Who will never get into Stargate: Horizon?

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

I will never get into Stargate: Horizon, and I'll follow it to only a complete minimum.

So I'm wondering, how many of you will never get into Stargate: Horizon?

[SierraGulf1]

Alas, I'm afraid I'm qutie into it. What can I say?

[Major Tyler]

I will never get into Stargate: Horizon, and I'll follow it to only a complete minimum.

So I'm wondering, how many of you will never get into Stargate: Horizon?

If you don't like Horizon, make suggestions about how it could improve rather than just being negative and mean-spirited. If you're only going to follow Stargate: Horizon "to a complete minimum," why bother making a post about it at all?!

With that said, to answer your question I probably won't get into Horizon because I really dislike the script format. I can't get lost in the narrative the way the story is presented. The story is intriguing, but I just can't get past the utilitarian, unemotional delivery provided by a script. My suggestion for improvement would be a more traditional novel writing style.

[Erik Pasternak]

Yeah, we appreciate suggestions! I'd also like to know WHY you'll never get into it, NowIWillDestroyAbydos.

I'd glad you like the show, SierraGulf1!

MT, I understand your comments, but there are several reasons why we write in script format. First, it is easier. I don't know if we'd be able to crank out twenty-four episodes a year if we wrote in novel form. Second, several of our writing staff (not me though; I'm the odd man out) are aspiring screenwriters and this is an excellent opportunity to prepare.

[Major Tyler]

Second, several of our writing staff (not me though; I'm the odd man out) are aspiring screenwriters and this is an excellent opportunity to prepare.

One of my good buddies is an Electronic Media & Film major, and he's always writing scripts and doing revisions. I usually go to his film screening and he definitely gets better with every script he writes.

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

Damn, I knew this was going to blow up in my face.
I started this thread because I asked a question in the Ask something to the person below you thread.
I asked

Are you following Stargate: Horizon?
I'll never get in to it.

And I got this response

nope!

All I'm wondering is what people are not following Horizon?

And Major Tyler I never said I didn't like Horizon.

[Alex Rubit]

With that said, to answer your question I probably won't get into Horizon because I really dislike the script format. I can't get lost in the narrative the way the story is presented. The story is intriguing, but I just can't get past the utilitarian, unemotional delivery provided by a script. My suggestion for improvement would be a more traditional novel writing style.

Yeah, I can see how it can take some getting used to. But I've said before, over the course of the first half of the season, I believe the way the episodes are written has improved. Not with regard to the stories themselves, but with regard to writing the scripts for a general audience.

The Horizon scripts are written with more detail than you'd normally write the scripts, including references to how a character is feeling, underlining emotions, or specifying reactions. Those are all things you'd hardly find in shooting scripts for weekly television shows, and often I'll say about a first draft - which is already really good - that it needs more detail.

I kind of reacted to the word "unemotional." I believe there are quite some emotional moments in some of the episodes, because of the way they're written. I think the season finale had it's share of emotional moments. We want to give the readers the same feel they'd have if they'd watch the episodes on television, meaning they should have say the same dramatic impact. The way the first couple of episodes are written, isn't anywhere near to what the later and the upcoming episodes are like.

[Major Tyler]

I kind of reacted to the word "unemotional." I believe there are quite some emotional moments in some of the episodes, because of the way they're written. I think the season finale had it's share of emotional moments. We want to give the readers the same feel they'd have if they'd watch the episodes on television, meaning they should have say the same dramatic impact. The way the first couple of episodes are written, isn't anywhere near to what the later and the upcoming episodes are like.

I'm sorry if my word choice gave you the wrong impression...maybe "unpoetic" or "non-prose" would have been better. I've only read the first couple episodes, so I'm not really in a position to rate how the later episodes have been written. Perhaps I will try to look past the script in the hopes that the format will become more compatible with what I like reading.

[ShadowMaat]

Personally, I can't stand the virtual cast. I don't think there's a person on it that I'd want to see onscreen, nevermind picturing them inside my head acting out the stories!

But then, I tend to have a severe aversion to casts which are topheavy with known names from other shows. Might make it easier for people to picture them, but it also makes it harder (IMO) for people to picture them as the characters they're supposed to be instead of as the characters they're familiar with on TV.

[NowIWillDestroyAbydos]

Personally, I can't stand the virtual cast. I don't think there's a person on it that I'd want to see onscreen, nevermind picturing them inside my head acting out the stories!

But then, I tend to have a severe aversion to casts which are topheavy with known names from other shows. Might make it easier for people to picture them, but it also makes it harder (IMO) for people to picture them as the characters they're supposed to be instead of as the characters they're familiar with on TV.

Ha! Ha! Someone who kind of agrees with me.

[Erik Pasternak]

Personally, I can't stand the virtual cast. I don't think there's a person on it that I'd want to see onscreen, nevermind picturing them inside my head acting out the stories!

But then, I tend to have a severe aversion to casts which are topheavy with known names from other shows. Might make it easier for people to picture them, but it also makes it harder (IMO) for people to picture them as the characters they're supposed to be instead of as the characters they're familiar with on TV.

