Month: June 2015

How to Avoid Film Festival Rejection

This TVWriter™ minion doesn’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like my life is a constant fight to prevent being rejected. For my work. For my history. For myself. So I really enjoyed reading the following, even though there’s probably no way in the world I’ll be able to make it work for me. >Sigh<

pic from filmcourage.com
pic from filmcourage.com

by Noam Kroll

Rejection is a brutal reality in any creative industry. Fortunately, there are steps filmmakers can take to avoid film festival rejection.

Getting into a festival (especially a major) is a huge challenge to say the least. Even with all the competition out there, you still have a shot…you just need to tell your story in a way that is conducive to a festival acceptance. Below, I’ll outline my top 3 reasons that your film might face film festival rejection. Next time around you’ll know what NOT to do! read article

Peggy Bechko on Creating Characters We Care About

Hey, we remember this guy!
Hey, we remember this guy!

by Peggy Bechko

Have you wondered how a writer goes about creating characters his or her readers will actually care about?

There are lots and lots of ways and as many approaches as there are writers. It’s simple and yet difficult. The writer wants a relationship with the reader. It’s as simple as that – and as difficult.

Characters drive the story and every character in the story your favorite writer creates must have a desire. It doesn’t matter what that is, it could even be as simple as new car, a new job, a new girlfriend or just a glass of water.  Lack of desire equals lack of story. read article

Why are the stories in video games so bad?

Time now to pursue the second most pressing mystery in video gaming. (The first, of course, being: “Why does my PC keep freezing just as I finally start getting somewhere in this $#@! game?”)

heavyrainby Leigh Alexander

People often say they are enthusiastic about games because “they can tell stories”, or because they enable narrative moments not possible in other media. But although there are numerous flashes of brilliance in games, this potential often feels like something they circle, but never attain.

That’s because the act of writing for games and the skillset required is vastly different from what you’d think or expect, and even people who do it professionally, toiling quietly behind the scenes, often seem frustrated at how poorly-understood the work is. read article

LB: The Most Creatively Important Kickstarter Project Ever?

jules feiffer
Actually, you should click HERE to play

by Larry Brody

Jules Feiffer is the comic genius who got me through high school. I was a huge fan of his early book of comics, Sick, Sick, Sick, his Bernard and Hue comic strips in both newspapers and – OMG – “Playboy,” and utterly blown away when I learned that he’d “assisted” (read “ghosted”) many of the episodes featuring what I to this day believe was the finest comic book character ever created, The Spirit.

The simple truth is that while I wanted more than anything to be like Denny Cold, the hero of The Spirit, I knew damn well that it was more than likely that the character I’d actually grow up to be was the inhibited, neurotic Bernard.

(I think I escaped Bernard’s fate ultimately, but not the ethos behind him.) read article

Herbie J Pilato: Remembering Elizabeth Montgomery’s magic appeal

EDITOR’S NOTE: Classic TV mayven Herbie J takes this opportunity to remind us that no matter how good your script is, the final production will be even better if the casting is right. Witnesseth:

Herbie_Final

by Herbie J Pilato

Elizabeth Montgomery is best known for playing Samantha Stephens, the good witch-with-a-twitch, on television’s classic sitcom, Bewitched, which originally aired on ABC from 1964 to 1972 – and for which she received eight Emmy nominations (among other accolades).  A staple in syndication ever since (and available on DVD), the show marks its 50thAnniversary this TV season, while May 18th commemorates the 20th Anniversary of Montgomery’s demise (from colon cancer).

As Samantha, Montgomery delivered a down-to-earth sincerity and, in the process, made an earnest connection with the home viewer.  But her most famous role was by-far not her first – nor certainly her last. read article