Comedy Pilots by Women. What's Dead. What Moves Ahead.

Back in March, I posted the 15 pilots written by women that made the first cut in the competitive pilot process. So I thought I'd follow it up to show how women writers fared at the different networks. As of now, four of the 15 pilots are moving ahead -- ABC & CBS tied with two "broad" pilots each. There's also a rumor that NBC is planning to re-tool ASSISTANCE and try it again, meaning it still has a pulse. 

ABC ordered 13 comedies to pilot - 6 by women - 2 move forward!

BAD MANAGEMENT by Sharon Horgan & Holly Walsh

MIDDLE AGE RAGE by Cheryl Holliday

SUPER FUN NIGHT by Rebel Wilson

TROPHY WIFE by Emily Halpern & Sarah Haskins

KEEP CALM AND KAREY ON  by Andrea Abbate

SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY  by Lizzie Molyneux and Wendy Molyneux

CBS ordered 12 comedies to pilot - 4 by women - 2 move forward!

BAD TEACHER  BY Hilary Winston

FRIENDS WITH BETTER LIVES By Dana Klein

MOM By Gemma Baker & Chuck Lorre

MOTHER’S DAY  By Dana Eden, Daniela London-Dekel, Elisa Zuritsky & Julie Rottenberg

FOX ordered 9 comedies to pilot - 2 by women 

MY FUTURE ASSISTANT by Sherry Bilsing & Ellen Plummer

TWO WRONGS by Michelle Morgan

NBC ordered 16 comedies to pilot - 3 by women - 1 being re-tooled!

ASSISTANCE By Leslye Headland

GATES By Cathy Yuspa & Josh Goldsmith

GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA By Liz Brixius

CW has no funny bone.

Top 10 NEW Shows by Women for the 2013-2014 TV Season

The networks just announced their fall schedules- YAY! I'm happy to see several more shows created (or co-created) by women will be coming to our TV screens next season. I haven't actually seen them yet, so the order of this list is just based on what I've read about the premise, cast, and creator(s) of each show. Here are the Top 10 NEW Shows by Women for the 2013-2014 TV Season:

10) Camp (Peter Elkoff, Liz Heldens)

9) Star-Crossed (Meredith Averill)

8) The Originals (Julie Plec)

How to Film School - blog and resources for Filmmakers

In the last couple of weeks I talked about some great paid apps for Filmmakers.  You can read those entries here and here. This week I wanted to get back to basics with a great free resource I found on Twitter. (By the way, if you're not active on social media, stop reading this blog entry and go make a Twitter and Facebook account. Go ahead. I'll wait. All done? Great. Now, back to the post.) 

How to Film School is a great blog and learning center for all things filmmaking, from equipment to set etiquette, there are some great tips for the indie filmmaker. My favorite part of the blog is the free production document download page. Don't miss it!

http://howtofilmschool.com/

QUEUE THIS!

You know the drill... Let's QUEUE THIS!

Dear Lemon Lima (dir Suzi Yoonessi, 2009)  Netflix says: "After a selfish boyfriend dumps her, Vanessa Lemor  decides to soothe her broken heart by embracing her Yupik heritage and encouraging her misfit pals at a prestigious Alaskan prep school to compete in the World Eskimo Indian Olympics. Along the way, the awkward teen learns to find her place in the community in this touching film about identity, friendship and tradition."  Psst, this started as a short film, which you can watch on Netflix (DVD), too.  Search for the "Secret Shorts" series.

Tomboy (dir Céline Sciamma, 2011)  Netflix says: "Uncomfortable living as a girl, 10-year-old Laure decides to spend her childhood as Michael. When Michael's family moves to rural France, the child wins friends and comes to understand the complexities of gender."

To get your foot in the door of Hollywood, you need really cool shoes.

With network staffing season coming up, it's time for writers to prepare for an onslaught of meetings. There's a laundry list of things to do. (not necessarily in this order...) Read pilots - check! Wash car - check! Haircut - check!  Buy new shoes - huh? Shoes? Yes, shoes. And not just any shoes - really cool shoes. Apparently if you want to get your foot in the door in this business, you should start by updating your footwear. This is a tip that I received from a top development executive who said that the first thing people look at when you walk into the room are your shoes. Impressions are made. Judgements are cast. And you become whatever your shoes say you are. So look down and tell me what your footwear say about you. Right now, mine say that RiteAid sells an excellent knock-off of Tom's that I proudly call Ron's and that comfort trumps style. But, if I have a meeting, I definitely step it up. By the way, this shoe rule applies to both men and women. I have a male writer friend who just got chewed out by his partner for wearing regular sneakers to a meeting rather than "cool" sneakers -- Two straight guys fighting over proper footwear options! As silly as it sounds, it's a Hollywood "thing". And in this competitive world of show biz, every little thing counts. Don't let your footwear stand in the way of getting a job. Do a good, long sole search. Then, go to your meeting and put your best footwear forward.

What do you wear to meetings? Post a pic! I'd love to see!

Top 10 Reasons Women in the Entertainment Industry Shouldn't Try to Be "One of the Boys"

This week's top 10 is sort of a pep talk to myself, but hopefully it will also be helpful to other women pursuing a career in comedy.

In college, I was a Film & TV major, but I focused my attention on writing, and by my junior year I was dead set on writing TV sitcoms. I still haven't made it to a TV writers' room, but I've taken many, many writing classes that try to structure themselves like a writers' room. I've always loved that environment, but it wasn't until recently that I started analyzing it.

The first moment that got me thinking about this was at my writing group in January. About an hour before the meeting, I had received a call from my ex-husband, which was thoroughly unpleasant. When I got to the meeting (which was made up of me and a bunch of dudes), I was clearly stressed, so they asked what was wrong. I quickly recounted the phone call and one of the guys looked at me very strangely and said, "You're still such a girl." I asked what he meant. "You know, in here we're all just writers, I've never thought of you as a girl before. But... you're such a girl." Umm... okay?

Scripts Pro – Screenwriting App

These days my entire life is either on my phone or iPad. My laptop is old and almost obsolete, so it has kind of become a desktop. This means the freedom and spontaneity associated with writing anywhere was gone until I found the perfect screenwriting app. I tried a few different ones, but ultimately this is my favorite for the following reasons:

-You can save files as .pdf and as .fdx. You can open them on your computer and make changes.

-You can upload and download directly from Dropbox.

-Other apps I used didn’t include page numbers. This one does.

-It costs $12.99. I bought some cheaper ones that either didn’t have the features above or were not as intuitive to use. There are others that cost a lot more and do less.

Find it today at the App Store.

http://www.scriptsapp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/scriptsapp

*Do you have a helpful resource you’d like to promote? Do you know about a great resource to share with the Broads? Contact me to be a part of helpful resource Friday.

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