history – Page 37 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

14 The Operation of a Writer’s Room from How The Chaos Of Collaboration in the Writers Room Created Golden Age Television [Video]

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When the folks hosting the conference announced their theme as “Screen Narratives: Chaos and Order” the word ‘chaos’ immediately brought to mind writers rooms. I offered a quick history of writers rooms (the presentations are only 20 minutes long) and then quoted several current showrunners on how they compose their rooms and how they run them.

Transcript

I wanted to talk about what it’s like. What’s the “operation” of a writer’s room and I love that this game is, of course, based on Rick & Morty, a TV show. So, we’re blending TV into all these other mediums now. You have to think about what kind of writer’s room you’re working. There are different kinds we’ve had experience with. My friend, Lisa Seidman, is a writer from Los Angeles. Some Russian producers came to Los Angeles. They wanted a woman –a person — who had written soap operas — both afternoon and evening soap operas — who could speak Russian and who had been a screenwriting teacher, because they wanted that person to move to Russia for a few years, start the show, Anastasia, Poor Anastasia, and teach a writing room how it should work. So that she could then leave and they could manage it themselves.

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The Civil War On Film – 34 in a series – “…purports to be a history of the gangs of New York…”

Judging the truth of the history portrayed on screen begins by judging the truth of the history portrayed in the original source material. While Asbury’s book is shelved with non-fiction and purports to be a history of the gangs of New York, the subtitle admits it is “An Informal History of the Underworld.” On top of that, unlike other films adapted from books, which work hard to remain loyal to the text, when Scorsese thought about making Gangs he admitted being more interested in being loyal to the town than its residents.

Movies profiled in this book:

“On The Basis Of Sex” and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s Harvard Classmates

Working on a chapter about the film On the Basis of Sex which is a biopic based on the early life and career of Supreme Court associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg I came across this podcast that researched the other 8 women who were part of her Harvard Law School class of 1956.

If you’ve seen the film (and you should because it’s good!) or read much about the Justice you’ll have heard the story of how the Dean of the law school invited them along with some male students to his house for dinner. Then he asked each of the women in the class to stand up and explain why she’s at Harvard, taking the place of a man.

Ugh!

We all know Ginsburg’s career was such a skyrocket that it put that jerk in his place – but then some journalists thought about researching those other 8 women to see how their careers went – and they started a podcast about the women’s lives.

I love finds like this!

Read more about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in the book series I am editing — Women Making History from ABC-CLIO.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life in American History (Women Making History) by Nancy Hendriks

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life in American History explores Ginsburg’s path to holding the highest position in the judicial branch of U.S. government as a Supreme Court justice for almost three decades. Readers will learn about the choices, challenges, and triumphs that this remarkable American has lived through, and about the values that shape the United States.=

Ginsburg, sometimes referred to as The Notorious RBG or RBG was a professor of law, a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, an advocate for women’s rights, and more, before her tenure as Supreme Court justice. She has weighed in on decisions, such as Bush v. Gore (2000); King v. Burwell (2015); and Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), that continue to guide lawmaking and politics. Ginsburg’s crossover to stardom was unprecedented, though perhaps not surprising. Where some Americans see the Supreme Court as a decrepit institution, others see Ginsburg as an embodiment of the timeless principles on which America was founded.

“A Man Of Action Saving Liberty: A Novel Based On The Life Of Giuseppe Garibaldi” – 38 in a series

“Men from this area are sailing to San Francisco as fast as they can,” Carpanetto said to Giuseppe one day over dinner. “Captains who have managed to return here tell me whole ships lay in dock, stranded by crew who had no intention of serving on the return trip.”

“They merely signed on for their own free ride to the gold fields,” Giuseppe guessed. “Not very honorable.”

“No,” Carpanetto agreed. “But we will turn their dishonor into our opportunity. Whole ships are being sold for impossible discounts just to clear the docks for trading vessels.”

Get your copy of A Man Of Action Saving Liberty Today!

The Civil War On Film – 33 in a series – “…the conflict that arose in Kansas in the seven years before the Civil War known as “Bleeding Kansas.”

