Jeph Loeb Quotes

One of the main pitfalls of any theoretically 'niche' show is that you spend too much time on the 'niche' and not enough time on the 'show.'

But I think whenever you're bringing in a new Doctor, you have to set it up in a really great way because it's an entry point for a whole audience. Because the audience of 'Doctor Who' is everyone from eight to 108, life is continually creating new viewers.

'Gossip Girl' was an adaptation that, although very different from a Marvel property, had a vocal fan base. On that show, we started off very nervous about making any changes from the book. As we got our sea legs underneath us, we became more bold.

I think what people don't realize is the transition from NXT to the main roster is a big jump. It's getting a whole new audience familiar with a certain character. If you debut too many women at one time, it's hard for the audience to get to know, understand, and see the rise of that character.

Most obviously it [Doctor Strange] will introduce a new character who will be in play in the universe, but once you have gotten an audience to buy into a new concept then it's fun to keep, to play-off, or spin-off that concept down the line.

The start of a film is like a gateway, a formal entrance-point. The first three minutes of a film make great demands on an audience's patience and credulity. A great deal has to be learnt very rapidly about place and attitude, character and intent and ambition.

The form came out of the function because it is for the audience that already knows the show, while hoping to get a new audience, too.

I think any time you can go after an audience that isn't built in, that's the job.

When you introduce a character and show him for the first time, don't show him fully lit. Don't show him one hundred percent to the audience. Show maybe fifty percent or sixty percent so the audience can fill in the dark spots.

I think that's who you should be servicing as an actor is the fans. You don't wanna alienate new people from coming in, but you gotta first and foremost service your fans.

We want to be able to let the audience get to know these folks. One of the things about The Avengers, over the last 50 years, is the fun of changing up the gang and bringing in new characters.

It should be interesting to see two entirely different ways to treat a story, geared for two entirely different kinds of audience.

Making a show is also economics. Because the irony is, or the shame of it is, you cannot create a show instantaneously. It needs to be massaged. You need to see who is relating to who. How is it working with the audience? You need to give it a chance for the audience to find it, because there are so many outlets. And the audience doesn't know where to go.

At the time, I used to say, "We should market this like Everybody Loves Raymond. It's just a guy dealing with his family." Instead, it was irresistible to show all these funny people. So, I actually think this could be more inviting to a new audience because they can just watch one character, find out what's going on in his life, and then meet another character and find out what's going on in her life, and then see how it intersects the other one.

I think it actually makes more sense for a new audience than the old show did because we're focusing on one character at a time. It's all conjecture why somebody didn't watch, but one of the theories was that there was just so much information, even in the trailers and promos, of all these different people.

My audience is comprised of three categories. The first category contains the people who decide after the first five minutes that they've made a mistake and leave. The second category is the people who give the film a chance and leave annoyed after 40 minutes. The third category includes the people that watch the whole film and return to see it again. If I'm able to persuade 33% of the audience to stay, then I can say that I've succeeded.

You've got to look for a gap, where competitors in a market have grown lazy and lost contact with the readers or the viewers.

So much easier to aim for the smallest possible audience, not the largest, to build long-term value among a trusted, delighted tribe, to create work that matters and stands the test of time.

When we approached the project, the very first thing we did was take each character and say, "Okay, where would this character be?" We didn't want them to be caricatures of themselves. We wanted them to live and breathe, and grow with the audience and with us.

I think network television is really hard because it has to sail right away. HBO's so much more nurturing, patient. They think it takes a while for a show to kind of congeal and figure out what its strong spots are.

I want to try not to repeat myself. But then I seem to do it continuously in my films. It's not something I make any effort to do. I just want to make films that are personal, but interesting to an audience. I feel I get criticized for style over substance, and for details that get in the way of the characters. But every decision I make is how to bring those characters forward.

I always think that you have to have a certain understanding of what an audience would want to see from you as a public person as well as a character.

There are a lot of people that don't scour websites regularly or read music reviews. They need whatever, the other kinds of stuff, whether it's an appearance on Lettterman or posters or ads. They need to kind of be hit more in the face and be told that there's something new out there.

[Maigret Sets a Trap] was always going to be the first film, and it seemed to be quite a nice story. But of course it meant that here I was playing this new character for the first time, in a place where he had been a relative failure, as all these people had been murdered and the pressure was on. Rather than starting optimistically with his pipe in front of the fireplace, he was in quite a difficult place.

Mainly, I try not to think about my readers as I write - I just think of my characters and myself - If they're interesting to me, my hope is that they'll be interesting to others as well.