Arrested Development: A venn diagram w/a nautilus shell inside a Möbius strip.

keylight

keylight

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Absolutely one of the most interesting articles I've read in a while, from wired.com:

The New rules of the Hyper-Social, Data-Driven, Actor-Friendly, Super-Seductive Platinum Age of Television: Rules 9 & 10

Two short snippets from a long article:

Arrested Development is exploring the more playful, outré structural possibilities offered by the new platform on Netflix. Each episode will cover events from a different character’s point of view, like a comedic Rashomon. There will be moments and Easter eggs that will make sense only in retrospect. There will be a suggested viewing sequence, but it will be possible—even rewarding—to watch out of sequence. Cross describes the new structure as being “like if you could mash up a Venn diagram with a nautilus shell. And then put that inside a Möbius strip.”
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AND

But though releasing all of the episodes of a series at once has its risks, it also encourages complexity. Back on the set of Arrested Development, actress Portia de Rossi, who plays Lindsay Bluth Fünke, says that at one point she had seven scripts splayed across her dressing room floor because it was the only way she could grasp all of the plot’s intricacies. “I did a scene with Jessica [Walter, who plays Lindsay’s mother], where she seemed to be saying the nastiest things, in my mind, because it was so sarcastic,” she says. “But in her episode, you realize that she was being sincere. If you see my episode first, you’re like, ‘That f**king *****.’ But if you see hers first, I look completely heartless.”

The new Arrested Development is not just a seven-hour movie. It’s something new—a collection of episodes released altogether that can be remixed and recombined and that gain something from each juxtaposition. Right now that’s a framework only Net*flix can offer. Asked what the show would have been like had Showtime won its bid, Hurwitz says, “I know that storytelling-wise, saner ideas might have prevailed.”
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Edit: So the forum automatically changed the quote from Portia de Rossi from "f**king *****" - with ck instead of ** - to "poo pooing" *****. Seems a strange site policy, immensly funny, and rather childish all at once!
 
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it did not seem like a particularly funny show to begin with, and the 'news' camera work is just lazy. and now they are going to limit the half hour show to 5-7 mins of content if that? they did not have any cinematography to begin with, what makes them think they can have different vantage points visually or story-wise?
 
That sounds awful. Call me provincial but I really like a story with a beginning, middle, and end, in that order.

I also like a director to frame his shots, use a tripod where appropriate, and use handheld, dolly, or steadicam where appropriate, in other words it adds to the story, creates tension, directs my attention to something, etc. I do not like to see a director jerk the camera from one actor to another and zoom in and out for no reason other that "it looks cool".
 
Amr Rahmy said:
it did not seem like a particularly funny show to begin with, and the 'news' camera work is just lazy.
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This is fair as an opinion. Initially I thought the show was stupid... but after watching a few episodes... I realized it's brilliant.

We're used to gags in sitcoms... I constantly have people telling me to watch Big Bang Theory, or 2.5 Men... and I just can't lock into those shows. For me the normal sitcom is like a punch-line that you see coming a mile away.

AD has ALWAYS used storylines which spanned both forward and back... so there are a lot of jokes in each episode that require you to know a character's history... and other jokes that you won't even get until you're watching that same episode again at some point after finishing the season. For instance... the maid steals Buster's big red "hand chair"... later Buster runs away from home, hiding in the maid's trunk... on getting out and introducing himself to her big family he proclaims, "I'm one of you now!"... Cheering, they accept him as one of their own, even though neither speaks the other's language... he sees the chair in their house and says, "that's just like the chair that I used to have... I never thought I'd miss a hand so much"... meanwhile... in a later episode... Buster loses a hand.

As for style... the show was always shot very ENG-like.

It's not for everyone... but as for writing, I think Mitch Hurwitz is a freakin' genius... like an eccentric comedian that most people don't understand.

Here's the synopsis of how Buster loses his hand... how can you not laugh at this?

