Disney-ABC Writing Fellowship Seeks Talent

Okay, Writerly-Person…Disney/ABC is gearing up for their annual contest to find some Talented Writing Fellows for their program.  The doors open the first of June and will seal tightly shut July 1.  So save the date!

Created in 1990 in partnership with the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW), the Disney|ABC Television Writing Fellowship is based in Los Angeles and is widely recognized as one of the entertainment industry’s most coveted writing programs.

A Fellow actually becomes an employee of Disney/ABC TV and paid a weekly salary totally $50K/year.  Not too shabby.  Plus applicable benefits, etc.

The program is designed to expose aspiring writers to key executives, producers and literary representatives – all essential in the pursuit of a writing career. Additionally, while in the program, fellows have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a current programming or development executive to create spec scripts of series from the current broadcast season.  The ultimate goal is to prepare and nurture the fellows for a writing career.

What’s not to love?  Click HERE to go their site and learn more about it.  Also, below, from that same site is a list of writing resources they lumped into the “Recommended Reading” category if you’re interested in upping your game while you wait to hear back.  This is no time for procrastination so go apply NOW!

RECOMMENDED READING

	Aristotles Poetics for Screenwriters By Michael Tierno Hyperion
	Creating Unforgettable Characters By Linda Seger Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
	Hello, Lied the Agent By Ian Gurvitz Phoenix Books
	Making a Good Script Great By Linda Seger Samuel French Trade
	Successful Sitcom Writing By Jurgen Wolff St. Martin’s Press
	The Art of Dramatic Writing By Lajos Egri Simon & Schuster, Inc.
	The One-Hour Drama Series: Producing Episodic Television By Robert Del Valle Silman-James Press
	The Power of Myth By Joseph Campbell Doubleday
	The Script is Finished, Now What Do I Do? By K. Callen Sweden Press
	The Sitcom Career Book By Mary Lou Belli & Phil Ramuno Back Stage Books
	The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers By Christopher Vogler Michael Weise Productions
	Story By Robert McKee Harper Collins
	Wake Me When It’s Funny By Garry Marshall Newmarket Press
	Writing Down the Bones By Natalie Goldberg Shambhala Publications, Inc. ###

Sony, Lionsgate Included in YouTube Deal

Watch out Hulu.com! This Hollywood Reporter article by Steven Zeitchik talks about GoogleTube’s move to provide more content via studio partnerships.

(EXCERPT) In a move intended to strike back at the encroaching Hulu, YouTube on Thursday announced a series of partnerships that will enable it to stream a range of full-length movies and television shows.

The pics and episodes, which will be streamed on a separate section on YouTube as free ad-supported content, encompass a host of library titles from studios including Sony and Lionsgate and television networks as well as a number of indie pics.

The deal comes in the wake of a previous YouTube pact with MGM for television shows and full-length films and follows a pact with Disney for shortform excerpts of content from ABC and ESPN.

Sony’s James Bond tentpole “Casino Royale” and CBS’ new mystery series “Harper’s Island,” as well as pics including Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me” and Richard Linklater’s “Slacker,” are part of the deals.

The move reflects YouTube’s increasing aggressiveness in attracting more advertising revenue through premium content while balancing it with enough copyright protection to make the studios comfortable.

Google’s YouTube was among the first big players in the booming online-video space but in the past year has seen its revenue undermined by competition from Hulu, which has specialized in paid full-length content from Fox and NBC Universal — as opposed to the user-generated fare and user-submitted clips that have been YouTube’s specialty.

“In the past it’s been about uploading video,” Google/YouTube senior product manager Shiva Rajamaran said. “We haven’t invested in episodes and series.”

The move will take the site’s episode count from hundreds to thousands, YouTube execs said, and the number of features from dozens to hundreds.

Well, what did you expect? Google to sit back and watch Hulu take over the world? You can read the full article at the Hollywood Reporter

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