An interesting lesson from Tim Adams, via TED Ed:
Category: Resources
40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
10 Tips for Indie Filmmakers
Yes, we know the title says “filmmakers,” but let’s get real. If you’re even thinking about creating, say, a web series (let alone a broadcast or cable series), you’ve just put yourself square into the indie filmmaker camp. (In other words, ‘fess up: Where do you watch most of the films you see? On the web or your TV, are we right?)
by Gary Nick Dawson
Gary Hustwit is a successful documentary filmmaker. Last week Filmmaker magazine ran an article by Nick Dawson, called “Gary Huswit’s 10 Web Tips for Doc Filmmakers.” The article is drawn from a workshop run by Hustwit at the 2012 Documentary Lab, which is an initiative of the Independent Filmmaker Project in New York. And although the focus is on documentary filmmaking, many of the principles can be applied to any independent filmmaking project. =&0=& With his most recent film, Urbanized, Hustwit launched a website for the movie after he been working on the film for a year, meaning he had a lot of work already under his belt and a clear sense of where the project was going. =&1=& Three of the urban design projects featured in Urbanized came to his attention via Twitter. Hustwit reaches out to his 150,00 Twitter followers to solicit suggestions for venues in certain cities or towns that he doesn’t know or has not been to recently. =&2=& Aside from tweeting, blog a couple of times a week and send out a newsletter every one or two months when you’re still in production, and once every two weeks when your film is actually screening. When teasing your film during production, put up pictures but not footage.Read it all at Adelaide ScreenwriterThe fantasy of what your film’s going to be about is often better than the reality….
Larry Brody has more to say about Characterization
The TV Writer on TV Writing
Characterization Part 2
by Larry Brody
I started writing about characterization a couple of months ago but got sidetracked. Sorry for the delay.
Although, now that we’re talking about this sort of thing, the fact that it took me so long to get to Part 2 tells you something about my character, doesn’t it?
Ah, but that’s a whole other kind of lesson, isn’t it?
Adapting Magic: An Interview with TV Writer Henry Alonso Myers
Everything you want to know about the process of adapting YA novel THE MAGICIANS for TV. And, considering the great revews this show has gotten, y’all need to know it:
by Sarah Mesle
HOW IS WRITING a book different than writing a TV show? How is reading a book different than watching TV? It’s a commonplace now that the current moment is not only a golden era of TV, but also a golden era of television criticism. But how does the making of TV align with the discussion of it — and what should critics know about the medium they discuss?
Sarah Mesle, LARB’s Senior Humanities Editor and a writer for LARB’s “Dear Television” column, recently sat down with Emmy-nominated TV writer Henry Alonso Myers to discuss exactly these questions. Myers, who has previously worked on shows such as Ugly Betty, Covert Affairs, and Charmed, is a writer and Executive Producer for SyFy’s new show, The Magicians, based on Lev Grossman’s critically-acclaimed 2009 novel of the same name. Grossman’s novel famously crosses the bounds of literary and genre fiction, telling the story of Quentin Coldwater, a young man in contemporary New York who suddenly discovers that magic is real. As Meyer discusses, the novel, lauded for both its riveting story and its sophisticated prose, posed both opportunities and challenges for adaptation.
The 8 Worst Kinds of Fictional Romances
Why does “romance” in fiction get such a bad rap? This is why:
by Katharine Trendacosta
Romance abounds in fiction—and science fiction and fantasy are full of epic romances, too. But sometimes a romance feels less like something that’s true to the characters and more like a plot device the writers threw in at the last moment. Here are eight kinds of romance that we don’t ever need to see again.
Look, we all know that writing believable romance is hard. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to admit that not every story needs a relationship as its A-, B-, or even C-plot. A story without romance is better than one with a bad one. It’s never good to have an audience thinking, “Hey, these characters are solid, the story’s fun—oh, oh no. Stop it. Where’d this relationship even come from?!”