Category: News

Amazon Storywriter is Here

In case you missed Amazon’s latest announcement about how they’re going to pretend to be interested in newbie screenwriters while still making all their major deals with, you know, major players:

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by Team TVWriter™ Press Service

Amazon has announced Amazon Storywriter, a free, cloud-based screenwriting software for writers of all levels to create movie and TV screenplays in standard format, offering an alternative to pricey industry options. Also, in an effort to further enable talented writers to present their work for consideration and to expand its search for the next great movie or TV series, Amazon will now accept drama submissions and will no longer take a free option on scripts submitted directly to the amazonstudios.com site.

Creators can simply log in with their Amazon account to access Amazon Storywriter. The free software promises to take the pain out of formatting, with features including auto-format as you type and import/export of PDF, FDX and Fountain formats. Screenwriters can write online while their scripts are saved as they work, knowing all their material is being stored securely in the cloud. Additionally, they can write offline with a free installable Chrome app for Mac and PC. read article

Alan Moore Advises New Writers to Self-Publish

…Because having to even acknowledge the existence of publishers sucks.

The writer of WATCHMEN, LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, SWAMP THING, MIRACLEMAN, and a host of other great comic books is known for his anti-publisher, anti-film studio, anti-who-knows-what-else feelings. Here he is expressing himself while protesting the closing of a library i his homeland, the UK:

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Getcher New York Television Festival Winners List Right Here

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by Team TVWriter™ Press Service

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. read article

The Old TV Paradigm is Sinking Even Faster Than We Thought

It’s all Nielsen’s fault. Yeppers. Cuz everything bad in the realm of TV is Nielsen’s fault. Yeppers.

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by Karl Bode

For years, we’ve noted how popular TV ratings firm Nielsen has turned a bit of a blind eye to cord cutting and the Internet video revolution, on one hand declaring that the idea of cord cutting was “pure fiction,” while on the other hand admitting it wasn’t actually bothering to track TV viewing on mobile devices. It’s not surprising; Nielsen’s bread and butter is paid for by traditional cable executives, and really — who wants to take the time to pull all those collective heads of out of the sand to inform them that their precious pay TV cash cow is dying?

Now that Nielsen has decided to join us in 2015 and start tracking streaming service and mobile device viewing, the numbers, shockingly, aren’t looking all that hot. Nielsen’s latest analysis shows a number of things, most notably a decline in pay TV subscribers but a sharp uptick in users who are only subscribing to broadband: read article

BBC Writersroom Announces Comedy Room 2015 Participants

BBC Writersroomby Team TVWriter™ Press Service

BBC Writersroom has announced Comedy Room 2015 – a development pool of 15 up-and-coming writers, launched on 2 October 2015. These writers have been selected from Writersroom open talent searches, alongside input from BBC Comedy (TV and radio).

These writers have been selected from Writersroom open talent searches, alongside input from BBC Comedy (TV and radio). They will receive targeted training and development for six months, including workshops, masterclasses and networking events.

The aim of the scheme is to encourage and develop the best in new comedy writing and to help these writers to build strong connections within BBC Comedy.

Anne Edyvean, Head of the BBC Writersroom, says: “The creation of Comedy Room is a way of answering the question, ‘How do we best support emerging writing talent in Comedy?’ We decided on regular, structured teaching; introductions to key people in BBC Comedy; workshops; and script support for a hand-picked group of writers, over a limited time-period, in conjunction with BBC Radio and TV Comedy.” read article