Go get ’em, Tiger!
Onscreen, TV producer Glen Mazzara shines a light on our darker natures. Offscreen, he’s trying to improve them.
Mazzara, creator of A&E’s Damien, inspired by the 1976 horror film The Omen, and former showrunner of The Walking Dead, is among the leading advocates to increase diversity among TV writing staffs, crews, and casts.
by Troy DeVolldWith hundreds of hours of television in the rearview mirror, you’d imagine that it would get easier for me, this business of promoting myself among my peers. Truth is, it can still be tough.
I’m very big on gentle reminders… the occasional email here or there, a lunch invitation between shows to catch up with those I’m often too busy to connect with in person or those who are hard to connect with unless it’s over a quick bite near wherever they’re working.
Others in the business go big. A successful Executive Producer pal of mine threw a birthday party for herself this weekend at a trendy venue designed to hold about 35 people. Many multiples of that number showed up to pack the little space, invited guests including company owners, network execs, and other busy colleagues who knew it would be a fun opportunity to reconnect with each other as well as wish the birthday gal a great night.
After a decade and a half of writing children’s TV shows, Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler have written a book together. ..and in the process learned about a whole ‘nuther world:
by Mark Huckerby & Nick OstlerWhat’s the difference between writing a script and writing a book? That was the question we were nervously asking ourselves when, after 16 years of scriptwriting for a living, we decided to embark on our first novel.
It couldn’t be THAT different, could it? Well, yes and no. We’d been lucky enough to be on the writing teams of some fantastic children’s TV shows, including Danger Mouse, Thunderbirds are Go and Shaun the Sheep. Those are some pretty fun sandboxes to be allowed to play in, so why the sudden desire to strike out into unknown territory? We’ve always believed that an idea will tell you what it wants to be.
WTF? Succeed by giving up? Win by losing? Or is “giving up” really a way to keep from losing?
Growing up, I had a Winston Churchill quote on my desk: “Never, never, never give up.” It served as a daily reminder to continue pushing forward, especially when things were rough.
Persevering against all odds certainly helps in the creative industry where you have to convince art directors and brand managers to buy your abstract and experimental ideas and bring them to life in the real world. However, looking back, I realize that the mentality to keep going at all costs can be an inefficient approach to work. In other words, there are merits to giving up.