In one episode, Buster decides to join the military as a means to run away from home. He misses the bus because he goes into an arcade (to use the bathroom or something)... and sees a claw game... and plays it all day collecting animals... the first of which is a stuffed seal. "Buster was hooked"... the narration says. He then leaves and comes home each night, "from Army"... he says... "these are prizes mother, the seal is for marksmanship and the gorilla is for sand racing"...

In a later episode Buster loses his hand by swimming in the ocean in defiance of his mother, Lucille... his hand is chewed off by a loose seal that now has a taste for human blood after a magic trick, performed by his brother Gob (pronounced "Jobe" by the family, but everyone else calls him "gob" incorrectly) goes wrong and Gob decides to dump the seal in the ocean... As Buster is in his celebratory dance in the water a beach comber keeps screaming to Buster to get out of the water, "LOOSE SEAL! LOOSE SEAL!"... and Buster replies, "I don't care what she thinks!"... then his hand is bitten off.

In all the episodes after that... Buster either has a hook at the end of his arm... OR... they blur out a bright red stump that everybody reacts to in horror.

In many of the episodes where he has the hook, he also has an eye patch... so they put a wine cork on the tip of the hook, and he occasionally bounces it off the eye patch.
 
Gillvane said:
That sounds awful. Call me provincial but I really like a story with a beginning, middle, and end, in that order.

I also like a director to frame his shots, use a tripod where appropriate, and use handheld, dolly, or steadicam where appropriate, in other words it adds to the story, creates tension, directs my attention to something, etc. I do not like to see a director jerk the camera from one actor to another and zoom in and out for no reason other that "it looks cool".
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You're so provincial! :D

I tend to agree about camera styles, but in terms of structure, nothing ventured nothing gained. Momento for example, was a really different and effective way to tell a story. I think the idea that the new series being released all at once on Netflix where people can (and do) binge almost demands a different way to create structure. Not to mention modern computer games that are built in open (but structured) worlds where you can get a different experience based on how you play.

If it works and creates another way to approach storytelling, great! If it fails, great that someone tried. Society is constantly evolving. The way we think is constantly evolving. Music evolves, art evolves. Storytelling evolves. Doesn't mean older forms are less relevant or important (in some ways they become more relevant).

Should be interesting at least.
 
Gillvane said:
Call me provincial but I really like a story with a beginning, middle, and end, in that order.
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Definitely conventional. I hope you don't avoid ambiguity and always seek closure and happy endings.

Aside from AD (which I love, and binge watched on DVD) some interesting points from Wired were less about content and more about structure and delivery:
Hurwitz may not have all the time or money in the world, but he does have unprecedented freedom.
Because Netflix doesn’t have to worry about commercial breaks or time slots, he can make episodes of variable lengths that can run in any order.
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I wonder how much liberty he'll take with the 30 minute run time of the original? 25 minutes for one episode if it feels right... 40 minutes for another to fit everything in?
Of course this is typical in film, but revolutionary for "TV shows".

Also, the downside of watching TV series on DVD or streaming is the annoying dip to black where commercials were (especially annoying on dramas like House MD with the crescendo of music and close up of a frowning face...). I guess AD will be continuous without artificial breaks?

-and-
Net*flix has something that not even HBO’s market researchers can compete with: years of near-*perfect data on what its subscribers watch and like. Netflix has already tapped into that information to pick new projects.
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How's that for valuable info???

AD or not, this seems like the start of a new model (I refuse to say paradigm)- a variation of the Veronica Mars Kickstarter, where viewers are having more influence (direct or indirect) on the likelihood of projects with smaller audiences coming to fruition.

Though both above examples (and all Netflix productions) are based on existing properties (film, book or TV).
 
it's amusing that the writer describes the structure as 'different' and 'like a comedic roshomon', which is a classic 1950s film with a formula so overused that it's been seen in a travolta film, and a recent animated b quality production tons of tv shows used the trick in some episodes, but whoever wrote the article says "new structure".
 
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