Category: Resources

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

The Great Query Letter Hoax

And now a moment of truth for all new (and not so new) TV and film writers. Something you’ve never been told – unless you’ve talked to our Beloved Leader, Larry B, or read…this:

the executive sweet

by Stephanie Palmer

Let’s say you plan to write a query letter to get a screenplay agent. Here’s my advice – don’t. Query letters can work for novels but NOT for screenplays. The notion that you can get a screenplay agent, find a producer, sell a screenplay, or launch your career with a query letter is a hoax.

LET’S GET REAL ABOUT QUERY LETTERS

There are two fundamental skills required to be a professional screenwriter. read article

Sorry, Newbies, But if You Want to Write TV You Really, Really, Really need to be in L.A.

And now for a lesson in cognitive dissonance. Or, “Why Should I Accept the Truth When It isn’t What I Want to Hear?”

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More on meetings, why you should be in LA, and industry growth
by The Bitter Script Reader

It’s been interesting seeing the passionate reactions to the post I wrote last week [and which we posted yesterday] about why aspiring writers still need to move to L.A. I honestly didn’t expect quite so passionate a response because I felt like it was a topic that had been covered a number of times. My assumption was that the new followers of this site would take it in, but that most readers would go, “Oh yeah, we’ve had this talk.”

What I didn’t expect was that this would blow up as much as it did on Twitter, to the point that a lot of working writers I follow ended up discussing it – and largely agreeing with it. Even knowing what sometimes happens on Twitter, it was unexpected to see some really aggressive responses spitting venom at those writers for daring to say this. I think that most people who bothered to read the entire article took it to heart, but there is definitely a vocal minority who registered their displeasure with a lot of rage. read article

Why New TV Comedies Are Choosing Plot Over Jokes

“Story is everything,” was Larry Brody’s motto way back when this TVWriter™ minion took his online workshop, and while I wasn’t surprised to hear this particular bit of wisdom I was taken aback a bit by how he applied it: “Story rules, even in comedy,” LB said. “Not only does your dialog have to be funny, it also has to illuminate character and advance the damn plot.”

Which brings us to this particular realization that appeared recently in none other than The New York Times:

COMEDYTVby Jason Zinoman

“Big Time in Hollywood, FL,” a hyperactive new series about deluded brothers with moviemaking dreams, is packed with startling twists — sudden murders, unlikely romance and even a Cuba Gooding Jr. performance that reminds you why he won an Academy Award. But the biggest surprise may be that it’s a comedy in which every episode ends not with a joke but a cliffhanger. read article

Why Do So Many New Writers Ask the Wrong Questions?

The Bitter Script Writer voices our – especially our Beloved Leader, Larry Brody – pet peeves:

Many People Thinking of QuestionsAspiring writers asking the wrong questins
by The Bitter Script Reader

I’ve held onto this email for a while. It’s an example of an email or a tweet I get now and then. Sometimes I’ll pull out terrible emails as lessons in what not to do, but I tend to reserve that for the writers who are the most obviously entitled and/or belligerent. “Earnestly naive” is a little harder for me to make fun of, and so I’m putting this not to make fun, but to try to enlighten.

However, so as to not embarrass this person, I’m not going to use their name: read article

TV’s Dirty Secret: Your Agent Gets Money for Nothing

We love Gavin Palone because he’s so, so…right. For example:

agent_gets_money_for_nothing_illoby Gavin Palone

I’m all for increased efficiency when it comes to producing filmed entertainment. I embrace moving a production to where it can be made more cheaply, cutting a schedule to the minimum necessary to realize the project’s vision and doing away with decadent perks. I even understand why my fees and profit participations have been reduced, in line with other producers, over the years; and I accept that it was necessary for some of my friends to lose their jobs during the recent rounds of layoffs at major studios and networks. Pruning dead branches allows the tree to keep growing. But what I can’t abide is how those same companies, which ask us to make do with less and find it expedient to de-job those who have served them loyally for years, continue to tolerate the most deplorable cost associated with creating their product: the television package fee.

If you are unfamiliar with what packaging fees are, I’ll give you more details in a bit, but in short, it is a large upfront payment and an even larger back-end participation that talent agencies receive for doing exactly what they are supposed to do for the regular 10 percent commission they charge their clients. read article