A Day In The Life - Ed Fowler, Writers' Assistant

Ever wonder what it's like to work on the coolest show on television?  Us, too!  But HOMEBOYS IN OUTERSPACE isn't on anymore, so I guess you're stuck with us. 

Here's our inaugural installment of our new monthly feature "A Day in the Life" in which a member of the cast/crew of Eureka takes you through the paces on what it's like to work on our little (read: awesome) show.  

 

A Day in the Life by Ed Fowler

6:30am: It’s time to rise and shine campers because it’s cold out there! Well, okay, it’s not exactly cold, but you’d be surprised how cold 53 degrees Fahrenheit can feel in Southern California. It’s time to blindly grab a t-shirt out of the closet, stumble over at least one of my cats on the way to brush my teeth and get ready for the day. My wife is already up and giving me a hard time for getting up late. I grunt something similar to, “And yet I love you…” as we pass.

7:00am: Grab a Diet Mountain Dew and a Clif protein bar on the way out of the door while ruing the fact that I haven’t bought stock in either.

7:05am: I go back to my wife, give her a kiss goodbye and we both exchange “Drive carefully.” as if either of us thought of driving dangerously.

7:30am: The drive always starts off crazy, but with the iPhone on shuffle, I’m in my two ton rock box also known as a Ford ZX-2…okay it’s just a sporty Ford Escort. I arrive at the office in one piece to get my game face on and ready for the day.

8:15am: Katie (our Showrunners’ Assistant) and I run down the schedule for the day, casting and product placement mtgs, a pitch at 4pm with the network and our weekly Producers’ Meeting.

8:15 – 9:45am: Research, research, research. I catch up on the newest discoveries in the science world while also learning about the latest cutting edge tech. To keep the show on the green/environmentally friendly tip we use email to store research links and PDFs of articles for potential use in future episodes.

9:50am: Coffee run to Starbucks.

10am: We start up in the room. Mostly beginning with brief discussions on recently watched movies and TV shows, what we do and don’t like. Next up is trying to break the record for the most “That’s what she said.” jokes before 11am (current status at 9 solid, 3 gimmes and 1 stretching it) and then kick into talking what we love the most…EUREKA! My position and responsibility in the room is to take the notes from the day and distill them into a consumable form. It’s a fantastic “fly on the wall” position to learn the process of breaking episodes – each episode taking on it’s own life that is thrilling to observe.

10:45am: We suddenly shift gears from talking specific episodes to the arc of an individual character over not just ten episodes, but over the full twenty. Gears shift again when Co-Executive Producer Amy Berg pitches a killer episode idea that we’re all totally jazzed about.  It’s definitely going to be an episode, the next step becomes finding the right time in the season where it marries well with the current status of our characters. Trust me though, this one will be a highlight of the season. Often times the sudden shifts in subjects can make the end of the day a little longer for the Writers’ Assistant than usual when organizing the notes, but more on that later.

11:03am: Executive Producer Bruce Miller delivers a solve for a problem we’ve been trying to work through. The clouds part, angels sing and the room rejoices. Amen.

12:30pm: Co-Producer, Paula Yoo, declares it time for us to take lunch…because we always take lunch at 12:30. The staff disperses for lunch, sometimes as a full group, while other times cliques go off to find jocks to intellectually pummel on the playground during recess (This is Eureka after all.)

1:15pm: Coffee run to Starbucks.

1:30pm: The train starts back up and we dig deeper into discussing the Teaser out for the episode. It has to be big, fun, visual and launch us into the A Story for the episode in ways you (hopefully) won’t immediately be able to deduce.

1:52pm: Executive Producer, Jaime Paglia, comes in to run a couple jokes past the group for a polish he’s doing on one of our latest masterpieces. It’s hilarious and will push the S & P folks’ buttons nicely.

