Category: Resources

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

7 Reasons Why Your Creative Vision Isn’t Translating to the Screen

Caleb Ward is back with more insight into showbiz productivity. We’re very glad we found this dude and the Premium Beat site.

infinityby Caleb Ward

Here’s a few tips for translating your creative vision to the big screen.

Have you taken a film or video project from conception to completion…only to find yourself unsatisfied with the end result? Here’s a few reasons your projects may be falling flat.

1. You’re Focusing on the Details, Not the Big Picture

When it comes to filmmaking there is a lot to remember and we are afforded the opportunity to learn something new every time we shoot. In a way, creating a film is a lot like a flexible checklist. While you would never say it out loud, the thought that’s probably going through your head on-set is something to the effect of: read article

David Lynch’s Top 10 Lessons on Filmmaking

Yeppers, kids, here’s what we’ve been waiting for. The collected filmmaking wisdom of none other than David Lynch, whose film work certain people here at TVWriter™ find, well, meh, actually. But his TV oeuvre, ah, that’s another story. Read and ruminate, young Jedi’s:

David-Lynch-Bhushan-Mahadaniby Bhushan Mahadani

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.                       -Swami Vivekananda

That is David Lynch.  David Lynch.. buddy I just love you. To him idea is everything. That is true because men come and go, success comes and goes, money comes and goes but the ideas stay forever. David Lynch has put idea at his highest regards. In fact David Lynch is synonym to idea and meditation.

Here is the advice from David Lynch about the secret to his success over the years in his own words. read article

Kelly Jo Brick: The Write Path With Craig Silverstein, Part 2

A series of interviews with hard-working writers – by another hard-working writer!
by Kelly Jo Brick

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From making films on VHS with his middle and high school friends to being the creator of Nikita and TURN: Washington’s Spies, writer Craig Silverstein shares his experiences and insights from being a showrunner and what he looks for when hiring writers.

TELL US ABOUT THE TRANSITION FROM BEING ON STAFF TO CREATING YOUR OWN SHOW. read article

5 Tips for Building Better Cinematic Suspense

Cinematic suspense, whether the final product will be on TV or in movie theaters, starts with the script. So remember to add the following mix to what you’re writing ASAP: (Yes, even to those that are defined as camera techniques. After all, it’s the script that tells the director to use them)

suspense

by Caleb Davis

If you are like me, then you appreciate a film that is so suspenseful it quite literally brings you to the edge of your seat. It’s in those moments, when a film is not a series of shots but rather a cohesive, frightful and nerve racking story, that it has accomplished its goal of creating suspense.

What are common filmmaking techniques for creating suspense? I’ve listed out my favorites below. Use these tips and examples to help improve your film’s suspenseful edge. read article

Diana Black on Building Dramatic Conflict and Tension

tennis hell

The Tennis Match
by Diana Black

Humans tend to thrive on conflict; without a ‘them’, it’s harder to define an ‘us’. A tennis match or a TV drama; it’s all the same for the observer – how to win and how not to lose – Survival 101. The most memorable of battles are not the slam dunk variety. We want ‘blood’ with a ‘fight to the death’ between two equally matched rivals. We sit on the sidelines with bated breath; licking our slavering chops at the smell of victory or, succumbing to despair with the smell of defeat. No one wants to be a loser.

The classic example of a prelude to the ‘Tennis Match’ comes from Edward Albee’s Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf(1962). For the illiterate among you, spend a few moments of your precious time viewing the late great Robert Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at their best and most vicious in the characters of George and Martha; the film version directed by Mike Nichols. It’s an ugly yet breath-taking example of just how nasty it can get when the gloves come off in a toxic relationship.

Martha: I looked at you tonight and you weren’t there!… I’m not gonna give a damn what I do…
George: You try and I’ll beat you at your own game.
Martha: Is that a threat, George, huh?
George: That’s a threat, Martha.
Martha: You’re gonna get it, baby.
George: Be careful, Martha. I’ll rip you to pieces.
Martha: You’re not man enough. You haven’t the guts!
George: Total war?
Martha: Total! read article