Tag: Spec Scriptacular Contest

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie 75

R.I.P. Joan
by Leesa Dean

joan_riversI’ve been working towards a deadline and it’s been nuts (pulling 12-15 hour days) so this week will be short.  I was going to postpone but instead decided to write a few words about Joan Rivers, who, unless you’ve been living under a rock and didn’t hear, recently died.

I don’t think there’s a female comedian today who’s not indebted to her.  And while I’m not a stand-up, I do write comedy and her influence and the kind of material she did had a huge impact on me. The political incorrectness. The great snappy one-liners. The I give zero f*cks of it all. When she was on, as Chris Rock said, nobody could follow her.

I think the moment I really started paying attention was when she began doing red carpet (which, I guess, is a reflection of my age.) read article

Peer Production: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

This one hits the bullseye. About showbiz. The human  condition. And as an example of the art of indie animated film making:

https://vimeo.com/105847954

by Steve Cutts read article

Viacom Agrees To Breakthrough Deal To Provide Channels To Sony’s Online Pay TV Service

Another death blow to the trad TV paradigm. How long can the mortally injured giant keep tottering before it falls? (Oh, c’mon, you don’t really hate that metaphor, do you? Do you?) Give a big hello to Internet Pay TV!

sony_logogridby David Lieberman

This is a big advance for Sony’s plan to offer pay TV channels via the Internet by the end of this year, which it announced in January. Viacom’s agreement to offer its 22 channels outside of cable and satellite is its “first-ever agreement to provide its networks for an Internet-based live TV and video on demand service,” it says this morning. In addition to popular services including BET, Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon — all in HD — Sony will be able to offer customers access to Viacom’s TV Everywhere websites and apps as well as its full VOD package. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms, although I suspect Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman will face some questions about this later today when he appears at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference in NYC.

“Viacom always strives to create transformational opportunities that combine consumer value and technological innovation,” Dauman says. “Given our young, tech-savvy audiences, our networks are essential for any new distribution platform, and we’re excited to be among the many programmers that will help power Sony’s new service and advance a new era for television.”

Peggy Bechko: 4 Great Tips on Writing to the Magic

 Peggy Bechko Magicby Peggy Bechko

Writers, at least fiction writers, pretty much live in a world of make-believe. We live in worlds of our own creation and in that living attempt to make those worlds real to everyone else; readers, listeners, watchers.

But it’s not as simple as sitting around spinning tales. Don’t we wish. There’s a whole lot that goes into writing a story and one aspect of that is research. No you can’t skip it.

Getting facts straight brings believability. If your setting is in the 1920’s Chicago you better know what you’re talking about to get the mood set and not flush readers and watchers right out of their ‘suspension of disbelief’ mode. Yes that goes for Sci Fi and Fantasy as well – get some facts in there that will make your ‘way out of our experience’ world more real. If you trim unreality with reality you bring belief and immersion. read article

LB: R.I.P. Theodore J. Flicker, Provocateur Creator of BARNEY MILLER

(EDITED 9/1914 TO REMOVE ERRORS of fact for which TVWriter™ apologizes.)

Ted Flicker Capture

Ted Flicker, known primarily as the creator of the classic ’70s TV series BARNEY MILLER and the writer-director of the cult classic comedy film from the same era, THE PRESIDENT’S ANALYST, died a couple of nights ago at his home in Santa Fe. read article