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Highlights from seminar with Howard Gordon at the Danish Film School

25 Aug 2015, Posted by Liv Saalbach Holse in Uncategorized @en

When The Copenhagen TV Festival took place, Copenhagen Film Fund had arranged an exclusive seminar with esteemed scriptwriter and producer Howard Gordon at the Danish Film School. Howard Gordon has won three Emmy Awards for his work on “24” and “Homeland” which he created, and he is one of the most prolific persons in the American TV industry right now. The seminar was moderated by Christian Torpe who has written for TV 2-shows such as “Rita” and “Hjørdis” and has written the Bille August film “Silent Heart”. Here are some excerpts from the very interesting seminar.

 

“”The Beauty and the Beast” that I wrote for 1989-90, was supposedly Saddam Husseins favorite TV-show. Saddam Hussein had a soft spot for misunderstood monsters. Ron Pearlman who played the monster told on Johnnny Carson’s talk show that Saddam Hussein wrote operas about monsters under a pseudonym.”

 

”Even though you are writing a show that you didn’t create yourself it is important to find something to identify with. When Jason Katims started writing for “Friday Night Lights” he had never been further south than New Jersey. The show is set in Texas and centers on a football team and the coach. Jason is a baseball man. When Jason met with the executives in New York, he had no clue what to do. But they told him that everybody was counting on him to get the job done. Then Jason realized that he was the coach because everybody was looking to him to get the job done. And then he could write it.”

 

”It was the same for me when I started on ”24”, which I hadn’t created myself. But the main character Jack Bauer is a workaholic and has some problematic family relations, so I identified with him. It became a huge part of my life in the ten years I worked on the show.”

 

”Originally the executives at Fox that aired ”24” wanted Jeff Goldblum to play Jack Bauer. But by luck the role went to Kiefer Sutherland. Luck is so important in order to get success but you can’t learn it. I have tried to eliminate

the luck-factor but I haven’t managed to do it yet.”

 

“”Homeland wouldn’t have been the same if it had been on network television. I wanted the audience to be in a state of trance when they watched the show. That would have been broken if the show was interrupted by commercials. Luckily, all the networks passed on the show and it ended up on commercial free cable at Showtime.”

 

”I have always known that I wanted to write TV shows. I never dreamt of writing movies. As a kid I loved TV shows and to follow the characters over a long period of time. They seemed more real to me than reality.”

 

”It can be great to write on someone else’s TV show. I don’t necessarily enjoy hearing my own voice when I am writing. Other people’s voices can be inspiring if the show is good. I would rather play bass in the Rolling Stones than being lead singer and guitarist in an unknown band.”

 

”I am sorry for the way ”24” was advertised. After 9/11 2001 there was put billboards up along the highways in Los Angeles with a picture off a Muslim family that read: They could be your neighbors. 9/11 changed the way we perceived television and I had to ask myself if I was subconsciously hostile towards Muslims.”

 

”The best thing about writing TV shows is watching them with my family afterwards. I don’t watch it with them, I look at them while they are watching it. When they get tense and nervous at the right time it is like a drug to me. It is terrible and I don’t know when it will end” (he laughs, editor’s note).

 

”Every episode of ”Homeland” costs 3,5-4 million dollar to produce.”

 

“In the American TV-industry episode directors of TV shows are often called traffic cops. They are only visiting and appear to direct the traffic, because the actors, director of photography and producers know the show a lot better. To be a TV director is the antithesis to being a film director.”