A second Game of Thrones themed interview! David Benioff discusses the balancing act that is successfully adapting a wildly popular book series with a dedicated cadre of fans, the challenge of returning to writing after a many-year hiatus, and the benefits of being a pathological liar as a child.

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To celebrate the return of the king (of television), we take a look at a 2012 interview with Game Of Thrones creator George RR Martin as he discusses finding his earliest inspirations in the DC and Marvel universes, his experiences as a novelist, and finally his entrance into Hollywood as the creator of one of TV’s most successful shows.

If you liked this, check out more videos about screenwriting or filmmaking. And if you know of a great video on Screenwriting, let us know in the comments. Thanks!

:: Our Favorite Films (and Their Scripts) from 2013
:: How to Write TV Series Bibles
:: Indiewire’s Ultimate Guide for Screenwriters
:: 7 Ways To Name Your Characters
:: Amateur Friday – The Thallus of Marchentia

Script Perfection

:: Top 10 Fantasy Writing Tips From ‘Game Of Thrones’ Author George R.R. Martin
:: Three Types of Creators
:: The Toughest Scene I Wrote: Kelly Marcel (“Saving Mr. Banks”)

Pitching & Selling

:: 13 Rules For Breaking Into Hollywood
:: How to Write the Perfect Logline
:: Who Are the Best Screenwriters Working Today?
:: The Wrong Reasons to Pursue a Screenwriting Career
:: Why Pilot Season Is No Longer a Necessity

Best of the Rest

:: What It’s Like to Be a Woman Director in a Country with a Tiny Film Industry
:: ‘Wolf Of Wall Street’ Writer Talks Film’s Most ‘Disturbing’
:: Movie Review – Blue is the Warmest Color
:: 2014 Film and Television Writers Calendar
:: After ‘Mad Men’
_______________________________

With thanks to Cameron Pattison.

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

by Angelita Williams

Although there is still a prominent amount of fluffy television shows airing, many networks have adapted new and exciting shows into their lineups.

Throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, most TV shows came off as campy and overacted. Much has changed in recent years, however, now that television has adopted a more film-like way of storytelling, narrative, character development, and plot direction.

Throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s,
most TV shows came off as campy and overacted.

Five shows in particular – Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and The Walking Dead – are leading this television revolution. For those of you who haven’t caught a glimpse of these five extraordinary shows, below is a quick synopsis of what you’re missing out on.

1. Breaking Bad

As the high-school-teacher-turned-meth-dealer, Walter White has become one of the most unpredictable television characters we’ve grown to equally love and hate.

In the beginning of Breaking Bad, we saw a family man who was trying desperately to hold it together as he battled chemotherapy, struggled to make ends meet, and worked a job he hated.

Yet when the opportunity to venture over to the dark side grew, Walter simply couldn’t resist all the temptation and luxury that came with being a drug dealer. Slowly but surely, we’ve seen a man grow more immoral and daring as the episodes roll by, and we can’t help but wonder how much further he, his right-hand man Jesse Pinkman, his wife Skyler, and his colleague Mike Ehrmantraut are willing to go.

Slowly but surely, we’ve seen a man
grow more immoral and daring
as the episodes roll by

We have no idea where this show is taking us, but that’s what makes it all so thrilling to stick around and watch. Will Walter be caught by his DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank Schrader? Will Jesse ever find out that Walter purposely poisoned his girlfriend’s son? Will Skyler be able to handle all the anxiety and stress since finding out Walter’s secret?

Who knows, but this show is well worth the anticipation you’re left with from week to week.

2. The Walking Dead

If you’re looking for a show with a happy ending, don’t watch The Walking Dead; it is a show about what the world is left looking like after a zombie apocalypse, and believe me it isn’t pretty.

Full of terrifying zombies, gut-wrenching storylines, and reoccurring feelings of hopelessness, this show is not for the faint of heart. The Walking Dead evokes a common theme that many films, books, and television shows attempt to address: the future of our world. Week to week, we watch as a handful of characters attempt to survive in a world that has lost all civilization, morality, and safety.

this show is not for the faint of heart.

It’s every man and woman for himself or herself, and one can’t help but notice the circumstances aren’t getting better for these characters. It will be interesting to see how this story comes to an end. Let’s just hope that’s not anytime soon!

3. Downton Abbey

Talk about a flashback in time; Downton Abbey has a Victorian-esque storyline, following the everyday lives of the Crawley family and their servants during the reign of King George V.

