MARCH WORKSHOP: Entertainment & Scriptwriting Writing & Mentoring Program: Industry: Entertainment; Genre: Scriptwriting ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

STAFF Erica Silberman, Director of Community; Amara Thomas, Kyndal Thomas, Lisbett Rodriguez - ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Community Outreach Coordinators; Kelsey LePage, Operations Coordinator ​ ​

CRAFT & INDUSTRY SPEAKERS AM: Alice O’Neill and Ama Quao; PM: Jacquelyn Reingold ​ ​ ​

WORKSHOP GOALS Learn how a tv writers room works and how tv writing is collaborative. Learn about writing in someone else’s voice and creating your own pilot. The workshop culminates in writing a pitch and doing a pitchfest. Portfolio Pieces: Post your tv pitch under genre tag: Entertainment and Story Tag: TV Pitch ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

SCHEDULE AM PM Announcements: Action! 10:15 2:15 10 minutes 10:25 2:25

Live Community Classifieds 10:25 2:25 ​ 10 minutes 10:35 2:35

Next Scene and Share 10:35 2:35 20 minutes 10:55 2:55

Craft Talk + Q&A 10:55 2:55 20 minutes 11:15 3:15

What are You Watching 11:15 3:15 10 minutes 11:25 3:25

TV Writing 101 11:25 3:25 25 minutes 11:50 3:50

Write Your Pilot! 11:50 3:50 20 minutes 12:10 4:10

Commercial Break! 12:10 4:10 15 minutes 12:25 4:25

Write Your Pitch! 12:25 4:25 15 minutes 12:40 4:40

To the Writers Room 12:40 4:40 25 minutes 1:05 5:05

Pitchfest! And It’s a Wrap! 1:05 5:05 25 minutes 1:30 5:30

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIVE COMMUNITY CLASSIFIEDS ​

Notes on Announcements and Live Community Classifieds:

WRITERS ROOM: NEXT SCENE – GWN EDITION: The first job you may have as a tv writer is to write for an existing tv show in someone else’s voice. We’re going to play a scene from a tv show. What do you think the next scene could be?

Next Scene for Grownish: ​ ​

CRAFT TALK

AM: Alice O’Neill Alice O’Neill has written for Billions (Showtime) for three seasons. As a writer of feature films, she has worked for Sony, Miramax, STX and many others. Most recently, she adapted MJ Hegar’s memoir Shoot Like A Girl for Sony Tristar. Her first screenplay, Buttercup, appeared on the Blacklist. Her plays have appeared at various New York theaters. Her short play, What I Came For, was published by Smith & Kraus as well as Penguin/Pearson.

AM: Ama Quao Ama Quao, née Yelen Ama Serwah Thandi Chiyedzo Chihombori Quao, is a first-generation African-American, screenwriter, improviser, and stand-up comic based in New York by way of Tennessee, Ghana and Zimbabwe. She currently works as a Writers’ Assistant for the upcoming JJ Abrams HBO drama, Contraband, and received her MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University in May 2018. A 2012 graduate of Brown University, with a Honor’s BA in Playwriting and American Studies, she has interned at A24, worked as a Writers' PA for Billions on Showtime, and has lead screenwriting workshops at Rikers. A 2017 MADE IN NEW YORK Writers Room Fellowship Semi-Finalist, a 2018 finalist for The Black Indie Memphis Screenwriting Residency, as well as a 2018 Sundance Development Track Semi-finalist and recipient of the 2017 Jesse Thompkins III Emerging Storyteller Award, for which she received a one-year long fellowship with Working Title and Adam Brooks, her comedic writing seeks to expand the representation of women of color in film and TV. And no, you can't touch her hair.

