The Emmy Nominations have been announced today. It's no surprise that some shows, like the incomparable "Breaking Bad" are on there. Nor is it startling to see so many accolades for the departing "30 Rock." Similarly expected are the praises bestowed upon mini-series American Horror Story - though this season paled compared to the first, in my opinion - or Top of the Lake. (Note that, while in its second season, AMH is dubbed a mini-series, because the character, plot, and scenarios are different each season, hence the full title: American Horror Story: Asylum. Yes, it is a lot of the same cast and crew, but technically, it has nothing to do with the first season and is a whole new set of characters and situations, so it is a mini-series. Like Band of Brothers and The Pacific.)
Check out all the nominations above, and, for our purposes, the writing ones below. What do you think - any snubs?
Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series
“Dead Freight” by George Mastras, Breaking Bad
“Say My Name” by Thomas Schnauz, Breaking Bad
“Episode 4″ by Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey
“The Rains of Castamere” by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Game of Thrones
“Q&A” by Henry Bromell, Homeland
Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series
“Episode 209″ by Jeffrey Klarik, Episodes
“Daddy’s Girlfriend (Part 1)” by Louis C.K. and Pamela Adlon, Louie
“Finale” by Greg Daniels, The Office
“Hogcock!” by Jack Burditt and Robert Carlock, 30 Rock
“Last Lunch” by Tina Fey and Tracey Wigfield, 30 Rock
Outstanding Writing For A Miniseries, Movie Or A Dramatic Special
Richard LaGravenese, Behind The Candelabra
Abi Morgan, The Hour
Tom Stoppard, Parade's End
David Mamet, Phil Spector
Jane Campion and Gerard Lee, Top Of The Lake
Outstanding Writing For A Variety Series
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Portlandia
Real Time With Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live
Outstanding Writing For A Variety Special
The 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards
Louis C.K.: Oh My God
Night Of Too Many Stars: America Comes Together For Autism Programs
Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday (Part One)
66th Annual Tony Awards
Outstanding Writing For Nonfiction Programming
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
The Dust Bowl
Ethel
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God
The Men Who Built America • A New War Begins
As my lack of recent Writing Week updates may have indicated, I have not been doing a ton of writing recently. Actually, I've not done any at all. I began entertaining thoughts about a children's book I think I'd like to write, but beyond putting a few rhymes down in a Word document, I've hardly touched it. And I have done nothing on any of my scripts.
Part of the inertia stems from the fact that my writing partner and I are awaiting a second round of notes from our producer on the sci-fi spec we've been working on. I haven't touched it in over a month, because I was out of town. Our producer had other commitments, but she read, and we're all talking tonight. I go out of town again for two weeks this Thursday, so it's anyone's guess when I'll get back to work on it - unless, of course, she loves the new draft and has only minor suggestions that I can implement on Wednesday.
A large part of my lack of momentum, though, is just that - a lack of momentum. Theoretically, I should have treated the month since we sent the script out as a time to break my back getting new (or old) projects ready to outline and write. But I needed a break. The day job got slow for me, and while that maybe should have been a great reason to fully invest in my writing, it had the inverse effect of dulling my motivation outside the office, as well. I'm not self-flagellating here, though. I think every writer needs a break now and then. I just have to make sure that mine ends with the conclusion of my vacation.
In the meantime, the League met last week. We didn't have any scripts to read, so one of the group members suggested a different homework assignment: read a Nicholl winning script. Not just a Nicholl winner, the one we chose had actually been developed through a mentorship project with the WGA. We wanted to see how we all responded to it and, because let's be honest, how we stacked up against it.
To be honest - and hopefully neither smug nor arrogant - I felt like each member of the League could hold his or her own against the script we read. Perhaps we're not as strong in the particular genre (historical noir/thriller), but I didn't see the Nicholl winner as obviously better in any major way than any of our best projects. In fact, there were some sloppy elements throughout that made me wonder what it takes (luck?, the right reader?, the promise of greater talent yet to come?) to place in the competition. Granted, I can't truly compare, because none of us submitted a competing script that year, nor have any of us read any of the other submissions, winning or not. But my faith in us was unscathed by the read through. Was it a good script? Sure, but with work, I believe any of my writers group members could achieve a similarly strong product.
We likely won't have pages next meeting, either, so we'll probably read another winning script from that year, to further the experiment. I hope that read, too, will support my hypothesis that, after four years of training in college and six years of writing since, we're just as competitive.
IndieWire recently put out a few Best Of lists worth checking out.
First, they have a list of 19 of their favorite films from 2012 that are now streaming on Netflix. Load up your queue and wear some serious butt grooves into your couch with these suggestions.
