NOTE FROM LB: Just emailed the following to all those on the TVWriter™ eMail list. But the info really is for everybody:
Gang,
Trying to do some genuine advance planning because that’s the kind of thing I never do, but all the productivity sites keep saying I should.
Stripping DownOkay, I saw the Suicide Squad trailer that was “leaked” from SDCC and then the HD version a day or so later. I loved what I saw – particularly Amanda Waller. Viola Davis has the look, the sound, and most important, the attitude. Much of what she says at the start of the trailer sounds like it was taken from my proposal or one of my scripts. Yeah, I’m very happy.
As for the rest of the Squad, I can’t really say yet but if the whole thing mirrors their use of Waller, I think we’re going to get as close to the comic version of the Squad as a movie can get.
Mind you, I’m anticipating there will be changes. Comics and movies are different media with different needs and demands and so they will interpret the material differently. My main question for the Squad and any other comic book movie is will they get the essentials right?
We here at TVWriter™ are huge fans of Adult Swim’s bizarre – and often grotesque – animated show RICK AND MORTY, which returned to our screens last Sunday night. For us, watching this mind-gobbling bit of whackery is like listening to Nirvana. We love its craziness because we’re crazy too:
by Neil Strauss“Most second albums suck,” Dan Harmon says, lounging in a back room of Starburns Industries, a Burbank studio, across the table from Justin Roiland. The mismatched pair — Roiland is clean-cut, fair-skinned and upbeat; Harmon’s unkempt, grizzled, and cynical — are in the midst of creating not a second album here, but a second season. The show is Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, an animated sci-fi sitcom that’s very loosely based on Back to the Future and just may be the best-written comedy on television.
Each 22-minute story arc is plotted using the principles of Joseph Campbell’s mythological hero’s journey, but shot through with world-weary humor like a George Carlin comedy special in triple time. In just 11 episodes, the show has amassed a sizable cult following of devotees, with nine million people watching the show’s first season. Among them is Matt Groening, who recently had Roiland and Harmon create a Rick and Morty couch gag to introduce this season’s finale of The Simpsons.
by Peggy BechkoAs writers we think about many things, many aspects of the tales we’re telling, many details.
But, do we think about the face? It’s the first thing we notice when we meet someone, or catch someone’s eye across a crowded room. It’s what we focus on when we have an exchange of words. Whether acutely aware or not, we note smiles, eyebrow quirks, white or not-so-white teeth, frowns, lips compresses or purses, forehead crinkles and smile lines.
So what about our writing? Well, plainly when tackling a script we toss in a few simple directives or notes about what a character is feeling and doing and it’s up to the actor/actress to take it from there. We can try to be clear, but it’s still up to the actors. Hope you get someone really good to play a pivotal part. Sometimes something so subtle and simple as eye-widening will add a whole dimension to a character. You, as the writer have little control over how the actor/actress chooses to interpret what you’ve written. What sort of expressions are chosen to depict what was written on the script page.
If you’re a member of the Writers Guild of America, either West or East, it’s time to nominate yourself for the next batch of WGA Awards. If you aren’t, well, now you have something to aspire to. Either way, here’s the info you need:
(1A) Long Form–Original and (1B) Long Form–Adapted categories now include “limited series”