Check out this great blog post from Baseline Intelligence on the 2011-2012 new comedy series. Neely Swanson, formerly Senior Vice President of Development for David E. Kelley Productions, is presently an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in the writing division, where she teaches “The Entertainment Industry Seminar.” Neely also writes a blog about writers and wonderful scripts they have written that have never made it to the big or small screens. 

"The pilot season is over, the scripts have long since been turned in and most productions are in post."

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Check out this fascinating blog post from the ScriptJournal Blog on the importance of writing. Paul Chitlik’s writer-producer credits include "The New Twilight Zone," "Who’s the Boss," "Brothers," "Amen," "Perfect Strangers," "Small Wonder," "Los Beltrán," "V.I.P.," "Beyond Belief," "American Playhouse," "Ringling Brothers Revealed," and the made-for-television movie "Alien Abduction" for UPN. He produced and directed numerous episodes of "U.S. Customs Classified" and "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol." Mr. Chitlik has created several pilots as well as written feature films for Rysher, Nu Image, Mainline Releasing, and Promark.He has been nominated for a WGA Award and a GLAAD Media Award and has won a Genesis Award.

Chitlik has taught screenwriting at UCLA; Loyola Marymount College; ESCAC, the film school of the University of Barcelona, Spain; UNIACC University in Santiago, Chile; and EICTV in Havana, Cuba. His book, REWRITE: A Step-by-Step Guide to Strengthen Structure, Characters, and Drama in Your Screenplay, published by Michael Wiese Productions, is in its second printing.

"If you want to call yourself a writer, you have to write. If you write, you have to finish."

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Check out this great blog post from Baseline Intelligence on the home media business. Ellen Pittleman is a veteran studio executive based in Los Angeles. While at Paramount Pictures, she was SVP of International Co-Productions and Worldwide Acquisitions, and also launched the DVD Premiere group with films that included Jonathon Demme’s “Neil Young: Heart of Gold” and the sequel to the $100MM+ “Save the Last Dance.” Now as president and founder of Hybrid Entertainment, she consults on strategic planning, deal negotiation, acquisitions, film library valuation, and feature development with clients from Rio to London to Beijing. She published a review of the 2009 worldwide box office performance on a territory-by-territory basis for Baseline, LLC's international database, Screenline.

"U.S. consumer spending is expected to grow only 1% annually to $20B in 2015."

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Check out this fascinating post from the ScriptJournal Blog on the secrets to writing successfully. Pen Densham, co-founder of Trilogy Entertainment Group, considers himself a triple-hyphenate: writer-producer-director. He writes for both television and feature films and is responsible for reviving "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone" on TV. His personal favorite is "Moll Flanders," which he wrote and directed, starring Robin Wright and Morgan Freeman. Densham also teaches as an adjunct professor at USC Film School and is completing a book on screenplay writing for publisher Michael Wiese titled Riding the Alligator: Strategies for a Career in Screenplay Writing...And Not Getting Eaten.

"Write from your heart! As a writer, trust your instinctual creativity and write from your passion."

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Check out this great blog post from Baseline Intelligence on the type of documentations every film financier should obtain. John Cones is a securities/entertainment attorney who has practiced in Los Angeles for 22 years, advising independent feature film producers and others on matters relating to investor financing of feature film and other entertainment projects. He now resides in Austin. He has prepared or participated in the preparation of investor documents for more than 250 such offerings. Mr. Cones has lectured on film finance topics more than 350 times for a variety of film industry organizations. In addition to numerous articles, he has authored seven books on these same topics. He also hosts a Q&A Internet site about investor financing of entertainment projects.

"The phrase “chain of title” within the context of the film industry refers to a series of documents or agreements that establish proprietary (ownership) rights in a motion picture and all its parts."

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Check out this great blog post from Baseline Intelligence on the home video/ancillary business. Louise Levison, President of Business Strategies, has been a strategic planning and financial consultant in the film industry for more than 20 years. She is the author of Filmmakers & Financing: Business Plans for Independents, currently in its sixth edition and recently published in a Mandarin edition in Beijing, China. She also is publisher-editor of The Film Entrepreneur: A Newsletter for the Independent Filmmaker and Investors. Levison’s clients have raised money for low-budget films such as "The Blair Witch Project," the most profitable independent film in history, and for companies raising as much as $300 million.

"Theoretically, everything will be streamed and downloaded some day."

