Tag: Spec Scriptacular Contest

TV Writing Deals: WGN America Wants Us to Watch a Couple of New Series

The upcoming TITANS series probably isn't about this team, but, hey, who knows?
The upcoming TITANS series probably isn’t about this team, but, hey, who knows?

by munchman

Which means that they’ve greenlit one for 13 episodes and have commissioned a pilot script for the other.

The greenlit (-lighted?) series is called TITANS, created by Peter Mattei, who the last el munchero heard, was a writer for CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL, a ’90s Nickelodeon series that, well, was in fact my favorite show of that era. Ah, Melissa Joan Hart, who suspected you’d grow up to become not only a teenage witch but also an adult bitch the most politically right wing actor since Charlton Heston?

But munchy digresses. TITANS is about some yutzes in Appalachia who, according to the Hollywood Reporter, seem to be the vilest set of heroes since the hillbillies in DELIVERANCE. (What? The hillbillies weren’t the heroes? They were when I saw it at a midnight show in West Virginia in the backroom of a dingy pool hall.) read article

LB: R.I.P. Film & TV Producer-Director Alan Landsburg

alan-landsburgWhen I came to L.A. in the late ’90s to try and make my showbiz mark, one of the first producers I met was Alan Landsburg.

I probably spent literally dozens of hours pitching to him in the crowded North Hollywood house that his company, Alan Landsburg Productions, was headquartered in. (Alan, of course, lived in Beverly Hills.)

I never sold him anything but always had a great time because I was being treated with courtesy and respect by a man I in turn respected, both personally and creatively. And I learned! Oh, did I learn from those conversations…and from just being in the office, observing as pre-production, production, and post-production crises collided. Talk about a crash course. read article

Peer Production: THE FUTURE STARTS HERE

Tiffany Shlain, creator of the Webby Awards, tells us all the mistakes she made with her own film making so that we can avoid them. And, since we all want to do things right, we’re all going to watch this, right? And tell our friends? And family? But not our enemies or rivals, oh no, not them. Cuz this advice is spot on:

TVWriter™ Welcomes Inktip!

Don'tcha love the colors of this logo? We love the colors!
Don’tcha love the colors of this logo? We love the colors!

Speaking of the Spec Scriptacular as we just were, TVWriter™ is proud to announce that Inktip, which we consider THE site for producers and reps to find and see your work, has partnered up with us to co-sponsor both the Spec Scriptacular and the People’s Pilot competitions.

Starting with the current Spec Scriptacular, the first place winner of each category of our two flagship contests will receive a six-month listing on the InkTip site, a terrific meeting place for writers and pros. Over 200 films have been made from scripts and writers found on InkTip, and no telling how many more deals may have been struck that gave new writers a start.

LB and InkTip’s Jerrol and Norma LaBaron have known each other for almost two decades, and, LB says: read article

Peggy Bechko: The Symbiotic Relationship Between Writers & Readers

Hmm, dude here looks like Gene Roddenberry. Could it be...?
Hmm, dude here looks like Gene Roddenberry. Could it be…?

by Peggy Bechko

Writers and readers have a symbiotic relationship. Each needs the other.

So why, really, do people read? Personally I think most people read to escape, to experience things they might not (or plainly could not) experience in everyday life.  They can explore new worlds if science fiction or fantasy, they can feel the adrenaline rush of a car chase, or a race from an exploding volcano or maybe experience a jungle trek astride an elephant in India without actually going there.  Fiction offers the opportunity to live another life while remaining safe on the couch.

And that’s just for starters. Readers can also experience the wide range of human emotion and deeply moving experience from the safety of a comfortable chair. Or they can relive an event in their lives via the book in their hands. They can do all this while skipping the boring parts, and they have they opportunity to learn from all this without actually suffering through those experiences first hand. read article