Tag: People’s Pilot Contest

Hollywood Must Ride the Wave of Change, Not Resist It

Ooh, waves of change! Ride ’em, baby! Cowabunga! A certain legendary agent/studio dude (and owner of the L.A. Dodgers and the Golden State Warriors) has a few things to say about the state of entertainment right now, today:

linkedinwaveby Peter Guber

Once upon a time, Hollywood lived by the golden rule – he who had the gold, made the rule. Studios, networks and other gatekeepers enjoyed the keys to the kingdom for a long time and earned enormous economic success. But a funny thing happened on the way to eternal domination – the digitization and subsequent democratization of content creation and distribution which forever changed and continues to change who is holding those keys to success.

This is the current state of the filmed entertainment industry. read article

Ken Levine: In Defense of “Jokes”

Another brilliant mess o’observations from M*A*S*H’s Ken Levine:

big_bang_theory_season2_screen01by Ken Levine

…There are several definitions for jokes.  Here’s one:  A joke is something spoken, written, or done with humorous intention.  

In some cases it has a punchline, or just something you didn’t expect, which amuses you.

Jokes have become uncool, passé, something to sneer at and scorn. Writers who resort to jokes are hacks or old or worse – old hacks.  A commenter yesterday who’s a writer on a sitcom said his showrunner threw out anything that was too “jokey.”  And I will grant you there are many bad jokes, lame jokes, racist jokes, old jokes, formula jokes, juvenile jokes, and blonde jokes. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 4/1/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=& (upcoming FRIENDS WITH BETTER LIVES) has a new overall deal with ABC Studios. (Cuz his previous shows, DON’T TRUST THE B— IN APARTMENT 23 and TRAFFIC LIGHT (?!) were such big hits, your little muncher supposes.) Julie Plec (THE VAMPIRE DIARIES) has a new overall deal with Warner Bros. TV. (Cuz she’s got a bunch of shows on the air, don’tcha know? And that, justifiably, makes Julie hot, hot, hot!) Jennie Snyder Urman (EMILY OWENS, MD) has extended her deal at CBS TV Studios. (Woo! Talk about big hits. EMILY OWNS is right up there with – wait, don’t tell me – DON’T TRUST THE BITCH. How can you not love a business that rewards failure as well as TV does?)

TVWriter University Update

answersnextexitsign

Well, it had to happen sometime. We have a sudden cancellation in the upcoming Master Class given by LB his very special self, and that means there’s one surprise opening as of the April 10th starting date.

LB’s Master Class is for pro or pro-level writers only. People you’ve heard of have taken it, for crying out loud, wanting to get Larry’s feedback on various assigned projects before turning in their first drafts. read article

Peggy Bechko: Tomorrow May Be Hell

neil-gaiman-on-hell

by Peggy Bechko

“Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.”

Been there, done that? read article