Drew Hancock (Companion)
The Writers Panel
Ben Blacker
4.7 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Drew Hancock (writer/director, Companion) discusses being put in a box, tricks for directing on the page, writing from the perspective of a robot, why second drafts always suck, and lots more.
THE WRITERS PANEL IS A COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey folks, it's me, Ben Blacker, the creator and host of the Writers panel. Thanks for listening. It's |
| 0:07.6 | 2025, and what a decade 2025 has been so far. I hope you are hanging in all right. I hope you are |
| 0:19.4 | keeping your head on as straight as you can. |
| 0:23.6 | It's not great out there. I don't know. I don't want to belabor this, but I hope you are safe. I hope you're doing well. And I hope you keep riding. I hope you're not discouraged by any of the things going on around you in the world or in the |
| 0:39.1 | television and film business, because there are still going to be opportunities and there |
| 0:44.7 | still are opportunities. So do keep writing. It's what I'm trying to do myself. |
| 0:50.1 | A couple of things. If you enjoy this podcast at all, if that 40 seconds of intro hasn't |
| 0:57.4 | already brought you down and made you abandon the thing, if you enjoy this podcast at all and |
| 1:03.0 | want to support the work, please go over to benblacker.substack.com and become a paid subscriber. |
| 1:10.6 | It supports this work as well as the stuff we're doing on Substack, |
| 1:13.7 | including the live Zoom Q&As with professional writers, |
| 1:17.9 | where you ask the questions, they provide the answers. |
| 1:21.3 | So go over to Ben Blacker.substack.com, |
| 1:23.9 | become a paid subscriber, join us for those Q&As and support this work. |
| 1:29.9 | The other thing, you know, I'm a television and film writer. |
| 1:33.7 | I've also for the past 20 years, been the co-creator of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, |
| 1:40.9 | a stage show in the style of old-time radio. |
| 1:43.6 | Indeed, we are celebrating our 20th |
| 1:46.2 | anniversary of this show, which is unbelievable to me, but it is the best group of people that I |
| 1:52.6 | could hope to work with, including Paul F. Tompkins, Mark Evan Jackson, Padgett Brewster, |
| 1:57.3 | Busy Phillips, Josh Molina, and more. And we're taking the show on the road |
| 2:03.0 | to celebrate our 20th, including stops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, |
... |
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