W-File - Tassie Cameron

BY Cheryl Binning

Toronto’s Tassie Cameron has written TV movies (Would Be Kings), teen angst (Degrassi: The Next Generation) and romantic comedy (Cake). But more recently she’s made a name for herself in episodic crime series (Tom Stone, Flashpoint, and the upcoming Copper). She spoke with CS about the challenges of police procedurals and her ground rules for writing series television.

What attracts you to the crime genre?

Maybe it’s because I’m lazy and it’s easier to write (laughs). There’s something built into the policing world that’s high stakes and a great story engine. I love the morality of that world–the grey areas between the black and white, the twists and turns of an investigation, and the emotion of the victims. It’s built-in storytelling.

What’s the hardest part of writing in this genre?

Making sure twists and turns are fresh, surprising and unpredictable, since you’re dealing with a very informed audience that has become crime experts by watching CSI. You do this through research; keeping your ears open for a story that someone’s never told before, that has a detail you could never have made up. Villains are also tricky in cop shows, making sure you don’t fall into clichés, like the same old Russian mobster. If you ask a cop ‘who’s the scariest guy you faced down in an alley,’ they tell you about someone you’d never expect. You also have to give your villains the same amount of detail, personality and point of view as your hero.

How important is research?

Consultants and research are where you get many of your best ideas. I talk to as many people as possible, take notes and cherry pick the best stuff. Then I forget about it as much as possible while I write the first draft. The characters are the most important thing to me and I want to see what they are going to do, rather than make” them do something I know is real. Then in the second draft I fold the research back in again to ensure it rings true and worry if the lingo is right.

Flashpoint isn’t just about catching bad guys; it also focuses on the officers’ emotions. Is it difficult to juggle the action and emotion?

Flashpoint is different structurally from other shows because everything happens in such a compressed, intense period of time that there’s no chance to break away to a B or character story. It’s all A story and it needs not five but ten twists. On Flashpoint we started from an emotional place and asked ourselves, ‘What would make one of us snap? What would we die for?’ Then we build the spine of the story as an action story and after that we put the emotional meat back on the bones. We had to be careful we always came back to the emotional heart of the story, not just the bells and whistles, guns and explosives.

What’s the most important guiding principle in writing series TV?

Know your show, make ground rules early in development, test them and then stick with them. On Copper we decided the show is about rookie cops so we are going to stay with the police officer perspective at all times and never go into our suspect or victim’s mind.

As a showrunner, what do you look for in your writing room?

You’re looking most importantly for amazing writers with strong, unique voices who understand the genre and the rules of storytelling and can surprise you within those rules. And then it’s vibe. Will they be fun in the room, collaborative, generous, and a positive, not a negative force? Helpful, not crippling critical or overly harsh? These people become your family.

What’s your secret to great act breaks?

The number one note you will get from a network is that the act breaks are weak. If I should have four or five act breaks, I write in six or seven possible ones. This way you are ensuring your hour of television is exciting and you have choices.

How do you deal with all the network notes in episodic TV?

I really value notes. For me it is about looking under the suggestions that they give you, and finding the deeper problem. Particularly if people have conflicting notes about one area of the script, it means you have a problem with that scene. Their suggestions point me to the problem. So it is really a matter of interpreting notes–that’s the skill.

Please see print edition for W-File on Brendon Yorke, and "My First Break" by three-time WGC Screenwriting Award-winner in Youth, Brent Piaskoski.