Category: Opinion

Angelo J. Bell: 1 Is All You Need

For the record: TVWriter™ is here to be that “person” for you. Angelo has very clearly elucidated what this site is all about.

by Angelo J. Bell

Imagine…

Imagine, after years of form-letter rejection notices, hang-ups, unreturned phone calls, spending thousands on screenwriting contests, pitch festivals, seminars, workshops and “how to write screenplays that sell” books, you finally do it. You finally sell a screenplay. That “1? is enough to sustain you as go through the same process again and again. 1 is all you need.

Imagine, after countless auditions, call-backs, featured extra roles, casting workshops, spending thousands on head shots, and more head shots; assembling, cutting and editing your reel for the umpteenth time, designing post cards, for your hundredth mailing…finally you nail it. The role of a lifetime! The role you’ve been dreaming of since you were a child comes your way. That “1? role is damn near erases all the stress, pain, anxiety, suffering and fear you’ve felt for decades. That “1? is enough to send you right back into the abyss to do it all over. read article

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie – Chapter 15

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History
by Lessa Dean

Really busy week. Not going out as much (to panels, workshops, etc.) but heavily working on a new top secret project that I’ll be able to share in a few months. And between that, tweaking Episode 8 of Chilltown (which launches next week!), doing the radio shows (the Lele segments plus three new interviews this week, including one on HipHopHeadz which really was a ton of fun.)

Something kept cropping up during the interviews: I got asked how I broke into writing. Not the web arena, but writing in general. read article

Joss Whedon Inspires the Hell Out of Us

…With his Wesleyan University Commencement Address, which he delivered only yesterday. Posted on the Wesleyan University blog by Lauren Rubenstein, who evidently sat there and listened so we wouldn’t have to.

But, man, we would have liked to:

Joss Whedon and his Wesleyan Commencement SpeechWhedon ’87 Delivers 181st Commencement Address
by Lauren Rubenstein

Joss Whedon ’87 delivered the Wesleyan Commencement Address on May 26: read article

How Much Will Google’s Trojan Horse Disrupt TV?

In the, you know, best sense of “disrupt?”

broken-tv-800by John Paul Titlow

It’s a huge year for TV’s future. Yet for all the excitement about Web-first soap operas, data-driven programming and the disruption of broadcast, the Internet TV “inflection point” that 2013 has become is just the beginning. A Trojan horse is slowly rolling into town, and it’s bursting at the seams with data. Wheeling it along is none other than Google.

Indeed, if the data-fueled success of Netflix’s House of Cards is as crucial to TV’s future as many believe, what Google is most likely planning will make the transformation we’ve witnessed so far look like early innings in a very long ball game. read article

munchman: Writer News That Made Me Say, “Uh-oh”

The munchman admits it. Whenever I hear about people who seem, erm, less qualified than they might be but who get  good writing gigs – especially gigs I wish I had – my stomach gets all funky and I hit my head against the nearest wall. And wonder…well, I wonder “Why?” mainly, but in more graphic terms.

Mostly this happens when the writers in question are known primarily for success in other arenas. especially when, all things considered, that success is pretty mild. Yeah, I know we’ll get some angry comments/e-mails about that statement so let me respond in advance: “Screw you too.”

Time now for a couple of cases in point: read article