for tv and movies,
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and political theatre.
Dead Things on Sticks: Denis McGrath is on fire in Toronto.
Jane Espenson wrote Buffy. She worked with Joss, baby. And she's all about screenplay craft.
Kung Fu Monkey: John Rogers is one of the top writers in LA.
Kay Reindl From the heart of Tee Vee.
Jill Golick blogs about pilots.
By Ken Levine: Top sitcom dude (M*A*S*H, Cheers, Simpsons, Frasier). He knows.
The Artful Writer: Thought-provoking posts for pro writers from a WGA honcho.
What It's Like by Lisa Klink. Credit list as long as your arm.
How to Buy Art. Lisa Hunter blogs intelligently and wittily about the art market. And you can ask her questions.
Victoria Lucas is one of the rare development people who understand how scripts really work, and can show you how
to make yours structurally better. I treasure her insights. You will too.
Social Security Administration: Most popular names by year.
Name Trends: Uniquely popular names by year.
Doris Egan's LiveJournal. House, Tru Calling, etc.
Creative Screenwriting. Podcasted interviews with fascinating screenwriters.
John August: Screenwriter of Charlie's Angels and Big Fish.
DISC/ontent: blogs about direct to DVD movies. Bracing.
Ni vu ni connu: Martine Page is a working Montreal screenwriter
Danny Stack, chipping away at his keyboard across the Pond.
The Thinking Writer: Jon Deer went through pretty much the same mill I did, and has a lot of helpful stuff to say.
Fun Joel: Joel's a professional script reader. In other words, he'll be reading your script. So listen to what he says.
Chad Gervich's Script Notes. Writer's Digest-sponsored site from a veteran development executive.
The Legion of Decency. A producer's blog!
Alligators in a Helicopter by Scott the Reader.
Shouting into the Wind. Showbiz news'n'gossip.
Screenplay Europe: Reports on festivals, grants, and other Euro bon-bons.
Scrivenor's Error: Legal issues involved in writing.
The Futon Critic: What's in development? What's on TV?
TV Tattle: Thought-provoking articles about TV gathered from all over.
TV.com: Episode guides and cast and crew lists.
TV, Eh?What's doing on Canadian TV.
EntertainmentCareers.Net: Looking for a job in the biz?
ShowBizJobs.Com: Ditto.
Amanda the Aspiring Writer. Amanda works at an Agency. Go Amanda!
101. My intrepid assistant's blog.
Bluestocking LA - The Life and Times of a Writer and New Mom in LA Andy Coughlan is writing screenplays and producing short films. Scriptland: series in the LA Times. The Onion AV Club and its archives.
Famous Films Re-Enacted by Bunnies in 30 Seconds Andy Diggle. A great entertainer, a great humanitarian, and a personal friend of Johanna Constantine.
Justin Gray. A great entertainer, a great humanitarian, and a personal friend of Jonah Hex. Er, if anyone is.
Kody Chamberlain. Nice, really gruesome art.
Glenn Hauman, assistant editor on Grimjack and others...
David Bishop, who is trying to make the leap to the screen...
Reverse Dictionary Search: "What's that word that means....?" Most Popular Baby Names by Year, courtesy the Social Security Administration Baby Name Voyager graphs baby name frequency by decade.
American Amazon:
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
[I'm looking for a job as a script coordinator.] Is there a book or a trade publication that I can consult to find out where I can fax my resume?Both Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter list productions and their production offices. In Canada, it's Playback magazine. I'm not sure which days which magazines list the productions, but I'm pretty sure it's weekly.
The problem is that almost no one is going to hire you from a resume you faxed in, unless that's the day that their regular script coordinator comes in drunk and insults the director, and the other script coordinators they know are all on other shows at the moment.
They hire you because they know you. I'm not sure how you do it, but as I keep suggesting, if you intern on one show, the production manager is likely to hire you on the next. The more people you know the better.
If you know directors and production managers, and they like you, and you know what you're doing, you'll get all sorts of jobs. It's the getting to know directors and production managers that's hard. Usually you have to work as an intern or production assistant first.
TALK TO EVERYONE. Ask their advice. This is better than asking them for a job because almost no one is mean enough to refuse to give you advice, and if they know of a job they'll tell you anyway. Constantly take people to coffee and/or drinks.
As far as getting work as a writer's assistant, it's the same answer, but I've blogged about it extensively here and here.
I don't really know of any other way. Breaking in as a writer is theoretically easy: just write some kickass spec scripts. Breaking in as a script coordinator, or writer's assistant, huh, I have no idea.
1 Comments:
This reminds me of a message board discussion I had very recently with someone who wants to break into showbiz but was a little discouraged by the revelation that it was 'who' you know and not 'what' you know that gets you noticed, get's you work. Below is an excerpt from my response:
Yes, it is true to a certain extent. I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for 'who' I know. Right out of the gate, my very first PR client was a multi-award winning, Emmy nominated Hollywood writer-producer who remains one of the most respected and sought-after professionals in the industry -- and that only happened because we had known each other for about a year by that point. Many of the high-powered showbiz denizens I associate with have graciously given me some dynamite business/creative advice to help me advance my career, and have even given me leads on potential new job prospects. So, yeah, it is the 'who' you know that gets you in. But it's the 'what' you know that keeps you there.By
Kelly J. Compeau, at 12:59 PM
I was interviewed on WNYU.
And on CKUT.
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