Tag: People’s Pilot Contest

Did You Know There are Oscars for College Film Students?

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by Team TVWriter™ Press Service

We didn’t either. (Oh, wait. Maybe we did. Seems to me we’ve written this opening before. Well, it isn’t something that sticks in our minds, probably cuz nobody here at TVWriter™ is eligible. Shazbot!)

Anyway, here’s the whole story for 2014:

Channing Tatum, The Academy, and Oscars Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron today announced the winners of the “Team Oscar” college search on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” along with this year’s Oscars host, Ellen DeGeneres. The winners will deliver Oscar statuettes to celebrity presenters at the Oscars on Sunday, March 2, 2014, live on ABC. read article

I Will Not Write Your F—ing Script

Yo, non-writers with “great ideas!” Ever wonder why writers you meet curl their lips, growl, and stomp away when you suggest that they should write your great script for you? Well, you stupid %$#!, here’s why:

cartoon-writerby Sharon Soboil

A while ago I read Josh Olson’s article in the Village Voice blog, entitled “I Will Not Read Your F—ing Script.” After chuckling through his op-ed piece, I read each of the comments posted. Some understood his position, others thought he was arrogant and too high on himself. What it stirred up for me in reading it was not so much that I don’t want to read your f—ing script, but rather that I don’t want to write your f—ing script.

I have been a professional freelance writer in L.A. for years. I’ve traveled to France, England and India for projects. I have optioned, sold, done rewrites and ghost written on films and television scripts. I’m not saying I’m winning the Academy Award this year (not that it’s not a dream), but I’m a writer in the trenches. read article

munchman: Race and the Media

A kindly WGAW member we know has leaked this excellent – and dismaying – article from the “If You’re a Member” section of the WGAW’s website:

Eric DeggansNPR TV critic Eric Deggans addresses the dilemma of people of color in television. Bigger numbers aren’t enough if the portrayals are stereotypes, he says. 

The Cosby Show, which premiered in 1984 and ran for eight seasons, not only revived the beleaguered sitcom genre but in its genius showed America an image that had not been seen for the most part before on network television: the upper-middle class Huxtables, an African American family in which the mother was a lawyer and dad was a doctor. Until then, portrayals of African Americans on TV tended to lean towards characters that were gang members, drug addicts and poor inner city people. read article

Peer Production: PLATOON OF POWER SQUADRON

PoPSposterA web drama series that we actually enjoy. (And we say that as people who are much more likely to want to watch something and laugh our butts off instead of worry about, you know, something bad happening to the heroes.

Oh, we also like the way this series pretends to deconstruct the whole heroic saga notion while actually injecting it with fresh, and vibrant, life.

Check out the first episode. (Don’t worry. There are plenty more.) read article

The Birth of Video Art

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Gizmodo has made a video that’s required viewing for everybody who thinks peer production started because of YouTube. What a terrific – and essential – history lesson this is: