Category: Resources

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

The Changing Game of Short Film Distribution

We’re really starting to like ShortoftheWeek.Com because they know just about everything about, um, shorts. (Short films! Short films! Not, you know, shorts.)

This year marked an interesting milestone for the Oscar nominated animated short films. For the first time in recent memory, people actually watched them. On January 29th, my Facebook feed blew up with posts about a short film—that’s right, a short film! Disney kicked off a decidedly unusual trend when it released its Oscar-nominated short Paperman online. Soon, others followed suit—Head Over Heels and Adam and Dog hit the internet within the week. Suddenly, an award category usually only visible by a very select few could be seen by the masses.

Then, abruptly, a few days before the big night, the shorts vanished. But, why? read article

Have You Visited “Unknown Archive TV”?

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We think you should.

What we have up above is a shot from the unaired pilot for the BBC’s SHERLOCK, which is up and at ’em at UnknownArchiveTV a site chock full of arcane, wonderful, wacky, bizarre TV shows, none of which are available anywhere else – or so we’re told; we didn’t spend all weekend looking for everything elsewhere cuz we were, you know, on our days off. read article

Peggy Bechko: Writing & Reading – Two Sides Of a Coin

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by Peggy Bechko

It’s easy to talk about craft and grammar and spelling and all the little how-tos and don’t-dos when thinking about and discussing writing. And it’s easy to skip over the more simple things a writer needs to keep in mind or do or both. The more general concepts you kind of have to get into your head and keep there.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. A writer has to read and write – a lot. You have to love it. You have to pretty much think about it when you’re not doing it. You must do both. The more you write the better you write. The more you read the better you write. If you read some bad writing it’s a great lesson in what not to do. Great writing gives you great tips on what you should do. Quite simply they go hand in hand. If you don’t have time to read then forget the writing. read article

John Ostrander: The Joy of Writing

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by John Ostrander

I love writing. Most days.

There are days when it’s a job – and it is my job. It’s how I make my living. It’s how I pay my bills. Most days. read article

Vesta Giles: Success Story – Alan Bradley finds silver screen sweetness at the bottom of the pie

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EDITED TO ADD: Holy crap! Another TVWriter™ Online Workshop student is now a best-selling author, while I, the lowly munchman, labor at my far-from-dreamy dayjob. Maybe I should do the Workshop too? LB, can ya give me a little financial breakage? Huh?

In 2003, forest fires raged through the interior of British Columbia. The oppressive heat and dryness of that summer created the perfect conditions for the fires that burned out entire towns and countless homes over an area bigger than some European countries. In Kamloops, where I live, we were surrounded on three sides with heavy smoke and flames that jumped from treetop to treetop for more than a month. It was memorable, to say the least. read article