Category: Resources

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10 Must-Have Apps for Filmmakers

Cuz if you’re a TV writer,  you’re a real filmmaker, dammit, and you should be learning all you can about the big picture of prep, production, and post production as well as creating the blueprint:

Filmmaking-Apps-865x505by Johnathan Paul

Smart phones and tablets are becoming more commonly used on set for a variety of things, such as production documentation and concept viewing. Back in 2014, PremiumBeat writer Caleb Ward wrote an article on 10 Free Apps for Filmmakers. While the free app well is pretty dry, the paid app well is full of options. With that said, we found 10 more must-have apps that every filmmaker should be aware of. Remember, some of these are paid apps, but the time savings could make it fully worth the price tag.

1. DSLR Slate read article

5 Tips for Shooting a Period Piece on a Shoestring Budget

Low – or no – budgets are fact of life for makers of indie TV and film. Here are some tips on how to rise above your bank account:

period-pieceby Noam Kroll

It’s tempting for many filmmakers to write scripts that take place in a completely different time period. After all,period pieces open up so many possibilities for telling new stories that just wouldn’t be relevant or possible when set in modern times. Unfortunately, many of these same filmmakers are hit with a big wake-up call when it comes time to actually produce their film, as they realize just how expensive it’s going to be.

When you’re crafting a period piece, everything is more expensive. Not only do your hard costs skyrocket (wardrobe, locations, set dec, etc.), but a lot more time and effort is needed in other areas of the production as well. During pre-production for example, you (and probably your art director/production designer) will need to thoroughly research the time period in which your film is set in so that you can portray it accurately. read article

If MAD MAX FURY ROAD Got TV Network Notes

The reality TV producer whose blog goes by the name Jeez Jon has a few words about the efficacy of network notes…as in how much they would have “improved” the latest and hugely successful version of MAD MAX

anothermadmax

NOTE: The following contains spoilers for MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. If you do not wish to be spoiled, please stop reading now. If reading network notes makes you turn red from frustration, please consult your physician. read article

John Ostrander: When a Superhero’s Creator Meets the Actor Playing Him on TV

TV Suicide Squad

It’s always Halloween at the Con
by John Ostrander

Before I was a professional comic book writer, I was a fan. I still am. I was going to comic cons long before I turned pro. Some are good, some are not so good, and some are the San Diego Comic Con which is too large to fit into any category. For me these days, cons are mostly working weekends where I meet with fans and fellow pros, sign some autographs, maybe sell a few of my trade paperbacks.

Last weekend, I and My Mary were at the Motor City Comic Con in Novi, Michigan, and we had a great time. It’s close enough to where we live so that we could just drive there and the Con gave us a hotel room so we didn’t have to drive back and forth. The cats weren’t pleased that we were gone but they survived and, once we fed them, forgave us our absence.

Last time I had been to Motor City was maybe a decade ago and it has really grown. My understanding is that they had over 50K attendance over the three days this year. It was large but not too large and, while it had a nice selection of media guests, it was still a con focused on comics. read article

Peggy Bechko Lays Down the Law: Write Gripping Tales

"Gripping tails." Get it? Huh? Huh? Oh well, sorry, Peggy
“Gripping tails.” Get it? Huh? Huh? Oh well, sorry, Peggy

by Peggy Bechko

A writer writes, but let’s face it that writer also wants to and needs to sell. So the ideas he or she puts out there have to be good ones. Gripping, engaging, exciting, maybe funny. Every writer I know has more new story ideas tucked away in files on computers than can be counted. And most of them are good ideas. But are they GREAT ideas, because that’s what a writer needs to get that work sold whether a screen script or a novel or an article pitch.

So that leads us to the question. How to take one of those good ideas and make it great, a gripper if a novel, a high concept if a script? One that’ll hook the reader whether editor or script reader or your fans.

I’m going to focus mainly on the screenwriter here since we are on TV Writer, but really the principles apply broadly. The truth of the matter is a new twist on that old, yet good, idea is needed. Something that will make the story more compelling and fill seats in the theater or glue eyes to the novel’s page. The “high concept” in the movie biz. And a ‘high concept’ is: A story the writer can pitch in one good sentence that will allow a film exec or an editor to instantly visualize the story. read article