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Amazon, character development, HBO, Netflix, screenplay contests, STRANGER THINGS, Thematic Depth, TRANSPARENT, TV pilot, WATCHMEN - November 22, 2019

The Myth of the TV Pilot: It’s Not Easier, It’s Harder

The myth of the television pilot in 2019 is that there are so many buyers that it has become easy to sell a pilot. 2019 continues the insane gold rush of scripted television. Ryan Murphy has a 300-million-dollar overall deal with Netflix. Shonda Rhimes has a 150-million-dollar deal. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have a 250-million-dollar deal. The number of scripted series is likely to top 500 this year, per The Hollywood Reporter. What this has done, for writers, is create a myth of the TV pilot being “easier” than the feature to sell. A common piece of advice for...

Screenplay Contests: Are They A Waste of Time?

As we mentioned last month, in the article "Facing Rejection", a total of 7,102 screenplays were entered into the Nicholl Fellowship in 2017. Faced with those odds, it’s understandable that screenwriters are loathe to bother with contests.

And the truth is for most screenwriters, contests ARE a waste of time. But that’s not necessarily a reflection of the contests or the screenplays entered into those contests. Here’s why:

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