PM: Jacquelyn Reingold Jacquelyn Reingold writes for theatre and television, and teaches writing. For television, Jackie is currently a writer/Co-Executive Producer for CBS All Access’ The Good Fight, and is writing a pilot for ​ ​ ​ John Wells Productions. She has written for CBS’ BrainDead, Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, Emmy ​ ​ ​ ​ nominated Hope Davis and Gabriel Byrne in HBO’s In Treatment, NBC’s Smash, Law and Order CI, and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ MTV’s Daria. Jackie’s plays have been seen in theaters throughout the U.S., and in London, Belgrade, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Berlin, and Hong Kong, and have received various honors and awards. A collection of her short plays is ​ ​ published by Dramatists Play Service, titled Things Between Us, and many have been recorded for ​ ​ ​ podcast/radio by Playing On Air. Her other plays have been published in two Women Playwrights: The ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Best Plays, several Best American Short Plays, by Samuel French, and Smith & Kraus. She has a theater ​ ​ ​ B.A. from Oberlin College, and a playwriting M.F.A. from Ohio University. She has taught writing at New York University, Columbia University, Ohio University, and Fordham University.

Notes on Craft Talk:

TV WRITING 101 TV Writing Notes:

ORIGINAL PILOT SEVEN QUESTIONS

1. Who is your MAIN CHARACTER? Describe him or her in one sentence.

2. What does your Main Character want? Give him/her a goal that he/she CANNOT easily achieve. Write it in one sentence.

3. Name at least one other character who is IN CONFLICT with your main character to achieve their goal? Who is it and how they are in CONFLICT (how is THEIR goal on OBSTACLE?) with your Main Character? Write it in one sentence.

4. What kind of show is it? Comedy? Drama? One hour? Half hour? For what kind of audience: type of person? Would it be on regular TV (with commercials, no foul language or nudity), or cable, or a streaming channel? Is it similar to any other show/s? Write it in one sentence.

5. What is “THE WORLD” of the show? Meaning: where does it take place? Be very specific. And say why that world is compelling/interesting. In one sentence.

6. Why are YOU the right person to write this? What is your personal connection to the idea? Why/how are you passionate about this? Write it in one sentence.

7. What makes this an idea for a TV series? How will the story KEEP GOING? What gives it a “STORY ENGINE”? Write it in one sentence.

WRITE YOUR PILOT!

COMMERCIAL BREAK!

WRITE YOUR PITCH! Write in ONE sentence (okay, two if you have to, three if you must): a CONCISE, COMPELLING ​ ​ description of your show. (This is called a “LOGLINE.” ) Use the answers above, and anything else to to make it clear. And: make it sound AMAZING!

TO THE WRITERS ROOM & PITCHFEST Notes:

APPENDIX

HOW-TO: WRITE A SPEC SCRIPT AT HOME

Writing for television is about creativity, but it is also so much about structure. This exercise takes the creative work of storytelling and explores how to apply it to a precise framework, and the tools (characters, world) of an existing show. The aim of this exercise is to produce a tangible writing sample that you can use when applying to jobs or internships.

● To start, pick a 30-minute show that you enjoy watching and feel connected to ● Watch a typical episode of that show. (Not one where the structure is flipped on its head.) ● Then, break down the episode into: o Open o Act 1 o Act 2 o Act 3 ▪ Act Breaks are usually moments that turn or transform the episode’s plot:

▪ Note the minute-mark for when these Act Breaks happen. Usually in scripts one page = one minute, so if the Act Break between Act 1 and Act 2 happens at 11:30, you’ll want your spec’s Act Break to be around page 11 or so. o A story o B story o C story ▪ How do we know which is which? ● A Story – the focus of the episode. Gets the most screentime, and features at least one main character ● B Story – a separate storyline with at least one secondary character; could have branched off of the A story ● C Story – usually bboth secondary characters and fairly light. ▪ Pay attention to the screentime that each of these stories gets. ● Look at the characters o What question is the character trying to answer? o What motivates them? What are their most essential qualities? o How do the writers treat them? ▪ Some examples: On “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” characters are pushed to answer the question of “whodunit,” but also, “how can I be a better part of a team?” On “BoJack Horseman,” characters are routinely pushed to an existential brink, facing questions like, “Is it possible to be good?” ● Now, brainstorm A, B and C story ideas that put these characters in situations that challenge their essential qualities.

