David Hoselton Dissects House
David Hoselton, Producer & Writer for House (recently promoted from co-producer), appeared at the Banff World Television Festival in Alberta last week to give a speech about the "art of story editing" for the show: from concept to execution, and all the changes along the way.
image: ianivarieanna
David Hoselton gave a play-by-play look at the production of episode 3.18, "Airborne", in which House and Cuddy find themselves on a plane from Singapore amidst a possible epidemic. Throughout the discussion, David tells us many interesting things about working for House, such as the three doctors kept on retainer for the series. Those doctors, along with Wikipedia and a synthesis of medical mystery news, are a great source for the medical issues on the show. However, the medical mysteries often morph quite a bit as the production goes on - as they line House up to the challenge, add the human elements, and work through the diagnosis.
For "Airborne", they had to decide how House would diagnose a patient on a plane, without access to his team or to medical equipment. For example, how could they make a knife on an airplane? During one scene in the episode, House considers cutting open the patient to see if he was carrying drugs. The doctors advised the writers that this would likely kill the patient and would be a "wank" scene - one that wouldn’t move the story forward towards a solution to saving the patient. So, instead of the witty scene that would end with House saying "Oh, crap" after he found only crap in the bowels, no drugs, they had House stop before cutting the patient open.
David Hoselton talks about the "accidental" storyline of the Survivor-type competition to be House’s new intern. The idea was pitched in the writing room in jest, but they went for it and it was a 9-episode string in the last season. It was a big thing, continually evolving. Who would stay, who would go? It was as much up in the air for the writers and actors as it was for the viewers.
David Hoselton says that House is about the characters. It is not a show primarily about the medicine, but about the story: about character, conflict and resolution. Though House himself may be a bastard at times, it is part of his charm. The core question of every episode is finding the heart in the scene:
"Where is the heart in the story? Why does House care about this case?"
For, according to David, House is always motivated by something.
"House is never mean for no reason."
House may be an asshole, or he may be racist, but is it a diagnostic tool? Is he serving his own ego? There is always a motive, a reason, for his actions. David Hoselton says his favorite scenes are ones where Wilson or Cutty are trying to understand House’s emotional core. One scene that may help us next season is (*spoiler*) that we meet House’s parents!
And, when it comes to House’s romantic side, we have no spoilers for you. However, David assures us that they talk about how, if at all, to pursue House’s romantic life. Should anything happen between him and Cutty? Between him and a patient? Those thoughts are always a part of the writing process.
And here is David Hoselton’s "shout out" to HouseisRight.com fans:
Sadly, no spoilers. So, if you wonder if David Hoselton looks online after an episode, the answer is yes. David does look to House communities for reactions to episodes. So, perhaps leave a message to David sometime on HouseIsRight.com.
Here is another video segment, after the master class, of David Hoselton talking about what happens in the writing room, and working on the show:
Tags: house, david hoselton, houseisright, house spoilers, house news, writing house, banff, banff world television festival, bwtf08
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2 opinions for David Hoselton Dissects House
House Director Gives a Shout-Out to HouseIsRight.com Readers!
Jun 20, 2008 at 5:00 pm
[...] event was David Hoselton, Producer & Writer for House (recently promoted from co-producer.) She covered his talk in great detail over on our MediaScribbler blog, so I strongly suggest you head over there to read all about what he had to [...]
agig112
Jun 24, 2008 at 2:40 am
Thanks for the article.
However, it’s Cuddy, not Cutty.
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