Category: Indie Film & Video

Matt Wilson’s new film, ‘The Pastor and the Pro’ is now on Amazon Prime Video

Hmm, which one do you suppose is the pastor? And which…you know…?

Matt Wilson is one of our favorite people, and only because he’s been part of the TVWriter™ family since way back in 2001 “when,” as he puts it, “I was writing animation spec scripts and submitting them to TVwriter.Com’s contests (which led to my first big break – writing for animated shows on Cartoon Network and Disney Channel).”

He’s also headquartered just across Puget Sound from TVWriter™ Central, eschewing the blandishments of Hollywood because, well, because obviously he’s a hell of a guy.

We’re giving you this background because we want to set the right tone for the following article about Matt’s latest decidedly un-Hollywoodish (or maybe way-too Hollywoodish?) feature film, which, yes, it’s true, all of us at TVWriter™ hope you’ll see. Take it away Matthew: read article

Bri Castellini: How to Kill Your Darlings – @stareable

 by Bri Castellini

I don’t care how talented a writer you are, how witty your dialog, how ingenious your story weaving- it’s almost guaranteed your scripts are several pages too long. But especially when your story is good and your dialog competent, it can be easy to convince yourself you’ve done enough and you’re ready to shoot. Think again- today we’re talking about killing your darlings.

Defined: a “darling” is an element of your story (usually at a script level, but occasionally is a particular prop or piece of wardrobe) that is disproportionately important to you than the story itself.

An example is a three-page witty dialog sequence that you love because it’s funny and clever but doesn’t actually move the story or the characters forward in any way, or a particular poster on a character’s wall that would be expensive or difficult to attain but is an inside joke amongst the cast and crew. read article

Bri Castellini: What Is The Goal Of Your Web Series? – @stareable

 by Bri Castellini

You can’t have it all. The Stareable Film School blog has a lot to say about doing each part of production to the best of your abilities, but at the end of the day, unless you’re independently wealthy and a close personal friend of Lupita Nyong’o, you’re going to need to pick your battles. The best way to do so is to define the goal of making your web series and understand the priorities and sacrifices that come with that choice, as listed and explained below.

As always, I’m not saying this list is definite- everyone’s situation and opportunity is different, and maybe you’re the exception to the rule. However, we all need to accept that as indie creators, we can’t do it all, and in order to give ourselves, our teams, and our projects the best chance to succeed, we need to be thoughtful about the way we go about our process.

Goal: Gain an online audience

Prioritize: Story, multiple episodes, marketing, and base competency 9 read article

Web Series: ‘The Most Interesting Man in Studio City’

Nobody at TVWriter™ knows exactly what to say about Douglas Olsson’s new series, The Most Interesting Man in Studio City. Is it a success? A failure? Something in between?

The problem boils down to this: When you create something that’s all about mediocrity and disguise that mediocrity by calling it success, how do you know if it works?

Mediocrity, almost by definition, is uninteresting, yeah? But The Most Interesting Man in Studio City isn’t uninteresting. In fact, there are times that it’s very interesting indeed. Hmm, wouldn’t that mean it was failing? read article

Web Series: See Episode 2 of ‘My Death Co.’

Last March, we saw the first episode of My Death Co and called it “Possibly the best directed and shot live action web episode we’ve ever seen…and the script ain’t too shabby either.

Last week, the long-awaited (by all of us DeathCo fans at TVWriter™) Episode 2 dropped on the interwebs. It’s every bit as good as the first, and we really think you’ll enjoy what you see: read article