40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
Did you know that not only scenes but also words have subtext? We didn’t either, until we watched the latest from our favorite etymologist, Arika Okrent:
Admit it. You never even thought to wonder about what Arika’s just shown us, have you? Ah, the wonder of words!
Alternate Title: “Why You Should Admire David Lynch But Not Like Him.” But the truth is that everybody we know who has worked with Mr. Lynch or hung with him or whatever likes him. A lot. Seems selfishness isn’t always what it seems:
David Lynch seldom smiles in photographs. His etched Easter Island statue
of a face doesn’t glower so much as brood; lips pursed and eyes hooded, he looks every inch the auteur in winter. The quiff completes the effect, its lush swirl seemingly frozen in place by alarming, Lynchian thoughts.
In his 40 years of film-making, the director has taken audiences from sunlit American idylls to surreal dimensions populated by demons, doppelgangers and psychotic killers. His are scenes you can’t forget: the whimpering, deformed baby in Eraserhead, the severed ear in Blue Velvet, the blood-spattered, skull-crushing violence of Wild At Heart, the nuclear explosion in Twin Peaks: The Return. Google “David Lynch creepy”, and you get 5.5m results.
You have a great idea.
You have lots of notes and the plot all mapped out in your head and maybe a synopsis typed into a word processing program.
It fires you up every time you think about it. But nothing messes up a great idea like not having the energy to bring it to life on the page.
Speaking of “the binge factory,” as we were just a couple of days ago, Script Reader Pro is one of the best script service sites around, and this is one of the best guides to successfully pitching your series that this TVWriter™ minion has ever seen. But I’ve already taken too much of your time so all I’ll add now is, “Dig in!”
Learning how to pitch a TV show is just an important skill to learn as writing the script itself. If you’re hoping to break into the world of television as a writer, you can write the best pilot in history, but if you don’t know how to pitch it, it’s unlikely your show will get produced.
Apart from great writing, you need to be able to convince the financial gatekeepers (read: executives) at any cable, network or reality channel that your idea has the originality, longevity and “wow-factor” to turn it into a successful series. And to turn over a tidy profit.
Not because you asked for it, but because if you’d known this was online you already would have watched it…and watched…and watched….
Brought to us all by The Closer Look