“Is content still king for media owners?” Interesting question, yeah? The view here at TVWriter™ is, “It damn well better be.”
However….
by Dave MorganAsk media owners what business they’re in, and they’ll say the content business — that they are storytellers, and that their companies are well positioned for the future because “content is king” and there will always be demand for great content.
(*Yes, that is his real name. No, it’s not a euphemism.)
We decided to hatch a plan to cast the thing, rehearse a bit too long, hold a few public readings, and then produce the series ourselves for the web (along with a third producer, the effervescent Eddie Follis).
With the pilot episode ‘in the can’ and almost ready to go live online, I sat down with Jason to pick his brain about his brain, his brainchild, and his brainchild’s brainchildren. The following is our interview.
The 11th annual New York Television Festival wrapped last weekend with a full day of events for independent TV creators, industry executives and TV fans. This included four of the 34 educational sessions that took place this week, as well as the popular, annual late-night writers panel, a special live taping of the Vulture Podcast, and annual NYTVF Awards.
At the awards reception, NYTVF (www.nytvf.com) announced the winners of its flagship Independent Pilot Competition (IPC) in 13 categories, with “Best of the Fest” honors going to “The Katering Show” and “The Parker Tribe”, the latter of which was also recognized with the annual Critics Award. Recipients of development deals from the NYTVF’s network and studio partners were also announced.
Time now to write about rejection. Because writing about it is so much better than feelin’ it. And, yeppers, learning is so much better than throwing our laptops into the freeway and screaming with frustration:
Whenever a script is submitted in the industry, it is passed off to a reader for analysis. The reader will give the script a “recommend,” a “consider” or a “pass.” And unless it gets a recommend, probably no one else is going to look at it.
So how many scripts get a recommend? About two percent….which means roughly 98 percent of spec scripts are dead on arrival. Many of these scripts make the same mistakes. Here’s my take on the ten most common mistakes reported by the studio and network readers who recently visited my UCLA class:
Finding the right representation can be a key component to growing and developing a writing career. TVWriter.com sat down with several managers to find out what they’re looking for in writers and what writers can be doing to help achieve success in the industry.
Eddie Gamarra, a former college professor, has spent the last 11 years working at the management/production company The Gotham Group. After starting as assistant, Gamarra stepped into the role of literary manager where he represents animation, children and family entertainment talent including writers, directors, artists and publishers. You may want to read Part 1 HERE.
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