Fifty/Fifty
Jun. 29th, 2021 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deelaundryJust realized I never posted on DW about "Fifty/Fifty," the show that never was that the amazing bironic created opening credits for. This is going to be like those recipe posts on lifestyle blogs in which you have to read a long story to get to the thing that is the point.
That's it; that's the end of the sentence. You have been warned.
This started in May 2007. I had been active in fandom online for about a year, almost exclusively in the House MD fandom, although I enjoyed seeing/understanding fannish trends and structures across fandoms. Deep into my most prolific year of fanfic writing (216,449 words across 72 fics, ficlets, and drabble collections), and despite having “five half-finished "front burner" fics,” I kept daydreaming about a serial comedy set in a fashion design firm starring Robert Sean Leonard. So of course I had to tell everyone: “(Yes, I know nothing about fashion, and it's only an excuse to have lots of pretty girls and boys standing around, but SHUT UP, I'm getting to the good part.)” RSL’s character would be established as gay from the get-go, and his handsome, playboy business partner (uncast at the time, although Daniel Craig was suggested) would in the third episode be revealed to be also his ex-romantic-partner.
Can you tell I was frustrated by the “default = straight” attitude of so many fans (and showrunners) in that era?
The central conflict of the series was that RSL really wanted to have kids and his partner really did not, which was why they weren’t together romantically. However, by the end of the show, I wanted them to work out a way where they could both be happy.
Can you tell I was frustrated by the lack of respect and understanding for people who want to be childfree in our society, and the lack of creative problem solving for life issues in fictional media (I’m looking at YOU, Jersey Girl, you ridiculous frustrating movie)?
Then came the Fandom Trumps Hate challenge in 20... 17? 18? Somewhere in there. I bid onbironic but so did Resolute, and I told Bironic she should do Resolute's vid first, and that ended up being The Greatest, so good decision, Past Me!
When Bironic had recovered sufficiently from making (and being, frankly) The Greatest, we started talking about a vid for me. Several ideas were batted around, including her remixing one of my vids or creating a trailer for one of my fics. Then I thought about how talented a vidder she was and what could possibly still be interestingly challenging for her, and thought... What about asking her to vid the series that only exists in my mind? Vidding thoughts, that is challenging!
The one thing I had ready for her was a theme song: "Nanana" by Royal Crescent Mob (lyrics here), which is about a person who has always wanted to make men's clothes.
By that time I had fallen down a Martin Freeman rabbit hole, so he was now cast as Paul. Which was appropriate as well because Mr. Freeman is a clothes hound. It also got me to thinking about adding an interesting twist to the fashion design firm -- it would only design for people on the shorter side of the spectrum, a market that is sorely underserved.
In addition, I had the genius idea to cast Jason Momoa as an employee Charlie had recently hired to assist with accounting for the business. Both to have Charlie defend himself against charges of hiring solely for looks (because, Jason Momoa) and because Jason is about a foot taller than the models that would be hanging around the business.
But the challenge remained of how to vid a series that only existed in my head, and thus we decided I should write some of the show down. Not having time to write an entire series worth of scripts, I looked through several posts about how to pitch a TV show, and ending up primarily using “How to Pitch a TV Show” by Jakob Straub, to create both a One-Pager and a Show Bible.
With two main dudes (both White and abled) and one supporting dude, the show need more women -- plus more subplots that were interesting, plus a way to have characters share exposition reasonably un-clunkily. I added The Rival (a woman who uses a wheelchair and designs accessible clothing who is competing with Paul to build the biggest customer base) and J.B., a female journalist wannabe who is interviewing Paul and Charlie throughout the first season. I also had Sheryl, who would be hiring the models, and when I asked friends on Twitter what they'd like to see on a new TV show, one friend said, "The black woman character is not light-skinned. She has natural hair. She isn't the Voice of Reason, Sassy, or the Best Friend. She does her job, offers nuanced insights about the world of work that critique the plot, and goes home to her Japanese husband." \o/ Awesome! Sheryl Sato was then cast: Angelica Ross, who is in real-life a business leader as well as a great actor.
Even with casting done, I wondered: Couldbironic do it? Could she create opening credits for a show that did not exist, with two main actors who had not only never acted together before but probably had never been in the same room?
If you know anything aboutbironic at all, then you no doubt have realized SHE CAN. Oh, they are perfect credits for my show, and I am so pleased and proud to have them next to my One-Page Pitch and Show Bible.
PS. They characters are named Paul Maffer and Charlie Raleigh because of a different daydream I had in which Martin and RSL met on an oldy-timey actors message board that gave you your user name as the first two letters of your first name plus the first two letters of your last name, making them MAFR (Maffer) and ROLE (pronounced in my daydream as Rolly, or Raleigh). Yes, this is incredibly fatuous. Don't judge me. Or do, that's fine.
bironic created opening credits for. This is going to be like those recipe posts on lifestyle blogs in which you have to read a long story to get to the thing that is the point.That's it; that's the end of the sentence. You have been warned.
