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Posts tagged as “Six Feet Under”

Branding Yourself (PT86)

Alex and Nick discuss the importance of branding yourself as a TV writer and ways to define why you write what you write.

Why should you “brand yourself”? How are you able to drive the conversation about you? How to understand what you can bring to a writers’ room? Why is it important to know your strengths and weaknesses in TV? How do you translate your personal story into your writing? What are ways of showcasing yourself online?

Plus, an announcement about an announcement.

The Paper Team makes its mark…

SHOWNOTES

Content

Paper Scraps: Announcement of an announcement (00:31)
1 – Understanding who you are as a person (02:54)
2 – Understand who you are as a TV writer (11:24)
3 – Putting it all into application (21:49)
Takeaways and Resources (28:23)

Links

“Comedy v. Drama: Declare Your TV Major” (PT02)
“Putting Yourself Out There” (PT75)
Dunning–Kruger effect
$h*! My Dad Says
“Six Feet Under’s Alan Ball on grief and dying” – UTNE
The Goldbergs

Resources

“Building a StoryBrand” – Donald Miller

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]

Teasers & Cold Opens (PT61)

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]

Tone in TV Writing (PT60)

NEW: Get the episode cheat sheet on our Patreon!

Alex and Nick discuss the importance of tone in TV shows and how to establish it in your own writing.

What is tone in television? Where do TV shows fit on the scale between farce and gritty realism? How can you establish tone through story, character, themes, and world? How do you keep a consistent tone in your TV script?

Plus, we announce brand new episode transcripts.

The Paper Team goes dark and gritty…

SHOWNOTES

Content

Paper Scraps: New Paper Team transcripts (00:23)
1 – Defining tone and its importance (01:56)
2 – How to set-up or establish tone: world, character, story, dialogue, themes, and marketing (08:12)
3 – Tonal dissonance and “tonal recall” (32:53)
Takeaways and Resources (38:35)

Links

“TV World-Building 101” (PT44) – Transcript
“Joke-Writing, Stand-Up and Late-Night TV ft. Simon Taylor (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno)” (PT22) – Transcript
“Writing Adult Comedy Animation ft. Alison Tafel (BoJack Horseman)” (PT39) – Transcript
“Assisting TV Comedy Writers ft. Gary Sundt (Superstore/The Goldbergs)” (PT43)
“Breaking in & Writing From “Outside the System” ft. Hilliard Guess (The Screenwriter’s Rant Room)” (PT47) – Transcript
Psych
The Shield
The Mentalist
Burn Notice
Homeland
Arrested Development
Ozark
Jason Bateman
Coen Brothers
Burn After Reading
Desperate Housewives
Doctor Who
Christopher Eccleston
David Tennant
Matt Smith
Veronica Mars
“Fly” (3×10 – Breaking Bad)
Rian Johnson
“Wormhole X-Treme!” (5×12 – Stargate SG-1)
“200” (10×06 – Stargate SG-1)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
The Hitman’s Bodyguard
Kingsman Church Scene (Video)
Star Trek: Discovery
The Orville
The Mummy (2017 Film)
The Mummy (1999 Film)
Saw
The Room
The Disaster Artist (Film)
“It insists upon itself” – Family Guy (Video)
Terriers
Sweeney Todd (Film)
Cougar Town
The TV Set
Flanderization
The Practice
David E. Kelley
Boston Legal
Baywatch
Baywatch Nights

Resources

Tone Shift (TV Tropes)

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]