After the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, the Crawley family discovers that the only heir to their estate has died in the sinking.

This family tragedy sets in motion what the whole show has been based on for the past two seasons: an attempt to maintain the legacy and influence the Crawley family has built for generations.

it embodies a wholesome,
romantic storyline with
a few scandals thrown in
here and there.

What makes this show so popular amongst a wide range of audiences is the fact that it embodies a wholesome, romantic storyline with a few scandals thrown in here and there.

It’s not too cheesy or risqué; it manages to maintain a delicate balance that very few shows are able to uphold.

4. Mad Men

Perhaps one of the most popular television shows on right now, Mad Men has made the sixties generation all the rage again.

Former Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner has created a show about a fictional advertising agency called Sterling Cooper (now Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) and the key individuals that work at the company.

The focal character, Don Draper, is the main reason this show is so darn intriguing. Along with Walter White of Breaking Bad, Don Draper has to be one of the most unpredictable, shameless, and mysterious characters we’ve ever encountered in television.

sexism, adultery, racism, the counterculture,
and numerous other relevant topics.

His interactions with the characters around him address common themes you’d expect to see in a show about the sixties, including sexism, adultery, racism, the counterculture, and numerous other relevant topics.

The shock factor that comes along with this show can’t be emphasized enough, and if you haven’t already, I’d suggest trying to catch up and see what you’ve been missing over the show’s past five seasons.

5. Game of Thrones

If I’m going to be completely honest, I’ll say that I saved the best for last.

Although it’s only two seasons in, Game of Thrones has proved to be a wildly enjoyable, well-performed series. The show is based on a medieval book series of the same title and tells the story of seven kingdoms battling to rule the Iron Throne for command of all the kingdoms, which is commonly called “playing The Game of Thrones” on the show.

The show has its moments of being gory, heartfelt, tragic, uplifting, and unbelievable, and audiences can’t wrap their minds around all the craziness. In fact, similar The Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones has helped recreate an interest in fantasy television once more.

The show has its moments of
being gory, heartfelt, tragic,
uplifting, and unbelievable

No telling where this show will take us next when season 3 premieres in 2013, but we can bet that viewers will be tuning in to see.

Reality television may fill most the content we see on TV nowadays, but every once in a while we’ll see a great television series come along. If you haven’t already caught a glimpse of Mad Men, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, or Downton Abbey, I’d suggest you do so!

Angelita Williams is a freelance blogger who specializes in education-related content.

She’s familiar with educational practices for every age and lifestyle, from online college courses to homeschooling to traditional learning.

You can contact Angelita at angelita.williams7@gmail.com.

If you liked this, check out more videos about screenwriting or filmmaking. And if you know of a great video on Screenwriting, let us know in the comments. Thanks!

by Ingrid Elkner

Because if you’re like most of Australia’s younger generation, and a growing proportion of the other generations, you don’t seek out high quality entertainment from your idiot box. You steal it off the internet.

Torrents! DVD burning! Piracy! Dirty, dirty words… But a crime that many of us have become complacent with. Why? If you are offered over-boiled vegetables and tough steak, but on the table next to you is an unclaimed lobster dinner, you dart your eyes side to side, make sure the coast is clear, and devour that ocean beast hand over fist until your face is covered with fatty crustacean juice and a glazed over haze of contentment.

We may be geographically ‘isolated’ in Australia, but we’re no back-water bush whackers. We love to be provoked, titillated, amused, and sometimes even confused. Even though none of us understood everything they said in Deadwood (or even half of it if we’re really honest), it’s no reflection on our intelligence, but a testament to the amazing skills of the writers of that show.

We love to be provoked, titillated, amused,
and sometimes even confused.

Writing you don’t tend to see in Australia. Writing that doesn’t get funded in Australia.

So why don’t we see smart stuff in Aus? Well, we do. Some of it is Australian, some British, some American. But we don’t want to wait 10 months after a show has aired in the States to get it here. Why were we left drooling yesterday, while all fans of Walter White celebrate the start of the final season? We shouldn’t be meeting Beverley and Sean Lincoln in ‘Episodes’ only now – we should be watching season 2 along with America (who just finished the second season as we crack open season 1).

