Tag: Spec Scriptacular Contest

Leesa Dean: Adventures of a Web Series Newbie

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Chapter 71: Four Bad Things
by Leesa Dean

This week has been nuts. Insanely busy writing, planning, setting stuff up. Had three meetings scheduled. Two were cancelled/postponed. And the third was a bust. This summer has been interesting…and challenging.

The third meeting wasn’t for the TOP SECRET big project I’ve been working on this past year. It was with a small level agent who reached out through a friend. We chatted via email and I agreed to meet for drinks. Full disclosure: While I am hoping to connect with an agent, in general, I’ve found that small level ones–meaning ones not connected with a large agency, or formerly from a large agency and starting their own–are normally a waste of time. So why’d I take the meeting? Two reasons: 1) My friend asked me to (this agent is trying to build a cool client roster) and 2) bigger agents aren’t exactly banging down my door right now.

The signs that the meeting was gonna be a bust were all over the place. Here are Four Bad Things that were tip-offs that this was not meant to be: read article

Netflix is Making More $$$ from its Subscribers Than HBO

The paradigm, it’s a changin’. Think about the future for a second – what you’ll be watching when you’re being entertained, where you’ll be watching it. And while you’re thinking, cast your eyes on this Facebook post from Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix:

Reed Hastings Capture

Peggy Bechko: Writers Don’t Wait For Inspiration

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by Peggy Bechko

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Jack London

One of my favorite quotes on writing. I don’t know how many writers still carry that image in their heads that a writer sits around contemplating until struck with a brilliant ideas at which point said writer begins to write in earnest. Hopefully not many.

I don’t know how many readers also have that same image of writers in their heads. To both camps I say, get it out. Stomp that idea to death and do it now. read article

Cara Winter: The Anglo Files

Sit back and enjoy the first of what we at TVWriter™ hope will be a long series of reviews/reports/discussions of  UK TV from the remarkable writer – and Britvision fan – Cara Winter (whom we first met and immediately recruited for the site when she won the Action/Drama/Dramedy category in the 2013 Spec Scriptacular):

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The Anglo Files
#1: OUTLANDER

OK, so, confession time:  I’ve been known to watch TOP GEAR just to hear the accents.  I’ve seen every episode of SHERLOCK sixteen times.  I mayhave been accepted to drama school because I’d memorized the entirety of Shakespeare’s HENRY V.  My Google search history reveals more than a few “2BR rental, London” searches, and my dream car is a Mini with a Union Jack hard top.  I am (shamefully? or shamelessly?) …an Anglophile. read article

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and the rise of post-plot cinema

We’ll tell you straight out: All the TVWriter™ minions loved GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. We aren’t saying it’s a great film, but it certainly was the most enjoyable film all of us saw so far this year. Reminded the old-timers (sorry, LB) of the first time they saw STAR WARS.

But when you think about it, there just may be a tad off about the writing, in terms of traditional story structure, we mean. Or maybe more than a tad. (Or maybe less…cuz so much fun that who cares, you know?) Read on:

cavil-with-guardians-of-the-galaxyby Steven Zeitchik

Like many people this past weekend, I went to see “Guardians of the Galaxy” at a nearby multiplex. I bought some concession snacks, donned a pair of 3-D glasses and sat through the half-hour of previews that preceded the James Gunn romp with a fair bit of anticipation, stoked by my returning to the U.S.  after three weeks of work abroad to a stack of effusive reviews, as well as email bulletins that the Marvel movie was killing it at the box office. read article