“Paris in Harlem” director Christina Kallas is set to direct limited series ‘The Second Attack’ for Ard Mediathek, Variety can exclusively reveal.
The six-part political thriller envisions what would happen if an “unthinkable war” were to take place on the world stage.
Oliver Bottini (“Algiers Confidential”) has written the screenplay.
“Inspired by true events, ‘The Second Attack’ follows Alex, a young German who tries to uncover the truth about the murder of his father in 2003, a sniper for the Bundeswehr,” reads the official logline. “Alex soon discovers that not only was his father working for the German Federal Intelligence Service, but that he was pivotal in the coverup of ‘Curveball’ –a refugee who defected from Iraq in 1999 claiming that he had worked as a chemical engineer in Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program and therefore was in custody of German Federal Intelligence Service. Despite warnings from the British Secret Intelligence Services,...
The six-part political thriller envisions what would happen if an “unthinkable war” were to take place on the world stage.
Oliver Bottini (“Algiers Confidential”) has written the screenplay.
“Inspired by true events, ‘The Second Attack’ follows Alex, a young German who tries to uncover the truth about the murder of his father in 2003, a sniper for the Bundeswehr,” reads the official logline. “Alex soon discovers that not only was his father working for the German Federal Intelligence Service, but that he was pivotal in the coverup of ‘Curveball’ –a refugee who defected from Iraq in 1999 claiming that he had worked as a chemical engineer in Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program and therefore was in custody of German Federal Intelligence Service. Despite warnings from the British Secret Intelligence Services,...
- 6/15/2022
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Enacted during Prohibition—and the Harlem Renaissance—the New York City Cabaret Law made it so any public establishment that served food and/or drink needed a license to allow musical entertainment and dancing. Like so many similar laws (see pushes for voter ID), proponents championed the initiative as a means of “keeping the peace.” Critics conversely saw how the extra cost and sheer absurdity of its enforcement targeted businesses that were owned and frequented by marginalized groups. And since that law stayed on the books for almost a full century from 1926 to 2017, you can imagine the atmosphere of celebration born from its rescission. It was surely enough to earn a cinematic tribute, and writer/director Christina Kallas complies with Paris is in Harlem.
More than a fictionalized account of that moment, however, Kallas’ film looks to piggyback on the scene that was affected most: jazz clubs. She channels the...
More than a fictionalized account of that moment, however, Kallas’ film looks to piggyback on the scene that was affected most: jazz clubs. She channels the...
- 1/31/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Set in 2017, Christina Kallas‘s Slamdance-premiering latest feature, <i>Paris is in Harlem</i> takes place the night before New York’s infamous Cabaret Law was repealed. In a historic Harlem jazz bar, a shooting alters the lives of several strangers who have gathered for the final night of “no dancing.” The filmmaker has provided Filmmaker an exclusive clip, which you can watch above. XYZ Films is handling North American sales on the film.
The post Watch: Exclusive Clip from Christina Kallas’s Slamdance-Premiering Paris is in Harlem first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Watch: Exclusive Clip from Christina Kallas’s Slamdance-Premiering Paris is in Harlem first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/28/2022
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Set in 2017, Christina Kallas‘s Slamdance-premiering latest feature, <i>Paris is in Harlem</i> takes place the night before New York’s infamous Cabaret Law was repealed. In a historic Harlem jazz bar, a shooting alters the lives of several strangers who have gathered for the final night of “no dancing.” The filmmaker has provided Filmmaker an exclusive clip, which you can watch above. XYZ Films is handling North American sales on the film.
The post Watch: Exclusive Clip from Christina Kallas’s Slamdance-Premiering Paris is in Harlem first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Watch: Exclusive Clip from Christina Kallas’s Slamdance-Premiering Paris is in Harlem first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/28/2022
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
"It's nobody's fault. And everybody's responsibility." Gravitas Ventures has released the trailer for an indie "surreal mystery" drama titled The Rainbow Experiment, which first premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival (the anti-Sundance fest that takes place at the same time/place) at the beginning of this year. This trailer has been out for a while, but we haven't featured it yet, and the film is opening in just a few weeks. The Rainbow Experiment is about how things spiral out of control in a high school in Manhattan when a terrible accident involving a science experiment injures a kid for life. Starring Christian Coulson, Kevin Kane, Chris Beetem, Vandit Bhatt, Francis Benhamou, and more. Watch the trailer if you're curious. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Christina Kallas' The Rainbow Experiment, from YouTube: The story takes place in a high school where things spiral out of control when...
