Dear reader,
“Seize every opportunity.”
Words of advice that seem obvious but when spoken by someone directly toward you seem to jump out. Christian Blauvelt, the deputy culture editor at BBC Worldwide was a stepping stone to understanding the industry and writing world better. Christian has a bachelors from Northwestern, spent time in various entertainment facets, and has managed to find his way to one of the top outlets for entertainment journalism in the world.
- Thoughtful, engaging copy is the most important thing to be able to do. Crafting a cohesive narrative and being able to tell a story that has a beginning, middle, end, while providing an arch is incredibly rare and important in all types of writing. You want to not only give the reader an experience but you want to make those events come alive.
- Headlines and image are often overlooked by new writers. These two things are the main way to capture your reader and are essentially your pitch to the average reader, don’t skimp. In your headline you want to value what is clear over the clutter.
- Readers will read your story for one of three reasons. They want to feel informed, feel cool, or feel an emotional connection.
On top of his time spent explaining what a reader should do, he says the biggest thing when working with others or when interviewing with others is, “Don’t be a jerk.” He then asked, “Do you want to work with an asshole? No. Just be a pro, show up on time, and don’t be hostile just to be hostile. The biggest stars in the world are really, really nice.”
Christian also made mention of the fact that with the modern media, everyone is a critic. It’d be really hard, probably impossible, to make a living only voicing your opinion. The rise of social media and comment sections of websites has increased the amount of opinions being heard, as well as the number of death threats.
The masterclass today was everything I needed to get find a new spirit for this mythic journey into the heart of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Following the meeting with Christian, I dashed off and ended up back at the Glenn Gould Studio for one of the many industry panels that I have been attending. Today’s was about the new show Documentary Now! It’s a brilliant (I don’t use the word brilliant much, take notice) new-ish show that basically pays homage to some of the greatest documentaries and documentarians of modern history. The show exists on IFC and is created by Rhys Thomas, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Seth Meyers with Rhys and Alex Buono co-directing the series. Fred and Bill are the on screen talent with various guest stars throughout the short season.
Rhys and Alex were at the event in person while Hader was called via skype to join the conversation. I hadn’t previously seen or heard of the show and I was lucky because we watched a portion of an episode, “Gentle & Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee”. The conversation went exactly as one might expect with Bill Hader inevitably calling The Eagles, “a bunch of tough dudes that play pussy music.” I left that event with a vinyl record by the fictitious band, Blue Jean Committee.
Hyper speed, time travel through the mean streets of Toronto and back at the hostel, I sat down just long enough to get a text from Professor Kredell and out the door I went. We met up to talk about sound recording and he entertained me and my narcissism for a while longer than expected, it was a delight. I left there and back to the hostel I went. When I arrived, to no one’s surprise, everyone was heading out to different events so before I could even lay my bag down, again, I was out the door.
“Heroes Reborn”. “Heroes Reborn”. “Heroes Reborn”. I started this blog by mentioning something along the lines of, opinions are like assholes, everybody has them. Let me retract my negative thoughts about opinions in order to present you with my own. Heroes Reborn. The more I say it (type it) the worse it becomes, just kidding because it couldn’t possibly be any worse. I can be quoted saying, “Heroes was good until the writer’s strike happened.” I’m sure a lot of people would agree with that fact. In the third and fourth season the original television show “Heroes” dropped off fast. Heroes takes on a lot, both in it’s current iteration as well as it’s previous, it takes a multi layered story line and slowly weaves it’s web until all the characters are striving for the same goal but for different reasons. “Save the Cheerleader, save the world.” It used to be so simple.
This pilot episode of the newly rebooted show does not have such a catchy hook to it. From the bad acting to the bad writing it was a disaster. It lacked all the originality of the first one by basically stealing from itself and building on the ideas laid out in the X-Men franchise. It felt like it wasn’t trying. It certainly wasn’t trying to draw in a new audience but instead trying to make things right between an old friend that Tim Kring accidentally spilled a glass of water on at a bar and the guy said, “Tim, it’s all right. If you want to make it up to me, why don’t you go ahead and reboot that show Heroes of yours.” From the terrible puns that even the characters don’t get right away to the slow motion storyline that results in SPOILER ALERT, Jack Coleman killing his best friend. Needless to say, my heart was racing, my blood was boiling, I could have easily let my eyes well with tears. But I didn’t. Instead, knowing that Tim Kring (show creator and mastermind behind the Heroes brand) was in the audience, I stood up, shook my head, and walked out of the theatre heart broken.
The day was on it’s way downhill fast. Luckily, I had schedule a table read with some of the characters on this TIFF trip. We all met up a little after 10 pm to read my New Girl spec script in the room. It was a decent turn out of people reading, enough to make us sweat up here on the third floor. 31 pages later, John turned out to be the breakout star of the show without even realizing it. The party was soon halted by The Man laying the smackdown on our party.
The morale of the story, never trust Tim Kring again.