WRITING THIS, WRITING THAT, WRITING...THE OTHER THING
Okay, so a couple of weeks ago I stumbled over the website for the Rod Serling Conference at Ithaca College. This caught my eye as I believe that the bulk of the Shakespeare kids are forced to read in school should be replaced with Rod Serling screenplays and teleplays. Romeo & Juliet and Requiem for a Heavyweight should both be required reading at the 10th grade level. The cathode ray tube is The Globe of the 20th century.
In looking it over, I noticed that they sponsor an inexpensive screenwriting contest and that the deadline loomed very close. They wanted a short feature of a sort that would have been appropriate for the Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. I thought about it for a day or two, then pretty much wrote the whole thing in one night, then tweaked for a week and sent it in just under the deadline. Win or lose, it was a great exercise and maybe the script that resulted will be useful one day.
Observers may have noticed that after four aired episodes, I have elected to add The Unit to my "currently digging" roster. I've noticed that it has managed to maintain signficant ratings beyond it's explosive premiere. It's holding it's own in the top ten while going up against House which, while a strong show in and of itself, has the Boring Adult Contemporary Music Program as a monsterous lead-in.
Having just finished a Medium (to fill the supernatural/fantasy spot in the spec rotation) and looking to retire my Shield, I'm going to roll the dice and jump on a spec for this fine series. To that end, I grabbed the new Creative Screenwriting which has a feature on the show (not to mention a great thing on breaking an episode by Tim Minear) and I'm reading exec prod Eric Haney's book Inside Delta Force (at a leisurely pace, just so I don't start physically writing too soon and find out that one of the regulars was a redshirt-in-waiting (i.e. Doyle or Boone)).
In the meantime, I'm going to get working on my novelty script (Sainte Jane of the Espenson speaks on such here). Something I can start and stop whenever I want to and work on between other things. For that reason, if I've only got act one done after a month, I won't care. I've selected Hogan's Heroes...and I'm going the reconstruction route rather than taking the way of the lost episode.
And by the way, how cool is it when a recognizable prodco you've never communicated with just drops a line out of nowhere and asks to read your pilot by name? Not holding my breath (instead pinning the mouth and nose of an innocent mall goth), but...it's a little cool.
In looking it over, I noticed that they sponsor an inexpensive screenwriting contest and that the deadline loomed very close. They wanted a short feature of a sort that would have been appropriate for the Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. I thought about it for a day or two, then pretty much wrote the whole thing in one night, then tweaked for a week and sent it in just under the deadline. Win or lose, it was a great exercise and maybe the script that resulted will be useful one day.Observers may have noticed that after four aired episodes, I have elected to add The Unit to my "currently digging" roster. I've noticed that it has managed to maintain signficant ratings beyond it's explosive premiere. It's holding it's own in the top ten while going up against House which, while a strong show in and of itself, has the Boring Adult Contemporary Music Program as a monsterous lead-in.
Having just finished a Medium (to fill the supernatural/fantasy spot in the spec rotation) and looking to retire my Shield, I'm going to roll the dice and jump on a spec for this fine series. To that end, I grabbed the new Creative Screenwriting which has a feature on the show (not to mention a great thing on breaking an episode by Tim Minear) and I'm reading exec prod Eric Haney's book Inside Delta Force (at a leisurely pace, just so I don't start physically writing too soon and find out that one of the regulars was a redshirt-in-waiting (i.e. Doyle or Boone)).
In the meantime, I'm going to get working on my novelty script (Sainte Jane of the Espenson speaks on such here). Something I can start and stop whenever I want to and work on between other things. For that reason, if I've only got act one done after a month, I won't care. I've selected Hogan's Heroes...and I'm going the reconstruction route rather than taking the way of the lost episode.
And by the way, how cool is it when a recognizable prodco you've never communicated with just drops a line out of nowhere and asks to read your pilot by name? Not holding my breath (instead pinning the mouth and nose of an innocent mall goth), but...it's a little cool.