- 11/30/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Sometimes, you are so excited about a film that you just have to do a flash mob. Ahead of the November 30th release of Anna and the Apocalypse from Orion Pictures, a group of Austinites and zombies participated in a flash mob in downtown Austin, Texas. Also: The Rainbow Experiment VOD and DVD release details, and Death Kiss is coming to DVD as well.
Details on the Anna and the Apocalypse Flash Mob in Austin: "To celebrate the critically-acclaimed Christmas zombie high-school musical Anna And The Apocalypse, the movie came to life in Austin, TX with a flash mob dance in downtown at the popular Lamar Pedestrian Bridge to get the holidays started with a bloody bang (and possibly a bite).
In anticipation of Orion Pictures' new holiday film, a group of Austinites & zombies participated in a Surprise flash mob to the original song from the film, "Hollywood Ending" while...
Details on the Anna and the Apocalypse Flash Mob in Austin: "To celebrate the critically-acclaimed Christmas zombie high-school musical Anna And The Apocalypse, the movie came to life in Austin, TX with a flash mob dance in downtown at the popular Lamar Pedestrian Bridge to get the holidays started with a bloody bang (and possibly a bite).
In anticipation of Orion Pictures' new holiday film, a group of Austinites & zombies participated in a Surprise flash mob to the original song from the film, "Hollywood Ending" while...
- 11/28/2018
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
The Rainbow Experiment screens Saturday Nov. 10th at 9pm and again Sunday Nov. 11th at 3:15 as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Both screenings are at The Tivoli Theater. Ticket information can be found Here and Here
Review by Stephen Tronicek
The Rainbow Experiment is a brutal exploration of the different anxieties surrounding the aftermath of a terrible accident that takes place in a high school. There’s a sense of urgency over the entirety of the production that spawns out of naturalistic performances and nerve-shredding cinematography but on top of that, the film partakes in addicting melodrama that highlights the dichotomy of the professional and emotional worlds at the center of the school.
During a chemistry class gone wrong, Matty (Connor Seimer) bursts into flames, leaving his fellow classmates traumatized and the administration reeling in the fallout. It is into this fray that we...
Review by Stephen Tronicek
The Rainbow Experiment is a brutal exploration of the different anxieties surrounding the aftermath of a terrible accident that takes place in a high school. There’s a sense of urgency over the entirety of the production that spawns out of naturalistic performances and nerve-shredding cinematography but on top of that, the film partakes in addicting melodrama that highlights the dichotomy of the professional and emotional worlds at the center of the school.
During a chemistry class gone wrong, Matty (Connor Seimer) bursts into flames, leaving his fellow classmates traumatized and the administration reeling in the fallout. It is into this fray that we...
- 11/10/2018
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
My biggest takeaway from Christina Kallas’ The Rainbow Experiment is that teachers really don’t get paid enough in this country. Think about new technologies, entitled parents, emotionally confused kids with no outlet, and dwindling budgets forcing them to spend out-of-pocket for resources all while a guillotine hangs above their necks if grade thresholds aren’t met. Suddenly those idealistic educators hoping to change the world find themselves caught in a futile game wherein job security becomes paramount at the children’s expense. Everyone’s back is pressed against the wall as a ticking time bomb threatens to explode … and I’m not even talking about the possibility of someone walking in with a loaded arsenal and grudge to bear. Has today’s stress increased or are we simply too close to it?
Look at the kids too because they have it just as bad. Bullying is no longer isolated...
Look at the kids too because they have it just as bad. Bullying is no longer isolated...
