Category: Resources

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

LB: “The New Republic” Gets Television All Wrong

…But the post below is still worth reading cuz arguing about this shit is always fun:

New republic on Showrunnersby Craig Fehrman

Our best TV shows may be more complex than ever, but our theory of their greatness has become utterly reductive: In this reputedly golden age of television, it all boils down to the showrunner, television’s own auteur.

According to this theory, the villain is a clueless suit, sending along absurd notes; the hero is the courageous iconoclast, ready to fight the tiniest battle. Here’s one example from the set of “Mad Men,” recounted in Alan Sepinwall’s recent book, The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers, and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever: A costume designer presented the perfect button-up dress for a love scene to showrunner Matthew Weiner. “Unzipping is sexier,” he replied—and off she went to find a new dress. Everyone seems to thrill at these stories of micromanaging prowess. It’s why novelists are trying to write cable pilots; why The Hollywood Reporterpublishes its annual “Top 50 Power Showrunners”; and why, in 2010, no less an outlet than Cahiers du Cinéma—the French publication that popularized the original film version of auteur theory—put “Mad Men” on its cover. This narrative has been reinforced by long magazine profiles of David Chase (showrunner for “The Sopranos”), David Simon (“The Wire”), David Milch (“Deadwood”), Shonda Rimes(“Scandal”), Lena Dunham (“Girls”), Liz Meriwether (“New Girl”), and others. read article

Stacy Porter: A Few Words About Write Vault

logo_official_top

Stacy Porter is managing director of the kind of site for which we have a soft spot in our hearts. It’s called Write Vault and is a place to register and protect intellectual property.

As the site puts it: read article

Peggy Bechko: The Absolute Basic Tenet of Writing

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED TO ME ON MY WAY TO THE GRAVE smWrite Now
by Peggy Bechko

Write What Now?

As writers, along the away at some time, we’ve all heard the admonition, Write What You Know.

Uh huh, right. Well I’ve always kind of wrestled with that, but now I’ve heard it put another way. read article

BIOSHOCK INFINITE is a Lesson in Video Game Writing

Nope, we don’t even pretend to know about video game writing. But this guys, and reading this article has taught us a hell of a lot (which can transfer right over to our TV writing obsession as well):

lizbook

The failure of BioShock Infinite: Writing games like movies
by Peter Bright

It’s high time game developers respected the medium they work with.

As is my unhealthy obsession, I waited impatiently for BioShock Infinite to unlock on Steam—then I played the game through in a single sitting. It took about 11 hours (on normal difficulty), though I didn’t “complete” the game in the sense of finding all the secrets it contains. I left some doors locked, and I didn’t find all the codes, but I did fully experience the game’s main draw: its story. read article

Now *This* is a Pitch

rushmoviethingie

Read ‘n’ learn, kids. Read ‘n’ learn:

RUSH

Set against the sexy and glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing, RUSH portrays the exhilarating true story of two of the greatest rivals the world has ever witnessed—handsome English playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and his methodical, brilliant opponent, Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl). Taking us into their personal lives on and off the track, RUSH follows the two drivers as they push themselves to the breaking point of physical and psychological endurance, where there is no shortcut to victory and no margin for error. If you make one mistake, you die. read article