Posts with tag television
The Write Stuff: Success!
Filed under: Comedy », Scripts », Home Entertainment », The Write Stuff »
Hello everybody. You've probably been wondering where I have been the past few weeks. Wringing your hands, gnashing your teeth, drinking heavily. Constantly hitting "refresh," waiting for an update. Even if you haven't, just play along for me. I'm a needy man. Thank you.
When I started this column -- your #1 source for writing tips, advice, interviews, strike coverage, and life lessons -- I hoped the nice little hook would be that I am a writer trying to make it big myself. Well friends, after a year and a half of short-term gigs, false starts, near-misses, and one big ol' crushing strike -- my writing partner and I have finally crossed over. We just got staffed as writers on the FX comedy "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." It's a genuinely hilarious show, and one of my favorites on television. I couldn't be more excited.
And so "The Write Stuff" takes an interesting turn. I'm not going to have as much free time now, so it won't be a weekly thing anymore. But I would love to keep the column afloat with semi-regular interviews and Q&A. Please keep on leaving your questions in the comments or at my personal site. I'll get to each one eventually.
The Write Stuff: Breaking into Television, Part Two -- Staffing and Late Night
Filed under: Comedy », Scripts », Home Entertainment », The Write Stuff »
Welcome back to The Write Stuff, where I've been attempting to answer a question that dates back to the beginning of time:
How do writers get jobs on TV writing staffs? Do they have to write spec scripts?
For Part One of this answer, please refer to last week's Write Stuff, where we talked about putting together a portfolio of writing samples. Once you have a good mix of spec scripts and original material, that's the time to start the process of getting an agent. I've covered agent hunting in this column before, so I won't get too deeply into the specifics, but the key is not to give up. If you think you've got talent, stick to your guns. The people who make it in this business are the ones who face countless rejections, but don't throw in the towel. Just the fact that you have completed scripts will make you more enticing to agencies. So many people in Los Angeles walk around telling everyone "I'm a writer, I'm hilarious, look at me, love me!" but they've never finished a script! So many people! People out here think they're so wonderful and talented that big cheeses should be begging for their services. That attitude will get you into trouble. Perfect your material before you even consider heading out. You want to be rich and famous immediately, you're excited, but don't start selling yourself until you've got the genuine goods to sell.
When you do have your portfolio together and land that agent, the agent will send your material to network executives and development people. If these execs like your stuff, they will call you in for a general staffing meeting. These meetings are to make sure that they like you as a person, and that you would fit in on the writing staff of one of the network's programs. If an executive digs your writing and likes you as a human being, he or she may send your material to a show runner. The show runner reads your stuff, and if he or she likes the material, he or she will call you in for a...show runner meeting. These are very exciting, because they're generally the last step before you find out if you landed on a show or if it's back to turning tricks on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Must...block out...painful memories...
The Write Stuff: Breaking into Television, Part One
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Scripts », The Write Stuff »
Kenny asks:
How do writers get jobs on TV writing staffs? Do they have to write spec scripts? And what about talk shows? (The Daily Show, Conan) Are they recruited? How does it work? Thanks.
That's my goal right now, Kenny. I worked on the upcoming season of MTV's Rob & Big, I'm in a writing program at NBC, and I'm looking to use those credits and the connections I've made to get staffed on a network television program this year. It's a big process, so I'm dividing it into two parts. This week and next week's editions of The Write Stuff will tackle the television business.
Basically, to get a job on a television writing staff, you need to have at least one piece of original material and one or more spec scripts. A spec script is a sample script for a show that is currently on the air. You're not writing it in the hopes that the program will purchase your script. They won't, and it likely won't get to the show you wrote it for anyway. You're writing your spec to show that you can capture the feel of the writing and the character voices of any show. Every program has a show runner, and every show runner will want to read something different, so it's good to give him or her a lot of choices.
How to go about choosing which show to spec?