Honestly, I can never picture those actors as the characters. My brain just makes up people to fill those shoes.

[Major Tyler]

Honestly, I can never picture those actors as the characters. My brain just makes up people to fill those shoes.

I agree. It's nice to have a template to work with, but the characters have evolved in my head. The first instance was when I was trying to imprint Browder's voice onto Chase...it just didn't work, LOL.

[Osiris-RA]

With that said, to answer your question I probably won't get into Horizon because I really dislike the script format. I can't get lost in the narrative the way the story is presented. The story is intriguing, but I just can't get past the utilitarian, unemotional delivery provided by a script. My suggestion for improvement would be a more traditional novel writing style.

Well, a scripts format isn't always unemotional. It depends on who's writing it and who they're trying to pander to. In screenwriting, being novelistic with your script is discouraged because you're trying to tell the skeleton of the story to a director or actor without forcing them to be exactly the way you want. Of course, usually when I start writing, I tend to be kind of creative so I can see the picture i'm painting better, then I water it down to the way who ever I'm showing it to wants it. If you read the Alien or Mission Impossible scripts, you'll find a very vibrant way of writing and very imaginative way of writing that sucks you into a story. You can tell if a script is relly well done if you've never even seen it on screen before and you read it, and you can see and hear everything on paper vividly. You'll be reading it and then you'll begin to see what's happening, hear sounds, see the characters. It's very weird actually, kinda freaky, but it's very cool. If you already have actors in mind the way SGH does, It's even better writing it if you already know the people who are portraying the characters from other things because you'll be hearing thier voices and see thier mannerisms, etc etc. How the actor would see the character though is bound to be different than you vision of course.

But anyway, I guess some people like reading them and some don't. I'm really a rather finicky reader of scripts but I think the SGH scripts have been written very expressivley. Especially some coming up for S2.

[Alex Rubit]

Personally, I can't stand the virtual cast. I don't think there's a person on it that I'd want to see onscreen, nevermind picturing them inside my head acting out the stories!

But then, I tend to have a severe aversion to casts which are topheavy with known names from other shows. Might make it easier for people to picture them, but it also makes it harder (IMO) for people to picture them as the characters they're supposed to be instead of as the characters they're familiar with on TV.

Well, with regard to that, we just don't have another choice than to "cast" actors which have appeared on other shows. If you're casting a new television show, you'll have auditions with hundreds of actors reading the parts, and you'd naturally go for fresh faces (in most of the cases); that's the normal process. Unfortunately we don't have that kind of luxury, so we can only cast people who we know.

I don't think anyone will picture the actors as any other characters they have actually played, because one thing I can't stand is type-casting. Unfortunately it happens in the actual business every once and a while. Not when I have something to say, even if so far it's only virtual.

These characters are in fact very, very different from the characters I've seen the actors play, and their purposely different. Based on what I've seen, I have the confidence that if this were actually on TV these guys could pull it off. Each of them are great actors. But let's say Colonel Grant is definitely not Jack Bauer (Kiefer's character on 24).

Granted, maybe it's difficult for some to picture specific people for specific characters. But no one's forcing anyone to do that. Picture them the way you prefer. But if I'd be doing this for television, and could have anyone I like, those would be the choices. Although I do guess we would need an alternative for Ben, since he ended up actually having a major role in the Stargate universe.

[Alex Rubit]

Well, a scripts format isn't always unemotional. It depends on who's writing it and who they're trying to pander to. In screenwriting, being novelistic with your script is discouraged because you're trying to tell the skeleton of the story to a director or actor without forcing them to be exactly the way you want. Of course, usually when I start writing, I tend to be kind of creative so I can see the picture i'm painting better, then I water it down to the way who ever I'm showing it to wants it. If you read the Alien or Mission Impossible scripts, you'll find a very vibrant way of writing and very imaginative way of writing that sucks you into a story. You can tell if a script is relly well done if you've never even seen it on screen before and you read it, and you can see and hear everything on paper vividly. You'll be reading it and then you'll begin to see what's happening, hear sounds, see the characters. It's very weird actually, kinda freaky, but it's very cool. If you already have actors in mind the way SGH does, It's even better writing it if you already know the people who are portraying the characters from other things because you'll be hearing thier voices and see thier mannerisms, etc etc. How the actor would see the character though is bound to be different than you vision of course.

But anyway, I guess some people like reading them and some don't. I'm really a rather finicky reader of scripts but I think the SGH scripts have been written very expressivley. Especially some coming up for S2.

That's a great way of putting it.

Scripts can in general be very entertaining to read. To bring up a little example, there's an Oscar for "Best Screenplay." That award has nothing to do with the movie itself. It's an award for something most people haven't and probably will never see. It's for the script, and solely for the way it's written. In a lot of the cases "Best Picture" might go to another movie.

And, yeah, especially the Season Two scripts have...a nice way of being written. What can I say? Just took us a whole season to figure out what works best for us, but it sure is working now.