Many good questions...let's see what we got.1. How much of the boot order and plotline, as least as far as existing contestants went, was based on viewer's revenge? Were there cases where you were actively saying 'I've always wanted to see X get hirs, and now's my chance?' By the same token, were you ultimately seeking some level of justice for Ozzy?
A few were based on viewer's revenge, at least from my point of view. Ami could have gone one of two ways for me - early boot or F4 villain. I ended up booting her early because i felt that her feud with Maria had pretty well run its course and because I had to spare Paula.
Chris was the same thing - first out of his tribe, just as he "should" have been in Vanuatu. I wasn't really kind to the Vanuatu players, with the exception of Twila, who I probably could have used more...although in some way, Twila seems to have rubbed off on Paula.
Parvati and Danielle's boots were viewer revenge. I made Parvati into a little bit more of a flirt than usual (having her flirt with another female was a bit of absurdity on my end, but it worked as far as the story went. In no way did I imply that Parvati swung that way, but I did imply that she was willing to pretend to.) I didn't much care for Danielle in Exile Island and really only included her because so many people said she was worthy of inclusion. Her tiebreak loss to Cirie was definite viewers' revenge.
The rest were pretty much all storyline. And just for the record - I actually like Danni. Having her pull a stunt like the one she did was great for the story, but if she actually lurked here and read it, she'd probably letter-bomb me if she didn't make it to the finale and reunion.
As for Ozzy winning...I actually thought the Cook Islands jury made the right decision, but he's probably the best player never to win, so writing him in as a winner sent two messages for me. One was that I thought Ozzy was a great player and earned a victory he never cashed in on. The other was that I wasn't automatically going to let one of my own creations win.
2. Did you restructure any conversations because the words didn't feel like the actual players would be saying them? Speech has to carry the majority of this, and some of the characters have fairly distinctive vocal patterns.
A few of them. The interactions between the real Survivors and the Japan ones was always a bit odd for me, especially considering that Danni had very close interactions with two real Survivors and a loved one. Some of the things she said with Charlie were probably very genuine - the movie reward was one where they probably forgot that they were just a fake couple.
The biggest conflict I had was trying to make a lot of the dialogue between Charlie, Danni, and Paula seem natural when I knew full well that it was largely rehearsed. (Actually, with that story, I was a little afraid I was borrowing too much from the Angela/Tony fake romance, so I took the idea in a completely different direction, including the fact that both Charlie and Danni were in on it. The only person in the Tony position there was Charlie's son.)
It was challenging for me to get a good physical description of my own castaways, since I tried to picture the scenes playing out in my head as I wrote them. It was also very hard for me to picture Danni, who, by all accounts, seems very nice, turning into some sort of evil dungeon mistress and going all psycho on Charlie.
3. On a scale of one to ten, how insane did the challenges drive you?
Eight, although the Attack Zone challenge was lots of fun to write.
4. Did anyone actively criticize or praise their 'edit'?
I'm sure that people watched and saw what dopes they were, but I can imagine Terry being shown as worse than he was...and maybe Yau-Man appearing to try too hard.
5. You're not really going to subject us to Whining 'Round The World, are you? (And if it is the 2008 Donato World Tour: We Came To Kill You All, they pull an Alison and go out no later than second -- right?)
I said there would be a familiar face. No, it won't really be Evel and Daniele. Aside from the fact that I didn't care for Daniele, Evel already has his money.
Truth be told, though, I have some cast members in mind, and some will probably make us wish for Evel and Daniele...
And #6: What question do you wish someone had asked?
I was guessing that someone would ask me why I picked on Danni (pure convenience,) or what the deal was with some of my characters (I suppose Charlie's missing fingers or Paula being an alcoholic could have come up in Japan, but the fact is, Japan was a first try at writing a season of Survivor. I really cranked things up for All-Stars II.)
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