And, for more recent (or not yet released) films, check out the Best Films of the Year (So Far). Not all of the inclusions on this list have distribution yet, but we can only hope they'll all be available in the coming months, or at least by year's end.
What have some of your favorite flicks of recent months been?
Deadline Hollywood today posted a worthwhile article on how struggling actor, Jason Hall, became an "overnight" screenwriting sensation. (Note - there are few to none actual overnight major screenwriting success stories. All writing takes time, deliberation, and, usually, defeat. Hall's story is no different.)
Give it a read, but keep in mind - no two writers break into the industry in the same fashion. My climb, which is far from over, has been a long one with many near successes, and more rejections. As you'll see from Hall's mini history, he was at it for years before he "made it."
Moral: keep at it, no matter what.
WGA writers have recently voted on the Top 101 Best Written Television Series of all time. (If the WGA site list won't load, you can check out the full list - with some write up - at Deadline Hollywood.)
What are your reactions? Any omissions? Any that shouldn't be on there?
There are thousands of brilliant filmmakers out there. Netflix, Amazon, iTunes - all these services offer us ways to view the latest (and classic) cinematic offerings. However, it can be hard, or downright impossible, to discover new talent, new voices, and new visionaries through services like the aforementioned ones. For those of us interested to see what independent filmmakers are working on - what our peers are working on - the options have been scattered and few. Until now.
IndieFlix is a new, subscription-based streaming service that focuses entirely on independent cinema. Founded by filmmakers, the site allows users to search for films to view by genre, length, country, even by what festivals they've shown in. Check out the offerings for yourself and see what catches your eye.
The site isn't solely concerned with garnering a film viewers. This is, after all, a business. To that, Indieflix has a unique Royalty payment system called RPM - Royalty Pool Minutes - to share the money made through subscriptions with the filmmakers themselves. Every minute you watch helps fund more independent films. And you can stream on platforms you're already using; IndieFlix already has apps on Roku and xBox.
As a special promotion, The Screenwriters League is giving away 10 2-month subscriptions for our readers. First come, first serve - just email info@screenwritersleague.com if you'd like to give IndieFlix a try.
So get out there and treat yourself to an immersive experience in the world of independent cinema.
I've been away. Could you tell?
I busted my back to get the script revised and off to my collaborator, W.A., before heading on vacation on the 15th of this month. This latest draft became a patchwork quilt of colored revisions - blue, pink, and finally yellow - leading up to me submitting it to him again. While it might seem a bit unnecessary to keep adjusting the revision color, doing so made it extremely easy for W.A. and I both to track the most recent edits.
(In case you have yet to use revision mode, scripts keep track of edits in chronological order by assigning a color to them. A page with "blue" edits, for example, is one that has only been revised once. "Pink" is second, "yellow" third, and so on. Ultimately, you get weird colors and double colors. Especially in the past, studios actually printed the various versions of the script on multi-colored paper to the degree that it wasn't uncommon for a script to come out looking like a rainbow by the time it was done. In Final Draft, you can alter the color of the text with each revision mode, which I recommend doing so that your producer/collaborator/manager/whoever can see where the edits are. However, the header of each page also gets labeled with the most recent color and applicable date. For example, if you finished the first draft on 4/1/13, then did a pass on 4/4/13, all pages you made edits on will have "Blue 4/4/13" for a header. If you do another revision a week later, pages that get revised again read "Pink 4/11/13" at the top. A final pass on April 14 will yield "Yellow 4/14/13" on edited pages. The draft I turned in to my writing partner had all of the above color pages. That way, he could see where something had been fixed on the first round of edits, what was address on the second, and what I had finally resolved on the most recent pass. I had set a different color text for each revision mode, so he could immediately call out the changes.)
As we discussed and re-revised, three or four scenes stuck out as being problematic, hence the numerous revision modes. Each subsequent edit was less involved than the one that had preceded it, but the dialogue still wasn't right. Or the scene wasn't working properly. Or something that happened first should have happened second. I kept whittling away at the script, dropping a cumulative 12 pages and chipping away at what wasn't working. Finally, on the night before I flew out, I wound up spending three near-uninterrupted hours at the computer, putting all the pieces into order, touching up the script with "yellow." I thought it was working, but I also felt like perhaps I was starting to lose the forest for the trees.
Off the script went.
W.A. called me the next morning as I was finishing my packing. He liked the edits and, other than one line of dialogue I had meant to cut but forgotten about, had no notes that merited immediate attention. He sent to our producer, and I boarded a plan for Belgium.
We will get her notes this week.
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