✍️ Writer’s Quotes to Live By
“I think shows that are completely dramatic are a lie. People use humor to cope. That is how we deal with things. In the darkest situations, there's humor. And if you don't show that, you're not being true to real life.”
- Jenji Kohan
✍🏾Scripted TV Keeping LA Filming Afloat
According to the latest quarterly report from FilmLA, on-location filming of narrative TV projects increased in the second quarter — and was the only sector to do so. Feature, commercial and reality TV production, meanwhile, ALL lost ground.
A total of 8,632 shoot days were logged during the period.
In FilmLA’s Television category, dramas specifically were up 17 percent due to scripted television production in Los Angeles shows such as Animal Kingdom, Ballers, Euphoria, Good Trouble, Mayans MC, Snowfall, Strange Angel, SWAT, Westworld, Why Women Kill and You. Proving setting shows in the city of Los Angeles can be good for California’s economy.
✍🏾Tom McCarthy’s Stillwater Lands Matt Damon
Director Tom McCarthy (Spotlight) is setting his follow-up to the Best Picture Winning Spotlight entitled, Stillwater. The script was co-written by McCarthy with Thomas Bidegain and Noé Debré, and Matt Damon is attached to star.
The film follows an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to Marseille in France to visit his estranged daughter, imprisoned for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences and a complicated legal system, he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter. In the process, he develops a friendship with a local woman and her young daughter and embarks on a personal journey of discovery and a larger sense of belonging in the world.
Production begins on the feature next month.
✍️ Issa Rae and Paul Fieg are Looking for Your Pitch
Filmmakers Issa Rae and Paul Feig, through their Color Creative and Powderkeg banners are searching for the next teen angst driven film. Prep your pitches writers, Rae and Fieg are asking for submissions of feature film pitches for projects that exemplify the modern teen experience.
They are specifically looking for fresh and inclusive perspectives on the lives of high schoolers.
The contest's prompt reads: "The creators of Freaks and Geeks and Insecure are looking for a comedic story that tells the teen experience in 2020. The stakes are high (or at least feel high) and the high school experience is so varied but somehow universal."
Two projects will be chosen as finalists, and will then be given a budget of $25,000 to produce a proof of concept short film. A final pitch will then be selected to produce as a feature-length film. Both Color Creative and Powderkeg will produce and then set the film up for distribution.
Submissions are now open and will be running through Aug. 9.
You can enter your submission here through August 9th.
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