Category: Press Release

Hey, we didn’t write this – not all of it anyway

Motion Picture Academy Announces Student Oscars

academy-of-motion-picture-logo

by TVWriter™ Press Service

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored 15 student winners from colleges and universities around the world at the 42nd Student Academy Awards ceremony, held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.  The Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards were announced and presented by actors Michelle Rodriguez and Jason Mitchell, Oscar®-winning director John Lasseter, and the Oscar-winning team behind the animated feature “Big Hero 6,” Roy Conli, Don Hall and Chris Williams.

The 2015 Student Academy Award® winners are:

Alternative
Gold: “Chiaroscuro,” Daniel Drummond, Chapman University, California
Silver: “Zoe,” ChiHyun Lee, The School of Visual Arts, New York read article

The WGAW is Getting Ready for the 2016 Writers Guild Awards

If you’re a member of the Writers Guild of America, either West or East, it’s time to nominate yourself for the next batch of WGA Awards. If you aren’t, well, now you have something to aspire to. Either way, here’s the info you need:

Awards2016-email

2016 WRITERS GUILD AWARDS
by Team TVWriter™  Please note the changes to the eligibility criteria
for some of the Writers Guild Awards categories this year.
  

(1A) Long Form–Original and (1B) Long Form–Adapted categories now include “limited series” read article

HBO Announces HBOAccess Writers Fellowship Winners

hbologogridby Team TVWriter™ Press Service

HBO caused the interwebs version of a riot awhile back when they opened up submissions for their HBOAccess Writers Fellowship Program and the heavy traffic crashed the site, causing the usual hysteria by those who had problems entering.

Fortunately for HBO and our fellow writers, that matter’s been sorted, and last week HBO proved it had gotten itself all together by announcing the winners:

  • Anslem Richardson
  • Jude Weng
  • Sarah McChesney
  • Yolanda Carney
  • Dedi Felman
  • Joshua Levy & Prathi Srinivasan (writing partners)
  • Iturri Sosa
  • Wesley Taylor

Congrats from TVWriter™! You’re inspirations (and potential arch-rivals, dammit) to us all!

Writers Guild East Wants to Unionize the Web?

wga-east-logoby TVWriter™ Press Service

Whaddaya know? Somebody with some deep pockets and a lot of strength thinks writers toiling away at Big Deal Corporate Websites should get paid. (This doesn’t include TVWriter™, which definitely is a very little deal, decidedly not corporate website – which means “Hey, y’all, you’re welcome to work with us for free any time.”)

Anyway, last week the editorial staff over at Big Deal Salon Media announced it wants to unionize via the WGA East. Here’s how they put it:

Every single one of the editorial employees at Salon supports unionizing with the Writers Guild of America, East, and today we’re asking the management of Salon to recognize our union…We are doing this because we believe in our publication and want it to be successful. We’re especially proud to work for a media organization that has championed progressive values for nearly twenty years. We believe this organizing campaign is a positive and public way for us to put those values into practice, right here at home. In the wake of the Gawker staff’s vote to organize with the WGAE, we see an opportunity to help establish standards and practices in Internet journalism. It’s an exciting moment for our field, and we want Salon to be at the forefront of change. read article

Think You’re Not Being Paid Enough for Your Writing?

Obviously not a BBC writer
Obviously not a BBC writer

by Team TVWriter™ Press Service

Don’t despair, chum, because you’re in good company. The Writers Guild of Great Britain recently revealed that members have reported that the pay they receive under various BBC “shadow scheme” guidelines is the equivalent of about $3 to $4 1/2 an hour…and we’re talking about big time pros walking on EASTENDERS, HOLBY CITY, CASUALTY, and other long running BBC shows.

Turns out that even with agents and credits up the wazoo, writers still end up with a total fee of a thousand pounds ($1527.65) for writing as many as three drafts of a script stretched out over a period of more than three months.  And, according to the WGGB, there’s no guarantee of an assignment during all that time. That’s right, frustrated newbies of the U.S., these poor Brits are busting their chops on spec.

The BBC has, of course, responded because it has lots of salaried employees making – we reckon – a bit or two more than $3/hour who have little else to do. Here’s how an unidentified spokesman put it: read article