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If the audience doesn't like an ending, change it in the next season or episode

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If the audience doesn't like an ending, change it in the next season or episode

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TV can have several acts to solve a conflict, not limited to three

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TV can have several acts to solve a conflict, not limited to three

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Must consider what will happen in the next episode

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Must consider what will happen in the next episode

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TV show writers create stories together, not solo

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TV show writers create stories together, not solo

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TV writing allows to bring in new characters that will match well with previous characters

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TV writing allows to bring in new characters that will match well with previous characters

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Shows are about improving on your previous ideas for the same show

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Shows are about improving on your previous ideas for the same show

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Running a series is an organic, evolving, running thing

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Running a series is an organic, evolving, running thing

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Internet allows writers to connect with fans and help create the next script

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Internet allows writers to connect with fans and help create the next script

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A week and a half ago we had an unusually long shooting day on the show I'm currently producing, Jane by Design. The crew call time was at 7 a.m. and we wrapped at 10:46 p.m. - fourteen hours and 45 minutes after subtracting our one-hour lunch break. And some had an even longer day: Our actors, including guest star Teri Hatcher, showed up for hair and makeup at 5 am, which meant that hairstylists and makeup artists, as well as someone from the transportation department and the set production assistant, also showed up to meet them and were there until wrap, giving them a total of sixteen hours and 45 minutes. Many of you who are less familiar with the culture of filmmaking may find these hours to be pretty crazy, but those of us who regularly work on sets know there was nothing out of the ordinary about this day - and it wasn't even that extreme compared to other movies and TV series, which often go beyond the standard schedule of a twelve-hour day.

These hours can be a bit grinding for me, but as a producer I have the latitude to show up later or leave earlier. Actors can have brutal days, but they also usually get days off, as most shows are ensembles and they're rarely in every scene. And let's face it, producers and actors are highly compensated for their work. However, the average below-the-line worker (the budgetary classification for those who aren't producers, directors, actors, or writers) has to be there every day and make a middle-class wage. And, from my perspective, they are also the people who whine the least about this extreme schedule. It has always been difficult for me to understand how so many in this business put up with such a punishing routine. So, as our work week wore on, I decided to interview some of the people around me about their feelings on the hours they work and how this regimen affects their lives.

Kirsten Robinson is our script supervisor, which means she helps the director keep track of continuity and makes notes for the editor on how he should put together the pieces of the scenes. Kirsten considered our show as a relief compared to a recent show she worked on where she "worked sixteen to eighteen hours every day and the worst day was twenty hours." And at the end of all that, she had to spend another hour putting together the data she collected and distributing it to others on the production. "At the lunch break, it's like you have another regular person's day ahead of you. What was the worst for me was the short turnarounds [the term used to mean the amount of time you have before having to be back at work]. We would work sixteen hours and then only get ten hours off and then be back for another long day. That was the real killer. Physically, you're just exhausted. For me, it is very difficult because my job is mental. I never felt the money was worth it. I want to put my best effort forward: Fighting through and drinking as much coffee as possible doesn't yield the best work."

Steve D'Amato is our first assistant director, who is in charge of running the set. He recalls, "The worst day I ever worked on a show was 27 hours. It was the very last day of the very last episode of the series. We shot for 24 hours and I was there two hours before and an hour after." I asked him how this kind of schedule affects his marriage to a woman who isn't in the business, a dermatologist: "At first, she said it might not work out, but now she uses the time when she's alone. She's gotten used to it. I used to be happy when a production would go over and I would make more money. But now that I'm older, it is more important to me to be able to get home and do stuff with my wife. What bothers me most is you don't have time to do anything else. It's hard. It seems like it's unnecessary: You could just add one or two more days [to the schedule] and spread it out over more time. We're the only industry that is fighting for a twelve-hour day: That is what I find amazing."

