Rambo Autopsies An Episode Of 'CSI'

[CSI Files]

<I>CSI: Crime Scene Investigation</I> Supervising Producer <font color=yellow>David Rambo</font> spends most of the year crafting elaborate murder mysteries for the hit television show, but on Monday, April 27th, he turned the microscope on the writing process itself. "[I thought] it might be fun to do an autopsy on an episode," Rambo told students, faculty and guests at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where he'd been invited to give a seminar about the logistics of writing for television. "Every episode, we do an autopsy on a victim. Let's turn the tables, let's see what the elements of <I>CSI</I> are, what goes into making an episode of a TV series."<p>It all starts with an idea, he explained. "Everything--every hour, every minute of this starts with an idea," he said. "It starts with the page. It starts with the script." During season nine, <I>CSI</I> had 12 writers. These writers explore ideas in the writers' room. "We have five whiteboards on the walls and a mirror," Rambo shared. "When we run out of whiteboards, we write on the mirror. It is a very interesting place." Being in the writers' room is not always pleasant, Rambo noted, but that's where it all begins. "We often work late into the night," he revealed. "We sometimes start very early in the morning, but every episode of the show really is born in that room."<p>"We get in that room, sometimes as many as five or six of us, often just three or four, with a writers' assistant," Rambo said. "We start with the idea. Before anything goes on the whiteboards, we spend a day usually talking about ways we might tell the story." The writers explore the idea and answer some important questions: "What is the true crime? What really happened in the story? And then at what point do we enter the story, and what kind of discoveries can our CSIs make?"<p>The hardest part of creating an episode, Rambo revealed, is getting started. "Each script has its own identity," he said. "It has its own thing to say. At some point during the creation of an episode, an executive producer asks, 'Why are we telling this story? What are we saying? What do we want to explore? Why do our people care?'" If the show's main characters don't care, the core audience is not involved, Rambo explained. Another important question that needs to be asked is, "How much can we tell and still keep it a mystery?"<p>A narrative outline is created from the notes on the whiteboards, and this is sent to the various departments involved with the show. These departments provide comments on the outline, and one writer takes all of the information and writes out a preliminary draft of the script. "The turnaround on this is pretty fast," Rambo shared. "If I have 10 days to write a script, and I turn in about a 58 to 60 page draft, that's a lot. Sometimes it's just five to seven days." At this point, the guest stars are cast, and the shooting script is finalized before the episode is filmed.<p>After the episode is finished, it gets uplinked by satellite and sent out to be broadcast. "It's so weird," Rambo said. "It's this thing that goes out into the ether, and then it goes around the world. Once we process our film, it's never touched as film again. It's entirely digital."<p>Rambo explained to the group that there is so much more out there besides <I>CSI</I>. "This is just one series," he said. "When you see this, remember: there's a whole industry out there making this happen on four major broadcast networks, some minor broadcast networks, dozens of cable networks--every day of the week. This is a huge industry."<p>"Television has been described as a great maw, wide open, that needs to be fed constantly," Rambo explained. "It's so exciting to be part of it. <I>CSI</I> is one part of this big, crazy, fantastic industry." The series has finished filming for the year, but Rambo revealed that he would be back to work in the not-too-distant future. "June 1," he said, "[the ball] starts rolling again."<center></center>

 

[Top41]

Great article! I love hearing about the writing process on television shows, and what goes into creating an episode.

These writers explore ideas in the writers' room. "We have five whiteboards on the walls and a mirror," Rambo shared. "When we run out of whiteboards, we write on the mirror. It is a very interesting place."

That cracked me up. :lol: I wonder how many times the final act of an episode ends up on that mirror. :lol:

These departments provide comments on the outline, and one writer takes all of the information and writes out a preliminary draft of the script. "The turnaround on this is pretty fast," Rambo shared. "If I have 10 days to write a script, and I turn in about a 58 to 60 page draft, that's a lot. Sometimes it's just five to seven days."

That's some pressure I imagine! It's kind of incredible to think about how much writing is done on these shows. If your average movie is two hours, the CSI writers are doing about half that work in a lot less time.

The series has finished filming for the year, but Rambo revealed that he would be back to work in the not-too-distant future. "June 1," he said, "[the ball] starts rolling again."

And on to season 10!

 

[Elsie]

Great article, Rachel! I'm fascinated by the writing process. It's amazing how quickly they pull it all together, and before we know it, it's an episode that we are all watching on TV! Crazy. I imagine it's very gratifying for the writers.

 

[vegaslights]

Great article, Rachel! It's intriguing to see how much work goes into a episode, and the long process that it takes to get a wonderful episode that we get each week.

Congratulations on meeting David as well.

 

[Desertwind]

Fantastic Rachel thank's.. David Rambo, my hero:adore: very interesting, fascinating how he shared all of this. CSI must be so proud of him. And they start again June 1st.. wow.. He's dynamite, lucky students:thumbsup:

 

[PerfectAnomaly]

Interesting article, Rachel. I could imagine being in the audience and listening to him speak.

As someone who was too chicken to try and hack it as a writer I am awed at the amout they have to produce in such a short period of time. Having several people working together helps, but still that is an insane amount of time to come up with all of the detail that makes up an episode.

 

[myfuturecsi]

"If I have 10 days to write a script, and I turn in about a 58 to 60 page draft, that's a lot. Sometimes it's just five to seven days." At this point, the guest stars are cast, and the shooting script is finalized before the episode is filmed.

As I read this, I had David Bowie and Queen singing, "Under pressure..." in my head. Woe.

 

[Faylinn]

Thanks, everyone.

I had a ton of fun listening to him talk - he's really an awesome guy, and everything he said was really interesting. It's so crazy to think of how much work it takes to put together a 42-minute episode and how many people are needed to create it (I think he said they have like 200 people on their staff ). It's impressive - and to think that it all has to start in that writers' room is even more crazy! "Under Pressure" indeed, mfc.