facebook_pixel Press "Enter" to skip to content

Looking to start your TV writing journey?

Posts tagged as “Money”

Mad MIP

Mad Men is for drama what The Office is for comedy: the show everyone is speccing right now.
I’m probably the only one out there not really interested in speccing a Mad Men but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the show itself, far from it.
Actually I found out a couple of articles that could interest people currently “researching” so to speak around the ad business.
One of them is an interview conducted by Wired with Benjamin Palmer, who is the co-founder and CEO of an award-winning interactive marketing agency (The Barbarian Group). In this interview, Palmer discusses “the show’s realism and relevance to the advertising industry today”.

Wired.com: Things aren’t going so well with Betty. Is Don Draper’s life bound to fall apart?
Palmer: The failure for him is when the nobility of commerce goes away. Back then, it was noble to own things. When you saved up enough to get a car, it meant something. It was part of the machine of American progress.
Wired.com: So he’s doomed to fail?
Palmer: Yup. His kind will go away. He’s going to become extinct. His brand of person doesn’t exist anymore.

It could be an interesting idea to deal with Draper and Sterling Cooper with a more “contemporary” look at things, but what do I know.

Anyway, other interesting articles I found around Mad Men were mainly article written by “real” ad men, like those two. Pretty interesting stuff if you ask me.

Also, don’t forget that Monday begins over in Cannes the annual MIPCOM and MIPTV, which is the place of business regarding trends in television and new media (especially this year where we have YouTube and Tudou people over there).
For the people who don’t know what the hell just is this MIPthingy, Wikipedia says it all:

It is essentially a content event for co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing entertainment content. It provides the people involved in the TV, film, digital and audiovisual content, production and distribution industry a market conference and networking forum to discover future trends and trade content rights on a global level.

The Hollywood Reporter usually has good reports of what happens there if you’re interested, which you should be if you intend to work in the industry.

The end is not nigh, it is now

The world has gone mad.
Mad I tell ya, maaaad!
And I’m not (necessarily) talking about the coming current financial apocalypse.

A talking Chihuaha is still number one at the box-office.
A shot-by-shot remake of a Spanish horror movie is the other winner of this week’s BO.
An Oscar-nominee’s movie starring an Oscar-winner and another Oscar-nominee tanked.
And saying that City of Ember (with William Murray and Tim Robbins!) has also tanked would be the understatement of the millennium.

It’s a sad day.

Maybe there’s even going to be another H-Wood strike on our hands (in addition to B-Wood’s).

Nine ideas to save Television – Part Two

Nine ideas to save Television – Part Two

Money, the Internet, ideas, pilots and big names are on the menu today with the conclusion of our 2-part article on nine ways to save the Networks and TV from going bankrupt.

5. Cost efficiency
TV episodes cost a whole bunch of money. That’s one of the many reasons reality shows began to be very popular a few years back.
Now, for better or for worse, shows are trying to get made more and more on the cheap.
An episode that is today made for 1 million dollars might be made tomorrow for 700 000.
Less money might mean more shows and ultimately more critically-acclaimed shows. Dialogue is cheap.

6. Webisodes
Every day brings its new web show it seems. They might not all be Emmy-worthy but they allow people to express themselves in ways that were not even possible a decade ago.
Web series are cheap to produce, a key nurturing element to vector original content.
And let’s not forget that “viral” part where a show generates tremendous buzz, leading them to jump screen.
Sanctuary, a web-based green-screen show, is now on Sci-Fi (starting early October).
Heroes and The Office both made webisodes that were talked about amongst fans, and beyond.
Although it is difficult to say if we will ever have 42 or 23-minute webisodes, the Whedon brothers showed everyone with Dr. Horrible that high-concept ideas could be made cheaply while maintaining that “it” factor.

7. Re-develop ideas and pilots
Not only would it save money in the long run but it would create an immense well of creativity. New perspectives might be endless.
A pilot needs to be tweaked just right to be almost perfect so why not keep it on the page until it is perfect?
HBO does it, so why not the Big Five?
Intervening on a project when there is a problem could be a great idea. The pilot of “Life On Mars” was leaked on the web and suffered harsh criticism, leading to an entire rethinking of its premise. The show may finally be quite different from its UK counterpart, for the better.
Although ideas should not stay in limbo forever, the right amount of “perfectionism” mixed with business could amount to new waves of shows.

8. Big names for big shows
The Big Five might not in a few years have big tent poles shows or even “appointment TV”.
One idea to try to counter that would be to keep banking on big names and linking them to big shows, therefore creating a package that would attract buyers.
Steven Bochco, David E. Kelley, Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams, ever heard of these guys?
People might just watch the new show made by X instead of switching off the TV to play Second Life.

9. Take chances
No, it doesn’t go against ideas number 7 and 8, on the contrary.
New writers might offer a fresh perspective on a rotten concept.
AMC took a chance on a spec pilot that no one else wanted, and then Emmys were won.
If the Big Five want to get back some of what the cable has taken away from them, they need to take chances.
Chances on stories, chances on writers.
Big risks now means rewards down the road. Originality needs to happen.
Yes, some of the shows might fail, but television is a world of trial and errors. Mistakes are part of life.
If Cavemen hadn’t happened, we would have another horrible show on our hands. Thank God then that… Oh, wait.

Embrace change and get ahead of the competition.