The current discussion regarding free leavebehinds is one of the most contentious TV and film writing issues of our time. The Writers Guild of America West is dead against it. In the following video, several top writers do their best to clarify why.
Category: screenwriting
Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #22 – Energy Sells
by Larry Brody
In an era where screenwriting courses are rampant, available at your local adult school, junior college, university, vocational school, you-name-it, it’s easy to throw yourself into the study of format and technique.
TV Writer.Com, for example, is bombarded daily with questions about the “best” way to show scene transitions, the “most effective” way to write an action scene, and the “most subtle” way to “imply” rather than “state” a new shot.
How I Hijacked Hollywood or: How To Sell A Screenplay
This clever tale of Imposter Syndrome in action (hey, we’ve ALL got it so what the heck) is packed with wisdom and attitude, and as regular TVWriter™ visitors know, we’re hardcore admirers of both.
by Zack Ford
On a hot spring day in 2013, I exited the Kips Bay brownstone in Manhattan where I lived in a rent-controlled studio apartment with my girlfriend and a white cat, walked west to 5th Avenue and then south to 23rd Street, to one of the few remaining Radio Shacks in history. Here, I bought an item just as outré as the store itself: an answering machine for a landline telephone. I had a plan to hack Hollywood.
Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #21 – Show Don’t Tell
by Larry Brody
I’ve probably said this before, but since it’s THE most important aspect of writing for films and television it can’t hurt to say it again. SHOW what happens, don’t just tell about it.
This means that whenever possible the audience should see key events occurring onscreen. Don’t have Doctor Who gathering her companions together and telling them they have to save London from a new alien enemy. Instead, show her discovering the problem..
Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #20 – Half-Hour Sitcom Construction & Plot
by Larry Brody
Half-hour sitcoms tell less story than one-hour shows, but they have a traditional pattern as well.
Start with a Teaser that states the premise of the episode (as in introduces the problem that’s the central focus) and ends on a laugh.