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[sennahubbs]

i worry that sometimes… sometimes we forget… that written stories… that get visual adaptations… cannot be told… in the exact same way… due to the nature… of translating words… to images… the story… well it must be told in a different way… because the actions… cannot always depict… the thoughts behind them… if the way the story is told… changes… if the medium to tell the story… changes… the story must be changed… and mayhaps… we should extend a little grace… when the story translation… is not the exact same…

[sennahubbs]

on a serious note regarding the wga strike and (as of 1:50 AM PST 7/13) upcoming sag-aftra strike, dsa-la has a fundraiser called The Snacklist which provides snacks and water on the picket lines here in LA. right now the funds they have will not last through the end of the summer, especially given the current and upcoming heatwaves necessitating more supplies. if you have a couple of dollars to spare it's a great way to directly support the writers (and potentially the actors) during this difficult time!

[sennahubbs]

Basic Story Structure

Basic story structure looks like this:

Setup/Exposition - we meet the protagonist in their every day life, possibly meet a few other important characters, and learn important basics about the setting. We also learn about the protagonist’s internal conflict.

Rising Action - The inciting incident turns the character’s life upside down, the character responds by forming a goal. The protagonist pursues this goal while the antagonist/antagonistic force throws obstacles into their path, which they must overcome. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail and have to try again or find a way around it. This struggle builds the conflict and increases the tension as the story races toward the climax.

Climax - this is the “big showdown,” where the protagonist faces the antagonist/antagonistic force head-on, and usually (but not always) succeeds.

Falling Action - this is the aftermath of the big showdown, where the dust settles and all the final pieces come to rest. Most of the story’s loose ends will be tied up here if they weren’t tied up already.

Resolution/Denouement - this is where the story is wrapped up once and for all. We see the protagonist (and other characters) settled back in their old life or getting used to a new normal. If there is a moral to the story, it is revealed here. If the story is leading into a second book, a little bit of set-up for the new story will occur here.

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[sennahubbs]

a quick word about the writers guild strike, for those of you who currently AREN'T guild members but would like to be one day: the WGA has always strongly enforced its right to ban from future membership any non-member who crosses the picket line and engages in scab writing, aka writing for any of the struck companies during the WGA strike.

so if you're seeing job openings for screenwriters at places like netflix, amazon, paramount, etc and you're thinking "hey, maybe i'll apply and get my foot in the door," just know that you WILL be scabbing and you WILL be barred from ever obtaining WGA membership. permanently.

learn more about the strike on the WGA contract site.

[sennahubbs]

Wrapped shooting on my MFA thesis film project, Wingspan, yesterday! Now a whole other kind of work begins as we move into post production.

Please enjoy this preliminary poster featuring leading actress, Erin North.

[sennahubbs]

Delighted and honored to have won Best Screenplay at ELEVATE for Soul Search!

[sennahubbs]

Delighted to announce that Jupiter won Best Supporting Actor, and my script won Best Screenplay!

My short film, Soul Search, will be premiering at the ELEVATE Film Festival in Athens, Georgia on April 22nd!

Screenings in the Tate Student Center Theatre at UGA from 11 am to 4 pm.

[sennahubbs]

We are also up for Best Picture!

Soul Search is the only film in the lineup that's nominated for both Best Picture and Best Screenplay. I'm so excited, proud, and grateful.

My short film, Soul Search, will be premiering at the ELEVATE Film Festival in Athens, Georgia on April 22nd!

Screenings in the Tate Student Center Theatre at UGA from 11 am to 4 pm.

[sennahubbs]

I was on a plane this weekend, and I was chatting with the woman sitting next to me about an upcoming writer’s strike. “Do you really think you’re mistreated?” she asked me.

That’s not the issue at stake here. Let me tell you a little something about “minirooms.”

Minirooms are a way of television writing that is becoming more common. Basically, the studio will hire a small group of writers, 3-6 or so, and employ them for just a few weeks. In those few weeks (six weeks seem to be common), they have to hurriedly figure out as much about the show as they can – characters, plots, outlines for episodes. Then at the end of the six weeks, all the writers are fired except for the showrunner, who has to write the entire series themselves based on the outlines.

This is not a widespread practice, but it has become more common over the past couple of years. Studios like it because instead of paying for a full room for the full length of the show, they just pay a handful of writers for a fraction of the show. It’s not a huge problem now, but the WGA only gets the chance to make rules every three years – if we let this go for another three years and it becomes the norm? That would be DEVASTATING for the tv writing profession.

Do I feel like I’m mistreated? No. I LOVE my job! But in a world of minirooms, there is no place for someone like me – a mid-level writer who makes a decent living working on someone else’s show (I’d like to be a showrunner someday, but for now I feel like I still have a lot to learn, and my husband and I are trying to start a family so I like not being support rather than the leader for now). In a miniroom, there are only two levels – the handful of glorified idea people who are already scrambling to find their next show because you can’t make a decent living off of one six-week job (and since there are fewer people per room, there are fewer jobs overall, even at the six-week amount), and the overworked, stressed as fuck showrunner who is going to have to write the entire thing themselves. Besides being bad for me making a living, I also just think it’s plain bad for television as an art form – what I like about TV is how adaptable it is, how a whole group of people come together to tell a story better than what any of them could do on their own. Plus the showrunner can’t do their best work under all of that pressure, episode after episode, back to back. Minirooms just…fucking suck.

The WGA is proposing two things to fix this – a rule that writers have to be employed for the entire show, and a rule tying the number of writers in the room to the number of episodes you have per season. I don’t think it’s unreasonable. It’s the way shows have run since the advent of television. It’s only in the last couple of years that this has become a new thing. It’s exploitative. It squeezes out everyone except showrunners and people who have the financial means to work only a few months a year. It makes television worse. And that is the issue in this strike that means everything to me, and that is why I voted yes on the strike authorization vote.

[sennahubbs]

The writers strike could potentially change how we consume media for the next few decades.

[sennahubbs]

We are in the running for Best Screenplay, Best Leading Actor (Jordan-Paige Suduth), and Best Supporting Actor (Jupiter Stone) this weekend!

My short film, Soul Search, will be premiering at the ELEVATE Film Festival in Athens, Georgia on April 22nd!

Screenings in the Tate Student Center Theatre at UGA from 11 am to 4 pm.

[sennahubbs]

My short film, Soul Search, will be premiering at the ELEVATE Film Festival in Athens, Georgia on April 22nd!

Screenings in the Tate Student Center Theatre at UGA from 11 am to 4 pm.

[sennahubbs]

My current project, about to film!

If you'd like to support the shoot, our funding page is here.

[sennahubbs]

Midmoon (2022)

Short film written and directed by Senna Hubbs. Shot by Elizabeth Wampler.

Cast: Ronin Molaschi, Cody Craig, Ariel Kasten.