Tag: Advanced Online TV Writing Workshop News

WGA Announces 2020 Screenplay Nominations

via TVWriter™ Press Service

Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have announced nominations for outstanding achievement in screenwriting during 2019. Winners will be honored at the 2020 Writers Guild Awards on Saturday, February 1, at concurrent ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York City.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1917, Written by Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns; Universal Pictures

Booksmart, Written by Emily Halpern & Sarah Haskins and Susanna Fogel and Katie Silberman; United Artists Releasing

Knives Out, Written by Rian Johnson; Lionsgate

Marriage Story, Written by Noah Baumbach; Netflix

Parasite, Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won, Story by Bong Joon Ho; Neon

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster, Inspired by the Article “Can You Say…Hero?” by Tom Junod; TriStar Pictures

The Irishman, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian, Based upon the Book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt; Netflix

Jojo Rabbit, Screenplay by Taika Waititi, Based on the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens; Fox Searchlight

Joker, Written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver, Based on Characters from DC Comics; Warner Bros. Pictures

Little Women, Screenplay by Greta Gerwig, Based on the Novel by Louisa May Alcott; Sony Pictures

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY

Citizen K, Written by Alex Gibney; Greenwich Entertainment

Foster, Written by Mark Jonathan Harris; HBO Documentary Films

The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, Written by Alex Gibney; HBO Documentary Films

Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People, Written by Robert Seidman & Oren Rudavsky; First Run Features

The Kingmaker, Written by Lauren Greenfield; Showtime Documentary Films

Feature films eligible for a Writers Guild Award were exhibited theatrically for at least one week in Los Angeles during 2019 and were written under the WGA’s Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) or under a bona fide collective bargaining agreement of the Writers Guild of Canada, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Writers Guild of Ireland, Writers’ Guild of South Africa, New Zealand Writers Guild, Film Writers’ Association (India), La Guilde Francaise des Scénaristes (France), Scriptwriters Guild of Israel, Société des Auteurs de Radio, Télévision et Cinéma (Québec), or Verband Deutscher Drehbuchautoren (VDD/Germany), collectively known as affiliate Guilds. Theatrical screenplays produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild must have been submitted for Writers Guild Awards consideration.

Documentaries eligible for a Writers Guild Award featured an onscreen writing credit and were exhibited theatrically in Los Angeles or New York for one week during 2019. Theatrical documentaries must have been produced under the jurisdiction of the WGA or an affiliate Guild to be eligible for awards consideration.

The Writers Guild Awards honor outstanding writing in film, television, new media, news, radio, and promotional categories. The 2020 Writers Guild Awards (72nd Annual) will be presented at concurrent ceremonies on Saturday, February 1, 2020, in Los Angeles at The Beverly Hilton and in New York City at the Edison Ballroom. For more information about the 2020 Writers Guild Awards, please visit www.wga.org or www.wgaeast.org.

For media inquiries about the 2020 WGA Los Angeles show, please contact Gregg Mitchell in the WGAW Communications Department at: (323) 782-4651 or email: Gregg Mitchell

TVWriter™ congratulates all the nominees!

About the Writers Guild of America:

The Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) are labor unions representing writers in motion pictures, television, cable, digital media, and broadcast news. The Guilds negotiate and administer contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of their members; conduct programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to writers; and present writers’ views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America West, visit www.wga.org. For more information on the Writers Guild of America, East, visit www.wgaeast.org.

Fun, Immersive Marketing of an Audio Fiction Show

This article on an audio series called Civilized is more of a “here’s a cool thing some smart creatives are doing” than a “how to,” but guess what? It gave those of us at TVWriter™ who read it a hell of a lot of “how-to” to think about, and we believe it will do the same for you.

by Sean

Fans of the dark comedy sci-fi show Civilized can now become a part of the story as the crew makes “first contact” during their fateful voyage.

So what is it? It’s a series of mini-episodes that are delivered via email. How the story unfolds is entirely dependant on the choices that the listener makes.

To play the game, listeners need to be a member of our newsletter. And so it is an incentive for subscribing. For existing fans, it’s also a super fun way to spend more time with the characters and story that they love.

Screenshot of one of the initial storylines

We had the good fortune to be able to work with Chris Vasquez from Aweber. They led the development and helped us to combine audio, graphic design and written media to bring our storytelling to a whole new level. The result is an immersive and fun prequel for the show with almost 90 minutes of finished audio and eight unique endings.

Marketing is a nine letter word

This project was an attempt to create a fun, immersive experience for our existing fans that would also act as a “lead magnet” for growing our audience and driving signups for our newsletter.

And yes, we are marketing our shows. Here at Fable and Folly we don’t believe marketing is evil. Nor do we entertain the ridiculous idea that “good shows don’t have to market themselves.”

We market our shows because we see so much potential for podcasters to reach new audiences. We don’t subscribe to the rampant belief that audio fiction is tiny or that it’s near impossible to convert people from talking head shows….

