Re: Glee season 6 discussion and spoiler thread--Part 1

[Buenos]

Now this is interesting,  Matthw Smith is (was?) an assistant editor on Glee...

[Glorfindel]

^If this indeed is about Glee then the start of production and the number of episodes still are not sure.
Wow.   

Either negotiations are still going on, or RIB seriously had to rewrite the overall arc of season 6 depending on the number of episodes they really did get (and apparently they didn't get what they wanted if they have to delay production for rewrites).


Another thing: if they can just dismiss the crew (and cast) of Glee unpaid for appr. 2 more months till well after the summer, then some of those crewmembers (probably the best of them) will find new jobs in the mean time and might not be available for Glee anymore.
That might decrease the quality of the show even further.

[Ranwing]

You know that if a definite date has been set to start production then we would have heard about it form someone. Lea, most likely, since she has an itchy Twitter finger. The fact that no one is talking, and that those who didn't have summer projects lined up seem to be scrounging for something to do is evidence to me that things are still very much up in the air.

I have little doubt that Glee will indeed lose some of the crew because they cannot afford to wait around for work about when production might finally start. The actors might be locked in but I would guess that pretty much everyone else is working on a season by season basis. They have bills to pay and they can't wait forever to find out when they'll start working. If they can find other opportunities right now, they'll have little choice but to take them.

[Buenos]

I can't help but think that FOX doesn't give a shit at this point about RIB's master plan/vision for Glee  and is going to do what they are going to do to cut the budget/costs since their advertising revenues shrunk by 10 percent and Glee is their lowest rated show.

My big speculation is there is no guarantee that Glee is going to actually get a permanent slot as a mid season replacement.  If the episodes are going to be burned off, say in February, March or even later, (Glee could run consecutively I suppose in April thru June) there is no incentive for FOX to start production early. 

This is assuming they even get as many as 13 episodes;  with say, 10-12 episodes (or less)  they could burn off the episodes on air between a five month gap between January and May.

[fantastica]

i see 9 episodes or less. definitely single digit.

by september chris may have finished filming Noel. that means he may be available to show up as you-know-who's side kick again.

the sad thing is that the actors and crew (especially the crew members) are all hanging in the limbo. they are bound by contract to put this show ahead of any other subsequent projects but they can't earn any money if hte show is not being produced. no way they will be paid by waiting there and doing nothing.

as much as we hate the show, i have to admit that the production quality - the lighting, camera work, sound, etc. are all top-notch. they have some of the best in the industry, and yet they are being wasted right now not being able to work.

[Buenos]

i see 9 episodes or less. definitely single digit.

If the episode order is indeed that small there is no urgency to start production anytime soon.

[fantastica]

even w/ 9 episodes it will take them a good 4 months to complete filming, unless they also cut down on music numbers. remember it takes about 2 weeks to complete an episode?  if filming doesn't start by september, we will know the number ordered will be really small.

[Ranwing]

I think that looking at just what some of the cast who didn't already have summer projects planned are doing to fill the time gives a lot of credence to the idea that things BTS are still very much up in the air.

Lea is attending a film festival. She's not promoting a film. Maybe she'll plug her book or album, but this basically looks like a PR appearance to promote herself. Her presence isn't exactly required, but it's something to do. I think that she decided fairly last minute to attend because she's at loose ends at the moment.

Darren is attending the StarKids/Glee convention in London that's not exactly a big gathering. It's no ComicCon and the big names don't bother with this one. Again, it looks like something he's doing to pass some time.

Now Lea could have had something going on had she known that production of Glee would be pushed back so much, but she's in a bad catch 22. As the principle lead, she has to be be available for filming when they decide to start. TPTB might have allowed Chris his time away for his own project, but they've built up so much of the premise of the new season around her that they can't afford to lose Lea at all. So if she had any offers for anything over the summer, she couldn't accept because she has to be there to film Glee. I think that she was taken by surprise at the upfronts when FOX dropped the bomb about Glee not being in the regular fall lineup and it's now too late for her to get anything significant to do in the interim. Darren, OTOH, I think would have been twiddling his thumbs regardless of the Glee filming schedule. I just don't think that there's any real demand for him at this point.

