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#1 – Brent Forrester (TV writer-showrunner) at Sony Studios

July 13, 2016 by tombenedek@gmail.com

Brent Forrester (Love, The Office, The Simpsons, King of the Hill) talks about the TV comedy writers’ room, story development, and character and plot in comedy.

We talk about:

  • How to write a TV script in a writers room
  • Plot vs. plotlessness in TV comedy
  • Planning and writing the season’s scripts for Love
  • Differences between creating a series for Netflix vs. the networks
  • Working with Judd Apatow – The Apatow Touch
  • How Brent runs his writer’s room on Love
  • The writer’s room on The Simpsons
  • Writing comedy for emotion/behavior more than plot
  • Brainstorming episodes/breaking story

BRENT FORRESTER - SONY STUDIOS - LOVE OFFICE BW 1

Quotes:

“A really interesting element of this show, and part of the tone that people are responding to, is that we have prioritized authenticity of behavior over plot.”

“Emotion in performance is aided by slowing things down.”

“Carl Reiner would say to the writers, ‘I want you to tell me the situations you got into over the weekend. Where did you make a jackass out of yourself? That’s going to be our show.’”

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Filed Under: Podcasts Tagged With: Alison Silverman, Claudia O’Doherty, Gillian Jacobs, improv, Judd Apatow, King of the Hill, Leslie Define, LOVE Season #1, Mike Mitchell, Nurses TV series, Paul Rust, Paul Witt, Season #2 (Netflix), The Larry Sanders Show, The Office, The Simpsons, Upright Citizens Brigade, Witt Thomas Harris

#5 – Joe Swanberg (writer-director-producer) from Chicago

October 12, 2016 by tombenedek@gmail.com

Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas) discusses his new 8-episode series Easy for Netflix using the same improvisational style he developed to make his numerous indie features.

We talk about:

  • Writing, directing and producing Easy
  • Casting over Skype
  • Improvising vs. sticking to a script
  • Scheduling in movies vs. TV
  • Shooting in Chicago (as much as possible)
  • A typical day on a Swanberg set
  • Pitching an idea to Netflix
  • Post-production strategies

Quotes from the show:

“There was no rule book for how to do a show like this.”

“The characters are all coming from autobiographical places in terms of my connection to them.”

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Filed Under: Podcasts Tagged With: Addison Timlin, Ally Sheedy, Amazon, anthology, Aubrey Plaza, Billy Rosenberg, Chicago, Digging for Fire, directing scripted TV, Drinking Buddies, Easy, Eddie Linker, Elizabeth Reaser, Girls, Happy Christmas, iTunes, Jake Johnson, Jane Adams, Judd Apatow, Little Sister, Looking, Love series on Netflix, low budget filmmaking, Michael Chernus, Netflix, Peter Gilbert, Red camera, Sony, Stranger Things, Todd Rohal, Uncle Kent 2, Zach Clark

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