Advice — ellen sandler

Sick of being controlled by other people’s plans? Frustrated by rules nobody asked you about? How would you like to play God and create a world according to you? Well, you can – write a pilot! Because that’s what a pilot for an original series is: A whole new world. And you get to create it – in your own image. God being God, it took Him/Her a week (depends how you choose to interpret your Bible, of course) to create the world, but you being you – with many more needs than God, like getting another cup of coffee,...

Whether you're an established film/ TV writer or an aspiring one, you've heard it - everybody in town has said it - you should write a spec pilot. Didn't used to be that way. Up until about five years ago, it was considered crazy or just plain clueless to write a pilot that wasn't commissioned by a network - nobody would read it, no agent would consider looking at it. (I did it anyway - tell you more about that later)But all that changed in 2004 when Marc Cherry, a veteran TV writer experiencing a downturn in his career (he'd...

KATHIE FONG YONEDA: Everybody knows that getting hired in this business is about who you know. So, Ellen, you’ve been hired to write on over twenty shows, how do you get to know people and even more important, how do people get to know you? What is your advice on networking?ELLEN SANDLER: Actually I hate the word “networking.” It sounds so calculated, because it is. I don’t think it’s really the most productive thing to be doing – that kind of “active networking” thing.K: You mean where people are rushing at everyone handing out cards and pitching their loglines?E: Yeah....

Sick of being controlled by other people’s plans? Frustrated by rules nobody asked you about? How would you like to play God and create a world according to you? Well, you can – write a pilot! Because that’s what a pilot for an original series is: A whole new world. And you get to create it – in your own image. God being God, it took Him/Her a week (depends how you choose to interpret your Bible, of course) to create the world, but you being you – with many more needs than God, like getting another cup of coffee,...