[Buenos]

Like I mentioned before, the key is when realistically they expect Glee to air.  If Glee isn't airing until February 2015 or later, they could start production in late September or even October and be through with producing 9-12 episodes by January 2015 or even February itself.   It's sad but I think some of the crew are probably scrambling trying to line up other gigs.

The contrarian in me might even speculate  FOX is telling Glee "just wait until Chris Colfer's movie is completed so Chris is fully available."  One can dream, no?     

[Ranwing]

i see 9 episodes or less. definitely single digit.

If the episode order is indeed that small there is no urgency to start production anytime soon.

I think that a lot is still very undecided at this point. Ryan Murphy might have his grand vision of the choir room being the center of the universe, but it won't do a whole lot of good if the network isn't willing to pay for a cast to populate it. And they're talking about needing enough people to try to make three choirs operable. Even paying scale, that's a considerable chunk of change that I don't know if FOX is willing to swallow.

If they can't even announce how many episodes are being ordered (I believe that 13 is just an educated guess on the parts of those who offered that number) or when production might start so that actors and crew can get their lives in order, then nothing is set in stone yet. This is going to be a very unnerving summer for those in the cast who don't have anything to keep them distracted. I'm betting that a few are really praying that they have day jobs come fall.

[fantastica]

^ i agree. 3 choirs will cost so much to produce, especially if you want each choir director to have meaty scenes. that means you are not just doing a few numbers as in usual competition episodes, but to actually give them scenes w/ dialogues. think about warbler in season 2. it's not just the background warblers, but also the few main guys w/ names and dialogues. at this point i can't imagine fox would pay for all these luxuries. they have to minimize budget w/ much lowered ad dollars. it's a business entity and must make profits.

[Glorfindel]

The contrarian in me might even speculate  FOX is telling Glee "just wait until Chris Colfer's movie is completed so Chris is fully available."  One can dream, no?     

Tbh, I wouldn't be too surprised if Chris' availability does play a significant part in the Glee filming plans.
Which, if true, would satisfy me to no end. Oh, the irony.   

I think that a lot is still very undecided at this point. Ryan Murphy might have his grand vision of the choir room being the center of the universe, but it won't do a whole lot of good if the network isn't willing to pay for a cast to populate it. And they're talking about needing enough people to try to make three choirs operable. Even paying scale, that's a considerable chunk of change that I don't know if FOX is willing to swallow.

I was thinking the same thing the other day. They can't get away with simply using the same dancers in several show choirs at the same time (without really showing their faces), like they sometimes did in the past.

And all the 'original' Warblers will have graduated, just like the ND members. So there won't be anything familiar at Dalton for Glee to go back to, besides the piped uniform that is.  

[Ranwing]

The contrarian in me might even speculate  FOX is telling Glee "just wait until Chris Colfer's movie is completed so Chris is fully available."  One can dream, no?     

Tbh, I wouldn't be too surprised if Chris' availability does play a significant part in the Glee filming plans.
Which, if true, would satisfy me to no end. Oh, the irony.   

And wouldn't that just burn the Blarren stans who are thrilled that he's now a primary lead - that even RM would have to admit that they just don't stand a chance of even making it through an abbreviated season without being canceled if Chris isn't there. They might have thought they could manage without Chris with a full season, but with 13 episodes at best (and likely less) - no way.

[brisallie]

At this point everything seems so uncertain. I believed the numbers of episodes were clear, if not why Matt Morrison said they would have 13 episodes? Or at very last minute, Fox decided to change the order.

Ok, can I be honest? For me Glee is one of those things you want to get rid off easily, but don't know how to do it as many people are involved on it (actors, writers, producers, crew), so either you try to get an agreement with the production, or Fox has the last word and has to be done whatever decision they made. Seriously, what a mess, what's happening?