- 10/5/2018
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
If you've been digging the weirder, bolder side of American Indies circa 2018ish, namely Josepheine Decker's stupendously stirring Madeline's Madeline, than you may want to keep your eye out for Christina Kallas' The Rainbow Experiment. Preposed as a jarring 21st century Rashomon, and set in a high school, Kallas' film is a dark and playful ensemble piece that looks to skew the depths of the soul for those cracks of truth. Following an La premiere with the Slamdance Cinema Club on October 28th, Gravitas Ventures will release Kallas' second feature on DVD/Blu-ray, and on demand in the U.S., on December 7th. At the time of its Slamdance premiere Screen Anarchy's own Dr. Shelagh Rowan-Legg had this to say about Kallas' work: "The Rainbow Experiment gives us a...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/6/2018
- Screen Anarchy
I do not envy anyone working in the public school system in the United States. Teachers are overworked and underpaid, administrators are caught between helping the teachers and serving the parents; some students get lost in the shuffle, while others make life hell for their teachers; and parents themselves are often caught between knowing what is best for their child, letting teachers do their job, and too often an ignorance of how schools actually operate and the conditions under which schools suffer. Christina Kallas turns an unflinching and somewhat experimental eye towards this in her latest feature, The Rainbow Experiment. Part cinema verite, part social realist drama, she relates the story of an incredibly difficult day in the lives of teachers, students, parents, and administrators,...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 1/21/2018
- Screen Anarchy
Google the words “rainbow experiment chemistry” and the internet will provide a wealth of seemingly kid-friendly directives for how to use science to “make a rainbow,” an idea that seems fun enough until another link pops up: a safety alert from the American Chemical Society about an experiment gone very, very wrong.
It’s that sort of tension — between the possibility of academic discovery and out-and-out terror — that frames up Christina Kallas’ Slamdance drama, “The Rainbow Experiment,” which follows what happens after one of those eponymous experiments leads to unexpected consequences, one that indict and unravel whole scores of people and institutions.
Read More:Slamdance 2018 Announces Special Screenings, Including New Films From Lisa France and Dana Nachman
Per the film’s official synopsis, “Things spiral out of control in a high school in Manhattan when a terrible accident involving a science experiment injures a kid for life. A who-dun-it with a...
It’s that sort of tension — between the possibility of academic discovery and out-and-out terror — that frames up Christina Kallas’ Slamdance drama, “The Rainbow Experiment,” which follows what happens after one of those eponymous experiments leads to unexpected consequences, one that indict and unravel whole scores of people and institutions.
Read More:Slamdance 2018 Announces Special Screenings, Including New Films From Lisa France and Dana Nachman
Per the film’s official synopsis, “Things spiral out of control in a high school in Manhattan when a terrible accident involving a science experiment injures a kid for life. A who-dun-it with a...
- 1/18/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Christina Kallas, writer-director of multi-protagonist feature films 42 Seconds of Happiness and The Rainbow Experiment, which will have its world premiere at Slamdance on Saturday, January 20, takes a look at the current shift in storytelling and shares her thoughts on how to pursue a more inclusive cinema by redefining the past. A few years ago I wrote a series of articles including an eight-point plan of action for Ted Hope’s Truly Free Film blog, “How to Change the World (And Most Importantly, Why).” As one of my sources, I used the 2013 USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s study, which is […]...
- 1/17/2018
- by Christina Kallas
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Christina Kallas’ tense ensemble drama 42 Seconds of Happiness received a number of awards last year in regional and international festivals in the U.S. and abroad, granting her, among other accolades, a nomination for the Emerging Director Award in St. Louis. The film will roll out on Amazon Prime in 15 countries tomorrow, while she has just completed her sophomore feature film, The Rainbow Experiment, which was one of five works-in-progress selected this year for the prestigious U.S. in Progress Paris program. Below, in a guest essay, the U.S. independent filmmaker and former Berlin-based screenwriter and producer — whose credits […]...
- 10/30/2017
- by Christina Kallas
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The heart of Paris beats for film industry in June. Industry Week is the professional part of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival.
The submissions for Us in Progress are now open till August 15th here.
This label includes the Us in Progress (USiP) and Les Arc Film Fesstival’s team presenting the Paris Coproduction Village and La Residence de la Cinefondation which welcomes a dozen young directors who come to Paris to work on their first or second fiction feature project for 4 and 1/2 months. All together, they offer 24 film projects at different stages, from development to post production. More than 200 professionals from the industry, producers, international sellers, distributors, etc. are welcomed.