Our transportation captain Ali Yeganhe - who dispatches drivers, manages the fleet of vehicles, including those used on-camera, and drives as well - was the most sanguine about the nature of his job, even though his department has the worst hours. When a show is on location, the drivers are the ones responsible for ferrying all the equipment back to the studio at the end of the day and making sure it's all set to go for the next one. "We're talking about a fourteen-hour day if we're local and as much as eighteen hours if we're farther out. We have an eight-hour turnaround that is mandated by the department of transportation. It does take a toll on you as far as aging you. There is a high divorce rate in this business. Truthfully, I haven't slept a whole night in three years. My wife and I were together before we got in this business. She was in wardrobe, so she knew."

I asked him why his union, the Teamsters, was resistant to the idea of productions hiring more drivers so you could have two shifts, each working eight hours. This would save the production high overtime rates and allow a more humane schedule for the drivers, while giving more people jobs. Ali explained that "there are two ways to look at it; there are some in it for the money, and some who work four months of the year and leave once they reach their hours for their medical. A lot of guys are accustomed to making what they make. If it changed, it would bring in a whole new element of drivers who might not get the job done. Eight-hour guys don't care about what they do. They take no pride in it." I asked Ali if he thought the hours he worked were strange in comparison to those outside of the film and television business; he disagreed, telling me that he thought many people work long hours to support their families: "When I had a rental car company I was in the office fourteen hours a day. My cousin owns two restaurants and he works sixteen hours a day."

Farah Bunch is the head of our makeup department and was probably the most critical of all about the system: "I've been doing this for eighteen years. The hours have always been the same. I started out in soap operas, which have great hours; then I went into multi-cams, which have even better hours; but once I entered the world of single-camera [meaning one-hour shows and feature films], I was in shock. I thought only in third-world countries people worked hours like this - a fourteen-hour day is the norm for the makeup department. You're making more money, but it is blood money, 'cause you're trading your life. It affects me in the sense that I give up all of my personal life. When I'm in season, I don't see my friends or family. The weekends I spend recovering. I think it has contributed to me not being able to meet people because I'm not out there in the world mingling. I dated someone in the military and he was in shock that we were working all of these hours and he was out there saving lives and he'd be home by 4 p.m.: He was in Afghanistan and his hours were better than mine. You feel trapped with the hours, because you know that if you don't do them, someone else will. And another thing, you're given a ten-hour turnaround, which is just enough time to drive home, sleep seven hours like a normal human being, and go back to work. But production can force your call [meaning give you less than a ten-hour turnaround] for a $20 penalty. You can reject it, but you'll be looked upon as uncooperative. My most defining moment was when I was working on In Time, the Justin Timberlake movie, and I had a 4 a.m. call in downtown L.A. underneath the freeway in the pouring rain and I thought, Is this it? ... Is this going to be my life? Right now the [Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which is the organization that negotiates on behalf of the studios] are fighting with our union, local 706 IATSE, to change our double time [the point in the day where their rate changes from time and a half to double the starting rate] from twelve hours to fourteen hours, so that they can hold us longer without paying a penalty, which will only encourage them to keep shooting. It makes me feel like they're inhumane."

Nobody in production wants to go over twelve hours, if for no other reason than it is costly because of all the overtime. But it regularly happens when overly optimistic scheduling falls prey to bad luck, like cameras breaking, incompetence, and director egomania (though that is usually reserved for big-budget feature films). You may think, "Well, as producer, can't you just shorten the days?" but the studio sets the budget and the schedule, and you can only meet that with these long hours. I have no power to pull the plug on a day unless the studio tells me to do so, and that has happened maybe three times that I can remember in my career. Really, the only way to keep hours in check would be a firm work rule, unlike anything currently in place. In 2004, esteemed cinematographer and documentarian Haskell Wexler started an organization with the purpose of advocating for a "twelve and twelve rule": an inviolable twelve-hour maximum day with a mandated twelve-hour turnaround period for all industry workers. Wexler's advocacy on this issue was catalyzed by the death in 1997 of cameraman Brent Hershman, who died when he fell asleep while driving home after a nineteen-hour day on the film Pleasantville.

