Emerging: How to Eventually Make it in Film & TV

TV Pilots are arguably the best bang for your buck as an emerging writer - shorter, lower stakes, highly unlikely to get made anyway, and every competition is positively frothing at the mouth for them. But how does writing an episode of TV differ from writing a feature film? And how does writing specifically a pilot script for your own show differ from writing other TV?

In the next on our series about how we approach writing for different mediums, we're going all-in on those 40-page wonders, from how to prep an idea and figure out its home, to how it might differ structurally from some other styles of writing.

📬 Get In Touch:
Email us: [email protected]
Follow us on Instagram: @theemergingpod
Ben is @bmlrobins
Martin is @bananabreadfilm
Tray is @ByTrayepps

✨ Support the Show:
If you enjoyed the episode, please rate and review! And share it with a fellow emerging writer who needs a boost (or a laugh).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's one of Martin's favourite bits of advice - go off and make a short. But how do you even begin to start? What makes writing a short film totally different (and arguably, far more flexible) than writing a TV pilot or a feature? Well, in the first of a lil trilogy of episodes about how we approach different mediums, we're digging deep into exactly that. You've got an idea for a short film, now what?

Included is quite a bit of tough love (is this going to help your writing career? is a short film script enough to get industry attention?) but also plenty of rock solid advice on how to go from zero to a fully-finished and festival ready short, and of course the ins and outs of why you would even bother with making one in the first place.

📬 Get In Touch:
Email us: [email protected]
Follow us on Instagram: @theemergingpod
Ben is @bmlrobins
Martin is @bananabreadfilm
Tray is @ByTrayepps

✨ Support the Show:
If you enjoyed the episode, please rate and review! And share it with a fellow emerging writer who needs a boost (or a laugh).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Look at this - a whole extra 25 minutes with the supremely talented Hong Kong-born writer-director Calif Chong! We take Calif through the Last Call, learn all about the history of Stephen Chow, the most useful takeaways from Blake Snyder's Save the Cat AND how those creative goalposts are always moving, even after you've made your first feature.

As with her full episode, Calif's incredibly wise and generous with her answers - if you want to follow her career, she's @califcnm on Instagram!

📬 Get In Touch:
Email us: [email protected]
Follow us on Instagram: @theemergingpod
Ben is @bmlrobins
Martin is @bananabreadfilm
Tray is @ByTrayepps

✨ Support the Show:
If you enjoyed the episode, please rate and review! And share it with a fellow emerging writer who needs a boost (or a laugh).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I know we always say it whenever we have a guest on, but seriously, get ready for a true MASTERCLASS in today's episode from Calif Chong, a Hong Kong born writer-director who started in-house at HK's legendary TVB, before moving across the world to London (via Berlin), eventually making her first feature High Wire, which premiered at last year's BFI London Film Festival.

Calif is incredibly generous, covering the ups and downs of making indie features, balancing it with her blossoming career as an assembly editor in high-end TV, and the challenge of language barriers as she relocated multiple times to find the right creative home. There's also a bit of talk about writing labs, since Calif is on this year's Gatecrashers lab for working-class genre writers.

And as always, if you want to follow Calif's career, she's @califcnm on Instagram!

📬 Get In Touch:
Email us: [email protected]
Follow us on Instagram: @theemergingpod
Ben is @bmlrobins
Martin is @bananabreadfilm
Tray is @ByTrayepps

✨ Support the Show:
If you enjoyed the episode, please rate and review! And share it with a fellow emerging writer who needs a boost (or a laugh).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Being original can feel like the most important thing in the world for a writer, but look around - most things aren't anymore. And while we're not saying rip off Hacks, or resign yourself to never having a truly novel idea ever again, it's important to not let the quest for originality get in the way of actually making stuff. It's your voice and your perspective that's important. So let's talk about ideas, how they happen, how we chase them, and why sometimes we feel like they're lacking.

And while we're at it, let's talk about this podcast too, because we've definitely been running a little dry recently... Got any burning questions or ideas for topics? Drop us a line.

📬 Get In Touch:
Email us: [email protected]
Follow us on Instagram: @theemergingpod
Ben is @bmlrobins
Martin is @bananabreadfilm
Tray is @ByTrayepps

✨ Support the Show:
If you enjoyed the episode, please rate and review! And share it with a fellow emerging writer who needs a boost (or a laugh).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.