"They'll talk about the characters, they'll talk about the tone of the piece, its scope, and so on," Rodgers says.
REAL CHALKBOARD SERIES
Money is no object.įirst, each of this year's seven staffers pitches their own series idea-from comedy to horror, goats to ghosts-and receives constructive feedback from the room. Rodgers says that, while web series are usually lower-budgeted affairs by design, they don't want to limit students' creativity to shows that realistically could be filmed by students on or around campus. Each semester, Writers Room staff set about creating an eight-episode web series. Each is chosen by faculty on the strength of a script they submit along with their application. They're referred to as "staff" to complete the real-world simulation.
The Hopkins Writers Room never has more than eight participants. "What students are coming away with experientially is really valuable because we're modeling the dynamics of an actual writers room in Hollywood," says Adam Rodgers, who came to Hopkins after a decades-spanning screenwriting career in Los Angeles, where he successfully pitched and sold scripts to the likes of Universal, Fox, and Sony. As writers banter, bicker, and brainstorm within what's called, straightforwardly enough, a Writers Room. A show's characters, plots, story arcs, and gags are usually collectively developed in an atmosphere of creative give and take. But the "screenwriterly" life, especially in the world of episodic television, is no isolated, cloistered affair-far from it. When envisioning what the "writerly life" looks like, you might picture a novelist alone with just their muses. Imaginations run wild-as evidenced by the goats, demons, and the banana man above. This 5-year-old Film and Media Studies club prepares budding screenwriters for the collaborative work it takes to create your next binge-watch. With young women both nervous and excited exploring the prospects of Greek life. Somehow, amid all this chaos, a sorority rush is underway.But then this all seems trivial now that the very gates of Hell have opened releasing demons.Meanwhile, who is this fast-talking guy dubbed the Banana Man?.