Monday, September 20, 2010

What it Takes to Create Your Own Show! by Wendy Todd

Carole Kirschner, career strategist, lecturer and facilitator of the CBS Diversity Writer’s Institute led a workshop, which addressed the key points of what it takes to create a show.

Participants were asked to re-create an existing show. The team I sat in on was recreating Gilligan’s Island. What I loved is seeing a sheet of possible cast members from every background. (And for some reason I seemed to have forgotten that Selena Gomez is actually Latina!)

There were worksheets on the table that helped participants compile characters in terms of assigning them traits; age, personality, role in the show, relationship to others… If anyone has been thinking of writing a show (and let’s be honest, most of us have fantasized about it if not actually written one, at least in our minds) it’s a good exercise. It’s actually a critical exercise because this is how any new show begins before you even write. You’ve got to have characters. Kirschner went over key points to consider in the creation of a show like:

Are the re-imagined characters compelling?

If it’s a drama, is it dramatic?

If it’s a comedy, is it funny?

Is it clear the show will appeal to the targeted demographic?

This all seems pretty basic right? Yes, it’s basic, but also essential.

Q&A with Carole Kirschner:

Q: Why do you feel diversity in programming is important?

A: It’s important that what you see on television is a reflection of yourself. (It’s important) that the people on TV look like the people in the audience. We live in a diverse world and there have been inequities for too long.

Q: What has made you champion diversity in media?

A: The Writer’s Guild and CBS approached me to do a one-day seminar for writers of color who had been on The WB. So when they got rid of them (when the channel disbanded) there were all these writers who weren’t getting jobs. So the purpose of the seminar was to educate them on what they needed to do to reposition themselves by knowing what they needed in their portfolios. And from that experience, I started the CBS Writer’s Institute.

We need more of this—more education and more assistance in developing skills and opportunities for people of color to create and contribute to programming. The time is now!

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