2020
~~~
RYAN: Calm down, okay? Calm down.
LEAH: I can’t calm down! What are we going to do? How are we going to fix this?
RYAN: It’s going to be fine.
LEAH: How? If we’re not ready in time, everything’s going to look like garbage!
RYAN: Maybe that’s not the end of the world, you know?
LEAH: No. I don’t know.
RYAN: Look… why stress out to make it perfect when nobody’s going to know the difference anyway?
LEAH: What?
RYAN: You think the wine moms and the depressed college girls binge-watching at 3am are going to notice, or care? Have Tom take his shirt off, have Josie cry over something. Have Elena crack out the real crazy evening gown shit. That’ll be enough.
LEAH: That’s not enough. That’s not how I do it.
RYAN: Leah, what do you think we’re doing here?
LEAH: Telling good stories! With everything that entails.
RYAN: This is a cable backwater where chick flicks go to die. Nobody has any expectations except return on investment. As long as it comes in under budget… does it really matter?
Beat.
LEAH: Oh, my God. I should have known.
RYAN: Known what?
LEAH: Of course you weren’t going to fight for us. You never believed in us from the start.
RYAN: Oh, come on. I dragged you kicking and screaming into this project. You didn’t want anything to do with it!
LEAH: Because I was afraid I couldn’t do a good job! But then I worked my ass off— we all did! Building the story, finding the right people. I did what I had to to make it good.
RYAN: Everybody is doing what they can.
LEAH: Really? You took the path of least resistance at every possible turn. As long as it makes more than it costs, you couldn’t give a damn.
RYAN: I’m trying to build something here! This isn’t the most important thing any of us is ever going to work on!
LEAH: And that’s it, isn’t it? This is nothing to you. All of this is nothing to you.
RYAN: I used to win Academy Awards, not pander to mouth breathers on Reddit!
LEAH: Yeah, I get it! You’re better than all this. This is just a stop on the way back to the top.
RYAN: I don’t— that’s not all it is.
LEAH: Except you know what? This is where you are right now. This is the level you got kicked down to. You may think you’ve above everything we’re doing here. But the rest of the world sure doesn’t— or you wouldn’t be here. So if this is the kind of work you’re doing, that’s all anybody going to see.
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