When a show creator thinks about distribution methods “then you’re not doing your job,” the executive producer told Bloomberg Television’s Trish Regan on Street Smart. ”At the end of the day you have to be truthful to the characters and the story.” But Steven Levitan recognizes that platforms have different demands. “If we were doing a show about dating, we would want to be on cable… When you are telling stories about a family you can do it in a way that works for a network. We feel like we’re in the right place.”
‘Modern Family’s’ Steven Levitan Says Streaming Won’t Change TV Stories: Video
By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday March 14, 2013 @ 6:17pm EDTTags: Big Deals TV, Bloomberg Television, Modern Family, Steven Levitan
This article was printed from http://www.deadline.com/2013/03/modern-family-steven-levitan-tv-distribution-storytelling-video/
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I agree. The professionals vs amateurs divide will always be in play. Professional storytelling isn’t an easy task, it takes years of hard work learning and perfecting your craft before an artist/producer can even think about producing content that people actually want to see; and no amount of access to software, hardware or any new distribution methods can change that dynamic.
Stevie Levitan 4 president
Oh come on. It’s obvious that the constraints of TV and movies have shaped the content. Why else have these artificial buckets – 2 hrs for movies, 1 hr (or 40 minutes with time for ads) for TV drama, 30 minutes (or 20 with ads) for comedy?
Why format TV shows with mini cliffhangers to ensure viewers don’t change the channel during the as, and with cliffhangers at the end of the season to ensure they come back the next season? Even streaming formats do that – House of Cards pointedly created some new dramatic tension in the final episodes to motivate the audience to remember it next year.
If creators don’t acknowledge the straightjacket they’ve been in, how can they devise the creative new forma once the straightjacket has been removed?
^ House of Cards sucked.
Well there goes your credibility…
Not that the quality of HoC was part of my premise. I pointed out that even streaming has its straightjackets to fit into.
House Of Cards does suck, but that’s my opinion. The initial curiosity has passed and based on my research from people inside and outside of Netflix, the show is rarely queued anymore. People have moved on. But that might be more of a statement to the concept of episode dumping rather than the quality of the show. I gave up at Episode 4. It just was too boring for me… and I like boring shit. Foyle’s War, etc.
The basics of storytelling have not changed for hundreds of years…. so while there may be modifications over time (your hypothesis of 2:00, :30 and :60) the essentials have remained the same for hundreds and hundreds of years.
The Professor
I can watch Modern Family on my shoe?
The Brian Grazer and David Nevins interviews were both very interesting as well. I hope Bloomberg does this more frequently.
Good to see Levitan out there getting some attention. This guy must have a full time chiropractor for all the bows he takes for a show he’s barely around to write. Suddenly the creator of Stacked is lecturing us about story-telling? When the subject is how to hire smart people that you can stuff in a closet, then he’s qualified to talk.
Levitan talking about story-telling is like Camille Grammer talking about acting. They both kind of know what it is from being around it, but have no particular idea how to do it themselves. Levitan is a great promoter, and yes, I’ll say it, damn cute. But he’s not a good writer. He should be doing interviews about producing and promoting, but when he talks about writing, it’s kind of an insult to the actual writers out there…especially the ones who’ve worked with him, and know his secret.