This year Us in Progress broke out. It has become a top event for discovering American independent cinema not only for the Europeans invited to attend, but for Americans who find themselves in Paris for the event or who even...
The submissions for Us in Progress are now open till August 15th here.
This label includes the Us in Progress (USiP) and Les Arc Film Fesstival’s team presenting the Paris Coproduction Village and La Residence de la Cinefondation which welcomes a dozen young directors who come to Paris to work on their first or second fiction feature project for 4 and 1/2 months. All together, they offer 24 film projects at different stages, from development to post production. More than 200 professionals from the industry, producers, international sellers, distributors, etc. are welcomed.
This year Us in Progress broke out. It has become a top event for discovering American independent cinema not only for the Europeans invited to attend, but for Americans who find themselves in Paris for the event or who even...
- 7/26/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Wild Nights With Emily, about an illicit romance, scoops €50,000 top prize.
Us playwright and director Madeleine Olnek’s Wild Nights With Emily, inspired by the secret love life of Us poet Emily Dickinson, has won the sixth edition of Us in Progress in Paris.
Taking place June 20-22 as part of the industry wing of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival, the event showcased five independent Us feature productions at the rough-cut stage.
It is a joint initiative between the festival and the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland.
Wild Nights With Emily revolves around Dickinson’s hushed-up affair with her brother’s wife Susan Dickinson,...
Us playwright and director Madeleine Olnek’s Wild Nights With Emily, inspired by the secret love life of Us poet Emily Dickinson, has won the sixth edition of Us in Progress in Paris.
Taking place June 20-22 as part of the industry wing of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival, the event showcased five independent Us feature productions at the rough-cut stage.
It is a joint initiative between the festival and the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland.
Wild Nights With Emily revolves around Dickinson’s hushed-up affair with her brother’s wife Susan Dickinson,...
- 6/23/2017
- ScreenDaily
Wild Nights With Emily, about an illicit romance, scoops €50,000 top prize.
Us playwright and director Madeleine Olnek’s Wild Nights With Emily, inspired by the secret love life of Us poet Emily Dickinson, has won the sixth edition of Us in Progress in Paris.
Taking place June 20-22 as part of the industry wing of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival, the event showcased five independent Us feature productions at the rough-cut stage.
It is a joint initiative between the festival and the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland.
Wild Nights With Emily revolves around Dickinson’s hushed-up affair with her brother’s wife Susan Dickinson,...
Us playwright and director Madeleine Olnek’s Wild Nights With Emily, inspired by the secret love life of Us poet Emily Dickinson, has won the sixth edition of Us in Progress in Paris.
Taking place June 20-22 as part of the industry wing of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival, the event showcased five independent Us feature productions at the rough-cut stage.
It is a joint initiative between the festival and the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland.
Wild Nights With Emily revolves around Dickinson’s hushed-up affair with her brother’s wife Susan Dickinson,...
- 6/23/2017
- ScreenDaily
Works-in-progress event will run June 20-22 in Paris.
Us indie directors Charlie Birns and Madeline Olnek will present features at the sixth edition of Us in Progress in Paris.
Due to take place June 20-22, the event is a joint initiative between the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, the Champs-Elysées Film Festival in Paris and Black Rabbit in New York.
A total of five feature-length fiction works and documentaries will be presented at the event including Birns’s surrogate mother drama Family Affairs, his debut feature after a trio of shorts.
Respected New York playwright and film-maker Madeleine Olnek will present her Emily Dickinson-inspired third feature Wild Nights With Emily.
Rough-cuts of the participating films will be presented to 40 European sales agents, distributors, festival programmers and producers.
The winning film will get post-production, acquisition and promotion services offered by a number of sponsors from the independent cinema scene in Paris.
Us in Progress...
Us indie directors Charlie Birns and Madeline Olnek will present features at the sixth edition of Us in Progress in Paris.
Due to take place June 20-22, the event is a joint initiative between the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, the Champs-Elysées Film Festival in Paris and Black Rabbit in New York.
A total of five feature-length fiction works and documentaries will be presented at the event including Birns’s surrogate mother drama Family Affairs, his debut feature after a trio of shorts.
Respected New York playwright and film-maker Madeleine Olnek will present her Emily Dickinson-inspired third feature Wild Nights With Emily.