But what is the root of this problem? It appears to lie with the executives of Australian television networks.  To be fair, I’ve never met a television executive here, only heard the horror stories they leave in their wake (Tim Ferguson has some crackers in his stand-up show, ‘Carry a Big Stick’). Tales of small-minded, footy-brained, tits-and-beer-loving bogans with a background in advertising and no sense of art (and no ability to decipher satire). They don’t like women, they don’t like anything new, and they think that just because they put out crap and it gets watched, we’re all sheep who love that crap. Baa.

Tales of small-minded, footy-brained, tits-and-beer-loving bogans
with a background in advertising

Feel free to debate that if you are a forward-thinking, intellectual, emotionally-driven executive with a desire for equality and evolution in television. No, I dare you. Because watching Australian television from the womb, I don’t think you exist. I think you’re the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, Bindi Irwin’s childhood.

And you leave young screenwriters, like me, chomping at the bit to run away overseas where we will be treated better, have our writing better respected, and be paid. Money. Real money. London and LA calling. Instead of trapping the best writers in Australia and keeping them happy, allowing them to express their unique visions, and encouraging diversity in that vision, executives are letting the cream of the crop fly away to distant lands. And if you’ve ever enjoyed Californian sunshine, you’ll know why they don’t tend to come back.

So while we, the analytical, progressive, eager viewers use up our data caps on downloading the latest Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, Louie, and Napoleon Dynamite (the animated series) , bypassing the condescending ads our TV execs so desperately want us to watch and brainlessly buy from, those very same execs are busy creating new shows for us. How nice of them!

No, not nice. They created Being Lara Bingle. They created The Shire. Bimbo reality TV. Because if people watched Charlie Sheen for 8 years chat about screwing bimbos in front of a fat kid and the weirdo from Pretty in Pink, then we as a nation must love shallow people and want to see them on our screens. Sure, us smarties are not their target audience.

They’re shooting for the phallogocentric bogan turds with hot mags on their cars. Their people. But in doing so, they don’t just make us change the channel – they make us switch off our TVs and retreat to the fresh and relatable worlds found in the pirate bays.

They’re shooting for the phallogocentric bogan turds
with hot mags on their cars.

The waters are warm, and even though each dip we take destroys the film & television ecosystem a little more, stealing from the cast, crew, and writers who put their blood, sweat, and teeth into their productions, (and many of us hate this fact, especially us baby writers,) we currently can see no alternative.

That lobster dinner is just too damn good to give up for over-boiled vegetables and tough steak.

-Ingrid Elkner

Ingrid Elkner exists in human form and as a finger-puppet.

She’s had fiction printed in anthologies, articles published on comedy sites, creates sketches and comics for her own comedy blog 10 Minutes Later, and is the writer of new short film, THE PROWLER, starring Colette O’Neil.

Ingrid studies screenwriting in Melbourne and shakes her fist at offensively-shaped clouds.

Ingrid Elkner

Ingrid Elkner exists in human form and as a finger-puppet.
She’s had fiction printed in anthologies, articles published on comedy sites, creates sketches and comics for her own comedy blog 10 Minutes Later , and is the writer of new short film, THE PROWLER, starring Colette O’Neil.

Ingrid studies screenwriting in Melbourne and shakes her fist at offensively-shaped clouds.

www.10minuteslater.com

:: About Backstory
:: Retiring The Scorpion and The Frog
:: Screenwriter Interview – Simon Beaufoy
:: “The Hunger Games,” Hollywood, and Fighting F*ck Toys

Script Perfection

:: Screenwriting Tips: Render Your Setting the Way Your Protagonist Sees It
:: Parenthetical or Personal Directions
:: Do What I Say…
:: Filmmakers, Get Married and Have Kids Early!

Pitching & Selling

:: The Complete Filmmaker’s Guide to Film Festivals
:: Alexandra Sokoloff: What’s the EXPERIENCE?
:: Sex In A Submarine: Social Media
:: The Official Scriptshadow Twit-Pitch 100
:: What Dcripts do you Need to Get an Assignment or Representation?

Best of the Rest

:: How to Bring Back Firefly in Five Terrible Steps
:: Joe Eszterhas’ Letter to Mel Gibson
:: ‘Game of Thrones’: Peter Dinklage Sees Series Challenges Ahead
:: Quentin Tarantino Reveals ‘Django Unchained’ Synopsis
:: The Clueless Guide to Watching Game of Thrones
_______________________________

With thanks to Jamie C.

Enjoy!

Karel

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au