● As you watch other episodes of this series, compare the structure of each episode you watch to see if there’s a common structural framework on which the story is built. ● When you come up with an A, B and C story you feel excited about, try writing the spec! For a 30-minunte show, it should come out to somewhere between 22 and 28 pages.

A FEW GUIDELINES FOR SPEC SUBMISSIONS

● Choose a show that is close in intended audience age, tone and length to the show you are applying for. (e.g., If a show is intended for pre-schoolers, a spec of a pre-school show will give the hiring manager a better idea of how you would handle that specific work. If a show is a half-hour comedy, they want to know how you fill a half hour with jokes and a concise plot. An hour-long drama will want to know how you stretch story arc/build tension over an hour's time.)

● Do not submit a spec episode of the show you're applying to work on. The person reading that sample likely spends every day immersed in their show, so slight deviations in tone are far more noticeable than they would be if the reviewer is also approaching the series from the outside.

● All that being said, the clearest thing that comes across when reading samples is whether the person had fun writing it. So, even as you take all the above parameters into consideration, the most important thing is that you connect with the show you choose. A show that makes you laugh, or really resonates with you in other ways, is going to be more helpful as a framework for your voice than a show you're spec-ing because you feel like you should.

● Binge-watch! What I do when I write a spec is watch a bunch of episodes of that show and then break down its structure on a macro scale. Are there any structural patterns from episode to episode? Themes they tend to touch on? Ways the writers tend to treat the characters? Watching a bunch of episodes in a row will get the tone and the characters' voices stuck in your head in a way that's helpful.

● Once you’ve written the spec, proofread! If you’re applying to a job like Writers’ Assistant or Script Coordinator, much of your role will include editing scripts and catching typos. You don’t want a typo or grammatical error to be something that pulls the person reading your script out of your story.

TV Writing: Formatting a Screenplay

There are many specific rules for formatting a script. Every show works differently, but the overall rules will look like the following:

NOTE: The best way to get better at writing in this format will be 1) using a software to help you, and 2) to read screenplays. (See Resources page for options for both.) ​

TV WRITING: SAMPLES TO PUT IN YOUR PORTFOLIO (i.e., What You Can Be Working on Right Nooowww1!) ​

Your writing samples are going to do at least three things: Show the reviewer that you could write to the ​ ​ voice of a specific show; showcase your voice, your style, and the types of stories you would want to tell; AND show the reviewer you have a strong understanding of grammar, screenplay formatting, and how to structure an episode of television.2

As you develop your portfolio, try to work toward: ● A few specs of varying styles (but only styles you would want to write for!3) ​ ​ ○ Samples can vary in show length, genre and (to a lesser extent) audience. A range is good to have when applying to work on shows. If you are applying to Riverdale, an hour-long ​ ​ drama sample will get you much farther than a 30-minute comedy geared toward 6-to-11-year-olds. ● One or more pilot(s) in whatever style you want4 ○ A lot of places aren’t asking for specs anymore at all. Pilots give showrunners a clear idea of the original voice and idea generation someone could bring into the room--both of which area huge value add. ● At least one spec or original pilot that showcases your voice very well. ​ ​ ○ If you’re applying for Riverdale and they’ll take two samples, give them the drama then ​ ​ ​ throw in this sample in any style that showcases your voice. ​ ​ ○ For specs, check out lists of what fellowship programs are accepting and pick out a show that feels like home to you. ● Pitch ideas ○ Haven’t gotten around to it, but have a back-pocket idea that’s really juicy? Don’t forget it! Sometimes you’ll get the opportunity to pitch to someone, and they will ask “what else?” You’ll want to have a what-else! ● Self-Made Work ○ Make it happen. This is the best thing you can start doing right now. You get so much better and closer to your voice with real practice. Also, for that person in a position to make ideas into real television, reading scripts is not as easy as watching a YouTube video or listening to a podcast, and guessing how popular a script will be when it is

1 The best way to get better at TV writing is to TV-write. Write an episode. Then, write another one. When you hit one you like, show it to your friends and listen to their feedback. Start building this muscle now! 2 There’s a person on the other end of any submission, and you want that submission to be as easy to ​ read as possible. Grammatical errors, long and overly-verbose action text, or samples that are over 100 ​ pages long put your submission at an immediate disadvantage.