Tarantino Not Interested in Directing NBC's 'Heroes'
Filed under: Drama », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom », Quentin Tarantino », Home Entertainment »
Dark Horizons has spotlighted an interview with Quentin Tarantino that will have geeks everywhere bemoaning what might have been. Tarantino has turned down an offer to direct an episode of the hit NBC drama Heroes. His reason? He doesn't know what Heroes is. QT told The Sun, "They were trying to get me to do one. I haven't even seen the f***ing show. What the f*** is Heroes?" Well Quentin, if you're reading this, you ain't missing much. Heroes is probably the most overrated show on television right now. Somehow, it has captured the love of critics and audiences alike, but I watched the entire first season and found it punishingly dull. I know, I know, chew me out. I just don't get it.
Film directors dabbling in television has become quite the trend lately. The great Spike Lee directed the pilot of Shark. Kevin Smith directed the pilot for the soon-to-premiere (and very good) Reaper, and will write and direct an episode of the Heroes spinoff Origins. Tarantino is no stranger to television either, having shot episodes of both CSI and ER (maybe that's why he wasn't interested in Heroes -- he only does shows with initials for titles). I was about thirteen when Pulp Fiction was in theaters, and though I begged my parents, they wouldn't let me see it. I remember sitting down to watch the QT-directed ER (still the only episode of that show I've seen), trying to convince myself that it would be just as cool. Not quite. If you want your Heroes fix, the second season premieres Monday. If you want your Tarantino fix, the expanded version of Death Proof is in stores today.
From TV Squad: Ten Worst Movies Based On TV Shows
Filed under: Fandom », Remakes and Sequels », Lists »
Over at our wonderful sister site, TV Squad, there is a feature that should be of interest to our movie-crazy readership as well: The Ten Worst Movies Based on TV Shows. I know what you're thinking, how could you possible limit it to ten, right? Paul Goebel has done a pretty spectacular job. I had tried to block a few of these titles from my memory, but seeing them again gave me some war-like flashbacks of struggling through these trainwrecks. Lost In Space more than lived up to its name and wasted a stellar cast, Car 54, Where Are You? is a question no one would ever ask again, and The Mod Squad with Claire Danes should have been called My So-Called Movie.
Wild Wild West is a great call, I can't believe at no point during filming did someone say, "Really? We're doing this?" It also features one of Will Smith's absolute lamest "Let me tell you the plot of my movie!" raps, including the immortal line: I'm the slickest there is. I'm the quickest there is. Did I say I'm the slickest there is? You didn't have to, Will. You didn't have to. Movies based on television programs are almost always disasters. There are exceptions of course. Off the top of my head, The Fugitive is one of the best thrillers ever made, Maverick rocked, and both Addams Family movies are terrific black comedies. But boy, do they get it wrong most of the time. I shudder to think what they'll try to do to something like my precious Seinfeld down the line! I couldn't agree more with Paul's choice of The Avengers as number one, I would actually rank it near the top of my "Worst Movies Ever Made" list. To quote Get Shorty, I've seen better film on teeth.
Rounding out the TV Squad list are George of the Jungle, McHale's Navy, The Flinstones, Scooby-Doo, and Leave It To Beaver. What would you add to the list? For me, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle would have ranked #2, it was so painful to watch Robert DeNiro take a big poo all over his legacy.
Small Screen Vs. Big Screen: Is TV Better than the Movies?
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Fandom », Cinematical Indie »
Once a year or so for the past several years, usually around awards season, somebody somewhere writes a story about how TV has gotten so much better than the movies. This year's article on the state of TV versus the movies is over at Newsweek, and there's a lively debate going on over at Hollywood Elsewhere on the topic, with people trumpeting their favorite TV shows (The Wire, Lost, 24, Heroes, even, god help us, American Idol) over the offerings at the multiplex.Now, I can see the value of a well-made television program. I've been addicted to Jack Bauer and 24 since episode one of season one, and I'm not even sure how I feel about seeing 24 up on the big screen. There's something about the intimacy of curling up on the couch each week with Jack, Chloe and the gang that would be lost in translation to the silver screen. And I know lots of folks, some of them living in my very own house, who can't make it through a week without checking in with Heroes or Grey's Anatomy, but that doesn't mean that those shows are better than the films I can see at one of the arthouse cinemas in town (although I might buy the argument that they're better than what's showing down the road at the multiplex).
