Tag: online TV writing workshop

Top UK Showrunner Anthony Horowitz: ‘This is the golden age of TV’

Anthony Horowitz’s name is as well-known as any TV writer’s name can be – in the UK where he has written and produced some of the best written and most popular police procedurals in the history of British TV. We’re talking about Foyle’s War, Collision, Midsomer Murders, and many more. The article below gives us a chance to go beyond the usual puffery and actually learn a bit about the mindset it takes to succeed as a major TV force in any country:

Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz

by Tim Masters

As its title suggests, New Blood endeavours to offer a fresh journey along the well-trodden path of TV crime drama.

But even an experienced writer like Anthony Horowitz admits it wasn’t easy making fraud a sexy subject for the small screen. read article

LB: Envy – Deadly Sin with a Positive Effect?

by Larry Brody

Just discovered the above video on the interwebs and definitely believe it’s worth sharing.

One of the dirty little secrets I’ve learned over the years is that many a showbiz biggie has gotten a boost from at least one of the so-called “7 Deadly Sins.” Whenever I say this, most people’s brains automatically zoom right to the sexier sins and the casting couch. But in my experience the most helpful sin has proven to be envy. It’s helped some of the most – and, yeah, least – talented biggies in films, TV, music, et al over some otherwise impossible hurdles.

Sorry if I’m bursting any bubbles. (But you’ll thank me later.) read article

What Hath Peak TV Wrought?

Remember when you could count on TV? You could schedule your life knowing what shows to watch and when to watch them? How sweet the past! How innocent! Just between us, TVWriter™ is mighty glad those days are over, but it turns out that there are others whose opinions differ:

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by Lara Zarum

When I’m old and grey and yet still, in the words of Carrie Bradshaw jetting off to Paris, “impossibly fresh-looking,” I’ll sit my grandchildren on my lap and tell them the story of Peak TV: “Between 2009 and 2015,” I’ll croak, “the number of scripted series on TV practically doubled, from around 200 to just over 400.” To which my grandchildren will respond, “What’s TV?”

In a Vulture cover story that ran last week called “The Business of Too Much TV,” reporters Josef Adalian and Maria Elena Fernandez spoke to showrunners, writers, directors, crewmembers, actors, talent agents, and executives in an attempt to understand how “Peak TV” — a term coined last summer by FX president John Landgraf — has affected the industry. As Adalian and Fernandez illustrate, we’re in the middle of a boom time: from line producers to writers to port-a-potty rentals, demand is fast outstripping supply. Movie stars are commanding millions of dollars per episode of the next hot Netflix or HBO or Showtime series. There’s more opportunity than ever for a creator with a strong vision to get her show on the air. read article

The Whole Crazy Process Of Creating A TV Show, From Pitch To Pilot

Charlie Jane Anders, our favorite sf-fantasy critic, has turned her discerning mind to illuminating the darkness that makes websites like TVWriter™ and contests like our People’s Pilot Competition possible. That’s right, kids, it’s time to home right in on This Amazingly Cool TV Show Creation Thing That We (Try So Hard To) Do! A big tip of the hat to CJA:

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by Charlie Jane Anders

During pilot season, tons of TV shows are ordered and then enthusiastically spruiked in trade magazines. And then, nine months later… most of them will not be on television. What is this mysterious crucible? Here’s our step-by-step guide to the process of pitching a brand new television show.

[Full disclosure: A TV show based on my story “Six Months, Three Days” is in development.] read article

John Ostrander on Writing: The Faces We and Our Characters Show

by John Ostrander

Ostrander-2Every once in a while, I’ll come across a picture of me from back in my twenties and thirties or even earlier. I look at myself and what I was wearing and how I wore my hair (I had more hair back then to wear).

I sometimes had a mustache, I sometimes had a beard, or even big sideburns and that was always a little bit odd. My beard especially came in sparse in some areas, tightly curled all over, and a touch red. Likewise, I sometimes let my hair grow long although it too was very curly so it never achieved any great length. It was longer on the sides than on the top of my head; I referred to as a bozfro.

I suspect a lot of people look at these older images of themselves and go, “What was I thinking?” And yet, it was a choice that I made. Part of it would have been influenced by the fads and fashions of the time but did I really think at the time that I was looking good? read article