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Silvia Manning is an American actress who decided that she was going to write her own sit com, and that she was going to get it on screen - and that NOTHING was going to stop her!
You might remember Silvia from the Walker Texas Ranger tv show, or you might have caught her in the film ‘Screen Door Jesus’; but recently she has shown a whole different set of talents as a writer and producer.
In the last year she has been working hard on her own sit com - and she has the scars to prove it!
Just before the show goes into production Sally Brockway managed to get her on a cross Atlantic phone call to give us this interview. If you’ve got ANY ambition to get your own project going I’d say this one interview is a must, from just soaking up the necessary state of mind and Silvia’s powerful Can-Do attitude, right through to hearing about the intricacies of how the money can ebb and flow in an utterly demoralising way - and how just keeping on keeping on can get you through all that!
Hear all about:
- How Silvia took the first rough sketch of a premise through to a script, through to pitching it to the networks, through the ups and downs of the entire commissioning process right through to the cameras rolling.
- Her instinctive writing process, how she writes by tapping into her inner visualisations and dreams
- How you MUST study your craft and HOOVER up books on screenwriting
- The value of writing for local theatre as a way into the industry
- How just because a film script gets rejected doesn’t mean it’s dead
- The epic story of putting finance together in the first place - and the battle to hold it there for the length of the project
- How you tell if your comedy is funny - or dead in the water
- The unarguable value of playing to your strengths as a writer
This is the second interview in a series of three - and you know I mentioned that crucial theme that emerged in Bryan’s interview? Well, it’s here too, and I happen to think it’s one of the most important aspects of the entire process. See if you notice it.
Don’t worry if you’re not sure - I’ll be talking a lot more about THAT after the next and final interview early next week (which just happens to include fantastic insight about what one of Britain’s most respected production companies is looking for RIGHT NOW…)
Just click on the Play button below to hear the interview:
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