News/opinion – Page 8 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

A Woman’s Voice in the Writers’ Room – An In-Depth Interview with Dr. Rosanne Welch in Creative Screenwriting Magazine

A Woman’s Voice in the Writers’ Room

Rosanne Welch on writing for female characters, changing the pronoun in a script, and the power of research.

Rosanne Welch is a TV writer, author, professor, and feminist, who’s able to combine her passion in one place thanks to her current position as an adjunct professor at Stephen’s College (the oldest women’s college in the U.S.) for its screenwriting M.F.A. program.

The Stephen’s College screenwriting M.F.A. program is certainly unique: it’s the first low-residency program specifically for TV and screenwriting, and is explicitly designed to increase the number and impact of women working in film and TV. It’s the perfect fit for Welch, who teaches all four of its History of Screenwriting courses, from the Silent Era throughout modern day, as well as a One Hour Spec Script course, and Writing the One-Hour pilot.

Senior Hall, Stephen’s College. Image by HornColumbia (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia CommonsSenior Hall, Stephen’s College. Image by HornColumbia, via Wikimedia CommonsThe idea for the program came from Ken LaZebnik, who Welch had met decades earlier when they both wrote for Touched By An Angel.

According to Welch, “Ken LaZebnik came up with the idea for the program, to create a Master’s program for screenwriting, opposed to extension or continuing education screenwriting programs where there is no degree at the end of it, you just have the experience of writing in the program.

“He needed someone to do curriculum, he needed someone who had a PhD on staff, and he also only wanted to hire writers who were part of the Writer’s Guild, because he wanted the students taught by working writers and writers who had experience.”

Fortunately Welch fit the criteria. “I was really excited because a lot of Master’s programs focus on directing or film production or being a master of all trades, and he just wanted to focus on screenwriting.”

Welch’s current life as an academic is a far cry from her days as a secretary at Stephen J. Cannell productions, back when he was the biggest independent TV producer with shows like The A-Team and 21 Jump Street.

Read the entire interview on Creative Screenwriting

Hey, Hey, It’s the Monkees at 50! Part I via Emmys.com [Article]

This is one of the best articles celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Monkees as a television show (my particular interest) written for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences by Herbie J. Pilato, author of (among others) Dashing, Daring and Debonair: TV’s Top Male Icons from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Hey, Hey, It’s the Monkees at 50! Part I
It’s The Monkees’ 50th Anniversary! The sixth in our series of golden television anniversaries.

When happy music met happy television. That’s The Monkees TV show in a nutshell.

Originally airing Monday nights on NBC from 1966 to 1968, later added to the ABC and CBS Saturday daytime schedule, and created by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider, this ground-breaking, Emmy-winning mosaic of a “musical comedy” was an uncommon weekly half-hour hybrid of all-things media that coincided with the popularity the Beatles.

Monkee members Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Davy Jones (who died February 29, 2012 of a heart attack at 66) became nearly as popular as the Beatles.

While the British-born Beatles forever altered mainstream music history, the Monkees managed not only to change the vast TV and lyrical landscape, but added enough sparkle and delight to its horizon to cross all generations, timelines, and hemispheres. The dynamic of each Monkee’s personality also synergistically combined as one unit for the television series, as well as for the band.

Read the entire article

How to Succeed as a Female Writer in TV & Film by Rosanne Welch | Writers Digest Online [Article]

I was recently asked to write a guest column for The Writer’s Dig (edited by Brian Klems) on the Writer’s Digest website. The topic was “How to Succeed as a Female Writer in TV & Film”. The title caused me to start humming a few bars from a famous musical while I gave the best advice I could.

How to Succeed as a Female Writer in TV & Film by Rosanne Welch [Article] | Writers Digest Online

Being asked, “How to succeed as a female writer in TV & film” makes me hum a few bars from almost any song from the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Not because you don’t need to try – and try hard – to succeed as a female (or any gendered) writer in TV & film – but because several of the clichés in the songs still ring true.

You have to “Alertly Seize Your Opportunities”, learn the “Company Way”, insist to any still-cave-dwelling males who may come your way that a writer’s assistant “is not a toy” (nor is she – or he – meant to fetch your dry cleaning or work overtime for no pay while the producer reaps all the benefits of sending a well-formatted script to the network executives for approval). You should adjust to workdays being “Long Days” and learn “How to Handle a Disaster” (like actors throwing scripts in the trash or writers throwing things across the room). You should be comfortable with the idea that there still is a bit of a “Brotherhood of Man” atmosphere in writers rooms which are still 80/20 male/female. (Having grown up with brothers or a good set of guy friends – or having played high school sports helps.) But most of all you have to remember to “Believe in You” because no one else – not your agent, not your manager, not your producer, and sometimes not your family – will always be in your corner.

If you survived that paragraph and still want to be in the business, good. Such a reality check is necessary because dreams don’t come cheap – but they do come if you keep at your writing and keep making connections along the way. That said, writers take many paths to their careers. I’ve known ski instructors who passed spec scripts off to the wives of producers who eventually hired them. I’ve known limo drivers to producers who gained their trust traveling the 405 for a year and I’ve known writers who passed spec movie scripts to the boyfriends of former college roommates who happened to be directors. (I’m still waiting for the story of the female writer who gets to pass her script off to the former female college roommate who happens to be a director so we can skip this middle-girlfriend step.)

