Month: April 2017

Herbie J Pilato: Living the Showbiz Dream

by Herbie J Pilato

NOTE FROM LB: TVWriter™ Contributing Editor and longtime buddy Herbie J has a few words for us all. This is exciting – and important – reading. Go, Herbie J!

It’s important to stay the course.

If you have a dream, whatever that dream might be, if it’s a good dream, that will somehow benefit others, bring a measure of joy, information, entertainment – especially in a positive way, then you have to stay the course. It becomes your obligation to fulfill that dream – for yourself – and others. read article

@BrisOwnWorld – ‘I’m in my head’

by Bri Castellini

I talk a big game about being an indie filmmaker, but the truth is, at this moment in time and space, I’m struggling with it. There are two reasons for this: Trump and knowing what the hell I’m doing. Let’s, as they say, explore!

REASON #1 I AM HAVING DIFFICULTIES STARTING NEW INDEPENDENT FILM PROJECTS: DONALD TRUMP

One of my favorite descriptions of the person (source?) currently in charge of this country is “screaming carrot demon.” Thank you, Samantha Bee. The country is in chaos. We thought it was bad that he was a nominee for the presidency, and now we’re really seeing what this baby-fisted garbage cheeto is willing to do with his newfound power, people are understandably afraid and enraged and compelled to action. In particular, artists and comedians.

This administration is crippling my creativity and my confidence in my work, but not for the reasons you’d think. read article

How writing for Mary Tyler Moore helped me make it after all

Quite a title, eh? This article in the Boston Globe Magazine certainly got our attention, and now that we’ve read it we’re recommending that you give it yours:

Found on Etsy

by Sybil Adelman Sage

In the early ’70s, single women spent dateless Saturday nights watching Mary, the first woman on television who felt real, like one of us. During one of those sessions with a friend, I surprised both of us by blurting out, “Why don’t we try writing an episode?” Secretaries in the entertainment industry, we knew script format. Because I was working for the comedy legend Carl Reiner, agents were always milling around my office, so I could get our script read.

I’d been with Carl for five years and would have stayed forever, except that the women’s movement had me thinking of something more. Though writing was my passion, it was preposterous to consider two 30-year-old women breaking into the male-dominated world of TV writers. But before my friend could argue, I rattled off a story line. We spent the next month eating dinners in taco joints, scribbling on a yellow pad, determined to finish a draft despite expectations as low as our dinner tabs. read article

@Stareable – “I’ve got to have contracts for my web series?! Oh nooo!”

So You Want To Make a Web Series – Step 6
by Bri Castellini

Filmmaking, especially at the indie level, is a largely unglamorous process. There are glamorous aspects, of course: hearing your words read aloud and performed by talented actors, the thrill of a well-composed shot that raises the value of the entire project, and your first film festival acceptance email. But this step in the process, focusing on cast and crew contracts, is not one of those. It is, however, one of the most important and vital things you will hate to do.

Stareable recently published a great article from an actual lawyer about all the legal considerations you should keep in mind when writing up contracts. For this column, I, a non-lawyer whose mother really wanted her to be a lawyer, will give you a pragmatic perspective based in experience, not legal expertise.

The first thing you need to know is that, regardless of whether you are paying people, you need a contract signed (and backed up in two places) from every member of your team, even if they only work a single day. read article

Indie Video: ‘Alike’

8 minutes with enough emotion for a lifetime. This is why we need indie arts of all kinds:

No dialog, but remember, young noobies of all ages – This was written.

SYNOPSIS:
In a busy life, Copi is a father who tries to teach the right way to his son, Paste. But… what is the correct path?
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En una vida ajetreada, Copi es un padre que intenta enseñar el camino correcto a su hijo Paste. Pero… ¿Qué es lo correcto? read article