Month: June 2015

Will Netflix Really Have a Bigger Audience than the Big 4 U.S. Networks – Within a Year?

Some people seem to think that the web is thisdamnclose to annihilating broadcast TV. No longer is it a matter of “if” but of “when.” Here’s the latest on the subject:

an analyst to conjure with, yeah?
an analyst to conjure with, yeah?

by Paul Bond

Netflix will within about a year have a bigger daily audience than each of the big four TV networks, an analyst said Wednesday.

Working from the 10 billion hours of streaming the company reported in the first quarter, FBR analyst Barton Crockett says that if Netflix were rated by Nielsen as are ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, it would have a 2.6 rating over 24 hours, already on par with ABC and NBC. read article

Herbie J Pilato Gives Us the Lowdown on Laura Petrie and Mary Richards

mtm

by Herbie J Pilato

Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, there were two kinds of people:  Those who loved watching Mary Tyler Moore as Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show (CBS, 1961-1966), and those who loved watching Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970-1977, and which was officially titled just Mary Tyler Moore).

Moore’s married Mrs. Petrie and single Ms. Richards were and remain monumental and groundbreaking television characters of their respective eras.

In real life, Moore has seen her share of personal struggles.  She has battled Type 1 diabetes, admitted to excessive plastic surgery, and has married three times.  Her first husband was Richard Carlton Meeker (1955-1961), with whom she had a son named Richie who committed suicide.  She partnered with second spouse, Grant Tinker (1962-1981), and together they incorporated MTM Enterprises, a powerhouse TV production company responsible for a slate of hits in the 1970s and 1980s (including The Bob Newhart Show, Hill Street Blues, and other successes including Rhoda, Phyllis and Lou Grant—all three spun-off from The Mary Tyler Moore Show).  But after their two-time failure to resurrect the variety show format in her favor (with a CBS skit comedy show in 1978 simply titled Mary, which was revised in 1979 as The Mary Tyler Moore Hour), their marriage crumbled. read article

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO HAVE ON PAGE ONE OF YOUR SCRIPT

How many times have you asked yourself, “Self, what’s the most important thing to have on page one of my script?” And, asking that question, did you start to feel…tense? Like you’re feeling now, wondering about where this article will go? Hehehehehehe…gotcha, didn’t we? And in Sentence One, no less. Here’s the deal:

tension1

by Todd Klick

Whether it’s action, drama, comedy, horror, western, or suspense thriller, all successful movies start with tension: Anxiety, apprehension, danger, discomfort, crisis, distress, hostility, or sexual tension. Tension grabs attention, as the classic theater adage goes. When you hear the couple arguing in the apartment below you, it grabs your attention. When you see an overturned school bus on the highway, it grabs your attention. Even though you try not to look, a man and woman kissing passionately in a parked car draws your eye (sexual tension). Other people’s tension peaks our curiosity, it yanks us from our everyday existence and injects us with a sudden rush of adrenaline.

One of the most popular tension-grabbers in film is DANGER. read article

How ‘Fake Steve Jobs’ Got a Gig Writing for SILICON VALLEY

You’ve all heard about interweb phenom “Fake Steve Jobs,” right?  The blog by that name was a sensation, attracting so much attention that even interweb-shy TV execs noticed. Which brings us to this tale of how the site’s creator, Dan Lyons, has made a new life for himself – under his own name, this time:

Dan Lyons - who isn't a character on HBO's SILICON VALLEY - yet
Dan Lyons – who isn’t a character on HBO’s SILICON VALLEY – yet

Interview by Kwame Opam

Dan Lyons’ career has taken him strange places, from covering IBM to working with Mike Judge on HBO. Remember Fake Steve Jobs? During his time as Forbes tech editor, Lyons created The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs in 2006, pretty much just as a way of understanding how to blog. It was funny and insightful, and it got people to pay attention. Pretty soon the site was earning 1.5 million visitors a month.

To this day, the site remains one of Lyons’ best-known achievements. He’s since written for places like Valleywag and ReadWrite, and is a minor celebrity in the bubble that is tech media. It even landed him a writing gig on Silicon Valley, whose second season finale airs on Sunday. Lyons insists the whole thing was just a crazy accident, though — yet another happy circumstance in a life spent just trying things out. read article

Dreaming of glamour while living on the breadline

The subtitle of this article tells the tale: “…the life of a modern screenwriter.” Truth to tell, though, we think it would apply to just about any writer, anywhere and any time:

Spotted at Pinterest
Spotted at Pinterest

by Sally O’Reilly

Writing for the screen has always been insecure, competitive and emotionally demanding – and that’s on a good day. It’s not a calling for the maverick genius; collaboration is mandatory. While novelists, playwrights and poets are in sole command of their work, the screenwriter must be prepared for constant rewrites, and even if their script is deemed filmable, it’s often no more than the blueprint for a director to bring to life. Even so, the allure and the glamour remain: the flash of cameras at Cannes or Beverly Hills, the chance to create stories that are beamed around the planet.

Hard work and determination are prerequisites. Whether the aim is to write for the small or large screen, it’s often difficult to get a commission, and new writers usually work extremely hard for little financial reward. According to the Writers Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) the BBC pays budding writers on one of its so-called “shadow schemes” less than a third of the minimum wage. read article