#heather marion

[wherever-i-look-blog]

The Act: Season 1, Episode 6 "A Whole New World" - Recap (with Spoilers)

The Act: Season 1, Episode 6 "A Whole New World" - Recap (with Spoilers) | #TheAct

As Gypsy comes to realize Nick doesn’t fit her knight in shining armor fantasy, we begin to see how Dee Dee developed Munchausen syndrome by proxy. (more…)

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[heisenbergchronicles]

Patrick Fabian on Instagram: “Feed your writers. Season 5 pickles.”

[heisenbergchronicles]

Luis Moncada on Twitter: "Working With Ninja Writer Heather Marion somewhere in New Mexico up to No Good 😈 #BCS #BetterCallSaul”

[vince-thrilligan]

IdahoReview.org: An Interview with Screenwriter Heather Marion (Better Call Saul)

If you're into minutiae (serious minutiae) of how they make Better Call Saul on the writers room/pre-production side, this is a very informative Q&A.

Excerpts…

Q: You’ve recently finished writing your first solo script for Season Three of Better Call Saul. Could you tell us about that experience? We heard you went camping to do the actual writing. Marion: Writing my first solo script was both exciting and terrifying. I wanted to do as well as I did with the finale of Season Two, so I put quite a bit of undue pressure on myself (what writer doesn’t?). I took a big binder full of our daily room notes, approximately 400 pages, and went camping in Northern California. No internet, no cell phones. I take a dictionary, a thesaurus (yes, old-school paper copies), and my iPod. I’ve written most of my scripts at least partially in another location: Santa Barbara, San Diego, Long Beach, San Francisco, and even Nebraska. If I tried to write in my apartment, I’d probably just end up daily reorganizing my bookshelves.

Marion: We are fortunate to have a bit of time at the beginning of the season of our writers’ room to discuss “big picture” or “blue sky” ideas. We talk about character beats we might see in the season. We review last season’s story and look carefully at the current emotional and physical state of each character. We talk about things we might owe the audience and things we’d like to hold a bit longer. We have two corkboards in the room dedicated to the overall season, and we hang cards with the beats we discuss as placeholders. When it comes to breaking the actual episode, we work very organically, working beat by beat and step by step. We do not adhere strictly to the beats we discussed at the beginning of the season. This gives us the freedom to unwrap the story in a natural way.

Marion: This investigation (I like how you put it, and am totally gonna use that phrase henceforth) is the most important component of story exploration in our writers’ room. I love that the audience sees Kim as a complex, independent character. I hope they see all the characters this way. We do not discuss characters in service of another character. We don’t start an episode by asking, “What do we need Kim to do for Jimmy to serve his arc?”

Marion: For technical consistencies, we rely on a master calendar that I started building Season One as the Writers’ Assistant. Whereas Breaking Bad took place over only about a year, Better Call Saul spans many years. We have a calendar that shows every story beat of Better Call Saul. If asked, we know on which date a particular event happened. We don’t adhere to it maniacally, but the day count is important for every department in production. Makeup needs to know how long it’s been since Mike got in a fight with Tuco, for example. We need to know how long it’s been since Jimmy started the Sandpiper Case, how long it’s been since we’ve seen particular characters together, etc. It can be quite a challenge maintaining consistencies both with the calendar and with Breaking Bad, but we keep each other in check in the room, and our awesome assistants have added Breaking Bad events to our master calendar.

Q: What advice do you have for a student of the narrative arts? Marion:When you do find yourself in the company of someone you admire, listen more than you talk. When you land yourself a job, no matter what it is or no matter who works above or below you, always ask them what you can do for them, not what they can do for you. Your job as an assistant will be to be a damn good assistant, the best assistant your boss has ever had, not to ask your boss to read your scripts. Be the first one to work, the last to leave, and the kindest and most proactive person you can be while you’re there... without getting in your boss’s way. There will be hard times. You’ll think that what you’re doing is pointless, that you’ll never make it beyond where you are, that everyone else around you is getting “lucky breaks.” It’s important to remember that someone else’s success does not equal your failure. Your voice is your own, and it is unique. Work hard, pay attention, and be kind: you will be asked to share your voice with the world at the right time, and you will be ready.