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This week the "The Mouse House" (ABC/Disney) is all about the red and the blue.From news pertaining to studio heads, actors, producers, and writers, find out what sorts of waves Penn alumni are making this week!
Showing posts with label 1994. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1994. Show all posts
DT's B&P: 6 Reasons Why ABC Is Really Loving On Penn Alumni This Week
Friday, September 25, 2009This week the "The Mouse House" (ABC/Disney) is all about the red and the blue.From news pertaining to studio heads, actors, producers, and writers, find out what sorts of waves Penn alumni are making this week!
The Remaining 21 Videos of Advice From our Hollywood Penn Panel
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
(l to r): Lew Schneider (C'83), event producer Reg Tigerman (C'07), Zach Lutsky (C'97),
Sherri Cooper Landsman (C'94) and Jason Resnick (C'92)
Back in February, I posted a whole bunch of videos from our LA Penn in Pictures 2008 panel including Jason Resnick (C'92) (Universal acquisitions), Sherri Cooper Landsman (C'94) (Brothers and Sisters Writer), Zach Lutsky (C'97) (ER Medical Consultant) and moderator Lew Schneider (C'83)(Everybody Loves Raymond, New Adventures of Old Christine).
In that series, I posted about 4 videos from the Q&A session with the audience and the panel.
...However, I never got around to posting the remaining 21 videos from that QA that I'm sure you're all find very interesting.
Continue reading to (finally) watch the remaining videos and a quick guide to all the videos in the series...
The remaining Q&A videos:
- QA5 - Who has gone on from a Penn performing group to the entertainment business? (Lew)
- QA6 - What's the best way to break into scripted television? (Sherri)
- QA7 - What is the reality behind the stories on medical dramas? (Zach)
- QA8 - What do you look for when selecting a film for distribution? (Jason)
- QA9 - What is the state of documentaries? (Jason)
- QA10 - Can you put me in touch with actresses on your show? (Sherri, Lew, Zach)
- QA11 - Why are distribution costs so high? (Jason)
- QA12 - How do you choose the actors for their roles? (Sherri)
- QA13 - Are you developing any pilots right now? (Sherri)
- QA14 - Do you pay attention to production design when choosing a film? (Jason)
- QA15 - How did you get your first game show hosting job? (Lew)
- QA16 - Will the studios go back to making musicals? (Jason)
- QA17 - Were there any moments at Penn that led you to your career now? (All)
- QA18 - What is the future for multicamera comedies? (Lew)
- QA19 - What do you think of content being redistributed online? (Lew, Sherri)
- QA20 - What was the inspiration behind Everybody Loves Raymond? (Lew)
- QA21 - Would the writers be behind a new online distribution plan? (Lew)
- QA22 - Do you expect a SAG strike? (Sherri, Lew)
- QA23 - Do you notice trends in film? (Jason)
- QA24 - If you had to do it all over, what would you do differently? (All)
- QA25 - Is there a future for art house films? (Jason)
- Lew Schneider speaks
- Sherri Cooper Landsman (1/2)
- Sherri Cooper Landsman (2/2)
- Zach Lustky (1/2)
- Zach Lustky (2/2)
- Jason Resnick (1/2)
- Jason Resnick (2/2)
- QA1 - Can someone give me a job? (All)
- QA2 - What makes a good pitch? (All)
- QA3 - Why was your spec script successful? (Sherri)
- QA4 - Where does Sherri get ideas for stories? (Sherri)
A special thanks to editor David Chalfin (C'96), a fantastic editor living in Los Angeles who recorded and edited all the Penn in Pictures videos. Check out his reel here!
Photos from past Penn in Pictures events HERE!
New to DT? 14 easy suggestions to get started!
Hanging Out with Todd Lieberman at His Very Engaging Hollywood Premiere of The Proposal
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Before I get to the actual Hollywood "scene" of this premiere, I have to say that I really enjoyed this movie and it feels good to know that a guy I call one of my best friends is glowing at the response of having a hit movie on his hands. The casting was right on the money with Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, and Betty White (plus a great scene stealer from "The Office"'s Oscar Nunez). Not only were there many funny scenes due to the pleasantly awkward tension between Bullock's and Reynolds' characters, but there was some great heart to the film as well. Definitely a great date movie.
