A rare interview by Sammensværgelsen – en dansk X-Files podcast with David Amann, one of the “next gen” writers that joined The X-Files in season 6 and stayed until season 9. What comes out of these interviews is what a tight ship Captain Carter ran, and how over time he built trust and delegated to his Commanders John Gillnitz, and how all the newcomers were like temporary Lieutenants who were struggling to keep the high quality standards. My notes on David Amann’s interview below.
- A couple of years before coming in on TXF in s6, he was first offered a job on Millennium but he chose Chicago Hope. TXF was just his second job.
- He and the new “low-level writers” who joined in s6 (Jeff Bell, Dan Arkin) were at a crappy trailer at the edge of the Fox lot, separate from where Spotnitz and Carter and co were. The young writers formed a mini-writers room to help each other out, but there was no real writers room.
- They’d develop an idea, pitch it to Spotnitz/Gilligan/Shiban (sometimes Carter), break it, refine it, often started anew. Plenty, plenty of ideas were shut down. Trying very hard not to repeat themselves. Steep learning experience, on act breaks, on what makes an X-File, on the argument between Mulder & Scully evolves over an episode, what was the “beautiful idea”.
- Intense use of index cards to break an episode — used 600 cards for his first episode!
- Less rewrites by senior staff as time went on.
- Chris was “running an empire”, he delegated a lot to Frank, and to Vince & John.
- The young writers would often have to adapt to decisions that were made by the senior staff, like “by the way, Arthur Dales is going to be in Agua Mala”.
- The scope was big for TV: shooting was 8 days (as with other shows) + 3 days second unit + 1 day inserts.
- Over the seasons he did more and more work in post-prod, especially s8 editing room, it was a great education. There were a lot of cuts. John had been the main post guy, he sort of took over.
- He worked a lot on editing Roadrunners, it initially ran 13 min long.
- In editing: no score at all (no temp track), this gave an honest picture if it worked or not, then it was given to Mark Snow.
- It was not written in the scripts, but they sort of referenced Terminator 2 in s8.
- Sink or swim for new writers: he was not necessarily a good fit for TXF but he learned to work on it with a lot of effort.
- Terms of Endearment: it went through a lot of iterations. Rosemary’s Baby with reversed expectations. The twist was Frank or Chris. Chris did a pass on the script. When filming, the mom of the baby in the demon scene freaked out and took her baby away.
- Agua Mala: Chris or Vince’s idea to do a bottle episode (for budget reasons) with a sea creature. Chris did a pass on the script. There was a lot of water on the set, impressive.
- Rush: first episode he really understood how to build a script for TXF, his favourite. Vince did a pass on the script. Fast kids a metaphor for youth/drugs. The Matrix style included in the way they prepared the episode, bullet time ended up being just slow motion. Fox Standards & Practices concerned with grisly deaths.
- Chimera: Jeckyll & Hyde story. Not his favourite, slow, misses the M&S dynamic (GA was unavailable due to all things). Recurring theme of American suburbs in TXF: was not a conscious theme.
- Invocation: inspired by Elian Gonzalez story. Frank’s idea that a kid disappears and comes back the same years later, Frank or Chris did a pass on the script. Took reference from creepy kids films like Village of the Damned or The Omen. Chris took a pass on that episode to add in Doggett’s voice. With the new characters, they wanted to build a personal mythology for them.
- Hellbound: reincarnation, sins returning, to give Reyes character moments. For the slaughterhouse, it turned out it was cheaper to kill pigs than to do fake bodies, that was an unexpected consequence of him writing the script. Easter egg: Manari Meats is a reference to Kim Manners’ real name. Not inspired by Hellraiser. They kept an eye out to revisit Reyes’ spiritual side in scripts.
- Release: he was working on a story about Doggett and his brother, John was working on a story about Doggett and his kid, they ended up combining them into one. He is fond of this one. He has a DVD of Mark Snow’s score. A supernatural resolution to Doggett’s son’s murder would have been too much, they wanted something that was emotionally satisfying. Unsure about the fan theory that Brad Follmer was involved in the murder.
- It was very hard to find ideas, he understood why they were cancelled at s9.
- Revival: it’s tough, you can tell they didn’t have the same schedule & budget as previously.
- Jeff Bell, Greg Walker, Steven Maeda and him are a tight group, they get together often.
- Favourites: Home, Bad Blood, Jose Chung, Tunguska/Terma.
- Why TXF endured: DD & GA casting; Chris & Frank very disciplined, quality control, ambitious, committed people they hired to the vision, the feeling that everything mattered.
https://sammensvaergelsen.libsyn.com/interview-david-amann-writer-producer
