Some recent articles from other websites on TV, TV writing, and the TV biz that we think y’all should know about:
Information Overload? Embrace “Intentional Ignorance”
by Steven MacKenzie
The availability of information in the digital age is overwhelming. For every mesmerizing Instagram profile you browse, there are hundreds of millions more. For every page of search results you scroll down, there are thousands upon thousands beyond that one. For every article you read or RSS feed you subscribe to on a research topic, you could spend the rest of your career consuming more where those came from, and never reach the end.
Writer Sarah Von Bargen discovered the magic of “intentional ignorance” when she clicked “mark all as read” in her RSS reader:
[T]his temporary ‘opting out’ has increased my productivity and cleared my mind like nothing else….
Mara Brock Akil has made her own way in making great TV
by Jill Vejnoska
Do a cursory search on Mara Brock Akil’s name and what invariably comes up is some version of “TV writer” and/or “producer.”
Yet when it comes to the popular television series she’s created for more than a decade, Brock Akil’s power is all-encompassing — and almost unprecedented for a woman in Hollywood.
Now 45, Brock Akil had spent several years writing for “Moesha” and “The Jamie Foxx Show” when she created “Girlfriends” in 2000. The sitcom about four accomplished and yet refreshingly imperfect African-American women in their 20s aired for eight seasons on UPN (and later the CW network), with Brock Akil serving as executive producer….
A GREAT Writing (and acting) exercise
by Ken Levine
It’s actually an improv exercise. Andy Goldberg in his improvisation workshop had us do this last night and my first thought was, as helpful as this is to actors it’s even more helpful to writers.
Here’s how it works: Two or three actors do a scene. And then repeat it. Two more times. The first time the scene is a minute long. The second time the exact same scene is thirty seconds. And the third time the exact same scene is ten seconds….
Read it all at Ken Levine’s Blog
Bekah Brunstetter Wants You to Feel the Joy
by Suzy Evans
Bekah Brunstetter is drinking white wine and having a lunch meeting, like the fancy lady she imagines herself to be. In her fantasy, afternoon drinks over leisurely meals are the norm, even if her reality, as an in-demand playwright and TV writer, doesn’t always accommodate these whims.
But as it’s the first day of holiday hiatus from her new TV writing gig (as a coproducer for the in-development Starz series “American Gods”), and she’ll leave the next day for North Carolina to visit her family, her new fiancé in tow, a toast is definitely in order.
This lunch also marks my first chance to meet Brunstetter in person, though I’ve been following and admiring her work for years….