Sunday, August 21, 2011

Nerdist Writers Panel

I know I have become a total pimp for Chris Hardwick and his Nerdist Industries podcasts. Chris has a space at a comic book store called Meltdown and the space is called NerdMelt. One of the things they did at NerdMelt was the Nerdist Writers Panel. It was a series of discussions with some of the top tv writers in the business. Each panel features four writers from various genres drama, sci-fi, sitcoms and so forth. It covers topics such as how did you get it started, was is your process, what is it like to be in writer's room, and what is like to work with JJ Abrams & Joss Whedon type show runners. I find the show is fascinating. Although I am pretty sure I will never be a professional television writer, but to hear discussions of the creative process and the idea of working with others and working toward a collective goal is very helpful and informative. Also with writers of some of my favorite shows like Buffy, Angel, and Lost, I get some of the behind the scenes view of what it was like to work on some of these shows. Even when they talked to someone like Jeff Greenstein who worked on show like Friends, Will & Grace, and Desperate Housewives I enjoyed because it is still about process and being creative. My very favorite was Jane Espenson who wrote on shows like Buffy, Battlestar Galactica, and Torchwood. If you look at some the episodes that Jane wrote for Buffy she played a hand in the goofy but fun nature of the show. This can be seen in an episode called Band Candy, where all the adults devolve and start acting like goofy teenagers. It is that kind of fun that marks her episodes on the show. Even though Jane was my favorite, I still found interesting things that all the writers had to add to the discussion. It is a very good podcast and I have listened to two of the three episodes and just downloaded episode three.

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