Category: Resources

40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.

Leesa Dean on a Death in the Web Series “Family”

Adventures in Digital Series Land #107
by Leesa Dean

blip_logo1BLIP is being shuttered on August 15th. I knew it was gonna happen ultimately, but still, am sad to see it go.

BLIP was one of the early platforms that showed and monetized web series.Chilltown, my series, was on there and I received nearly 50,000 views on just one episode when they featured it on their front page for just one day. And that amounted to cash. Which was great. It wasn’t a huge amount, but way more than YouTube’s payout.

The people there also were actively very supportive of the series on their platform. They promoted my show on Google + and Twitter. Which was really helpful and cool.

When Maker Studios purchased it in 2013, right in the middle of Chilltown’s run it didn’t affect things for me but I knew something was going to shift. At the time, they publicly stated (and sent letters to creators on BLIP) that they’d be dropping a lot of web series. I wasn’t dropped but a about seven months later, Disney bought Maker for $500 million and I was certain I’d be dropped. Mostly cause I thought the cursing in my series just didn’t fit the Disney brand. Surprisingly, I wasn’t. And even though I stopped adding content, I continued to receive some views. read article

John Ostrander on How It Feels to See his Fave SUICIDE SQUAD Creation Come to Life on Screen

Suicide-Squad-Viola-DavisStripping Down
by John Ostrander

Okay, I saw the Suicide Squad trailer that was “leaked” from SDCC and then the HD version a day or so later. I loved what I saw – particularly Amanda Waller. Viola Davis has the look, the sound, and most important, the attitude. Much of what she says at the start of the trailer sounds like it was taken from my proposal or one of my scripts. Yeah, I’m very happy.

As for the rest of the Squad, I can’t really say yet but if the whole thing mirrors their use of Waller, I think we’re going to get as close to the comic version of the Squad as a movie can get.

Mind you, I’m anticipating there will be changes. Comics and movies are different media with different needs and demands and so they will interpret the material differently. My main question for the Squad and any other comic book movie is will they get the essentials right? read article

How ‘Rick and Morty’ Became One of TV’s Weirdest Hit Shows

We here at TVWriter™ are huge fans of Adult Swim’s bizarre – and often grotesque – animated show RICK AND MORTY, which returned to our screens last Sunday night. For us, watching this mind-gobbling bit of whackery is like listening to Nirvana. We love its craziness because we’re crazy too:

r and mby Neil Strauss

“Most second albums suck,” Dan Harmon says, lounging in a back room of Starburns Industries, a Burbank studio, across the table from Justin Roiland. The mismatched pair — Roiland is clean-cut, fair-skinned and upbeat; Harmon’s unkempt, grizzled, and cynical — are in the midst of creating not a second album here, but a second season. The show is Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, an animated sci-fi sitcom that’s very loosely based on Back to the Future and just may be the best-written comedy on television.

Each 22-minute story arc is plotted using the principles of Joseph Campbell’s mythological hero’s journey, but shot through with world-weary humor like a George Carlin comedy special in triple time. In just 11 episodes, the show has amassed a sizable cult following of devotees, with nine million people watching the show’s first season. Among them is Matt Groening, who recently had Roiland and Harmon create a Rick and Morty couch gag to introduce this season’s finale of The Simpsons. read article

Peggy Bechko’s Writing Tips: Writing Without Emoticons

yolks-emoticonsby Peggy Bechko

As writers we think about many things, many aspects of the tales we’re telling, many details.

But, do we think about the face? It’s the first thing we notice when we meet someone, or catch someone’s eye across a crowded room. It’s what we focus on when we have an exchange of words. Whether acutely aware or not, we note smiles, eyebrow quirks, white or not-so-white teeth, frowns, lips compresses or purses, forehead crinkles and smile lines.

So what about our writing? Well, plainly when tackling a script we toss in a few simple directives or notes about what a character is feeling and doing and it’s up to the actor/actress to take it from there. We can try to be clear, but it’s still up to the actors. Hope you get someone really good to play a pivotal part. Sometimes something so subtle and simple as eye-widening will add a whole dimension to a character. You, as the writer have little control over how the actor/actress chooses to interpret what you’ve written. What sort of expressions are chosen to depict what was written on the script page. read article

Taste – Well, Read – a Sample of Peggy Bechko’s Romance Writing

Why? Well, how about cuz she’s a Contributing editor to this very website and has, in fact, written many of TVWriter™’s most popular articles?

Or cuz one of our most important editors – we’re looking at you, munchman – has been crushing on Peggy forever?

Or this all-important little tidbit – Peggy Bechko is absolutely the best at what she does. read article