When I look at my own top ten films for 2006, I see films like Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth, Liittle Children and The Proposition, films which cry out for a big screen in a dark theater. Even The Lives of Others (which would have had a spot on my list if I'd seen it in time) uses the big screen to make you feel the weight of the Stasi oppression through its gloomy cinematography. TV storytelling may have gotten better over the past decade or so, with more focus on compelling stories, but I'm not sure you can even objectively compare the two media -- even the Newsweek article says, it's like "comparing apples to tubas" -- but then author Devin Gordon goes on to do just that, asserting that television is "running circles" around the movies.
So what do you think? Are your fave TV shows better than the movies Hollywood studios are churning out?
[ via Hollywood Elsewhere ]
Diesel Gets His Hannibal -- Sorta
Filed under: Action », Animation », Drama », Casting », Deals », Newsstand »
Sure, Vin Diesel keeps telling us we're going to see his Hannibal movie really, really soon (I think it's safe to say that reports of it being in the can are wildly overstated). But, really, no one's going to believe him until a)there's a studio attached to pay for the thing, and b)there's some distribution. And, since he's zero for two so far, he's the only one who's counting those chickens. Thanks to BET, however, Diesel and Hannibal are actually confirmed -- for the small screen. In one of the most unexpected -- and possibly coolest, depending on who ends up doing the animation -- bits of news to come out of ComicCon, it was revealed that Diesel has signed a deal with BET to create an animated series called Hannibal the Conqueror, which "will span the life of Hannibal, from his tutelage as a warrior under his father, Hamilcar Barca, to his scaling of the Alps with an army of elephants, and his invasion of Italy." Diesel will be the voice of Hannibal and is also producing the series through his One Race Prods.,; the first six episodes will air next year in prime-time.
RIP: Aaron Spelling
Filed under: Newsstand », Obits »
After suffering a stroke last week, legendary TV producer Aaron Spelling died last night; he was 83. Known primarily for his remarkably successful -- with audiences, if not critics -- escapist television shows, Spelling also produced a handful of movies over the course of his long career in Hollywood, including Soapdish and both Charlie's Angels films. Spelling served in the Army during World War II, and after returning home eventually headed to Hollywood where he worked briefly as an actor, playing bit parts on TV and in films like Three Young Texans and Wyoming Renegades. Shortly thereafter he began writing for television. Hired by friend and mentor Dick Powell to write for Zane Grey Theater, Spelling eventually became a producer on the show and, in 1959, branched off on his own for the first time with the short-lived Johnny Ringo.
Spelling's greatest success came in the 1970s and 80s, when he produced series such as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Starsky and Hutch, T.J. Hooker, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, and Charlie's Angels. That list amounts to about 5% of his total output, which runs to over 200 television shows and movies (including the much-loved The Boy in the Bubble); at one time, Spelling was personally responsible for fully 1/3 of ABC's prime time programming.
China adapts Bridget Jones' Diary for TV
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows », Foreign Language », Casting », Fandom », Newsstand », Cinematical Indie »
Finally, it's happened. I never had the
slightest interest in seeing Bridget Jones' Diary. There
was nothing in that movie that would have appealed to me. I would stay up for days wondering, 'is there any way they
could make this movie interesting to me?' Why yes, there is: film it in another country with actors speaking a language
I don't understand. That's what a Hong Kong TV station plans to do in May when they'll air a Cantonese version of the
popular film. Like Renée Zellweger in the original,
actress Woo Han-yi is also putting on weight for the role. I am so there. Except, of course, I'm not.
Review: The Dark Knight -- Scott's Take
Review: Mamma Mia!_thumbnail.jpg)
The 'Watchmen' Trailer is HERE!
What Are You Watching: 'The Dark Knight', 'Mamma Mia' or ...
Fan Rant: Moviegoing Rules We Can All Agree With
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_thumbnail.jpg "Watchmen Storyboards")
