[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: How did you decide what types of pitches you were looking for?
Writer/Instructor and Script Consultant Shannan E. Johnson (The Professional Pen): Each network studio production company basically has a brand. If you watch ABC you’ll notice that their content is going to be a little different from CBS. Their content is probably different from FX and their content is probably different from the Disney Channel. Your job as an executive is to get in there and learn that brand. That means you’re going to watch as much stuff as you want and you’re going to pay attention in meetings. If you’re new, the mandates change every quarter maybe even sooner than that, and so the EVP will inform us We’re looking for this, for that maybe, it’s going to be trends but if we’re watching the trend it, already happened so it’s our job to be above the be ahead of the trend. Sometimes this thing is working for someone else’s network, what’s our version of that? Now we’re looking for that generally speaking though as a screenwriter it’s your job to be doing that same kind of work and saying ABC is usually going to have a show that’s like this, so does my project fit that or does my project fit more of the kind of shows that would be on NBC? A lot of that is about the audience and it’s about age and again 20 years ago you probably couldn’t find that on your own. Now it’s probably on the…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
CONNECT WITH SHANNAN E. JOHNSON
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About Shannan:
After grad school I became a junior creative executive at NBCUniversal at the Syfy Channel. I was there for the rebrand. Remember Sci Fi? Yeah, not really. Anywho, it was my job to help writers and producers take their ideas from pitch to production. I co-exec’d on Alphas, Being Human, Haven, Sanctuary, Warehouse 13, and more Syfy dramedies. This is how I honed my skill in all stages of the screenwriting process…(read more here).
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