American Outlaw: Bill Hicks

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Onder het grote publiek in Europa is hij niet heel bekend, maar in Amerika is hij nog steeds een legende: de in 1994 overleden komiek Bill Hicks. Hij wordt zelfs gezien als één van de belangrijkste komieken aller tijden, een ware pionier. De documentaire American: The Bill Hicks Story vertelt zijn verhaal.

In de tijd dat hij opgroeide doorzag hij al de leugens van de Amerikaanse droom; armoede, propaganda, oorlog, machtsmisbruik, religie, enzovoorts. In de jaren 70’ stond stand-up komedie nog niet op de kaart, maar in zijn woonplaats Houston was een kleine komedie scene. Bill en zijn beste vriend Dwight wisten op hun 15de al hun eerste optredens te ritselen. Hicks was toen al extreem grappig en grensverleggend.

Na een mislukt filmavontuur in L.A. begon Hicks zich fulltime te storten op de stand-up komedie. Dit leidde tot optredens bij Letterman en Jay Leno. De weg naar het sterrendom lag voor hem open. Maar Bill was teveel een rebel om door te breken. Hij vertelde zijn publiek hoe het echt zat in Amerika, en dat vonden de ‘sterrenmakers’ te riskant.

Bill ontdekte ondertussen ook psychedelica en Oosterse filosofie en daarmee de echte waarheid over het universum. Dat verwerkte hij in zijn shows: ‘I like to hear a positive drug story for once. News is supposed to be objective right? Today a young man on acid realised that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slower vibration, that we are all one consciousness going through itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and you’re the imagination of yourselves. Here’s Tom with the weather.’

Na zijn ontdekking dat er écht iets was aan de andere kant maakte hem dat nog meer ‘fearless’. Maar hij raakte ook aan de alcohol wat zijn carrière geen goed deed. Hij stond vaak ladderzat op het podium en was dan niet zo grappig meer. In 1988 kreeg hij een wake-up call. Hij stopte met drinken en verhuisde naar New York. Wat volgde was zijn glorietijd. Hij ontwikkelde zich tot de slimste en grappigste stand-up ooit. Zijn boze, maatschappijkritische stijl sloeg ook aan in Canada en het Verenigd Koninkrijk waar hij succesvolle tours hield.

Maar toen kwam het slechte nieuws: alvleesklierkanker. Bill had niet meer lang te leven. Hij keerde terug naar zijn familie, deed nog een paddenstoelen trip met vrienden, maakte enkele memorabele albums, en trad nog regelmatig op. Vlak voor zijn dood vatte hij zijn visie op de wereld en de huidige staat van de mensheid/Amerikaanse droom nog eens prachtig samen:

‘Is there a point to my act? The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it, you think it’s real, cos that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while. Some people have been on the ride a long time and they begin to question, “is this real or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered and they come back to us and say, “hey, don’t worry, don’t be afraid ever because this is just a ride.” And we kill those people. “Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up! Look at my big bank account and my family. This has to be real”.’

En toen verliet de 32-jarige Hicks voor altijd het podium. Maar zijn boodschap is nu nog altijd net zo relevant als toen.

How to Write a Television Series

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Originally published on FilmDungeon.com on 24-12-2007

As a lifelong devotee of the moving image, I developed the idea of writing screenplays. What better way is there to get your break into movies when you’re a non-professional that wants to be a filmmaker? I had already written a movie screenplay. A low-budget horror-comedy comparable with Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste. The problem with actually filming it was that a considerable budget was required. I am from the Netherlands where even renowned filmmakers struggle to get another project done. So who was going to invest in a cult film with a microscopic target group and an inexperienced director?

It was time for a strategy change. TV-series are the next best thing. And being the creator of a TV-series is what many would call a dream job. So would I. You get to write and produce a mini-movie every week, and when successful, you can continue it for as long as a decade. So I decided to start the creation of my very own TV-series. I already knew my subject. Or concept if you will. Now I needed some ideas on how to craft my screenplay.

To get this done I bought a book: The Sopranos – Selected Scripts From Three Seasons. This is an extremely useful book for aspiring TV-writers. But knowing the show is probably a prerequisite. It describes the process of writing a series. The creator of the show, David Chase, explains how he came up with the overall theme of every season. Then, together with his writing team, he started working on the individual episodes. Every episode has three or four storylines. One major storyline called A. Then there are smaller ones called B, C and sometimes D.

Once the storylines were decided, the actual scenes were described. The five example screenplays in the book are in between 35 and 80 scenes long, and approximately 60 pages (1 hour of TV). When the scenes for every story were decided they are sequenced in a logical order. Then the episodes were divided among the writers. They had approximately two weeks to come up with the first draft. Then the show’s creator read it and gave the writer feedback on what he liked and didn’t like about it. Then the second draft was written and this process continued till the final draft was ready for production.

A great benefit of this book is that it contains five example TV-plays. If you need direction on the format of a TV-screenplay, all you have to do is check out one of these. After finishing the book I was ready to start the creation process of my very own TV-series. First a lot of research had to be done. I collected newspaper articles and started reading books on my subject. I started shaping my fictional world by describing the characters, their life stories and their personality traits.

The research and preparation took me a whole year. Of course I did it all in my spare time. I also had a day job to keep going. After this year I was ready to write an actual episode; the pilot. I wanted to do this in one go, because I thought it would make the writing process easier. So during a holiday in Crete I wrote the pilot script. It was certainly fun to do. But finishing the script was a weird sensation. I was proud that I had not given up, and had now completed it. But I was also wondering if what I wrote was actually any good…

Update 2021
No, that pilot tv-script I wrote is not very good. However, I haven’t lost my passion for this writing business. I recently decided to give it another go. That Bad Taste like script I mentioned earlier, I have decided to rewrite it. And it will be in English, so it is fit for international audiences.

Will it ever be a movie? Small chance. No one will want to produce it, that’s for sure. It’s too weird and has no commercial appeal I think. But if I ever get my hands on some money that has no immediate purpose, I might produce it myself. It has the potential to become a fantastic amateur cult movie.

And I would put it straight on YouTube when it would be done. It would be a lot of fun to make for the voluntary or underpaid cast and crew, that’s for sure. So I take another advice from David Chase, don’t stop believing!