I don't know how networks work, but if I were part of the crew I'd be desperate for an answer, it doesn't allow you to move forward or have back up plans.

[Buenos]

I think FOX painted themselves in the corner with the 6th year guarantee. 

They can't be forced to do a season if they don't want to, but regardless there will be financial repercussions, payouts, salary guarantees, etc, etc as well as trying to maintain a working relationship with showrunners in the future.   The "Modern Family" show runners got so pissed at FOX they never offered that show to them once they got burned with some of their other shows on FOX, so it's dicey/risky  for studios to burn their bridges with the show runners completely.

I do feel for the hardworking cast and crew, it sucks to be out of a job no matter who it is.

[Ranwing]

I don't think that even the actors know for sure how many episodes have been ordered at this point because nothing concrete has been released. You could be sure that someone with a big mouth (Ryan, Lea, Brad?) would have said something. I think that everyone is guessing about 13 being the magic number, but without official word from FOX, it's all just speculation.

It totally sucks for the cast and crew to be so in the dark about what is happening, but I think that it's directly due to how in flux things are. If RIB knew for certain how many episodes they needed to produce, they could set a production date. But given that everything that they built up in season 5 (and what a clusterfuck that was) has been tossed out the window and Ryan's dream of three competing show choirs is running into the buzzsaw that is the FOX budget office, I think that nothing at all is set. But we saw this at the upfronts, when Lea, Darren and Chord were totally blindsided by the news of Glee not being in the regular fall lineup. I think that Glee has come within a hair's breadth of being canceled outright and all this is just scrambling to make something stick.

[Buenos]

It could as simple as FOX telling Ryan and company they have X number of dollars to work with for what's left of Glee and  there is no way to produce double digit episodes with that pie.    

Wouldn't be surprised if they shaved their budget per episode by 25-50 percent.

[brisallie]

It could as simple as FOX telling Ryan and company they have X number of dollars to work with for what's left of Glee and  there is no way to produce double digit episodes with that pie.    

Wouldn't be surprised if they shaved their budget per episode by 25-50 percent.

For me that will be a punishment. It will force Ryan and co. to start planning from zero and try to adjust their 'revolutionary' ideas to the given budget.

[Ranwing]

The way tv generally works is that shows are given a production order (the number of episodes that the network expects from them) and a budget per episode in which to produce them. It's not so much as a pie that they can spend on as many episodes as they can squeeze out, but a definitive number.

Having said that, there are two big questions right now for Glee that I think are holding up production (or at least setting a date for filming to start so that everyone can plan their lives). First is the number of episodes that FOX wants. There still is no concrete number. Everyone is guessing at 13, which would be around half of a regular season, but there's no official word from either FOX or RIB to confirm that. It could be less. I deeply doubt that it will be more.

Then you have budget. FOX has already announced that numbers would be down for everyone and Glee is now the low man on the totem pole. It also has some significant built in costs that they can't just shave that easily (paying the regular cast, especially long-timers like Lea, Chris, Matt and Jane who are earning a hell of a lot more than any new hires), song royalties, etc. Ryan Murphy's plan of splitting the narrative to start in season six and then have everything coalesce in Lima is going to be very prohibitive cost-wise. Then we have him wanting to populate three show choirs and they have to have at least a few of these being speaking roles. How he's going to manage this when the budget is likely shaved down to the bone is still very much in doubt and I wouldn't be surprised if he has to totally recalibrate what he's got planned for the final season.

Until all that is ironed out, the writers can't start producing scripts and the direction crew can't actually start planning shoots. I would love to be a fly on the walls because I'm sure that it's absolute chaos BTS.

[fantastica]

i am sure fox wants zero glee right now if possible. they are probably looking toward their spring lineup to see which and how many empty slots they have on friday and saturday nights

[Buenos]

Glee has nobody to blame but themselves.

The whole "Deleastreet" nonsense, seriously?  Who thinks  propping up 2 of your weaker actors is a strategy for success.

