becoming a writer for tv and film

When becoming a writer for television and film, you don't really need a qualification to write anything whether its a book, writing for a television company or working in the film industries. In my opinion when it comes to writing for a book, television series or the film industries you need to be able to do the following. You need to have the following, Creative ideas, thinking outside the box, team work, pitching ideas,  Researching subjects or topics, being well read ( writers tend to read a lot) and they feed there own ideas, managing budgets, knowing their target audience, some have agents working their behalf. And now i will talk about these skills in some more detail.

. Creative ideas: This is the most important skill i think that is needed for any writer and that is being able to have creative ideas or better yet having an overactive imagination or brainwaves, these can happen from writers getting ideas from stories in different genres of stories like if you are writing a science fiction story, you could read or watch a sci-fi film for inspiration. Another way could be educating yourself, and this is only for people who are new to writing and as i said before reading stories that have been done can give you some ideas about writing your own material, but when you want to learn the basics of screenwriting for television and film you can get books the teach you what to do.

One of the books to read is called Story Structure by Robert McKee, it is one of many books to read about becoming a writer for t.v and film. The book shows you the techniques and tips on becoming an ingenious writer.

. To be able to think outside the box: (Thinking differently to everyone else), When writers create story's they tend to think about twists to put in to keep the audience on suspense. Writers tend to think of these sort of things when creating films more than television series mainly because on a t.v series the story has to stay solid so the audience can understand whats going on, but for films it is the same situation but they add the alternate endings because the different stories for it would work for an ending.

.Working in a team: For writers working in team  it is more of a skill, I mean like a writer would work with the director, the agent and the producer. When the writer works with the agent they would talk about how much money it would cost to hire a certain actor, for example how much it would be to hire out Wesley snipes out for a film like Blade, if the writer was talking to the producer then that would be focusing on the locations for the film or television series, the props that would be used to in that film or television and probably how the character would look like. But if the writer was speaking with the director then it would be the case of what the actor is doing in the role of their character and what they have to do in a specific scene.

.Pitching ideas: Writers pitch their ideas to show the creativity, but the writers would have to pitch their ideas mainly to see which is the best story line to use in there film or television. But in my opinion a pitch is no just a competition for writers just to show the creativity, it is a way for other writers to listen to different story's that the audience would enjoy, not just a load of writers gathering around a thinking what story would be better just for them, anything a writer does is all for the target audience, its what the audience wants to see, hear and to talk about. So basically its the audience's opinion on what they want to see

. Researching subjects or topics: Writers have to research subjects or topics because they want to get the background information on certain characters, this happens more in the film industries, especially with re-makes, for example with the remake of nightmare on elm street. The writer would have to research the background behind "Freddy Kruger" (who is the main villain in the nightmare on elm street series and the film Freddy VS Jason), on how he became the person he was and why he does what he does.

. Managing budgets: This is highly important to all writers mainly because this relates to all writers because in one of the previous sections i was talking about it said about hiring out actors, the amount that you have to pay for a specific actor can cost a few quid so the only way to keep an eye on how much you spend is by making notes on how much you spend the see how much you have left.

. Knowing their target audience: This is another important point to know about when writing for television companies and films and that is getting to know your target audience, the reason I am talking about this is because you have to get to know your target audience because in the television industries you don't want to write a new program for a children's television channel and make it really dark and scary, or if you are writing a new T.V series that is like a crime/drama program for the B.B.C (British broadcasting channel), and make it sound very colorful and happy because it wont work.