facebook_pixel Press "Enter" to skip to content

Looking to start your TV writing journey?

Posts tagged as “Lost”

An Evening in the Writers’ Room – Paper Team Live (PT100)

Alex and Nick present two back-to-back TV writing panels, one for comedy and one for drama, digging into the intricacies of the writers’ room.

From staff writer to showrunner, we’ve assembled a dozen TV writers across every level to get a sense of what it’s like to navigate a writers’ room and sustain a career.

Comedy/half-hour and animation panelists include Nina Bargiel (Barbie), Vicky Luu (Superstore), Adam Stein (Harley Quinn), Alison Tafel (BoJack Horseman), Brittani Nichols (Take My Wife), and Lauren Bradley (Spirit: Riding Free).

Drama/one-hour panelists include Alison Schapker (Altered Carbon), Monica Macer (Queen Sugar), Chris Levinson (Tyrant), Grainne Godfree (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Britta Lundin (Riverdale), and Hilliard Guess (Deadly Class).

How do you navigate a TV writers’ room? How does the dynamic and etiquette of the room influence pitching? How can you gauge if a script is effective? How have writers’ rooms evolved over the years? What do showrunners look for when hiring their staff? How can you approach breaking macro and character arcs? What is the best way for lower-level writers to make themselves valuable in the room? How do you address notes without compromising creative integrity? What are ways of dealing with the instability of the profession?

The Paper Team drops the mic…

SHOWNOTES

Content

TV comedy (half-hour shows) panel (00:01:04)
TV drama (one-hour shows) panel (01:02:22)

Links

Nina Bargiel on Twitter
Lauren Bradley on Twitter
Alison Tafel on Twitter
Vicky Luu on Instagram
Adam Stein on Twitter
Brittani Nichols on Twitter

Britta Lundin on Twitter
Monica Macer on Twitter
Hilliard Guess on Twitter
Chris Levinson on Twitter
Alison Schapker on Twitter
Grainne Godfree on Twitter

If you enjoyed this episode (and others), please consider leaving us an iTunes review at paperteam.co/itunes! :)

You can find Paper Team on Twitter:
Alex@TVCalling
Nick@_njwatson
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, you can e-mail us: [email protected]

Perspective and POVs in TV Writing (PT88)

Alex and Nick discuss how to use your characters’ perspectives and points-of-view to drive your episode narrative. From unreliable narrators and voice-overs, to POV on the page, see the world through your characters’ eyes.

What is a point-of-view in the context of a television story? How can you put your audience in the shoes of a character? What are interesting and unique ways of using POV as a narrative device? How can you translate a character’s perspective to the page of a script? What are common problems with writing POVs?

Plus, a major announcement about the podcast.

The Paper Team looks ahead…

SHOWNOTES

Content

Paper Scraps: Paper Tease Announcement (00:45)
1 – Defining Point-of-View and Perspective (03:07)
2 – Interesting TV examples of POV as a narrative device (05:57)
3 – Using point-of-view on the page and common problems (21:53)
Takeaways and Next Week On (32:51)

Links

Paper Tease – TV Script Teaser Competition
“Analyzing Great TV Scenes” (PT77)
Rashomon
“The Ugly Truth” (2×16 – Farscape)
“Critical Film Studies” (2×19 – Community)
Boomtown
Graham Yost
The Affair
Big Little Lies
Peep Show
“Nonlinear Storytelling” (PT70)

Special thanks to Alex Switzky for helping us edit this episode.

If you enjoyed this episode (and others), please consider leaving us an iTunes review at paperteam.co/itunes! :)

You can find Paper Team on Twitter:
Alex@TVCalling
Nick@_njwatson
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, you can e-mail us: [email protected]

Analyzing Great TV Scenes: Case Studies of Deep Space Nine, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Good Place, The Good Wife, Lost and The Simpsons (PT77)

Alex and Nick break down six iconic TV scenes to look at what makes them engaging and unique.

The moments explored in this episode include scenes from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Good Place, The Good Wife, Lost, and The Simpsons.

What makes for a great TV scene? How can a simple exchange play off character and story? How can dialogue be used to define a moment? What are ways acting, directing and editing influence the impact of a scene? What TV writing lessons can you learn from these scenes?

Plus, we talk how many people should be in a writing group.

The Paper Team gets in and out…

SHOWNOTES

Content

Paper Scraps: How many people in a writing group? (00:00:58)
1 – Introduction to the six TV scenes (00:03:09)
2 – “The Simpsons” Steamed Ham scene (00:08:02)
3 – “Deep Space Nine” Benny Rant scene (00:16:15)
4 – “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” Papa scene (00:29:35)
5 – “Lost” Henry Gale Breakfast scene (00:37:24)
6 – “The Good Place” Many Attempts Montage scene (00:44:55)
7 – “The Good Wife” Will vs. Alicia scene (00:53:02)
Next Week On (01:03:38)

Links

“Feedback and Notes: Building Your Reading Onion” (PT08)
“Analyzing Great TV Pilots” (PT54)
“Analyzing Great TV Characters” (PT72)
“22 Short Films about Springfield (7×21 – The Simpsons)
The Simpsons’ Steamed Ham scene
“Far Beyond the Stars” (6×13 – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Deep Space Nine’s Benny Rant scene
“Papa’s Got a Brand New Excuse” (4×24 – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
Prince of Bel-Air’s Papa scene
“The Whole Truth” (2×16 – Lost)
Lost’s Henry Gale Breakfast scene
“Dance Dance Resolution” (2×03 – The Good Place)
“Hitting the Fan” (5×05 – The Good Wife)
“I’m mad as hell” scene from Network
DS9 comment by Kingofmadcows
“Nonlinear Storytelling” (PT70)

This episode brought to you by Tracking Board’s Launch Pad Writing Competitions

Use code PAPERTEAM to get $15 OFF when you enter a Launch Pad Competition

Special thanks to Alex Switzky for helping us edit this episode.

If you enjoyed this episode (and others), please consider leaving us an iTunes review at paperteam.co/itunes! :)

You can find Paper Team on Twitter:
Alex@TVCalling
Nick@_njwatson
If you have any questions, comments or feedback, you can e-mail us: [email protected]