A Quote by Dawn Ostroff

What's interesting in scripted TV is different than what's interesting in reality TV. Each of their departments have their development process where they package things and put together the writers and put together the producers and the different elements and develop the projects. By the time you get to a network or to a studio, you're able to say this is the project, here's who the producer is, sometimes even here's who the star is, here's who the writer is. It's a well-developed project by the time it gets to the studios.
Ideally I'd like to be working steadily as an actor: movies, a TV series, that sort of thing. I've been through a few different TV development cycles, and they didn't work out. When the time and project are right, it'll come together. Like I tell a lot of guys, it's not a race; there's no finish line.
Producing is very much like running a business, where you find the project, you find the different people involved, you put the elements together, and you make sure they all work together well.
People don't want to pay for pitches. They want to see it. If you hear one more time, "Well, that's execution-dependent." Everything's execution-dependent! If there's something that's going to be a little bit more interesting than The Untitled Slinky Movie, then I think that writers that want to do interesting work and at the same time commercial work need to put it down on paper. So agents and producers that writers are working with are encouraging them to get it on paper because the studios like to see what they're buying rather than just imagine what it could be.
Acting is interesting because you get to be involved in different stories and get to work with different people. Also, acting allows one to be a part of different stories, travel to different parts of the country and all the experiences put together make life interesting.
I've kind of gone from TV series to TV series or project to project, and I've wanted to get back in a rehearsal room. I feel like there's that exploration process, in a way, that you get in phases on jobs but I do wish I had that time [at school].
I really like scripted dramas. My favorite show of all time would have to be 'Lost': I loved how the writers and producers were able to weave the different storylines together; and the acting in that show was incredible.
I really have no preference between TV and film. I think that each individual project is its own thing and has a very different style. I have worked on big movies and small movies and network TV. I have had amazing experiences in each environment, and awful ones - more good than bad, though.
Every project is different. Adapting 'Robopocalypse' would be totally different than adapting, say, 'Hunger Games.' Each project has its own life and its own identity. You get into trouble when you think there's one single way to approach everything. Each project, there's a different way to attack it.
TV is a different animal. It's not a club set. As you said, you do short sets on TV - about five minutes. So you have to get that rhythm down and also be aware of the camera so you're connecting with the viewers at home as well as the studio audience. It's a different muscle to develop.
Every project is different. When I'm working on my albums, I've worked with different producers and they've all had different personalities. The recording studio sets the vibe, and that changes as well.
Design, whether it's on your body or in your home, is the same thing. It's mixing different colors, different textures, and unexpected patterns - elements that you wouldn't often put together in an interesting way.
There is a variety of different kind of producers. I'm a very hands-on, creative producer. I find material that I think would make a good movie or TV show, find the right financier/studio/network, hire a writer, get a good script, find a director, and collaborate with him/her to cast the movie and hire department heads.
Things maybe take longer usually when it comes to TV - especially network TV. There are usually multiple levels that you have to go through in terms of the casting director, the producers, the studio, the network, reading with other people.
It's very hard to make a living as a producer these days. The reality of the business is the studios have cut way back on overall deals for producers and cut way back on development. The fee for developing a project has not changed for 20 years, and a producer can't live on it.
Because you think an explosion has taken place and you're looking at the shards and you say, 'Well, can we put this back together?' And by God, maybe you can put it back together. And maybe it won't be the same, but maybe it will be different, and maybe it can even be better in a different way.
The muscles that writers need for film are very different from TV muscles. Now, when I hire the writers and put the writers' room together, I know where their muscles need to be.
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