“I took my vacation in the land of Israel,” said Jonathan Littman, President of Jerry Bruckheimer Television. For someone who works year-round, 7 days a week for about 16 – 18 hours each day, that’s quite a statement. When one takes into account the context in which the statement was made – the Jewish Federation’s Tel Aviv – Los Angeles Partnership’s Master Class in Film and Television, where Littman spent much of that week-long vacation with aspiring young writers, directors and producers – it is all the more impressive.
The executive producer of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Cold Case, Dark Blue, The Forgotten, and The Amazing Race, just spent several days at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque talking TV? It sounds like a film/TV student’s fantasy, or a movie script.
It is even more fantastic when one realizes that Littman was only one of the many major industry figures who arrived in Israel for the TALA Master Classes. Doug Frank, former President of Warner Brothers Music Operations; Ed Redlich, writer and producer of Without A Trace (2002) and winner of a Prime Time Emmy for The Practice with David E. Kelly (1998); Randy Edelman, composer and singer whose credits include The Last of the Mohicans, The Mummy, and Ghostbusters II; David Renzer, Chairman & CEO , Universal Music Publishing Group, Sarah Timberman, President of Timberman/Beverly Productions and producer of Hacket (2008), and Kidnapped (2006-7), Steve Schnur, President of Electronic Arts (EA) Music Group; and Danny Sussman, Talent Manager, Brillstein-Grey Management. These are the people one reads about, and speaks of with awe and admiration, yet here they were, not only giving talks and conducting workshops, but meeting one on one with students, answering questions and explaining the inner workings of the television industry.
These remarkable encounters are the initiative of Miki Yerushalmi, Tel Aviv Chair of Entertainment and Performing Arts in the Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnership, who continues to develop the program as it grows from year to year. This year the master classes featured a new music track.
What does it take, other than 18 hour work days, to make it in television?
According to Littman, an “unhealthy childhood watching hours of inappropriate TV” is a good start, and “happy accidents” along the way can be quite useful.
Over the course of two solo sessions and one session in tandem with Ed Redlich, Littman talked about his own career path – which included a shift from theatre to television and a short period of living in his Rabbi’s apartment while laid off in LA – and the development of programs on network television in the US. For Littman, producing is about “constructing an idea,” he said, “if we perfectly realize the idea it will succeed on the air.” Using shows like CSI and Without A Trace as examples, he “walked” the audience through the process, showing what makes an idea, as he termed it “undeniable” – sure to succeed.
Both shows strike a fine balance between the familiar, popular format of the mystery, and yet have an original concept, a twist on the familiar. CSI, a procedural drama, took the crime mystery, added science, and visualized it – changing the look of television. Littman had the idea for Without A Trace (an FBI unit specializing in missing persons investigations) from a movie he loved: Otto Preminger’s 1944 Noir film Laura, which featured Dana Andrews as a police detective investigating the murder of a beautiful advertising executive, Laura (Gene Tierney). As he talks to the people who knew Laura, he comes to know the character of the woman, and falls in love. Without A Trace is as much about the characters as it is about the solution of a crime – and it is this distinction that makes it stand out.
Littman showed the ways in which a great idea, such as Cold Case (which deals with unsolved crimes from the past) can also have an inherent problem which requires a creative solution in order for the pitch, and ultimately the program, to succeed. With Cold Case, Littman said, “The victim is long dead, how do you emotionally connect?” The solution here contained both visual and musical elements: there are period flashbacks that tell the story of the victim when he or she was alive, enabling the viewer to become acquainted with the character. These flashbacks are triggered by a shift in the music, enhancing the effect of memory and the emotional connection. Littman emphasized, “How you tell your story is as important as the story you tell.”
In terms of “how” perhaps the most important hurdle is the first: the pitch. It comes as no surprise to learn that at JBTV: “We work meticulously on pitches.” Littman elaborated on the fine points of pitching, (keep it under 30 minutes, including small talk) a topic that was discussed in sessions with other speakers as well, but most exciting (and useful) for the participants was the opportunity to present their own ideas in a pitching session that took place on Monday, June 21. Littman, Ed Redlich, Sarah Timberman, Katriel Schory, and Danny Sussman were all on hand to provide feedback to the presenters, in a pitching session moderated by Eyal Halfon with Ruth Lev Ari.
Littman, Redlich, Timberman and Sussman provided the participants with an insider’s understanding of the way the networks function, scheduling and budget constraints, and as important, an understanding of the scale – a network executive hearing hundreds of pitches can realistically only “get” an idea that is clear and concise. Each presented his or her own perspective. Redlich talked about the writer’s room, working with a group of about 8 people that function like a “super-brain” sharing ideas and working together on writing scripts – with all the internal drama and diplomacy that necessitates. Timberman talked about the involvement of producers as part of the creative process, and illustrated her talk with a clip from “Kidnapped” that left the audience wanting to see the rest of the episode! Danny Sussman kept everything fast-paced and focused throughout, acting as moderator for several sessions and asking the critical questions. In addition, as an experienced manager, he represented the actor’s perspective in the process of network programming.
Listening in on Littman’s talks, as a thread of narrative within the abundance of information and experiences of the master classes, it is clear that his approach is business-like and pragmatic. Talking about “notes” (the requests for changes on a script) he said, “Like many other things in life, it’s about knowing and understanding the system and accepting its rules…I could speak hours about notes. The network is the buyer. If it’s not going to hurt the vision – do the note.” Yet equally apparent is his passion for television – “I love House; I’ve never missed an episode” – and commitment to bringing ideas to fulfillment. Asked what he dislikes most about his work, he had a ready answer: “The unrelenting nature of television.” Yet his pleasure in the work is equally clear: “It’s an incredible feeling on first day of a pilot, you walk on the set and there are 200 people working, and it all started with an idea in my office.”
AYELET DEKEL
