Month: July 2015

From Tech Reporter to SILICON VALLEY Writer

…and back again cuz television, y’know?

siliconvalley1by Tim Moynihan

When SILICON VALLEY is at its best, it rings true. The characters, the plot lines, and the dialogue are ridiculous and realistic all at once. You couldn’t make this stuff up, and thanks to the absurdity of tech culture, the show’s writers often don’t need to.

In comparison, the plot twists in the past year of Dan Lyons’ life seem far-fetched. It’s as if Pied Piper could compress time: Lyons’ year has contained about a decade’s worth of drama. He went from a marketing job to a screenwriting gig back to a marketing job to an editorial stint to having no full-time job. He lived on two coasts, landed a book deal, had his body rebel against him, and elicited the ire of e-detractors. He helped write season two of Silicon Valley, and then he learned he won’t be back for season three. read article

Leesa Dean Tells Us “How Tennis Saved My Pitch Meeting”

220px-tennis_racket_and_ballsAdventures in Digital Series Land – Chapter 106
by Leesa Dean

I am a tennis fanatic. Love to watch matches, love to play.  Did I mention I kinda suck at it? Ok, maybe not suck, but…I’m inexperienced.  Been playing for about five or six years (just working on my strokes) but only started playing games last year. And found out the hard way that playing games is dramatically different than just hitting a ball around.  Aside from strategy and learning different shots that are game-specific, there’s the pressure.  And it is insane. You’re dealing with ego (mostly your own: OMG, am I gonna fail?), stage-fright (OMG, everyone’s gonna see me fail!!!) and fear of failure (OMG everyone just saw me fail!!!)  But I really really really wanna get better and feel I have the potential to, ultimately, be a good player. So I’m sticking with it.

A week ago I found myself prepping for a pitch meeting. And the same fears I have with tennis were cropping up (yeah, the fear of failure thing). The worst thing you can do in a pitch meeting is have them see you sweat. I mean, who wants to buy something from someone who’s nervous about their project?

I’ve taken a ton of pitch meetings and normally don’t get nervous about them anymore because I’ve been told I’m “good in a room” but since I’ve been holed up a while writing/animating a bunch of new stuff, it somehow felt new.  And I had a butterflies. read article

Movies becoming more like giant TV shows

Once upon a time TV was the despised younger sibling of feature films. The place where nothing was ever quite as good as in features. The medium that lagged so far behind feature films in terms of technique, moolah, and customer satisfaction that most TV executives didn’t even bother to try to make their material “good.”

More and more, though, it’s looking like those days are gone, possibly forever. Now the feature film biz is all about imitating the small screen. Congrats, little sister/brother, you’re in!

sonyspidey982by Jeff Peterson

t’s never been quite so tempting — or quite so easy — to become a permanent couch potato as it is today. read article

Peggy Bechko: Confessions of a Scattered Writer

scatterby Peggy Bechko

Yes, I can be scattered. But also yes, I can focus like a laser and get things done.

And this is a subject for discussion why you say.

Well, it applies to everyone and nearly every aspect of life. read article

LB Answers: “What TV Shows Are You Watching These days?”

Eddie Izzard on POWERS, LB's no-longer-secret vice
Eddie Izzard on POWERS, LB’s no-longer-secret vice

by Larry Brody

Ah, how times change. Not that long ago, wherever I went people would ask me, “How do I get an agent?” Or, more directly, “Can you get me an agent?”

Or, even more directly, “Get me an agent!” minus any question mark whatsoever.

These days, however, the most common question I encounter when I meet new humans, even those who want to be writers, is, “What TV shows are you watching?”  So, since that’s a much easier question to answer, here’s the current LB (and wife Gwen the Beautiful) TV Viewing List As of Mid-Summer, 2015. read article