Writing for the media

de Martin Maloney, Paul Max Rubenstein

This is a book about writing for the media, some rather specialized kinds of writing created by the demands of still photography, motion picture photography, and audio and visual recording techniques. We address ourselves to people who want to write for motion pictures and television, those who are interested in writing and producing slide films, 8mm and 16mm films for educational and promotional purposes, documentaries for radio, film, and television, television specials, and various kinds of audio and video tape recordings. There is a considerable market for such writing, far more accessible to most writers than the market for feature film scenarios and network television scripts. In fact, the market for this material is more promising than the market for magazine nonfiction, and at the present time it is much more promising than the market for any sort of fiction. But we have not ignored the area of fiction, that is writing teleplays and feature film scripts, not only because a market for this work exists but because an understanding of dramatic forms and techniques is basic to all media writing. Writing for the media, as we describe it, is a highly practical affair. Producers of educational films, for example, need someone who can write a produceable script on an assigned topic that can be shot within reasonable time on a prespecified budget. And they need a writer who can work to a deadline. Much of the same can be said of producers who guide the development of motion pictures for theatrical release. This does not mean that talent has no value to the media writer. An intelligent, imaginative, well-written script makes all the difference between a minimally effective educational film that will bore some thousands of people while doing its pedestrian job of instruction, and one that will not only teach its subject, but also stimulate and excite its viewers. The same holds true for television productions that entertain or inform, and motion pictures that provide nostalgia, adventure, fantasy, or escape. Because writing for the media is skilled work, and because there has been little if any discussion of this subject in print, we have tried to compile a practical handbook for the prospective writer and the writer and producer with experience in this field. We have, from time to time, touched on the historical development of forms such as the documentary, and on the theoretical reasons why we believe our advice to be valid, but in the main we have tried to describe how-to-do-it: what a writer must know, what the markets are, the various forms of scripts, getting assignments to write, planning and drafting and finally revising the script itself. Most people who think they might like to write for the media come to the task with expectations formed out of the centuries-old tradition of writing for print. These expectations are often highly romantic and not very realistic, even when measured against the realities of writing for the printed page toward the end of the twentieth century. Measured against the demands of the new media— the often complex communication technologies—they are at times almost ludicrous. Yet the writer's part in these new ventures in expression and communication is no less worthy or interesting than it has ever been. It is, however, different. Our hope is that this book will help you to understand and perhaps live and work in this much altered writer's world.