Research

I love doing research for the scripts I write.  Yeah, it sounds really good, doesn't it?

"I research all of my scripts."

"I do A LOT of research."

"I researched the fuck out of this."

"See that moment?  It comes from this documentary I saw."

"Did you get the reference?"  (smiles.  pleased with himself.)  Research."

I did watch the following Altman films in preparation for this play I'm writing:

• M*A*S*H
• McCabe and Mrs. Miller
• The Long Goodbye
• Three Women
• Streamers
• The Player
• Pret a Porter
• Prarie Home Companion
• The Company
• Cookie's Fortune
• Dr. T and the Women
• Gosford Park

I told someone at a party recently that it was 11.  It was 12.  Not to brag.  And I didn't even get to two of the films I wanted to, A Wedding and Short Cuts.  

Yes, research is important.  And it helps.  But I also do a lot of other research.  

I watch The Real Housewives franchise.  And talk shows.  I want to get a sense of the culture, even though most of those shows show an ugly side of things.  

I watch a lot of cooking shows.  I am actually writing a pilot about chefs.  So that gives me an excuse. But what I'm loving these days are:

• David Chang - The Mind of A Chef
• El Bulli
• Anthony Bourdain - No Reservations
• Anthony Bourdain - The Layover
• Step Up to the Plate

I want to know how chefs think and talk.  I try to get my hands on biographies as well for whatever I'm working on.  For the Altman project, I re-read his oral biography, which I had purchased years ago.  I want to get a sense of a life.  And the quickest way to do that is by reading a detailed account of one's life or by watching a piece of their life on film.  

I actually prefer to watch documentaries and read biographies than to watch scripted programming or reading fiction.  I don't prefer one over the other in terms of quality, but when I'm writing it's easier for me to watch something that's pure information than something that's fiction-based.  I'm not making an argument about how real or not real reality TV is here.  But when you have a writer write a script, then for me as a writer it's open to a different set of criteria and a different kind of judgment.  And I don't like my brain to be on in that way when I'm writing because then I'm thinking more about what that person wrote and I compare it to what I'm writing.  I also have the tendency to copy it: more tone than content, but it's still perjury in my mind.   

I've have been watching this AMC show The Pitch, which I actually have found boring.  But then when I discovered that Netflix had Season One, I realized how great this show was and how much the producers fucked it up in Season Two.  It's great to get inside the heads of these ad guys.  I'm not writing about them.  I'm not writing about the prototypical ad man.  I'm writing more about people who think of themselves in an elevated sense and have a higher sense of purpose.  But it's good to know the landscape and what they're reacting against.

I started rewatching a show on Bravo called Kell on Earth last night.  I am obsessed with Kelly Cutrone.  I think she's a total bitch.  But a great example of someone with a lot of style and ego.  She's also not attractive.  She's a bit overweight, trying to make her way in the fashion world with a fantastic sense of style and self.  I love her as a character because she doesn't give a shit.  She's just stylish enough.  She's just cutting enough to get her way through.  But you can tell that she's more maternal than anything else and fucking nuts.  I love that.  As a character study, it's a great show.

I need to get my hands on Bravo's Work of Art.  I love that show and I think there are stories in that world.  Just saw that it's on Amazon instant video.  That's a binge watching weekend activity for sure.  

I find research necessary.  I can't generate all of these thoughts and ideas on my own.  Plus it's a way for me to connect.  And it's a great excuse to watch something.

I also like to watch things multiple times.  The reason why my queue on my DVR and my Netflix doesn't really get depleted much is because I keep watching things I've already watched.  

Am I crazy?  Don't answer that.

I don't do research just because I want to show off or brag at a party about how many Altman films I've watched.  But when I get fixated, I need to know everything about a subject I'm working on.  Plus, these ideas take time to marinate and the research not only enriches what we're writing, but it buys us time.