BRENT FORRESTER PODCAST SONY STUDIOS CULVER CITY MARCH 22, 2016 Tom: I'm here at Sony Studios with Brent Forrester one of the executive producers on Love, A new TV series. Who Are the principles on the show? Well let me just ... we met at the University of MichigAn, you came out, you did this incredible clinic with our students, talking to the whole comedy formAtion. GAve us A greAt grounding in how to write television comedy. How you work And whAt your process is. We had A greAt time out there with thAt, two falls Ago. You've worked on the Office, you worked on the Simpsons for A long time. You worked on King of the Hill, in two separate runs and a bunch of other things. You've written feature films and it's a thrill to be here. Right now you're working on Love. It's a Netflix show, it's in it's second seAson. You're writing it now right now here. You wAnt to talk about thAt a little bit? Brent: Sure, we're in the second season of production, so the first season has Aired And the second seAson is being shot. We're in that process of getting feedback from the fAns And the viewers, which is fAntAstic. Everybody seems to love the show. Tom: I love the show. Gus And Mickey, they're just, they're incredible chArActers. There's so much texture And there's so much great chArActer development. Things going on And who they Are in their lives. There's such great grounding and they're lovable and they're flawed. They're meAnt for eAch other, but they're Also... the ideA of calling it love is so AmAzing. It's on Netflix, the first season is completely there And now the second season is just ... when is it going to be on the air? Brent: Good question, seAson 2? I don't know. We releAsed seAson 1 pretty close to VAlentine's DAy. They probAbly don't even know when [Type text] 2 they're going to releAse seAson 2. Netflix is, in A good wAy for us, protective of their datA. They don't releAse rAtings datA, outside of their own executive world. Which meAns we don't hAve to worry about ratings because it's not part of the narrative. It's just a mAtter of perceived criticAl success. This is just Another one of the greAt things About working for Netflix, I think. Is you don't hAve thAt pressure that Attends the normAl lAunching of A network TV show. The normal launching of a network TV show, there's an obsession with the rAtings on the first 4 episodes. That's when conventional wisdom says the ratings sell out. When you're doing A show like thAt, you hAve this crAzy pressure thAt affects the creative process. We don't have that. This show is chArActerized, in great pArt, by the Absence of A lot of the things thAt people have reAlly complAined About in network television for A long time. The notes process is Absent on the show. There is no notes process from the executives to the creAtors. We are the vindicAtion of what happens when you work in that environment. Tom: Right now you're on season 2 and you've written 3 episodes. The third episode is shooting now And you've written up to number 4 And you hAve A writer's room where you're working on the next 4 episodes. There are 6 episodes. Brent: Yeah. It's an ongoing multi-script process. We have drafts of 8 scripts, but those scripts will evolve rAdicAlly, my experience. The closer you get to deadline and the more you push the decision-makers to make decisions, you'll notice the story will just keep re-breAking, very frequently, All the wAy up until the end. I try to get thAt process started as early as possible. It is possible to get all of the important people to go, "Yes, this is the story. These are the specific beats." When you get thAt, then the writers cAn relAx And write it, And keep making it better. Tom: You'll break an episode with the group in the writer's room? Brent: Yes. [Type text] 3 Tom: Then they'll be an outline for the 30-minute show. How long will that outline be? What will it look like? Brent: It depends on the show and it depends also ... you know, sometimes where you Are on the show. I would sAy, in my experience historicAlly, when you Ask for An outline you're Asking A writer to turn in something thAt's 5 to 15 pAges of prose. PersonAlly I think, the Simpsons we would get these 15-page prose documents thAt would be the outline before going to script. They would be well beyond whAt An outline is. They would hAve just tons of specific Attempts At jokes within it. ThAt wAs more thAn an outline is. I do like the writers to try to write A prose version of the script before they go off And do it. Honestly, more important to me thAn thAt is the oral telling of the story. That's the one thAt I think is reAlly the key to the process. If you cAn look somebody in the eye and tell them the story, thAt's the version thAt you end up translating into A hAlf-hour script I find. Tom: Where will they tell ... they'll come in with whAt they've figured out and they'll tell the room or tell you the story? Brent: Yes. Tom: Then they'll go to the, in this case, the creative executive producer? Where will they go with thAt verbAl version of the story that they've talked through? Brent: It depends, whAt you cAn see here is thAt the schedule of the top person, in this cAse, Judd ApAtow. Judd's schedule becomes an intricAte pArt of this whole process becAuse there's no wAy for me to reAlly fully know his schedule. A lot of times you'll notice the top person won't even share All the detAils of their schedule. They don't want to be pinned down, right? Sometimes I think they're sending some conscious messages about, I want you to just run this as if I were deAd, I don't want to hAve to do Any work. All of that negotiAtion becomes part of it. It's A long wAy of sAying there is no [Type text] 4 formAl process thAt we hAve here. WhAt I try to do is, mAke sure thAt all of the stages of writing a good script happen. I hAve distinct stAges for thAt. An oral story-telling, An outline, A one- week drAft process, And then return to the room to get it re-written. Have A tAble reAd, do A post-table, And thAt's it. Those Are like 5 stages. Tom: You sort of administer the room? You're like the chief room guy? Brent: I hAve a title – executive producer - showrunner. The thing I really run is the room. I find thAt, especially with ... we hAve an executive producer who's A director EP. The production side runs very well under that EP. Tom: Who is thAt? Brent: That's DeAn HollAnd. He's A director who directed the first 2 And the last 2 of seAson 1. Tom: Who were the other people who directed the other ... you hAd Joe Swanberg? Brent: Yes, he's awesome. Tom: So who else directed, did Buscemi? Brent: Buscemi directed one. Tom: And who else? Brent: John Slattery from MAd Men And Maggie CArey, who's A greAt director. Tom: The guy who did the first 2 is Dean? Brent: DeAn HollAnd, he's A director, he's An editor, greAt editor At The [Type text] 5 Office, when I was there. Just so mAnifestly tAlented As An editor, so brimming with energy And ideAs. I remember feeling like An editing room wAs too smAll for him as a humAn being. Sure enough, he busted out And becAme A director. Directed At The Office, A lot of Parks and Rec, and then has been our in-house director, executive producer here. Tom: OkAy. In the second seAson, he's ... was he in All the way through or he wAs just directing And being executive producer in that first season? Brent: Yes, he was all the way through As the director and in-house executive producer. In addition to directing, he supervised the other directors And sort of supervised production. Tom: OkAy, now there's PAul Rust And there's DeAn And Judd ApAtow. For A script to get ... before shooting starts how does A script run through thAt. Are you like going to Judd At some point And just doing A bunch of stuff At the sAme time? He sort of comes down from the mountAin and gives his opinions about things, or brainstorms a bit or ... How does that work? I don't wAnt to put words in your mouth About that. Brent: No, that's exactly the way it works. Judd is flowing through 3 television shows And A movie right now. He's kind of intuitively going where people most need him. He typicAlly does exActly whAt you're saying. He'll step in for sometimes just an hour of brilliance. Sometimes 20 minutes of brilliance, I got him yesterday on the set.