Read it all at fableandfolly.productions

WGAW 2019 Officers and Board of Directors Election Results

via TVWriter™ Press Service

EDITOR’S NOTE: Current Writers Guild of America policy regarding agents, agencies, and TV series packaging were backed by a solid 77% of the voters in this year’s election. Solidarity! for the win.  Here’s the Guild’s official announcement.

The Writers Guild of America West today announced the results of its 2019 Officers and Board of Directors election.

The following members were elected to serve as Officers: President – David A. Goodman (inc.); Vice President – Marjorie David (inc.); Secretary-Treasurer – Michele Mulroney.

The following eight members were elected to the WGAW’s Board of Directors for two-year terms, effective immediately: Liz Alper, Angelina Burnett (inc.), Robb Chavis, Dante W. Harper, Zoe Marshall, Luvh Rakhe (inc.), Meredith Stiehm (inc.), Nicole Yorkin (inc.). *Note: (inc) denotes incumbent.

NUMERICAL VOTING RESULTS

President: David A. Goodman (4,395), Phyllis Nagy (1,282).

Vice President: Marjorie David (4,708).

Secretary-Treasurer: Michele Mulroney (4,164), Nick Jones, Jr. (1,256), Evette Vargas (203).

Board of Directors: Meredith Stiehm (4,115), Luvh Rakhe (4,000), Liz Alper (3,967), Angelina Burnett (3,960), Nicole Yorkin (3,874), Zoe Marshall (3,819), Robb Chavis (3,679), Dante W. Harper (3,628), Marc Guggenheim (1,488), Sarah Treem (1,476), Nicholas Kazan (1,462), Courtney A. Kemp (1,418), Jason Fuchs (1,270), Rasheed Newson (1,255), Ayelet Waldman (1,203), Ashley Edward Miller (1,160), Mike Mariano (715).

Write-in votes are not included in the totals and not every ballot contained votes for every office.

A total of 5,809 valid ballots were cast. Representing 58% of eligible voters (9,988), this turnout is the largest in Guild history and more than doubles the previous record turnout of 2,475 in the 2018 Board of Directors election.

The ballot count was supervised by Votenet Solutions, assisted by the WGAW Tellers Committee, which tabulated the mail-in ballots

That Time Miyazaki, Brad Bird, and Ray Bradbury Made a Movie

So tell us, know-it-alls (you know who you are) did you know this?

Memo to selves: Great talent does not necessarily a great project – or even a so-so collaboration – make.

Found at The Royal Ocean Film Society’s YouTube channel

What Buyer & Agent Types Do Want from Writers

About 10 weeks ago, TVWriter™ ran a piece we called “What Buyer & Agent Types Don’t Want from Writers. Today we’re going to take the positive approach because what good or “don’ts” if you don’t have some “dos.” So without further ado (or even adah):

by Lucy V Hay

Wanted: Great Stories & Fresh Voices

What we all want is a ‘good story, well told’. That’s a given. But what does this really mean? In part 2 of my expert panel this week, I asked the industry pros a second question …

What types of stories, tropes, characters, genres, story worlds (etc) would you like to see MORE of in 2019?

Here’s what they replied with, below. Again, as you will no doubt see, these are not the prescriptive demands many writers believe they need to ‘sell out’ to. As with the previous post, diversity, new takes on genre and fresh perspectives are all top of their wish lists.

It’s also worth remembering what we’re talking about is GOOD RESEARCH and a proper submissions strategy. There’s no point submitting your fantastic novel or script to someone who doesn’t ‘dig’ that kind of story! Don’t forget to check out the submissions checklist in the PDF gallery on the B2W Resource page, too. Here we go …

1) ‘Surprises and humour’ – Kate Leys

What I’d love to see more of are stories that surprise me with their awkward characters and awkward truths (even huge budget action movies).  Scripts with big, punchy stories (even if they’re set in one tiny location).  And stories that are genuinely funny.

BIO: Kate Leys is a story editor (this year Pin cushion, American Animals and Benjamin), and can be found at www.kateleys.co.uk

 2) ‘Surprising genre’ – Annabel Wigoder

More interesting, original horror – where’s the British Get Out? Smart ideas like The Guilty (a Danish thriller set entirely in a police emergency call centre) or I, Tonya, a female-led biopic executed in a really unexpected, blackly comic way.

BIO: Annabel Wigoder is Head of Development for Salon Pictures, working across film and TV. She has projects in development with Channel 4 and the BFI, and just produced her first feature documentary.

 3) ‘More proactive diversity, including class’ – Hattie Grunewald

I’d love more class and income-diversity in protagonists. Fiction is becoming so filled with affluent middle-class characters, across all genres, while readers are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. I’d like more love stories – I worry we’re losing in touch with the great epic romances readers always connect with. And I’d like to see more proactive diversity in the characters in stories – people of colour, disabled people, LGBT people… Fiction reflecting the wide variety of experiences in life.

BIO: Hattie is an agent at Blake Friedmann agency, representing women’s fiction, crime and thriller, YA and Middle grade, and non-fiction. Read more about what she’s looking for, HERE….

Read it more, more, more writing DOs at bang2write.com