TV is a booming business for writers with one-hour dramas and dramedies, half hour semi-comedic series and animation. Even reality TV relies on writers to come up with hours of new, different and compelling material.
This panel will discuss what it takes to get into TV writing – and what it takes to stay there.
- What are the jobs?
- Where are they?
- How do you get them?
- What do those jobs entail?
- Do you need a spec script to get into the game – and which one(s).
We’ll look at the current state of the art of writing for television, including:
- Pitching.
- How scripts are constructed, and re-constructed, in the writers’ rooms and the executive suites.
- How writers deal with networks – and vice versa.
- How to use the highly-structured TV formats to strengthen your writing.
- How to break a story – and put it back together.
Our panel of experts will include:
GAYE HIRSCH  serves as Co-Head/Senior Vice President of Scripted Development at The CW Network, where she oversees development and production of scripted pilots for the network. Ms. Hirsch originally joined The CW as Vice President of Current Programming. Previously, she served as a Senior Executive at Cruise/Wagner Productions, where she managed the development slate and was a producer on Shattered Glass and Suspect Zero. Prior to Cruise/Wagner, she was Vice President of Production for HBO Films, supervising development and production of Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning films including Gia and Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Before HBO, Ms. Hirsch served as Vice President, Production at Robert Lawrence Productions. She began her career at Touchstone Pictures as a Creative Executive, ultimately becoming Vice President, Production.
Gaye is sorry but Legal Affairs will not permit her to accept any scripts or hear any pitches.
 ALEX METCALF is currently a Writer/Producer on the Peabody Award winning series UnREAL (Lifetime). He has written for Kingdom (DirectTV), Mercy Street (PBS) and the short-lived Lucky 7 (ABC). His features include God’s Pocket with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and An American Affair with Gretchen Mol and he is also the author of the hardboiled novel, Where the Sun Don’t Shine. He has taught screenwriting at UCLA, LMU and the Stark Program at USC.
STEVE CUDEN has written nearly ninety teleplays for many familiar TV series, such as X-Men, The Batman, Iron Man, Beetlejuice, Pink Panther, RoboCop, Stargate Infinity, ExoSquad, and Mummies Alive. He directed and co-produced the cult-favorite horror-comedy feature Lucky, winning the award for Best Director at the Nodance Film Festival. Lucky also won awards for Best Feature at the New York City Horror Film Festival, Shriekfest in Los Angeles, MicroCineFest in Baltimore, and The Weekend of Fear in Nuremberg, Germany.
Steve also authored Beating Broadway: How to Create Stories for Musicals That Get Standing Ovations. His new book is Beating Hollywood, but he is perhaps best known for co-creating the hit Broadway and international musical Jekyll & Hyde with composer Frank Wildhorn.
 MARC WEINGARTEN is a writer, editor and filmmaker. He is a producer for the shows The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor in Paradise. As a journalist, Weingarten’s work has appeared in countless publications, including GQ, Details, New York Times, Wired, GQ, Esquire, Los Angeles Times, Salon and Slate. His 2009 Salon story “The Lear Jet Repo Man” was purchased by Paramount pictures and will soon be a feature film.
Marc has written the books Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water and the real Chinatown, Station to Station, and The Gang that Wouldn’t Write Straight, a history of New Journalism. Weingarten has also produced two documentaries. God Bless Ozzy Osborne can be seen on Showtime; The Other One: the Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir is Netflix’ first original music documentary
Moderator:
 GREG MILLER is the author of How To Be A Writer Who Writes and the new reference e-book, Miller’s Compendium of Timeless Tools for the Modern Writer.
Greg has written and produced feature film and TV projects for Fox, Disney, Dino De Laurentiis, Oxygen, MTV, HBO and Comedy Central.
As a teacher and writing coach, Greg has helped New Y Times best-selling authors, TV showrunners, studio screenwriters, and absolute beginning writers to write and perform for 20 years, and he still consults and coaches writers for books and scripts. (https://othernetwork.com/) |
GREG MILLER - Author & Writing Coach 