3:05: Coffee run to Starbucks. You’d be surprised the stories you can come up with while on a coffee run, but sometimes just the act of shaking up the location of a discussion can spark ideas that take the concept to the next level.  Often the act of simple, casual conversation about what people did the night before can inspire a great joke or even B Story for an episode.  It’s for these reasons that the room is a sacred place, a place we can all open up about various aspects of our lives because ultimately the citizens of Eureka, no matter their quirky nature, are as real as you and I because that’s who they’re made up of.

4pm:  Pitch with the network goes off without a hitch. They’re as excited about the episode as we are and giving us the support  we need to make it happen.

5pm: Our Script Coordinator, John Herrera, passes out an episode outline for the staff to read and give notes on to get it in the best shape before going off to the network. His job is meticulously hardcore, John’s the king of extreme script coordinating.  It’s a finely tuned skill he has in the art of patience. I have a great deal of respect for what he does.

7pm: The room breaks for the day, with each writer pondering the wonders of the world. I begin my process of cleaning up the notes as Katie, John and I go over the schedule for the next day.  It’s important for the support staff of the show to all be on the same page and while we support the writers on staff we must also support each other.  Hollywood gets this rep (sometimes worthy) of being about cutthroat competition and how you’ve got to be willing to sell out the guy next to you to get ahead. Well, let me tell you my friends this is the furthest thing from the truth. While you may encounter some who fall into this category, you will encounter more writers who simply want to work with people they like and respect. Being a douchebag may get someone a step ahead, but over the course of a career (and that’s what we all strive for) it just isn’t worth it.

8pm: I arrive home. Talk about the day with my wife over dinner and episodes of Family Guy or The IT Crowd.

9pm: I continue going through and clearing up the notes from the day. It’s a process that feels initially less than creative, but when you get into the meat of the job, it’s a careful task to make the content clear and concise while still making them readable for the staff.  If it’s too long it becomes overwhelming and chaotic to dig into. In my experience it’s not so much a document that should be a word for word dictation of the day, but rather a clear and concise documentation of the ideas of the day. It makes the job much more about listening and processing than the physical act of typing. Listening is one of the biggest and most important aspects of this position, but it’s also a nice reminder of how important of a skill it is to have as a writer.

10:30pm:  I dig into some of my own writing with a smile on face, happy with a great day of work and feeling like a helluva lucky dude in every aspect.  Boo. Yah. Indeed.

Comments

[Paula J.]

Wow! It was great to hear how a typical day goes for you guys. I have even more respect now that I know what kind of hours you work. Can't wait for season 4!

[Michael J]

I can attest to the wonderous powers of Diet Mountain Dew for writing from my law school days! Can't stand the stuff now, but it sure worked its magic during exam time and when I was spending 12 hours a day preparing my law article for publication.

[meg]

Thanks for taking the time to post.

[anna]

12-14 days! No wonder you drink so much coffee. And you only drive an Escort? So much for getting rich in Hollywood :)

[Merry Krebs]

Way cool to see how a day in the life of eureka in the making goes! Course, I may be a little biased, but I was a fan of the show before my cus joined the team - now an even bigger fan! Can't wait to see this next season!!

[Matt]

With days this long, how do you get time for bowling, Bid Ed?

Thanks for the post. Greatly looking forward to the Season 4 premiere of Eureka.

[Karalainee]

Wow, I think you all break my record on the amount of coffee runs you go on.

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writer's assistant ? what a strange job, how did you get it ? I'm really curious about that.

[club penguin]

It's just fitting with the type of work and brain whacking sessions that you have that you get all coffee runs. Must be a ride for you with all the job hype and attention that you get. Although, amidst the chaos of it all, you would still try to gain some level of normalcy.

[50PlusSam]

It's a busy agenda, no wonder you drink so much coffee.

[allen wrench set]

Hey, whilst reading your post, i had "a day in the life" by Jeff Beck playing in my head. weird.
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[Dan Fowler]

The coffee and Mountain Dew must be a family thing.Helps keep the gears moving Huh?

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