Here's a good summary summary of the movie (per Yahoo Movies):
"When high-powered book editor Margaret faces deportation to her native Canada, the quick-thinking exec declares that she's actually engaged to her unsuspecting put-upon assistant Andrew, who she's tormented for years. He agrees to participate in the charade, but with a few conditions of his own. The unlikely couple heads to Alaska to meet his quirky family and the always-in-control city girl finds herself in one comedic fish-out-of-water situation after another. With an impromptu wedding in the works and an immigration official on their tails, Margaret and Andrew reluctantly vow to stick to the plan despite the precarious consequences."Now onto the afterparty...
Some highlights included catching up with other Penn alumni including Todd's wife Heather (Zeegen) Lieberman (C'94, SDT), and actress Elizabeth Banks (C'96) and her husband and film producer Max Handelman (C'95, AEPi).
And then I saw a bunch of celebs, but decided to approach only two. And before I tell you what I said, I fully acknowledge the awkwardness in my attempt at conversation with some of these celebrities, yet in the following 2 cases, I felt the need to approach them:
- I said hello to Jesse James and complimented him on how well he performed in this past season's "Celebrity Apprentice". He was very nice and thanked me. While his wife Sandra Bullock was right beside him in another conversation, I decided to save my "you were great in the movie" comment and walk away with my dignity.
- I had to say hello to "Golden Girl" Betty White. She was extremely nice and approachable and I thanked her for all the years of laughter she brought to me (I know this sounds really cheesy, but it was sincere). She was very gracious and agreed to take a picture with me.
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Follow Real Athletes' Tweets with This Penn Alum's New Website
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Hey sportsfans out there! Don't really understand what Twitter is, don't want to join Twitter, and/or don't know which athletes on Twitter are real or imposters?
David Katz (W'94, Varsity Basketball) just launched an innovative new site called, www.AthleteTweets.com, that aggregates all of the players and coaches Twitter feeds on one website. Plus, AthleteTweets has validated the Twitter feeds for all athletes and posts them all in real time. Per David, "for a sports fan this is the best reality show not on TV".David is no novice to the web. He used to run the interactive division at CBS Television and then ran Yahoo! Sports and Entertainment. In 2007, he left Yahoo! to start SportsFanLive to create a next-generation sports site after complaining for so long how all of the other sports sites were "all the same". SportsFanLive has been described as "ESPN meets Facebook."
Check out some of the reviews David has received below:
More of my very entertaining Penn sports related posts HERE
Visit www.AthleteTweets.com Other great Website Wednesday posts
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Two Mask and Wig Alumni Film Producers With A Bunch of New Hollywood Movies
Friday, March 13, 2009
This week here are some tidbits of some upcoming films from some Mask and Wig alumni film producers:
Per Variety,
"The plot centers on an average college student (Jay Baruchel), who is unwillingly recruited to work for sorcerer Balthazar Blake (Nicholas Cage). The sorcerer gives him a crash course in the art and science of magic to prepare him to fight the forces of darkness, including the evil magician Horvath (Alfred Molina), in modern Manhattan. Teresa Palmer will play Baruchel's love interest."
Norm's other Nic Cage movie Knowing comes out in theaters on March 20.
My past post about Norm here
Todd Lieberman (C'95, AEPi, Mask and Wig) will be producing a remake of The Man With the X-Ray Eyes. .
Per Variety,
"The original starred Ray Milland as a scientist who is near a breakthrough in X-ray vision technology when his funding is cut off. Desperate to show results, the doc applies eye drops that eventually cause him to lose control over his growing powers."
