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Posts tagged as “Pilots”

Teasers & Cold Opens (PT61)

Teasers & Cold Opens (PT61)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:00 — 36.8MB)

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Alex and Nick discuss the importance of teasers in television writing and key elements that make cold opens effective.

What is the point of opening scenes? What makes a good teaser? How do you reveal character, story and theme in those first few pages? Are there teaser differences between comedy and drama?

Plus, we talk 2017 Emmy winners and the revamped Fox Writers Lab.

The Paper Team opens up…

SHOWNOTES

Content

Paper Scraps: Emmys 2017 & Fox Writers Lab (00:28)
1 – Why are teasers and opening scenes important? (11:00)
2 – What makes a good opener: tone, character, expectations, story, and world (14:55)
3 – Specificities of teasers: comedy vs. drama, length, pilot vs. normal episode (32:01)
Takeaways and Next Week On (38:19)

Links

69th Primetime Emmy Awards (2017)
The Handmaid’s Tale (TV Show)
Lena Waithe
Donald Glover
Sterling K. Brown
Frank Pembleton
Fox Writers Lab
“Six Feet Under” Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
“Riverdale” Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
Glee
Election
“Scandal” Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
Firefly
Psycho
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
In medias res
“Rick and Morty” Lighthouse Scene (Video)
“Breaking Bad” Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
“Lost” Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)
“Breaking Bad” Crawling Scene (Video)
Stargate SG-1
Goa’uld
Futurama
Cheers
“Lost” Season 2 Opening Sequence (Video)
“Lost” Season 3 Opening Sequence (Video)

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]

Writing Your First TV Pilot – A #scriptchat Experience

Writing Your First TV Pilot – A #scriptchat Experience

Last Sunday I was invited to speak (or tweet) on the weekly #scriptchat with Nick (my Paper Team co-host).
If you’re not familiar with it, #scriptchat is a weekly Twitter discussion around the world of screenwriting.

The topic du jour: Writing your first TV pilot.

We covered a lot of things, including:
– The importance of outlining
– Where to begin with the pilot concept
– Why TV is a character’s medium
– Important TV pilots to study
– What makes a pilot stand out
– Getting feedback on your script

Clearly, a ton said (or written) in the span of 60 minutes.
Jamie Lee Scott moderated and immortalized the discussion on Wakelet. So for your enjoyment (and education), here is the full Twitter transcript:

TV Writing Competition Winners: What Happens Next? (PT55)

TV Writing Competition Winners: What Happens Next? (PT55)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:24 — 59.2MB)

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Alex and Nick invite three TV writers to discuss what comes after winning a major screenwriting or TV writing competition.

Guests include: Talia Gonzalez (Teen Wolf/iZombie) from the 2013 Tacking Board Launch Pad Feature Competition, David Hoffman (Timeless) from the 2015 Launch Pad Pilot Competition, and T.A. Snyder from the 2017 Launch Pad Pilot Competition.

Why is entering screenwriting competitions important? What should you look out for before submitting a script? What should you expect and do after winning a writing contest? How should you brand yourself as a TV writer with your samples? What is the process of selecting the right agent or manager for you? How do you balance working on a TV writing staff and developing your own projects?

The Paper Team competes…

SHOWNOTES

Content

Winning a screenwriting competition and what comes after (01:08)
Resources and Outro (59:50)

[NOTE: Our usual “Next Week On” segment at the very end was unexpectedly cut. We’ll be talking about working in TV as immigrants in next week’s episode!]

Links

David Hoffman on Twitter
Talia Gonzalez on Twitter
T.A. Snyder on Twitter
Matthew Weiner
Charlie Kaufman
Shawn Ryan
Eric Kripke
Launch Pad mentors
TV Writing Fellowships
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Radiolab Podcast
Traffic
The Limey

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]