3 A note on only creating samples for a job you would want to have: Television writing jobs can be near-24-hour gigs. Take your time and your voice seriously, and really consider whether you could commit that time to the style of a show you are considering writing for. I only knew I enjoyed writing for pre-school after I wrote a spec script of a pre-school show. You have to try it before you become part of a team that needs your commitment to it.

4 Writing a great pilot is very hard. Even the pros have a hard time pulling this off! So don’t stress yourself out trying to write toward a voice that isn’t yours. Spec scripts are there to demonstrate your ability to map your voice onto a show. Pilots are there to demonstrate that you are an original and that you can bring ideas to a team no one else would. Or, pilots are there to show to the right people and get made, in which ​ ​ case you definitely want to feel like the premise is close to your heart--because that show’s about to become your 24/7 baby.

one-day-a-movie is riskier than looking at how many views/listens something already has.5 ■ Practice while the stakes are low! Nobody’s funding or time or jobs are on the ​ ​ line, so you have a lot more freedom to learn your voice in this medium and have fun with it! ● Be a Part of a Team (Okay this is not a portfolio item but it’s a big’un regardless.) ​ ○ Practice being a part of any kind of team. You’re sort of doing it right now by being a part of this community! A writers’ room is a group of people who are always together, pitching ideas, hearing other people’s ideas, and mushing those ideas together, all in the service of that one great idea they haven’t found yet. ​ ​ ■ A writers’ room thrives when the people in it: ● Listen well ● Are fearless with their ideas ● Elevate each others’ work/support their peers’ ideas ● Incorporate feedback earnestly ● Check their egos ● Commit to deadlines and work hard to meet them

TV Writing: Resources

Places to WRITE screenplays: ● Final Draft is the industry standard software, but for now you’d be best served using free online platforms like: ○ Celtx.com ○ WritersDuet ○ Amazon Storywriter ● Also, investigate student discounts for any screenwriting software or memberships

Places to READ screenplays: ● The Wknd Read app is free to download, and allows you to read any award-nominated ​ ​ screenplay from the last three years, all easily formatted to your phone. ● Google! There are so many scripts available online. All you have to do is look for them! ​

Places to LEARN MORE:

5 Let’s talk about Issa Rae! “Insecure” is based on an original web series she made in her twenties called “The Misadventures of AWKWARD Black Girl.” She gathered her friends together and made a writers room that met regularly and made two seasons of a show. No one had to give them permission to do ​ that. They just did, because that was a story they wanted to tell. And because the show resonated with a ​ lot of viewers, it gained a huge following, and as a result got the attention of the kind of people who could (and did) make it a TV show. “High Maintenance” also started as a web series. The internet is perfect for getting your work seen, so put it out there in any way you can. Megan Amram got hired onto “Parks and Recreation” because of her funny twitter feed. A friend of mine started making a podcast with her friends, and because that podcast got a big fan following, it was optioned to be a series!

● The Script to Screen instagram shows a filmed scene alongside the screenplay side-by-side, and ​ ​ is a great way to familiarize yourself with the medium:

● The Lessons from the Screenplay Youtube account (it mostly covers movies, but it does a ​ ​ really lovely job of breaking down the storytelling work being done in each script). ● The Scriptnotes Podcast is an endless stream of conversation on the screenwriting industry, ​ ​ and can likely answer questions you might have as you work on your screenplay. ○ Take these resources with a grain of salt. You’ve got to know the rules before you break them, but keep in mind television is always changing to make more room for things that haven’t been done before. Learn the basics, then make them your own.