Todd also has a great looking movie coming out in June called The Proposal. Per Yahoo movies, the synopsis is as follows:
"A book editor (Sandra Bullock) is forced to marry her male assistant (Ryan Reynolds) in order to stay in the country. When they travel to Alaska to meet his family, the new couple has to fake their way through a surprise wedding thrown by his parents. "
Check out the trailer below:
Also, Todd's Beverly Hills Chihuahua movie also just came out on DVD
My past posts about Todd here
My past Hollywood Bits and Pieces stories HERE
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Her Brothers and Sisters "Meshugana" Episodes: Based On Her Own Life!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Today's question from our audience to Sherri Cooper Landsman (C'94) is:
"Where do you get your ideas for stories on "Brothers and Sisters"?
...Find out which episodes were inspired from Sherri's own life!
Any suggestions of your own to offer our Penn community? Comment below!
In the coming week, I will consolidate the remaining Penn in Pictures Q&A videos in a few more posts organized by speaker.
A special thanks to editor David Chalfin (C'96), a fantastic editor living in Los Angeles who recorded and edited all the Penn in Pictures videos. Check out his reel here!
PENN IN HOLLYWOOD CATCH UP:
- Advice from our Writer Alumni Panel for the Writer Moving Out to LA
- Q&A: "Advice on writing a Successful Spec Script"
- Q&A: "What Makes a Good Pitch?"
- Q&A: "How do I get a Hollywood Job?"
- Universal Acquisitions SVP Jason Resnick (C'93)
- "Brothers and Sisters" TV writer Sherri Cooper Landsman (C'94)
- "ER" Medical consultant Zach Lutsky (C'97)
- VIDEO: TV Writer Lew Schneider (C'83)
- How DT can help you with your Entertainment Career in 8 Easy Steps
- Other Penn writers here
Check out photos from past Penn in Pictures events!
Join the new Dueling Tampons Facebook Fan page
New to DT? 14 easy suggestions to get started!
See which Penn undergrads and alumni are registered on DuelingTampons.com
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Digg This TV Writer Did WHAT(!) to Fund her Feature Film!? (VIDEO)
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Today, I continue my Penn in Pictures series with great video of TV writer Sherri Cooper Landsman (C'94). Sherri got her start with a bantery screenplay Juliet Finkelstein Does The Hamptons, and has been working solidly ever since, working initially for Darren Star ("Miss Match") and then on "American Dreams". Now on "Brothers and Sisters", Sherri is a prolific writer, and has shouldered significant producing responsibilities, both in terms of re-writing other writers and in terms of the actual production of the episodes.
In the videos below, Sherri talks about:
- Her path from Penn to Columbia film school to Hollywood
- What short film she did in film school, how she got her short film turned into a feature film … and how she paid for her film! (you’ve got to hear this!)
- What she did when she moved back to LA
- What her first writing job was in LA
- What she does as a producer and writer on “Brothers and Sisters”
- What it’s like in the writer’s room, what it’s like shooting scenes and how many episodes the show has to do this year
A special thanks to editor David Chalfin (C'96), a fantastic editor living in Los Angeles who recorded and edited all the Penn in Pictures videos. Check out his reel here!
CATCH UP:
"ER" Medical consultant Zach Lutsky (C'97)
VIDEO: TV Writer Lew Schneider (C'83)
How DT can help you with your Entertainment Career in 8 Easy Steps
Other Penn writers here
Get email updates for upcoming Penn in Pictures posts!
Check out photos from past Penn in Pictures events!
Join the new Dueling Tampons Facebook Fan page
New to DT? 14 easy suggestions to get started!
See which Penn undergrads and alumni are registered on DuelingTampons.com
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Facebook MySpace Friendster Twitter Digg He's Producing a Reality Show About a Reality TV School!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Get this...So there's a "New York Reality TV School" founded by Robert Galinsky to help people actually get ONTO their favorite reality shows.
And President of Merv Griffin Television Roy Bank (C'94) is in final talks to create a reality show out of this.