Read this entire article at Writers Digest

The Books Have Arrived! – Why The Monkees Matter!

Finally, I have actual books in my hand! It still doesn’t feel quite real, but it’s a start!

** Get “Why The Monkees Matter” Today **

Why The Monkees Mattered by Dr. Rosanne Welch — Get your Copy today!

Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture

McFarland (Direct from Publisher) | Amazon | Kindle Edition | Nook Edition

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My Book, “Why The Monkees Matter” on Monkees.NET

Many thanks to Brad over at Monkees.net for all he has done to create a one-stop shop for info about The Monkees online. I’ve used it for years as a way to keep up with both individual and group/reunion concerts — but today I’m also thankful to him for adding a write up about my book to his site.
It truly is a great year to be a Monkees fan!

New Book: Why The Monkees Matter

Outside Warner/Rhino Records with my latest acquisition – The Monkees, “Good Times”

Get your copy today!

Good Times
The Monkees

Letter to the Editor, Los Angeles Times: On the Dylan Farrow story published May 12, 2016

NEW YORK CITY - DECEMBER 16: Rhodes Scholar and current Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Global Youth, Ronan Farrow, poses on the steps of the New York City Public Library on December 16, 2011 in New York Cityy. (Photo by Ann Hermes / The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images) — NEW YORK CITY – DECEMBER 16: Rhodes Scholar and current Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Global Youth, Ronan Farrow, poses on the steps of the New York City Public Library on December 16, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Ann Hermes / The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

After reading Ronan Farrow’s article about how the media sidelined his sister’s allegations about their famous father in order to maintain their connection to that director and his long list of associates, I engaged in several Facebook threads about the issue. Since Facebook is world opened only to those we choose (preaching to the choir anyone?) it seemed useful to also send something to the Los Angeles Times to let them know I appreciated their publishing Ronan’s piece.

Thank you for putting Dylan Farrow’s story (by way of her brother’s public statements) on the front page of Calendar [“No Longer Hiding Behind Comedy: Ronan Farrow Fires at Media, Woody Allen,” May 12]. My only caveat is that I had to see yet another photo of the man not worthy of being called a “father” above the fold. I wish you would have flipped the stories. — Rosanne Welch, Van Nuys

Note that I never mentioned the director by name – the parenthesized title of the original article is the only place it shows up – in order to keep the story focused on the female involved. Of note also is that I once read how the Letters to the Editor section chooses which letters to submit based on a statistical coverage of the issue – so it 70% of letters are pro something, they’ll publish 7 letters pro and 3 letters representing the con. So it was interesting to see 4 letters on this subject – 2 in favor of publishing Dylan’s story and 2 against. It just shows how hard it is for women to come out about this subject to a world conditioned not to believe them. In the first letter refuting my point the writer says none of the allegations were ever turned into charges – without noting that a judge insisted that the director be accompanied any time he visited his children post the break up with Mia Farrow and that Farrow herself chose not to follow through in court to avoid making her child repeat the devastating story over and over.

On the Los Angeles Times web site, my letter is the 7th letter down the this page

News: Professors Give American Women Their Own Historic Focus | PolyCentric

It is always fun to work with student journalists – this is a story written by one from CalPoly Pomona about the 4 volume encyclopedia my colleague Peg Lamphier and I co-edited for ABC-CLIO over the last three years – it is now available for pre-order by high school and college libraries (and any individuals who like to college encyclopedias or books about cool women!)

Professors Give American Women Their Own Historic Focus | PolyCentric | Carly Owens

There’s a proverb that says “women hold up half the sky,” a centuries-old homage to the vital role women play.

Cal Poly Pomona Professors Rosanne Welch and Peg Lamphier have compiled those historic feats in a new encyclopedia titled “Women in American History.”

The four-volume set covers pre-colonial history to modern-day feminism.

“It’s women in American history and culture, so we thought about what kind of women don’t normally get into encyclopedias to ensure there was a great diversity expressed,” says Welch, who holds a doctorate in American social history of the 21st century.

Some women who are included in the compilation are ones people may not expect to see in an encyclopedia.

“Lady Gaga hasn’t made many encyclopedias, but her philanthropy and influence on media earned her a place in the book,” Welch says.

Read the entire article

A New Companion For Doctor Who!

This will be all over the internet in a minute – but I wanted so share it here for the folks who have enjoyed so many of my Doctor Who lecture videos.

Dr. Rosanne Welch Speaks on “How Star Wars In Influenced Movie Themes, Female Characters, Fandom & Fan Fiction” – Tuesday, April 12 – Noon – Cal Poly Pomona

Dr. Rosanne Welch Speaks on “How Star Wars In Influenced Movie Themes, Female Characters, Fandom & Fan Fiction” – Tuesday, April 12 – Noon – Cal Poly Pomona

(DOWNLOAD PDF FLYER)

The University Library celebrates National Library Week with

Star Wars Saga

“How Star Wars In Influenced Movie Themes, Female Characters, Fandom & Fan Fiction”