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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...
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Saturday, August 30, 2008
Kira Snyder tagged me with the why do you write tv? meme.
First of all, I'm both a TV and feature writer. Whether I write TV or features depends on the story I want to tell. If I get a feature idea, I write a feature. Sometimes an idea wants to be both and then I try it both ways.
I write TV because it is the dominant medium in our time. It is where the best stuff is being done. It is what the most people are tuning into. It is the biggest lever to move people's hearts. If this were the 19th Century I would probably be a novelist, and this would be a diary. If this were the 17th Century I would be a playwright and this would be drunken rantings in a pub. If this were the 6th Century BC I would be a poet and this would be drunken rantings at a private dinner.
The medium is artistically rewarding because you get to create a world and a bunch of characters and then keep telling stories there and about them until they pull the plug. As I say in my book about TV, a TV show is a relationship. A movie is a one night stand.
The medium is also artistically rewarding because TV writers have way more control over their work than movie writers do. On the other hand they have far less control than novelists or songwriters.
The money's nice, but I didn't get into this for the money, and I don't know anyone who got into it for the money.
I have a longer explanation in the intro to my TV writing book. It boils down to "You get to run the asylum."
I don't think there was a specific moment I wanted to become a TV writer. At some point I noticed that I write pretty fast, and that's a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for being a TV writer. So I wrote some specs and tried to get hired. I had more success in movies in LA; I didn't break into TV until I moved north. But in terms of wanting to write TV over movies -- it's been a slow process -- as TV gets better, it becomes more and more exciting to write in the medium.
I would say I'm always open to writing, in whatever medium...Labels: memes
2 Comments:
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Cecil E. Rudd, at 7:55 AM
This is one of the memes that I'll read everyone response I can find. I like that you say TV is a relationship. You do get to know the people over a long period of time and that's who they become to you.
I especially like the, if this were the 19th Century... explanation. For some people, it's like that. They just want to tell a good story no matter what form it comes in.
I'm starting to get back into movie/TV writing and I enjoy your insight.By
I was interviewed on WNYU.
And on CKUT.
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