The devil’s in the details when you’re trying to make it as a writer. And so’s the success. Which is why these details are here for you:
In the last installment of How to Make a Genre Show I took you up to the point in the show-creation process where you had detailed outlines (approved by the network!) for the episodes of your series. Now it’s time to take that outline and turn it into a script — which I did, when I wrote episode six of Z Nation, which airs tomorrow night.
Entry 2 – From Ambition to Film School… to the U.S. Army?(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Story So Far starts HERE)
So, we finally realized that ambition can only go so far; we needed a film school. And after researching all the schools that were accessible to us we decided to go to The Academy of the Arts in San Francisco. I was sold when they said they had everything at their facility to make Jurassic Park! Only, there was no way that me or Aaron could afford it. And neither of us qualified for financial aid, each of our families made a little more than what would qualify. Again, like our last blog states, we just missed the cut.
But like I said, we really aspired to create our stories and had serious ambitions about making our dreams come true, which is why we made the decision to join the U.S. Army. They had a college fund that would more than pay for our tuition.
How many times as LB told his students, “No matter what your job title, you’re a salesman?” Thousands of times, that’s how many. Still, many talented and hard working writers refuse to accept that basic tenet. Okay, salesperson deniers, whaddaya say about this:
With a renewed focus on original dramas as AMC just exited the unscripted space, the network is ramping up development. It had been an AMC tradition to hold annual script showcases, called by the network producer meetings, where the writers/producers of scripts that had been identified by network brass as top pilot contenders, lay out their vision for the shows beyond the pilot. Those producer meetings, which continue to be referred to as “bakeoff” in agency jargon, have traditionally been taking place in the spring, followed by pilot pickups. Sometimes, there has been a second round of producer meetings in the fall, which is what happened this year.
In case you’ve been wondering what the Writers Guild of America has been up to, interwebwise, wonder no more, bunky. The Guild is proud to announce it’s gotcha covered.
Sorta:
EDITOR’S UPDATE: More to come on this from other voices of TVWriter™, we’re sure.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This just in from Contributing Editor/Classic TV Fanatic Herbie J Pilato (AKA Our Man at the Front Lines:
Congratulations to NBC for landing Sony’s new take on Bewitched!