Comedy Writing Masterclass: Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong
The minds behind Peep Show and Fresh Meat pick apart their creative process and give their top tips on writing successful comedy.Read More
Television
Pages from the Official Star Trek Writers’ Guide, 1967
Take a look at a few pages from the original guide from 1967 explaining how each Star Trek episode was to be written: These excerpts from a 31-page photocopied writers’ guide for the original Star Trek series show how early Trek episodes were crafted. The guide, written in 1967, was meant to help writers for the year-old show—as well as Read MoreRead More
How Does A Writer Distinguish A Movie Idea From A Television Idea?
In these interviews with Film Courage, screenwriting teacher John Truby discusses the differences in concepts between TV and Movie ideas. Other TV writing snippets with John Truby from Film Courage.Read More
Behind the Lens: Game of Thrones with Anette Haellmigk
Anett Haellmigk speaks to Creative COW about her path as a pioneering female cinematographer and her work on Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones came to me through director Alex Graves, with whom I’ve worked for 17 years. In Spring of 2012, when we were doing the 666 pilot together, he told me Game of Thrones had approached him to Read MoreRead More
Why a Failed Pilot Actually Means Success
Noah Hawley, creator of “My Generation,” reveals the open secret of pilot season for writers: “In TV, there’s no stigma to failure.” The pilot writer in January, like Schrodinger’s cat, is alive and dead at the same time. As Feb. 1 approaches, sleep becomes fitful, your mind split between equally likely scenarios. Either 1) the Read MoreRead More
The Two Types of TV Stories
EriK Bork distinguishes between two types of TV tomes: the workplace procedural and the personal story. I used to lament the fact that so many network series focus on cops, lawyers, and/or doctors. I tried pitching and developing multiple series about other kinds of workplaces. I felt, like many aspiring television writers do, that there Read MoreRead More
How (and Where) Should I Pitch My TV Show?
You’ve got a great idea for a TV show… now what do you do with it? Heather Hale explains what you need to consider next. “It depends.” William Goldman was right: “Nobody knows anything.” Still, you’ve got to start somewhere. Like any other sales activity, you have to consider: What it is you’re trying to Read MoreRead More
Television’s Future Has a Social Media Soundtrack
Deb Roy explores the notion that our television watching behaviors are now being colored by tweets and facebook updates. When movies were first introduced in the late 1800′s, they were silent. Three decades later, the invention of synchronized soundtracks satisfied our natural desire to hear what is seen. Soundtracks unleashed a wave of creativity in Read MoreRead More
How a ‘New Girl’ script gets made: From outline to final cut on ‘TinFinity’
How does the Zooey Deschanel vehicle come into Fruition? Alan Sepinwell tracks writers Kim Rosenstock and Josh Malmuth as they create an episode. “You must think we’re such dummies,” an exasperated J.J. Philbin tells me. This is somewhere in the fourth of five hours I’ll spend at the writers offices of “New Girl” late on a Friday afternoon in Read MoreRead More
Why Write for Kids?
Motti Aviram works in the Israeli children’s television industry – here he makes a case for getting involved with Children’s Programming In the early eighties and again in the nineties, there was a significant jump in the production of movies for children and families. These days, you can expect an average of about 25 Hollywood films to Read MoreRead More
Making a TV Off Effect in After Effects
Josh Lester walks through steps of creating a simple TV off effect that old timers are familiar with from our ancient CRT TVs.Read More
Judge Wapner on the Origins of “The People’s Court”
Joseph Wapner recounts how “The People’s Court” started which would lead to a genre of day-time court TV shows. Here he discusses the legalities of these shows: See the Full Interview hereRead More