Rough-cuts of the participating films will be presented to 40 European sales agents, distributors, festival programmers and producers.
The winning film will get post-production, acquisition and promotion services offered by a number of sponsors from the independent cinema scene in Paris.
Us in Progress...
- 5/22/2017
- ScreenDaily
From Charlie Kaufman’s highly recommended 2011 BAFTA lecture: ‘People all over the world spend countless hours of their lives every week being fed entertainment in the form of movies, TV shows, newspapers, YouTube videos and the internet. And it’s ludicrous to believe that this stuff doesn’t alter our brains. It’s also equally ludicrous to believe that – at the very least – this mass distraction and manipulation is not convenient for the people who are in charge. People are starving. They may not know it because they’re being fed mass produced garbage. The packaging is colorful and loud, but it’s produced in the same factories that make Pop Tarts and iPads, by people sitting around thinking, ‘What can we do to get people to buy more of these?’ They’re selling you something. And the world is built on this now. Politics and government are built on this,...
- 12/31/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
A few weeks ago HBO and then CBS announced that they would launch stand-alone online services in U.S. in 2015. Before that, Netflix had made known that it would start producing features, crushing theatrical release windows once and for all, after it had contributed to the change of the patterns of attention and the way TV series are made by releasing its House of Cards episodes all at once, as a 13-hour movie. ‘Now the real shakeout begins’, wrote Ted Hope in Hollywood Reporter. ‘We are witnessing the march from once lucrative legacy practices built around titles to a new focus on community.’ Michael Wolff, writing also in the Hollywood Reporter, disagrees: ‘Streaming services from the two networks don’t signal television’s capitulation to Netflix and the web; it’s actually the opposite, as the medium expands yet again to gobble up more revenue.’ And in that sense, he says,...
- 11/5/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
Television’s impressive artistic and commercial success is not a solely American phenomenon – it is not even an English language phenomenon. The case of the Danish series Borgen (2010-2013) is exemplary. Borgen brought together on average a 50% share in its home market and was shown all over the world to great acclaim. Much like The West Wing, it worked as a reminder that sincere idealism can still be part of politics, while at the same time giving a pretty nuanced idea of how politics work. Danish TV drama (shows like The Killing/Forbrydelsen of 2007-2012, The Bridge/Bron from 2010-2013, and most recently The Legacy/Arvingerne and soon-to-be-released 1864) began its revival about fifteen years ago – at the same time as its domestic film industry, and with the fiction department of the public channel Dr as its driving force.
By now Denmark, together with its Scandinavian neighbors, is considered Europe’s...
By now Denmark, together with its Scandinavian neighbors, is considered Europe’s...
- 10/22/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
In the words of playwright Theresa Rebeck (from a talk she gave in 2010, reprinted in Women & Hollywood) : ‘It’s time to hear both sides, to hear all voices, to build a culture where stories are told by both men and women. That is the way the planet is going to survive, and it’s the way we are going to survive.’ So, how can we build that culture? Where do we start? I will list a few options to start with, and I’m inviting you to suggest more:
Create funds and tax incentives for films and TV programs written by women.
Legislation to give tax credits to female writers (like the one the Wgae is currently fighting for in Albany) and/or the creation of funds for the financing of films and television programs (see, for instance, Gamechanger Films) created by women are two necessary steps on the way to greater diversity.
Create funds and tax incentives for films and TV programs written by women.
Legislation to give tax credits to female writers (like the one the Wgae is currently fighting for in Albany) and/or the creation of funds for the financing of films and television programs (see, for instance, Gamechanger Films) created by women are two necessary steps on the way to greater diversity.
- 9/24/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
American TV is written for the most part by (white) men. The same applies to American movies, as well as European movies and European TV. Is it then a surprise that male characters outnumber females at least 3 to 1, even though females comprise over 50% of the population? Even more staggering is the fact that this ratio remains the same since 1946! According to Stacy Smith of the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, 80.5% of all working characters are male and 19.5% are female – in contrast, of course, to real world statistics, where women comprise 50% of the workforce.
What is rather surprising is the realization that although there are some local differences the percentage of women writers and women directors of narrative features is about the same everywhere in the Western world. Consider these figures in connection with the percentage of films with women as protagonists, which is a mere 16 percent: obviously, there is...
