Writers can be a very strange lot. Mostly we love writing, but we hate writing. Really, we do. It can be called a love/hate relationship but really it’s more of a hate/hate one.
Now I’m not talking about story. Story is great. It’s the damn writing.
Seriously, how many times have writers sat down in front of a blank page or screen, brimming with a new, fantastic idea, aching to get it out, and then sitting there, staring at the blank page and swearing softly to themselves? The driving urge to write is there, but the whole thing is more than a little daunting. Who doesn’t hate starting new projects, beginning from scratch?read article
LB’s NOTE: Why am I just finding out about John’s latest project? Damn! Time to get my dinero into the mix!
LB’s 2nd NOTE: John’s article is about the comics industry, but substitute the phrase “web series” or “indie video” and what he says applies to just about everyone who comes to TVWriter™.
by John Ostrander
I love writing and I am so glad I’ve been able to make a living at it. I’m very thankful to all the fans and all the publishers who have enabled me to do that over the years.read article
Odds are that if the show can’t pay for your travel it ain’t gonna send a car like this to meet you either!
by Troy DeVolld
I don’t complain about much. I’m good with long hours, I don’t mind working a little harder to get a show in good shape and turned in on time. I can even handle parking blocks or even miles from a location and cramming into a shuttle with 7-23 other people to get to set.
Being asked to work as a local states away from home, however, bugs me.
What that means is finding (and paying for) a place to stay when you’re many hours from home, sometimes out of state or even the country working on a project. It’s not uncommon in reality’s non-union universe, as it saves the production company money on their most tightly-budgeted shows.read article
And now, from the “pages” of TomCruise.com (We know! Who’d a thought?) comes an excellent article holding y’all by the hand and taking you – okay, us) through one of the scariest processes in the known universe – becoming a gen-u-ine film (or TV) producer:
by Team Tom Cruise
Yeppers, these are iconic silhouettes we all should know!
For the film lover who aspires to do it all in the entertainment industry, learning how to become a movie producer puts you in the driver’s seat of a film production. The producer is possibly the most misunderstood, yet most important person involved with any movie. The producers – people like Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer – all join a film project at the very beginning and commit themselves to seeing it through to completion. In short, they’re the generals running the entire production, doing it all.
Fans and film aficionados who want to break into the industry to produce their own films may feel overwhelmed. It takes a ton of knowledge about a variety of fields to climb the mountain in becoming a movie producer. However, the team at TomCruise.com again has assembled a guide to give you some resources outlining the basics of film producing. While not completely exhaustive, we hope this gives the aspiring film producer a first marker on the road to becoming a success!read article
by John Ostrander