Per Portfolio.com,
"The series will begin by following him [Galinsky] as he works to expand the school from the fly-by-night operation it now is into an internationally-franchised operation. "We are going to move from a mom and pop shop to a full-blown business," he says.And this cracks me up...Galinksy is quoted as calling the show "an uber-meta-circular-clusterfuck of camera seducing camera seducing cast seducing viewer."
Like many reality series, it will have an elimination-style format, although Galinsky says he would like to have multiple winners to encourage the formation of alliances. The prizes, he says, will include "both first-look auditions on current shows and a full pilot production produced by Merv Griffin."
I will watch this for sure!
Past posts about Roy here
New to DT? 14 easy suggestions to get started!
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Friday, September 12, 2008
Lots of Penn Hollywood news happening recently in the movies, on TV, in music and on magazine covers...Click here for this week's scoopage.
Jon Avnet's (C'71) film Righteous Kill starring Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro comes out in theaters today.
Logline: "Two Veteran New York City Detectives hunt a vigilante who may be one of their own."
Check out the trailer below!
My past posts about Jon here
Executive Producer for Saturn Films, Norm Golightly (C'94, Mask and Wig) debuted Bangkok Dangerous in theater's last week.
Check out the trailer below.
My past posts about Norm here
Merv Griffin Executive Producer Roy Bank (C'94) will oversee Lifetime "Lisa Williams" show (working title). Per Variety, it will be "bringing the eponymous medium/clairvoyant back to the network for a week of half-hour episodes starting Oct. 27."
My past posts about Roy here
Elizabeth Banks (C'96) will be Women's Health's first-ever celebrity cover for the October 2008 issue. Click here to check it out
In a recent interview, it was revealed that it was Liz Banks' husband Max Handelman's (C'95, AEPi) idea for her to make THIS brilliant NSFW video:
My past posts about Liz here
Matt Kap's (C'97) band's (The Moving Picture Show) song "The Boy Who Lives Backwards" is featured in the season premiere of MTV's Road Rules Challenge: The Island. It was played at the end of the show when the cast decided to vote off one of their own. Check your local listings for the show's reairing.
Listen to "The Boy Who Lives Backwards" here:
The story behind the song? Per Matt:
"The Boy Who Lives Backwards" basically came out of a regret. I was going to take some summer classes at NYU and met a girl the first day in the dorm through a friend. She'd had a bad day and her friend wasn't around so I decided to try and cheer her up. We had a really incredible night but I was so shy at the time and thought she had a boyfriend so I didn't ask her out. Years later I thought of that while singing a melody and began thinking about regrets we have in life - the person we didn't kiss, the bully on the playground we didn't stand up to, the clever comebacks that we wished we'd said in an argument and that's what the song is about. It also really reminds me of New York City in the fall which is my favorite time of year."
Check out Matt's performance at our very own Pennfest 2007:
My past posts about Matt here
More about The Moving Picture Show
Past "DT Hollywood Bits and Pieces" posts here
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DT Hollywood Bits and Pieces
Friday, August 22, 2008
Lots of Penn Hollywood news happening recently...This past week, Dreamworks Exec Stacey Snider (C'82) was defending her studio's film Tropic Thunder. Find out why!
Roy Bank (C'94) is collaborating with Salma Hayek on a new reality show with a "unique take" on weddings.
My past posts about Roy here
Did you know that Alison Greenspan (C'95, Bloomers) Executive Produced the recent Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (as well as the first one)?
My past posts about Alison here
Todd Lieberman's (C'95, AEPi, Mask and Wig) film Traitor comes out in theaters today. Check out a trailer below!
My past posts about Todd here
Another week of activity for Elizabeth Banks (C'96)...
- Liz will return to Scrubs this upcoming season for a 2 episode arc
- She has just been cast as Seann William Scott's love interest in High Town who dies in childbirth but later reappears as a ghost to help raise her surviving infant.
- She appears in this B-Roll footage in Oliver Stone's upcoming "W" film. See below (minute 3:10)!
My past posts about Liz here
Past "DT Hollywood Bits and Pieces" posts here
New to DT? 14 easy suggestions to get started!
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