Even the problems with Naya I wouldn't be surprised if some of the tension was Naya's frustration for being so sidelined.

Chris has to think " so I get two PCA award and I'm still used for shit on Glee." How could he not?

[Buenos]

The irony is that a stripped down NY only season 6 would have been better for the reduced budget .

Just saying.   

[Ranwing]

The irony is that a stripped down NY only season 6 would have been better for the reduced budget .  

Just saying.    

Very, very true. But that didn't jive with RM's "vision" so NY had to go.

[Glorfindel]

^With all the delay and silence I get the feeling that RM's "return to Lima with 3 choirs" idea has been shot down by Fox, and they're now back at the drawing table, probably trying to go back to a season 6 in which they tie up the storylines they left in the finale of season 5: Rachel going to L.A. for her tv show, and Kurt and Blaine completing their studies and then getting married (blegh).
With the other (NY) characters basically being in Limbo right now (with no real laid out longterm plans and therefore easy to shift around the gameboard) they still could reduce costs by letting them all somehow show up in 1 location. They could even do this with or without a significant time-jump.

They could still move the main location to L.A., as we were speculating about before, with maybe another small segment per episode or at least a lipservice mention of some characters still in New York (mainly Kurt if Chris won't be available much, and perhaps a little Artie and/or Santana, if Naya comes back at all).
Rachel, Blaine, Sam, Mercedes, even Santana and Brittany (as Mercedes' dancers) could easily all be in L.A.

And it's funny, because a few month ago the plotline of so many characters all suddenly going to L.A. sounded like a stupid and unrealistic idea, when now, after the horrible 3 choirs in Lima spoilers, the L.A. location seems the more logic and realistic option.   

The whole "Deleastreet" nonsense, seriously?  Who thinks  propping up 2 of your weaker actors is a strategy for success.

And they didn't just give it a go in season 4 with the originals as safety-net..... no, they continued with that propping up all through season 5, sacrificing the timeline and the few original characters that were still left and who almost singlehandedly still made things work for the neglected New York side!

They've been pushing the disastrous Blam to the foreground for 2 seasons now, even after they knew it wasn't working, and stupidly continu to do so for season 6, but now combined with Rachel, who's character and journey they've basically ruined so much that even hardcore Rachel fans are getting enough of her. In the mean time they also continu to neglect and ignore the actor who still got 2 PCA awards in a row even after his screentime dwindled.
It's truly baffling how stubborn and stupid they are.   

And it's also truly unbelievable how Fox let RIB get away with that for the last 2 years.
They've fired Kevin Reilly now, and it looks like they're cleaning house now, but this Glee clusterf*ck should have already been dealed with at the latest after season 4.

Even the problems with Naya I wouldn't be surprised if some of the tension was Naya's frustration for being so sidelined.

Chris has to think " so I get two PCA award  and I'm still used for shit on Glee."  How could he not?

Both Naya and Chris have healthy egos and ambitions. Theye both want to work and profile themselves in the part they were hired for and which gave them fame and fans. Of course they must feel frustrated in some way. 

Even when they can take a step back and look at it from the outside looking in (so they know it's not themselves as a person and/or actor that's the cause of their characters being shoved aside, but more the pushing of Daleastreet and Ryan's irrational ideas not being stopped), their characters being neglected must sting, because for some reason others are prefered over them even when they're give Glee the best they've got for many years now.
No wonder there was tension on set (Naya) and Chris seems to have moved on without looking back too much.

[Buenos]

 
Matthew Smith @m67smith · 42m

Weird. I've picked up a bunch of followers that last couple days and I haven't been tweeting much? WHAT'S GOING ON? (and will I break 600?)
 

Matthew Smith @m67smith · 20m

@drawstuf99 Crazy. When I start doesn't effect when the show starts. I started Sept 1st last year well after production...

That is still a non answer when production actually starts this year on Glee since they didn't start on Glee until August last year.

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