Access Granted

The 2011 Writer Access Project honorees have been selected and posted on the WGA site along with their scripts. (This year with class photos of the writers as well. Is it just me, or does the blonde in the first pic look like she played a psychic a few years on NBC?)

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It’s hard at the to-- in the middle.

I wrote before about the WGAW Writer Access Project. It's a diversity program for writers with television staffing experience. The 2010 honorees have been posted. Again writer's spec scripts and original pilots have been uploaded.

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A Writer Lost

With the return of "Lost" for its final season in less than a month, now is the time to look back at its beginnings. Not the pilot script but the script that never made it to air.

Before "Lost" was "Lost" it was "Nowhere;" a realistic island survival pilot written by Jeffrey Lieber. Lieber was given the boot and the project was handed over to JJ Abrams and company and the rest is history. I never heard about any of this till my friend e-mailed me a link to the script. You can read about the story in this article.

"Lost" is one of my favorite shows but after reading "Nowhere" I can say I would have watched and enjoyed this show as well (given its ultimate execution.) Since it was a jumping off point for "Lost" there are a lot of similarities. Though they don't last long. "Lost" has many sci-fi and supernatural elements I personally enjoy. However, I also appreciate entertainment on the flip-side of this aesthetic. "Nowhere" has a very realistic tone. Lieber wrote the hell out of this script.

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The Best Movie You Never Read Part 2

Continuing the list of screenplays that have been published.

(500) Days of Summer by Scott Neustadter Michael H. Weber
A Beautiful Mind by Akiva Goldsman
A Knight's Tale by Brian Helgeland
A Midwinter's Tale by Kenneth Branagh
About a Boy by Peter Hedges, Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
Adaptation by Charlie Kaufman
Ararat by Atom Egoyan
Atonement by Christopher Hampton
Big Fish by John August
Black Hawk Down by Ken Nolan
Capote by Dan Futterman
Cast Away by William Broyles Jr.
Catch Me If You Can by Jeff Nathanson
Cinderella Man by Cliff Hollingsworth, Akiva Goldsman
Cold Mountain by Anthony Minghella
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai
Dan in Real Life by Pierce Gardner, Peter Hedges
Dances With Wolves by Michael Blake
Erin Brockovich by Susannah Grant
Funny People by Judd Apatow
Good Night, and Good Luck by George Clooney, Grant Heslov
Human Nature by Charlie Kaufman
I Heart Huckabees by David O. Russell, Jeff Baena
Igby Goes Down by Burr Steers
Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson
Man on the Moon by Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
Men in Black by Ed Solomon
Michael Clayton by Tony Gilroy
Punch-Drunk Love by Paul Thomas Anderson
Snatch by Guy Ritchie
Stranger Than Fiction by Zach Helm
Synecdoche, New York by Charlie KaufmanThank You for Smoking by Jason Reitman
The Good Shepherd by Eric Roth
Hulk by John Turman, Michael France, James Schamus
The Hurt Locker by Mark Boal
Titanic by James Cameron

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Pick A Side

'Sides' are sections of scripts used for casting. They usually run one or two scenes long.

When you spec a show you want to know it inside and out, especially that shows particular script format. It can be hard to find scripts for some shows. While the sides are only excerpts they can provide insight.

A selection from SpoilerTV:

Bones - Episode 5.11 - The X In The File - Casting Sides

Vampire Diaries - Episode 1.14 - Casting Sides

Grey's Anatomy - Episode 6.08 - Casting Sides

Legend of the Seeker - Episode 2.13 - Casting Sides

The Mentalist - Episode 2.02 - Scarlet Letter

90210 - Episode 2.17 - Casting Sides

CSI: Miami - Episode 8.14 - In the Wind - Casting Sides

How I Met Your Mother - Episode 5.11 - Last Cigarette Ever - Casting Sides

Psych - Episode 4.11 - A Very Juliet Episode - Casting Sides

CSI: NY - Episode 6.14 - Sanguine Love - Casting Sides

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Spec Scripts and Pilots

Even after you've gotten your first job or your fourth, television writers always have to have current scripts. This page on the WGA site features spec scripts by diverse mid-level television writers.

Better than the specs, there are also sample pilots. Maybe a future hit series is among these scripts.

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Micah Wright

Micah Wright is a film, television, comic and video game writer.

He has a great site with information on his work. For those interested in comic writing there is a collection of scripts from Micah's run on StormWatch.

Some of Micah's coolest work has never been produced, including an animated show described as "Deadwood with vampires, Frankenstein monsters, werewolves and zombies." Yeah, that sounds awesome to me too.

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Tim Minear

I could never figure out whether or not this is Tim Minear's official site. Either way the site provides the latest news on the professional television writer. Minear has written for "Angel," "Firefly," "Wonderfalls" and "Dollhouse."

Most importantly the site features scripts from "Firefly," "Drive" and all the episodes of "The Inside." The best way to learn script format is by reading scripts.

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