FORKNI-L
Digest - 17 Sep 2007 to 18 Sep 2007 (#2007-61)
Tue, 18 Sep 2007
There is 1 message totalling 61 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. The names have changed but the game is the same....
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Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:42:07 -0700
From: "Amy R." <akr@l.......>
Subject: Re: The names have changed but the game is the same....
In the 9/16/2007 digest, Libby Singleton <libratsie@s.......>wrote:
> >>I think FK would have had the same chance today as back then
> because it could be produced relatively inexpensively without a lot
> of special effects.<<
Cost always carries weight, and with cheaply-produced
"non-scripted" shows as competition these days, perhaps the expense
factor is even more pivotal than before. This made me start
thinking: what if FK were up for this season? What if this were the
year in which the same ideas had been pitched to the same major
network with the same hole in its late-night schedule? If we were
looking at Crimetime after Primetime for the very first time, I think
the question might be not whether it would be picked up -- after all,
_Moonlight_ -- but what in FK's execution would be different in
today's environment?
The biggest difference, I suspect, might be forensics. In FK,
Natalie stands in for all the scientist and technician characters who
now populate the _CSI_ shows and their imitators (she's the
structural inverse of _CSI_'s Brass character, I've often thought,
who stands in for all the detectives and officers on that show). If
FK were made today, do you suppose that some of the budget for
recurring supporting roles (Norma, Grace, Miklos, Brianna, Urs,
Screed) might have been routed into a forensic technician
character? We do have the Daphne forensics technician in "Beyond the
Law," and a few other named CSI-types around the edges in some
episodes -- Schanke once picks on a technician named Artie; do I
remember correctly that Artie was played by JK's brother? -- would
one of them have been more than a one-shot guest star?
A small but noticeable difference would surely be the glowing
vampire eyes. What was once so very difficult -- think of the yellow
light beam on the actors' eyes in so many first-season shots, and
what happened when they moved their heads even a little -- would be
digitally simple, convenient and more convincing, as well as
doubtless also cheaper than the time and effort spent the old way.
The "guppy" flying would have to benefit from digital effects,
too, I'd guess! So would there be more flying? Would flying be more
pivotal in plots or themes? What might that mean for stories?
Would other things be different? Shifts in emphasis? Between
the original _Nick Knight_ and our "Dark Knight," Jack became
Natalie, of course. Could other such shifts be imagined to align the
story with today's typical show structures?
It was just a bit of fun to think about. :-)
Amy R., Knightie
akr@l.......
Bright Knight: http://users.lmi.net/akr/fk/
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End of FORKNI-L Digest - 17 Sep 2007 to 18 Sep 2007 (#2007-61)
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