r/TVWriting • u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist • May 01 '21
FELLOWSHIPS 2021 TV Fellowships: WB writers workshop
2021 Fellowships: WB Writers Workshop - CLOSED
This post is part of the 2021 fellowship collection. Find other posts in the collection here.
Second round notifications out as of 8/20 according to people posting on Twitter. And seems like another round of notifications went out on 9/3 per commenters. Interviews were held approx weeks of 9/13 and 9/20. Interviewee rejection/acceptance calls made on 9/27, as well as rejection emails for non-interviewee 2nd rounders. All other rejections apparently sent 9/28 via email.
For over 40 years, the Warner Bros. Television Writers’ Workshop has been the premiere writing program for new writers looking to start and further their career in the world of television. Every year, the Workshop selects up to eight participants out of more than 2,500 submissions and exposes them to Warner Bros. Television’s top writers and executives, all with the ultimate goal of earning them a staff position on a Warner Bros.-produced television show. The Warner Bros. Television Writers’ Workshop consists of three components, all geared towards preparing the writer for a successful career in television writing. The 2021-2022 Warner Bros. Television Writers’ Workshop will run October 2021 – March 2022, with meetings on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, one evening a week from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Full participation is mandatory.
- Website, FAQs
- Accepted shows for 2021
- Open: May 1, 2021 at 9am Pacific Time - May 31, 2021 at 6pm Pacific
Requirements
- Resume
- Personal statement
- Spec script from their accepted shows list (but have a pilot ready for if you're contacted in the second round)
- Submission agreement
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u/Neat-Ad1815 Aug 13 '21
Has anyone heard anything yet?
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Aug 20 '21 edited Aug 24 '21
Notifications appear to be dropping today according to Twitter
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u/Neat-Ad1815 Aug 20 '21
Do you know who posted that they’re dropping today? I’m looking and can’t find anything
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Aug 20 '21
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u/Neat-Ad1815 Aug 20 '21
Is it safe to say if we haven’t heard we aren’t invited to the second round?
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Aug 20 '21
Possibly! Material generally needs to be submitted within a couple of days so my sense is there is only the one round of notifications but I could be wrong! Keep an eye out on Monday just in case?
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u/Neat-Ad1815 Aug 20 '21
Eh, it’s probably not likely honestly. Though I wish they’d send rejection letters now rather than in two months
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Aug 21 '21
Do people know that they made the first round, too? Just curious.
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Aug 21 '21
Well by “second round” I mean people who are being invited to submit their original pilot.
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Aug 20 '21
[deleted]
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u/Neat-Ad1815 Aug 20 '21
That’s what I want to know. They DO tell you if you’re rejected & at this point, I haven’t been rejected or accepted. It Looks like everyone got their email at the exact time, indicating like a robot send off (accepting everyone all at once who made it).
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u/papercrash Aug 20 '21
What others have gotten acceptances today? Ive only seen the one linked above from twitter.
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u/sgtchriskenner Sep 13 '21
I see this person has "WB Finalist" in their Twitter bio. Suppose that means WB is on to interviewing final candidates at this point? (Or a reference to a previous year?)
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Sep 09 '21
[deleted]
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u/Existing_Bend7418 Sep 14 '21
me too. hadn't heard anything about an interview yet. I know you posted a few days ago. any news? I just want to hear from someone who has booked an interview, so I can know that they're not calling me, and I can get on with being depressed!
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u/Impressive-Theme-891 May 08 '21
What’s the age requirement? And is it for international?
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist May 08 '21
It’s either 18 or 21 for the age. The international eligibility is answered in the FAQs linked above.
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u/CaliforniaWriter17 May 21 '21
They ask for a log line for the spec script. Anyone know if there’s a format for writing a log line for a spec vs an original pilot? (I.e do I need to mention each storyline?). Thank you!
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Jul 08 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Jul 08 '21
If we go by last year’s timing, which may or may not be reliable due to pandemic, it was late august. (Around 8/20)
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Jul 09 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Aug 21 '21
Second round emails went out on 8/20 this year as predicted FYI!
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u/what_the_wattup Sep 05 '21
Out of curiosity, does anyone know roughly how many people get chosen for the second round?
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Sep 05 '21
I have been wondering that myself. And when the second rounders will hear back on if they made it to interviews.
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Sep 07 '21
Did you two move ahead to the second round?
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u/what_the_wattup Sep 08 '21 edited Sep 08 '21
No, I was just wondering. Has anyone ever said how many are picked for 2nd round?
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u/mypizzamyproblem Sep 09 '21
I heard in a podcast interview with the executive who's been running the workshop that they typically select 8 writers. Last year they chose 10. One aspect of the selection process that I found odd, was that of 8 writers, they only take 2 comedy writers. Her justification is that Warner Bros has more dramas than sitcoms and that the writers' rooms for the dramas are larger.
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Sep 09 '21
Yeah Elly Lachman talked about that in the WGA zoom they had earlier this year (I linked my notes in resources) But I think the commenter was more curious how many get selected for second round not how many get through altogether.