This started in May 2007. I had been active in fandom online for about a year, almost exclusively in the House MD fandom, although I enjoyed seeing/understanding fannish trends and structures across fandoms. Deep into my most prolific year of fanfic writing (216,449 words across 72 fics, ficlets, and drabble collections), and despite having “five half-finished "front burner" fics,” I kept daydreaming about a serial comedy set in a fashion design firm starring Robert Sean Leonard. So of course I had to tell everyone: “(Yes, I know nothing about fashion, and it's only an excuse to have lots of pretty girls and boys standing around, but SHUT UP, I'm getting to the good part.)” RSL’s character would be established as gay from the get-go, and his handsome, playboy business partner (uncast at the time, although Daniel Craig was suggested) would in the third episode be revealed to be also his ex-romantic-partner.
Can you tell I was frustrated by the “default = straight” attitude of so many fans (and showrunners) in that era?
The central conflict of the series was that RSL really wanted to have kids and his partner really did not, which was why they weren’t together romantically. However, by the end of the show, I wanted them to work out a way where they could both be happy.
Can you tell I was frustrated by the lack of respect and understanding for people who want to be childfree in our society, and the lack of creative problem solving for life issues in fictional media (I’m looking at YOU, Jersey Girl, you ridiculous frustrating movie)?
Then came the Fandom Trumps Hate challenge in 20... 17? 18? Somewhere in there. I bid on
bironic but so did Resolute, and I told Bironic she should do Resolute's vid first, and that ended up being The Greatest, so good decision, Past Me!When Bironic had recovered sufficiently from making (and being, frankly) The Greatest, we started talking about a vid for me. Several ideas were batted around, including her remixing one of my vids or creating a trailer for one of my fics. Then I thought about how talented a vidder she was and what could possibly still be interestingly challenging for her, and thought... What about asking her to vid the series that only exists in my mind? Vidding thoughts, that is challenging!
The one thing I had ready for her was a theme song: "Nanana" by Royal Crescent Mob (lyrics here), which is about a person who has always wanted to make men's clothes.
By that time I had fallen down a Martin Freeman rabbit hole, so he was now cast as Paul. Which was appropriate as well because Mr. Freeman is a clothes hound. It also got me to thinking about adding an interesting twist to the fashion design firm -- it would only design for people on the shorter side of the spectrum, a market that is sorely underserved.
In addition, I had the genius idea to cast Jason Momoa as an employee Charlie had recently hired to assist with accounting for the business. Both to have Charlie defend himself against charges of hiring solely for looks (because, Jason Momoa) and because Jason is about a foot taller than the models that would be hanging around the business.
But the challenge remained of how to vid a series that only existed in my head, and thus we decided I should write some of the show down. Not having time to write an entire series worth of scripts, I looked through several posts about how to pitch a TV show, and ending up primarily using “How to Pitch a TV Show” by Jakob Straub, to create both a One-Pager and a Show Bible.
With two main dudes (both White and abled) and one supporting dude, the show need more women -- plus more subplots that were interesting, plus a way to have characters share exposition reasonably un-clunkily. I added The Rival (a woman who uses a wheelchair and designs accessible clothing who is competing with Paul to build the biggest customer base) and J.B., a female journalist wannabe who is interviewing Paul and Charlie throughout the first season. I also had Sheryl, who would be hiring the models, and when I asked friends on Twitter what they'd like to see on a new TV show, one friend said, "The black woman character is not light-skinned. She has natural hair. She isn't the Voice of Reason, Sassy, or the Best Friend. She does her job, offers nuanced insights about the world of work that critique the plot, and goes home to her Japanese husband." \o/ Awesome! Sheryl Sato was then cast: Angelica Ross, who is in real-life a business leader as well as a great actor.
Even with casting done, I wondered: Could
bironic do it? Could she create opening credits for a show that did not exist, with two main actors who had not only never acted together before but probably had never been in the same room?If you know anything about
bironic at all, then you no doubt have realized SHE CAN. Oh, they are perfect credits for my show, and I am so pleased and proud to have them next to my One-Page Pitch and Show Bible.PS. They characters are named Paul Maffer and Charlie Raleigh because of a different daydream I had in which Martin and RSL met on an oldy-timey actors message board that gave you your user name as the first two letters of your first name plus the first two letters of your last name, making them MAFR (Maffer) and ROLE (pronounced in my daydream as Rolly, or Raleigh). Yes, this is incredibly fatuous. Don't judge me. Or do, that's fine.