What is rather surprising is the realization that although there are some local differences the percentage of women writers and women directors of narrative features is about the same everywhere in the Western world. Consider these figures in connection with the percentage of films with women as protagonists, which is a mere 16 percent: obviously, there is...
- 9/10/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
In the second episode of Season One of Mad Men, one of the copywriters is showing the agency to a new secretary, trying to impress her: “You know . . . there are women copywriters!” he claims. – “Good ones?” – “Sure,” he says. “I mean, you can always tell when a woman is writing copy. But sometimes she may be the right man for the job, you know?” Not much has changed since the days depicted in Mad Men. Or at least, not enough. This is still a man’s world – and sometimes a woman will get a writing job not because she is “the right man for the job” but because she is a woman.
In the writers’ rooms I have worked in it was usually myself and a bunch of guys. So I was in charge of the female perspective – and I did not want to be that. I knew that what...
In the writers’ rooms I have worked in it was usually myself and a bunch of guys. So I was in charge of the female perspective – and I did not want to be that. I knew that what...
- 8/27/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
So what is the big difference between the film and TV industries? And why is American TV so successful? There are surely as many theories as there are shows, and they are probably all right. Still, allow me to add one more, based on one very important difference that I believe has been overlooked till now despite its enormous significance.
In the movies, and unless writer and director are one and the same person, the one person who has deep knowledge of the story is the one who cannot hear whether her lines are working, cannot see what is doing the job and what is not; and when the scene is on its feet, cannot delete or add anything. It is someone else who will do all that, if it is done at all – and all this happens in the name of some strange policy deriving from fearing the writer...
In the movies, and unless writer and director are one and the same person, the one person who has deep knowledge of the story is the one who cannot hear whether her lines are working, cannot see what is doing the job and what is not; and when the scene is on its feet, cannot delete or add anything. It is someone else who will do all that, if it is done at all – and all this happens in the name of some strange policy deriving from fearing the writer...
- 8/13/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
TV is known as a better place for writers than any of the other dramatic media, with the sole exception of the theater, of course. Besides, TV drama is nowadays so highly regarded that it is already changing some of the old rules regarding old industry traditions. The crossover of the boundary between cinema and TV, whereby writers can move once again from one medium to the other, with greater ease, is one of the changes. It remains to be seen whether the crossover experiment will affect the writer’s importance in other media too – especially in film.
In television, writer-producers write their own scripts and they rewrite other people’s scripts; it’s their show and their vision. In the movies, it’s all about the director. As opposed to movies where the writer won’t even be on set, in TV it is the writer who tells the director what to do.
In television, writer-producers write their own scripts and they rewrite other people’s scripts; it’s their show and their vision. In the movies, it’s all about the director. As opposed to movies where the writer won’t even be on set, in TV it is the writer who tells the director what to do.
- 7/30/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
So how can you stay true to yourself as a writer, especially when one is supposed to be imitating another writer’s voice? For one thing, one can stop chasing fads or writing what one think the showrunner might want to see. Jane Espenson, who has written for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica and Game of Thrones and has also created her own Web TV show, Husbands, talks to me about how important it is to trust your own instincts and your own good taste. She is not the only one: Jenny Bicks encourages “writing what you want to write, going towards the love” and Tom Fontana goes as far as to very simply state that “being successful is being faithful to oneself.”
Tom thinks that people often look to being successful as opposed to being faithful: “And when I say faithful, I mean faithful to themselves and to the truth within them.
Tom thinks that people often look to being successful as opposed to being faithful: “And when I say faithful, I mean faithful to themselves and to the truth within them.
- 7/23/2014
- by Christina Kallas
- Hope for Film
By Christina Kallas
One thing’s for sure: people don’t go to writing to be rewritten. But they still are, first and foremost by the showrunner. The showrunner is the writer who tells the writers what to do, and who will eventually do it herself.
So should a showrunner polish the final draft of every episode to preserve the “voice” of the series, or should each individual writer be allowed to use their voice to bring out new sides to the characters and the series? The conventional wisdom seems to come directly from auteur theory and wants everything to be from one mold, carrying a single signature and voice – so as to pretend that one person wrote it.