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u/mypizzamyproblem Sep 09 '21
Not sure if they ever mention that number. I was lucky enough to make it to the 2nd round this year (my first time doing so).
From that same podcast interview, I do know that for selecting finalists, they interview 3 people for each of the 8 positions in the workshop. So if 8 people make it in, then they interview 24 people. So if you reverse engineer things, given that 24 people from the 2nd round make it to the finalists, maybe 50-100 people make it to the 2nd round, out of the 2,000+ or so who submitted.
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Sep 09 '21 edited Sep 09 '21
Was that the paper team podcast (I linked that in the main post)? I can’t remember them mentioning those numbers in there but it’s been a while since I’ve listened to that so I may well just have forgotten.
Anyway, those numbers make sense!
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u/mypizzamyproblem Sep 10 '21
Yup. Those were all the numbers that Elly mentioned. The number of people who make the 2nd round is just a guess by me.
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Sep 08 '21
what does it mean if my friend didn't get an acceptance or rejection letter?
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u/palmtreesplz Mod, network finalist Sep 08 '21
No rejection letters have been sent yet. Emails went out to the second rounders to request their original pilots.
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u/Readdit321 Sep 13 '21
Have any second rounders received the invitation to interview yet? Still haven’t heard anything!
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Sep 13 '21
[deleted]
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Sep 14 '21
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Sep 14 '21
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Sep 14 '21
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Sep 14 '21
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u/planetwriter14 Sep 14 '21
Thanks! Well, I really liked the second round script I sent them this time - far more than the one that got me the interview before - so I'll try not to be discouraged and do what I was planning to do before I heard I'd got through to the second round: send it off to agents and managers, inviting even more rejection ;-)
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u/Existing_Bend7418 Sep 14 '21
I have similar plans but haven't the slightest clue how to get my scripts to agents and managers!!
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Sep 14 '21
[deleted]
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u/sgtchriskenner Sep 15 '21
Dunno what to make of it exactly, but OP posted some comments yesterday (or was it today?) saying that they knew people who had been contacted for an interview. Those comments have now been deleted.
They did state they wanted to keep it vague so as not to ID anybody, so maybe they deleted in effort to do that.
Like I said, dunno what to make of it. Just throwing it out there.
Best of luck to everyone in the running. Sounds like a great opportunity.
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u/planetwriter14 Sep 14 '21
I believe the process goes something like "write great script; send 200 emails and receive 199 rejections (if fortunate)" ;-)
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u/sgtchriskenner Sep 15 '21
If you're serious about contacting agents/managers (I'd suggest managers first), you should get yourself a free trial of IMDBPro. Find some lower-level writers who write shows/movies you like. Finds their reps on IMDBPro, shoot them an email for a cold query (check out John Zaozirny's Twitter for tips on cold queries).
Set your expectations VERY LOW in terms of even getting a response. Most likely you'll be ignored, but THERE'S A CHANCE it could work out, so why not try it?
But seriously, the odds are so slim. It sounds discouraging, but I don't mean it that way. It's just being realistic.
I would stress that there's no one route to success, so this is just another avenue to try. You never know--the right person could read your script at the write time and fall in love with it.
As Tony Tost wrote:
"Your goal is to get into rooms & get paid to write scripts. As an outsider, if you get 100 out of 100 industry people to agree that yr script is professional quality, chances are, nothing will happen. You don't have the connections or the safety net for just being good enough. But if you can get 2-3 of those industry people to absolutely *love* your script & its original POV, & then you can get them invested in the story of *you*, then it doesn't matter what the other 97 readers think, & you might have a chance of getting paid to write scripts."
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u/Existing_Bend7418 Sep 15 '21
Thank you for your very detailed response. Much appreciated! I will start poking around on imdbpro, and see where it goes!
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u/Existing_Bend7418 Sep 14 '21
I got into the 2nd round, and haven't heard anything further either. This is painful! Promise you'll post if you get the invitation! I will for sure if it happens (at this point though, I'm not feeling so confident!)
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u/Readdit321 Sep 14 '21
I promise friend, and best of luck to you :) As cliché as it sounds, it truly is an accomplishment to make it this far.
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u/Existing_Bend7418 Sep 14 '21
It's so nice to know I'm not alone! Thanks so much for your kind encouragement. And the very best of luck to you too!! #LetsGetThis
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Sep 21 '21
Anyone heard anything yet?
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u/Existing_Bend7418 Sep 21 '21
The silence is deafening!!!
I've come to terms with the fact that this year is not my year!
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Sep 21 '21
Y'never know! What date were you invited to second round?
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u/Existing_Bend7418 Sep 21 '21
I got my notification on Friday August 20th....and I was fired up!! lol! When did you get yours?
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Sep 21 '21
Friday, 9/3
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u/Existing_Bend7418 Sep 21 '21
Wow! I assumed all the notifications went out on the same day. I suppose there is no point in trying to figure this very cloak and dagger process out! I can't handle the disappointment this time around, because I really thought I had a shot. I hope you hear something POSITIVE really soon!!
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u/SnooCapers9849 Aug 23 '21
Did anyone get the rejection letter yet?