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Check out this fascinating blog post from the ScriptJournal Blog on the importance having a great midpoint in a script. Paul Chitlik’s writer-producer credits include "The New Twilight Zone," "Who’s the Boss," "Brothers," "Amen," "Perfect Strangers," "Small Wonder," "Los Beltrán," "V.I.P.," "Beyond Belief," "American Playhouse," "Ringling Brothers Revealed," and the made-for-television movie "Alien Abduction" for UPN. He produced and directed numerous episodes of "U.S. Customs Classified" and "Real Stories of the Highway Patrol." Mr. Chitlik has created several pilots as well as written feature films for Rysher, Nu Image, Mainline Releasing, and Promark.He has been nominated for a WGA Award and a GLAAD Media Award and has won a Genesis Award.

Chitlik has taught screenwriting at UCLA; Loyola Marymount College; ESCAC, the film school of the University of Barcelona, Spain; UNIACC University in Santiago, Chile; and EICTV in Havana, Cuba. His book, REWRITE: A Step-by-Step Guide to Strengthen Structure, Characters, and Drama in Your Screenplay, published by Michael Wiese Productions, is in its second printing.

"The midpoint is sometimes called the turning point. Yes, this does happen right around the middle wherein the action takes a sudden and new, unexpected direction."

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Check out this great blog post from Baseline Intelligence on Daytime Television. Jim Romanovich, President of Worldwide Media and Entertainment - Associated Television International, is entering his 27th year in show business as an actor, producer and distributor. He began his professional career as a morning disc jockey on Chicago radio, appeared in various television projects, and produced several top-rated series and specials for Syfy, PAX (now ION), Spike, TNT, Discovery, MyNetwork, and The CW. Having been employed by ATI for the last 20 years, he was instrumental in bringing the Daytime Emmy Awards as well as the Hollywood Christmas Parade successfully back to television in 2009 and again in 2010. In addition, he was given the task by NBC cable network Chiller to produce their very first original program, "Chiller 13," as part of their relaunch in December 2010. He has been interviewed about and written extensively on the daytime television market, past and present media, as well as his passion for classic movies and television. He has consulted companies that are establishing media divisions and he also mentors graduates in the entertainment field. He is one of Eastern Illinois University’s most successful graduates and was ranked No. 9 in TV Guide Canada’s "25 Most Powerful Persons in Daytime" for 2010. 

"Networks wanted out of the daytime soap business. Period."

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Check out this interesting blog post from the ScriptJournal Blog on crowdfunding. After working in the executive search industry for many years, Patty Fantasia transitioned into her life-long goal and began pursuing a new career path in film and entertainment. She is currently co-producing an indie short film titled "Accused," which is now in final editing, as well as implementing the promotional campaign and film festival submission strategy for it. In the summer of 2009, Fantasia launched her film blog, "Filmmakers Notebook," and it became syndicated on Openfilm.com in January 2010. Recently, Fantasia also became the Marketing Director for NOMOSA, an e-commerce and social networking platform for independent artists. Finally, Fantasia will be handling promotion for a new short film that is scheduled to shoot in August. All of these activities dovetail perfectly with her primary interests, which are producing, marketing and distribution.

"Considering the rise in popularity of crowdfunding, it’s obvious that independent filmmakers have found a new way to generate capital in order to produce their projects."

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Check out this fascinating blog post from the ScriptJournal Blog on how to be aware of your theme in a script. Jeffrey Hirschberg is the writer-producer-director for the comedy "Maxed Out," a short film completed in 2012. He is currently developing an independent feature film based on his original screenplay of the same name. His script "Why Can't They All Be Like Johnny Depp?" was a 2010 Winner of the WGA Screenplay Reading Series, and his book Reflections of the Shadow: Creating Memorable Heroes and Villains for Film and TV was published by Michael Wiese Productions in 2009. 

Hirschberg is also an associate professor, director and founder of the Television and Film Arts program at SUNY Buffalo State College. A member of the Writers Guild of America and judge for the WGA Awards, he has had screenplays optioned by Hollywood production companies and has written and/or created shows for Showtime Networks, Lifetime Television, and ABC. 

Hirschberg has worked at NBC, Warner Bros., and Viacom and has taught at Cornell University, Syracuse University's Newhouse School, and R.I.T. 

He holds a BS from Cornell University and an MA in TV-Film from Syracuse University's Newhouse School. He lives with his wife, three boys and dog Al in upstate New York.

"Time and time again, I find writers struggling with the concept of theme, but one cannot overstate the importance of knowing the theme of your script."

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