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Watch It!: Writing for TV, Then and Now

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Event Status

We ‘binge’ watch. We re-watch. We consume everything from cheap DIY to luxurious premium productions. We dip in and out of series, live-tweet our reactions and ache between seasons.

Streaming and on-demand services have rebuilt our small-screen attentions and affections – and, arguably, done more to dismantle ideas of ‘high’ and ‘low’ art than any other popular media form. The way we watch TV is changing and writers are responding accordingly.

In this discussion, we’ll examine the relationships between viewers, writers and networks. How do screenwriters deal with the heightened attention of on-demand viewing? How do networks and platforms test new shows and talent? What’s the difference between a network and a platform … and will appointment TV endure in any form?

Hosted by Elise McCredie, we’ll look contemporary small-screen culture square in the eye – and ask what’s changed, who’s doing its best work and what’s in it for writers.

Presented in partnership with Victorian College of the Arts.

Featuring

Andrew Knight

Andrew Knight is considered the busiest man in film and television. He is currently writing series four of Rake, producing and writing a six-part series of Jack Irish and has written four feature films in four different countries. He is the winner of the 2014 Longford Lyell Award, the Australian Fil... Read more

Vicki Madden

Vicki Madden is a producer, writer and show-runner with over 20 years experience in the television industry. She has extensive experience both in Australia and overseas, working as writer and show-runner on such shows as Halifax fp, The Bill (UK), Trial & Retribution (UK), The Clinic (... Read more

Elise McCredie

Elise McCredie is an award-winning film director and screenwriter. Her first feature Strange Fits Of Passion (writer/director) was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, and went on to be released world wide to critical acclaim. She has also written and directed extensively for TV; she has won ... Read more

Michael Shanks

Michael’s first ever foray into filmmaking took the grand prize at the 2008 Escapist Film Festival. In the fallout, he got a job with the company directing the largely forgotten American-produced web series Doomsday Arcade. Since then, he’s curated the popular YouTube channel Timtimfed which fea... Read more

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.