One of the other MA Screenwriting students at Screen Academy Scotland Barry Dewar [a.k.a.
Perpetual Muddle] has tagged me with a meme. Happily, it's not too onerous to complete.
"Grab the book nearest you. Turn to page 123. Go down to the fifth line. Type out the next three sentences." In my case the book is
Writing the TV Drama Series: How to Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV by Pamela Douglas. It turned up on Monday, along with a box of DVDs I'd ordered from Amazon.com.
Haven't had much chance to delve into the text properly yet, but it's worth the price of admission just for the Guest Speaker sections - Deadwood creator David Milch, China Beach creator John Sacret Young and several others. By happy chance, Page 123 falls in a Guest Speaker section by Steven Bochco, creator of Hill St Blues, NYPD Blue and other great shows. He's talking about how drama series develop:
It takes about two years, maybe three, to turn over all your major cards in a new show - gross character revelations in a drama, oohhh, he's a drunk, ohhhh, she's gay. After three years, the job changes, the task of maintaining a show is a different task. So at the beginning, when everything's working right, and this one is, it's huge fun because it's invention.
I hereby tag two more Screen Academy Scotland students: step forward
Andrew Tibbs and
Miss Read, it's your turn!
Haven't had much chance to delve into the text properly yet, but it's worth the price of admission just for the Guest Speaker sections - Deadwood creator David Milch, China Beach creator John Sacret Young and several others. By happy chance, Page 123 falls in a Guest Speaker section by Steven Bochco, creator of Hill St Blues, NYPD Blue and other great shows. He's talking about how drama series develop:
1 comment:
Good book, that. Especially the examples from NYPD Blue, and interviews with ex-students. Very useful.
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