I'm as libertarian as they come and usually believe in the individual's right to make their own decisions on what they want to do - except when those decisions may endanger others, like driving drunk. After a long day on a film set, people drive home, often long distances, and drivers who take the wheel after a seventeen- to nineteen-hour day function worse than those with blood alcohol levels of .05 percent, according to a study by the British Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

I think the unions haven't been fighting this issue hard enough, probably because many of their members want the extra money that comes with super-long days. If some people want to kill themselves with overwork, that's fine, but they shouldn't be allowed to take out another person either on the set or the road as they do it. And the AMPTP should get behind the twelve-and-twelve rule as well, since little money is saved by overworking people and not giving them sufficient downtime to recover: Productivity lessens later in the day and the costs are significantly more after twelve hours. At hour sixteen, you're paying people double, and sometimes more, and probably getting 75 percent effectiveness. There are many complex issues involved with managing the process of filmmaking, and there are usually two reasonable sides to those arguments. But when it comes to excessive hours on film sets, I don't really see the side that advocates for unrestricted work time. It is time to change this: Twelve hours of work and a twelve-hour turnaround should be mandated and instituted immediately on all film and television productions, period.

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Polone: The Unglamorous, Punishing Hours of Working on a Hollywood Set

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A week and a half ago we had an unusually long shooting day on the show I'm currently producing, Jane by Design. The crew call time was at 7 a.m. and we wrapped at 10:46 p.m. - fourteen hours and 45 minutes after subtracting our one-hour lunch break.

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Don't tell writers how to write, it is about giving them good council

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Don't tell writers how to write, it is about giving them good council

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The writers' room has become a staple of American television production. But look to our British friends across the pond, and they've got other ideas. Imagine: one writer, penning all the episodes of a show. No writers' room. No shared concept. Just single vision, single author, executed from start to finish by the creator.

"Every writer would cravenly admit they would want to write their shows themselves," says Steven Moffat, the famed British scribe with a long list of credits, including "Coupling," " Doctor Who " and "Sherlock."

Throughout his career, he's worked on series with both production models. "The writers' room came about because we have huge volumes of episodes to make." It's simply more practical, he says, for shows with long runs like "Doctor Who."

But for shorter-run series, the Brits say the single-author strategy is more creatively satisfying. Which means it fits especially well in the miniseries category.

Noah Hawley pulled it off with FX's "Fargo." It's his vision from start to finish. He had eight of the 10 episodes written before the show was even cast. And though he used a writers' room and is paying homage to the Coen brothers, there's no question it's an auteur-like execution. (Writer Nic Pizzolatto went solo for "True Detective," but whether that's a miniseries is, well, another story.)

The Brits would approve.

Take BBC America's "Luther," as executed by Neil Cross. "Neil Cross pitched us 'Luther' as a big powerful detective where you would know the murderer right at the top of the show, you'd watch him battle his demons and the murderer, and then watch him bring him to justice," says Kate Harwood, head of drama for the BBC, which produced "Luther," now in its third season.

There was never any question, she says, about Cross using a writers' room. "Like a lot of British writers, I think Neil always felt this was something he owned completely. He never wanted to bring another writer in to carry the load.. This was a character he inhabited from the beginning, and a character he solely wanted to write. He has always wanted to keep that strong connection with that character he created. He has in his head a very long plan for 'Luther.' "

It's a cultural approach to TV writing, she explains. While American audiences - and writers - have been raised on 22-episode series, British TV series are traditionally shorter, running six or eight episodes. So writers enter the process expecting to - and do - carry the full load.

"You get good drama when writers are at front and center in the process," says Harwood. "In the end you're nothing without a good script." And her job, she says, is simply to sit back: "The great joy of 'Luther' is giving a writer like Neil a free hand, and watching him grow as a writer."

In another example of solo creation, scribe Julian Fellowes writes every word of " Downton Abbey." "He's phenomenal," raves Harwood. "I don't know how he does it!"

That's just how his producing partner, Gareth Neame, intends it. "I want him to do what he does brilliantly, which is writing," says Neame. "A lot of other parts of the making of the show can be taken off his hands so he can concentrate on the writing. That's our system. The reason why our show works is that Julian isn't being pulled into all of the other parts of the production."

"I think it's probably easier to maintain a clear voice for a show if one writer writes it," Fellowes says. "I think the concept of the writers' room is much less part of our culture." He adds that the hit BBC series "Broadchurch" was also by a single writer.

