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

###

Narnia is Not Nirvana for Disney

(JAN 9, 2009)   Ted Baehr of MOVIEGUIDE® assesses the recent Disney-Narnia split.

By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®
Special to ASSIST News Service

HOLLYWOOD, CA (ANS) — The big news in the world of faith-based literature and film is that Walt Disney Company has dropped the third Chronicles of Narnia movie, “Dawn Treader,” Even though the Associated Press sent out a release making this look like a faith-based issue, the fact of the matter is that this was an economic decision.

The Associated Press took my words out of context in an interview on this subject, to make Disney’s decision look like one of the parties in Hollywood was concerned about the movie’s faith content. The fact is neither Disney nor Walden has hesitated from including faith in their movies. The book Dawn Treader has the least amount of time with Aslan, who is the Jesus figure in the series by acclaimed Christian author C.S. Lewis. It is much more logical that the economics of the movie did not make sense than that there was a concern over the Christian content of the book.

“Prince Caspian,” the most recent “Chronicles of Narnia” movie, exceeded its budget and ultimately cost to produce $200 million. A movie has to produce two and a half times its costs to break even, which means it would have to earn $500 million at the box office. In fact, it only made $418.8 worldwide. In terms of videos and DVDs, the markup is much higher, so “Prince Caspian” would have to make much more money to make its money back in the DVD market. Neither Walden nor Disney could have been happy about this economic straitjacket.

Although “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is one of the most beloved books in the series, it is more of a travelogue than a well-structured movie. Most books turned into movies bomb at the box office. Movies require very strong, carefully plotted storylines. Most books meander. Some of the biggest, best-selling books, such as Bonfire of the Vanities or Name of the Rose, bomb at the box office. Of all the Narnia books, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the most cinematic. So, from an economic point of view, paying more for the “Dawn Treader” movie does not make sense.

It is true that the faith community is gigantic. And, they responded to “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” movie in a big way. However, the remaining Narnia books do not have the same degree of enthusiastic fans. And, the faith community includes everyone from Catholics to fundamentalists. Movies that appeal to them must appeal to them across the board, and must be marketed properly.

With “Prince Caspian,” the faith community probably was not prepared for the re-plotting of the storyline. To make the movie work, the filmmakers had to change it from flashbacks and meandering walks up and down the gorge to a straight-ahead, exciting plot. The filmmakers should have made a greater effort to tell the faith community why the plot was adjusted to make it more of a movie. That said, Andrew Adamson, among others, did tell that to Movieguide® in our television interviews. The faith community could have taken more time to find out by looking at sites such as Movieguide® that give a clear indication of what to expect when they went to the movie.

A movie cannot succeed with just one part of the faith community supporting it. It needs to get all of the faith community who go to church on a regular basis. These people want movies they could trust. The studios can reach those people through review services they can trust, and the most trustworthy is Movieguide®.

Note: Dr. Ted Baehr is also the author of “The Media-Wise Family” and co-author of “Frodo & Harry: Understanding Visual Media and Its Impact on Our Lives.” Movieguide® is dedicated to redeeming the values of the entertainment industry according to biblical principles.

Disney Dumps Narnia

(DEC 24, 2008) A Yahoo! News article by Josh Grossberg detailing the story of Disney splitting from Walden Media for future Chronicles of Narnia flicks….which leaves an uncertain future for “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”.  The full article can be read HERE.

(EXCERPT) The lion, the witch and the wardrobe crew is getting the boot from the Magic Kingdom.

Proving that not even Mickey is immune to the downturn, Disney has decided against coproducing and distributing the third film in the Chronicles of Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And that means Walden Media, the production company behind the C.S. Lewis adaptations, will have to find a new partner for the big-screen franchise to continue.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Disney’s departure is based on “budgetary and logistical reasons,” though reps for both declined to comment beyond that.

Weinstein 2: They’re Back

(NOV 1, 2006) Merissa Marr of the Wall Street Journal writes this article about the Weinstein Brothers, Post-Miramax, and their ambitious plans to create a multifaceted media company:

Weinstein 2: They’re Back

(EXCERPT) Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s huge personalities and in-your-face style of running Miramax Films from 1979 to 2005 inspired novels, cartoons and television characters. Far from conventional in their tactics, they earned a take-no-prisoners reputation when it came to doing business.

But for the past year, the brothers have toned it down a bit. After acrimoniously parting ways with Miramax parent Walt Disney Co. just over a year ago, the Weinsteins have kept a low profile as they put together their new venture, Weinstein Co.