Tag: People’s Pilot Contest

Peggy Bechko: Cornering Your Character

choices-sign

by Peggy Behcko

We’re writers. We tend to fall in love with our character. They become our buddies and we’re loath to hurt them or cause them extreme difficulty.

And yet that’s exactly what we have to do in order to produce a fantastic script or novel. You have to be downright mean, forcing your favored character into a corner with no obvious way out and very little wiggle room.

Those who read your novels or watch the movie resulting from your script have to see a character with a spine, convictions, and unique personality to cheer for. That’s what they’re there for. That’s why they read and watch movies. read article

The Untold Legal Drama Of Coyote v. Acme

Cuz we all need something to love:

coyote v acmeby Geoff Manaugh

Back in 1990, in an awesome piece for The New Yorker, author Ian Frazier told the—shall we say—little-known story of Wile E. Coyote’s endless legal battles with the Acme Company. Now, the tale of Coyote’s legal tribulations, suing Acme for grievous personal injury and catastrophic product malfunction, has been designed and republished by Michael Bierut of Pentagram, featuring original diagrams by Daniel Weil.

Frazier’s premise is that Coyote has finally had enough of the injury, trauma, and humiliation inflicted upon him by Acme products—products that never seem to work as intended and that always, in the end, turn against the person (or, his case, animal) using them. So he has lawyered up and taken his case to court. read article

VERONICA MARS digital series winging its way to the interwebs

by Team TVWriter™ Press Service

veronica-mars-movie-posterThe CW announced today that a spinoff of the long-running show that’s about to hit the big screen will air online. It’s from Rob Thomas, the creator of the series and the upcoming movie.

The show will post on CW Seed, the network’s home for original digital series.

Sadly, the CW had very few details to share with the press today at the annual Television Critics Tour in Pasadena because the deal was justdone. CW Entertainment President Mark Pedowitz said Thomas is “thrilled” with what CW Seed is doing and already has some ideas about what characters could be featured in the spinoff. read article

Swapping Jokes

Ken Levine AKA Our Pal Who Doesn’t Know We Exist, scores again!

tv-jokesby Ken Levine

Recently in a post I wrote a joke that some felt was too insensitive. Was it? You could argue either way. But I decided it was easier to just swap it out for another joke. I could have stayed with it, but in this case figured it wasn’t worth offending some people. I say “in this case” because in other instances I have kept original jokes that was controversial.

But I kept those because I thought they worked and were appropriate and those who were offended were overly sensitive. You can’t do humor without offending someone. I have never however, kept a joke because I thought it would be too hard to replace. read article

LB Answers Your Questions about Animation Writing

Finn_writing_his_poem

Well, maybe not your questions, but those from a certain DP for sure. Here’s what he wrote:

I’m working on a half-hour animated show for the People’s Pilot. How should I gauge my Act lengths, or even my script as a whole? I’ve got a few THE SIMPSONS production scripts that I use as a guideline, each one about 50 pages, though that is longer than what most websites say, and longer than past winners I have looked at for the People’s Pilot (they tend to cap at about 30). Is there a general standard on how many pages each act should be/the script as a whole? It feels incredibly hard to tell. And I don’t understand why single-cam vs multi-cam shows should have different script lengths. read article