"It is part of an American writer's training to learn how to write in the style of a show," says Fellowes. "They will watch 50 episodes and read I don't know how many scripts in an attempt to pick up the style of ("Mad Men" creator) Matthew Weiner or whoever they're dealing with. Their pride is to write an episode that will come across as one that was written by Matthew Weiner. But English writers don't have that. When they write an episode, they want to write an episode that's not like any other episode's been."

That's why it would be frustrating, he says, to try to build a British writers' room. "What you want is an episode that stylistically fits into the show. When a show is very much character driven and character narrative, then it's hard in Britain to find a group of writers who would be prepared to enter into that."
There are economic implications as well: BBC's Harwood points out that a writers' room carries prohibitively high costs.

"It's a much more expensive way of writing drama, because you have so many writers involved."

That's just simply not how the U.K. makes TV. Explains Neame: "The British model is much more like the film model, where the producer's job is to find a property, put together an idea and a writer, and commission a writer to write that script. It's much more like a film producer. The British writer is much more like the writer of a screenplay. He really doesn't tend to have other responsibilities on the show besides the script."

Given his long career, Moffat has had a hand in both worlds: While "Doctor Who" uses a writers' room by necessity - its seasons can run as long as 26 weeks - "Sherlock" follows a more traditionally British model (the current season was just three episodes). "I don't think the writers' room and the showrunner model exists as a creative response as much as a necessity," he says. "How else would you imagine getting it all done?"

But, he admits: "It's writing that's quite special to me. I'm trying to carve out time to write - I'm getting quite impatient with all the other stuff."
By all the other stuff, he means the showrunner work: It is the ultimate irony of the showrunner model that writers who by nature are often introverts are asked to take on a host of other responsibilities: marketing, publicity, directing, editing, casting.

"I will say the showrunner job isn't for everybody," says "Fargo's" Hawley. "You have to be able to manage people and story and budgets - and all the things that most writers might run and hide from. That was a surprise for me that I was good at that stuff and I liked that stuff."

That said, though, he admits his favorite part of the job is writing. "At the end of the day, that's the purest bit of it," he says. "I'll find myself getting agitated and realize it's because I haven't written anything in a while. The minute I sit down and get a few pages in, it's very calming. It's also what the work is about."

But a confluence of styles is on the horizon. As American audiences and programmers are increasingly drawn to shorter-run series, it's clear the two models - the American writers' room and the British single author - are going to slightly steal from each other and find the best of both worlds.

"We're seeing a real conversion from the American model, which is a real industrial, 22-episode brilliantly efficient drama, toward the English system, which is more authored, more serialized," says "Downton's" Neame.

"I think we can learn from each other," agrees Moffat. "The idea that the individual writers' voice is so central to a series is British in origin. But what we'd really like to learn is where you get all that money from!"

BBC's Harwood is happy to see the revival of the mini. "The glory of British TV has been the miniseries," she adds. "There are some stories that you want to have a beginning, middle and end - and be thinking about six or eight episodes, and not how to get to (season) seven."

When Fellowes finishes "Downton," his next project is "Gilded Age" for an American broadcast network - and he's agreed to set up a writers' room. "I have to say I'm rather looking forward to it because I've never done it before," he says with his trademark aplomb. "It will be quite the adventure."

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Writers' Rooms Vs. Solo Scribes: Where Does TV Creativity Flourish Best?

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The writers' room has become a staple of American television production. But look to our British friends across the pond, and they've got other ideas. Imagine: one writer, penning all the episodes of a show. No writers' room. No shared concept.

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Web Series are heavily fan based but can act like a tv show

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Web Series are heavily fan based but can act like a tv show

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You can tell when the fans are bored, excited, or their reactions to different things in a show

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You can tell when the fans are bored, excited, or their reactions to different things in a show

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Shows need to have a balance between characters and story plot

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Shows need to have a balance between characters and story plot

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(When writing a show) you gotta make a decision whether it is good or bad

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(When writing a show) you gotta make a decision whether it is good or bad

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Actors create a stronger bond when filming a TV show

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Actors create a stronger bond when filming a TV show