I was most intrigued by something Jenny Bicks said when we had our conversation for my book. She talked about using different writers in Sex and the City. She explained how...
One thing’s for sure: people don’t go to writing to be rewritten. But they still are, first and foremost by the showrunner. The showrunner is the writer who tells the writers what to do, and who will eventually do it herself.
So should a showrunner polish the final draft of every episode to preserve the “voice” of the series, or should each individual writer be allowed to use their voice to bring out new sides to the characters and the series? The conventional wisdom seems to come directly from auteur theory and wants everything to be from one mold, carrying a single signature and voice – so as to pretend that one person wrote it.
I was most intrigued by something Jenny Bicks said when we had our conversation for my book. She talked about using different writers in Sex and the City. She explained how...
- 7/9/2014
- by Ted Hope
- Hope for Film
By Christina Kallas
Paddy Chayefsky once wrote that “television is an endless, almost monstrous drain” (The Television Plays, 1955.) And he continued: “How many ideas does a writer have? How many insights can he make? How deep can he probe into himself, how much energy can he activate?” Furthermore, “he (the writer) has no guarantee that his next year will be as fruitful. In fact most writers live in a restrained terror of being unable to think up their next idea. Very few television writers can seriously hope to keep up a high-level output for more than five years.”
Today’s TV requires a level of complexity which is higher than ever before. As Robert Carlock, who has written for Friends and SNL and was the showrunner of 30 Rock together with Tina Fey, points out, on a TV show you will be doing at least an average of three stories an...
Paddy Chayefsky once wrote that “television is an endless, almost monstrous drain” (The Television Plays, 1955.) And he continued: “How many ideas does a writer have? How many insights can he make? How deep can he probe into himself, how much energy can he activate?” Furthermore, “he (the writer) has no guarantee that his next year will be as fruitful. In fact most writers live in a restrained terror of being unable to think up their next idea. Very few television writers can seriously hope to keep up a high-level output for more than five years.”
Today’s TV requires a level of complexity which is higher than ever before. As Robert Carlock, who has written for Friends and SNL and was the showrunner of 30 Rock together with Tina Fey, points out, on a TV show you will be doing at least an average of three stories an...
- 6/25/2014
- by tedhope
- Hope for Film
By Christina Kallas
The comparison with a novel or with watching a very long movie is a good one for yet another reason: serialization means that you cannot watch the episodes in whichever order they reach you. You have to watch the whole season as if you were watching a 12-hour movie. Terence Winter, creator of Boardwalk Empire and one of the writers for The Sopranos) talks about how the effort still goes towards ensuring that each episode may stand alone, as if it were a mini-movie. So when you just happen to watch this one it still has its own beginning, middle and end, and it makes sense. But it’s like one chapter in a book. To really appreciate it you have to watch the whole series, as you would read a book.
Actually, it is quite intriguing to think about the effect that long cinematic narrative has on our sense of story.
The comparison with a novel or with watching a very long movie is a good one for yet another reason: serialization means that you cannot watch the episodes in whichever order they reach you. You have to watch the whole season as if you were watching a 12-hour movie. Terence Winter, creator of Boardwalk Empire and one of the writers for The Sopranos) talks about how the effort still goes towards ensuring that each episode may stand alone, as if it were a mini-movie. So when you just happen to watch this one it still has its own beginning, middle and end, and it makes sense. But it’s like one chapter in a book. To really appreciate it you have to watch the whole series, as you would read a book.
Actually, it is quite intriguing to think about the effect that long cinematic narrative has on our sense of story.
- 6/11/2014
- by tedhope
- Hope for Film
By Christina Kallas
The prevailing idea is that film, like any other art form, is made by a single genius. TV drama is, however, more often than not the result of collaboration between many writers and minds. How is that possible, and what does it mean?
Writers’ rooms already existed back in the 1950s, when three or four of the […]...
The prevailing idea is that film, like any other art form, is made by a single genius. TV drama is, however, more often than not the result of collaboration between many writers and minds. How is that possible, and what does it mean?
Writers’ rooms already existed back in the 1950s, when three or four of the […]...
- 5/14/2014
- by tedhope
- Hope for Film
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