The roots of the Kansas-Missouri border war can be found in the conflict that arose in Kansas in the seven years before the Civil War known as “Bleeding Kansas.” In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act created the two territories and solved the “slavery problem” with the addition of a popular sovereignty clause. While the notion that Kansas settlers would vote on whether they wanted slavery or not sounded like a sensible solution to the nation’s increasingly anxious conversation about slavery, it inadvertently caused a kind of war between anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers.

Movies profiled in this book:

13 Something’s missing in writer’s rooms from How The Chaos Of Collaboration in the Writers Room Created Golden Age Television [Video]

With the full recording of “How The Chaos Of Collaboration in the Writers Room Created Golden Age Television”

Subscribe to Rosanne’s Channel and receive notice of each new video!

Transcript

Something’s missing in these early writer’s rooms. What’s — who’s not in that picture? Audience: Women. Uh-hum. it’s kind of obvious, you know, so we had these shows that we admire greatly but they didn’t have a female perspective. Hello? They were missing and their opinion is missing and I think that’s a problem. But then along came Buffy and Buffy had a staff that included many female writers — some of whom are now credited with giving it the feminist bent that it had. Joss Whedon may have started the show but now we also know that — like Woody Allen — there are things we don’t like about him. So it seems it was the women on the staff who maintained that feminist idea right up to the point where they credited the first lesbian couple on television, Tara and Willow — and that was a big step in American television. So, Buffy’s a big step. Now, here we have a room for Orange is the New Black, which has many females, but it’s missing something different. Audience: People of color. A person of color, exactly, and yet the show itself was filled with women of color as characters. So, again, we have to address that issue. We’re not getting all the perspectives we can.

For more information on the Screenwriting Research Network, visit

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* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

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A Woman Wrote That – 29 in a series – You’ve Got Mail (1998), Writer: Nora Ephron

This new “A Woman Wrote That” post is an echo of the Writers Guild campaign of a few years ago (“A Writer Wrote That”) where they noted famous movie quotes and credited the screenwriter rather than the director. The difference here being that we will be posting lines from films written by female screenwriters. Feel free to share! — Rosanne

JOE

Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

You’ve Got Mail on IMDB
You’ve Got Mail on Wikipedia
Nora Ephron on Wikipedia and IMDB
Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting

Where’s Her Movie? Gymnast, Dianne Durham – 22 In A Series

“Where’s HER Movie” posts will highlight interesting and accomplished women from a variety of professional backgrounds who deserve to have movies written about them as much as all the male scientists, authors, performers, and geniuses have had written about them across the over 100 years of film. This is our attempt to help write these women back into mainstream history. — Rosanne

Dianne Patrice Durham (June 17, 1968 – February 4, 2021) was an American artistic gymnast. In 1983, she won the all-around senior title at the women’s US National Championships, becoming the first African American athlete to do so. She was Béla and Márta Károlyi’s first elite athlete in the United States, helping establish their coaching credentials outside of the state-sponsored program of their native Romania, and trained with Mary Lou Retton, who called Durham her “best competition”. After injuries and competition stipulations prevented her from competing in the 1984 Summer Olympics, Durham retired from competition in 1985. She later ran the Skyline Gymnastics school in Chicago.. — Wikipedia

“A Man Of Action Saving Liberty: A Novel Based On The Life Of Giuseppe Garibaldi” – 37 in a series

Over the next weeks many things became clearer to Giuseppe. Tensions were rising in the United States. Things like the 1850, Fugitive Slave Act passed Congress and provided for the return of slaves brought to free states, angering Northerner abolitionists while not completely placating the southern slaveholders. Giuseppe knew he would have to decide if he should use his talents to help preserve the union of these two factions, or find a way home, yet his exile seemed destined to keep him from home.

Get your copy of A Man Of Action Saving Liberty Today!

The Civil War On Film – 32 in a series – “…because it was insufficiently sympathetic to the Confederate point of view.”

Predictably, some Civil War movie fans didn’t like Andersonville because it was insufficiently sympathetic to the Confederate point of view. Neo-Confederate viewers, who surely expected a different film from Georgian Ted Turner, pointed out Confederate soldiers in Union prison camps suffered as greatly as Union soldiers in Andersonville. On the whole though, Andersonville fairs well with Civil War movie fans who enjoy (or at least tolerate) a Northern point of view.

Movies profiled in this book: