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Monday, October 21, 1996
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[Image] TECH CAREERS / KAREN KAPLAN
NEXT STORY Giving New Media to the Word 'Writer'
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By KAREN KAPLAN
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BUSINESS ΚΚΚΚΚFor 10 years, Michael Kaplan labored as a
comedy writer in Hollywood. His scripts were
INTERNET purchased but rarely produced--a frustrating
ACADEMY existence that prompted him to try a new outlet
for his work: multimedia.
TIMES PICK ΚΚΚΚΚ That was five years ago, when the field was
just beginning to grow. Today Kaplan is in a spot
SPECIAL many writers might envy. Writing interactive fare
REPORTS for CD-ROMs and the World Wide Web, though paying
less on a per-page basis, has provided him
FRONT PAGE steadier work and more challenges, he says,
including the creation of a 900-page script for a
NATION & CD-ROM game called Psychic Detective.
WORLD ΚΚΚΚΚ "With interactive storytelling, I draw upon
a lot of the traditional aspects of the craft,
STATE & but there's an added level you can never take for
LOCAL granted for a moment--the layer of player
involvement," said Kaplan, who now lives in
SPORTS Cambria, Calif.
ΚΚΚΚΚ
BUSINESS & ΚΚΚΚΚ As consumers' appetite for CD-ROMs and the
TECHNOLOGY World Wide Web grows, so does the need for
skilled writers who can produce content for
LIFE & STYLE interactive media, from story lines for games to
text for corporate home pages.
CALENDAR ΚΚΚΚΚ Courses for writers interested in new media
are springing up in Southern California. The
COMMENTARY Writers Guild of America's Los Angeles office
sponsors seminars on the topic every two months.
WEEKLY UCLA Extension's Writing for New Media sequence
SECTIONS has expanded to five classes. And just this
semester, the USC School of Cinema-Television and
ORANGE Paramount Digital Entertainment launched an
COUNTY Interactive Storytelling Fellowship.
ΚΚΚΚΚ "Interactive is absolutely here to stay,"
SAN FERNANDO said Elizabeth Daley, dean of the School of
VALLEY Cinema-Television. "We feel very strongly that
students leaving us today need to be prepared to
VENTURA work in this area."
COUNTY ΚΚΚΚΚ The UCLA Extension courses stress the
differences between traditional linear writing
and the nonlinear approach required for
interactive media, said academic coordinator Chad
Tew. Writers must be able to manage a variety of
scenes that are interchangeable, and they must
ensure that the story will make sense no matter
what sequence the user chooses.
ΚΚΚΚΚ Although the Writing for New Media classes
claim fewer than 100 students altogether, Tew
said it is the fastest-growing segment of UCLA
Extension's Writers Program. Lori Leiberman, who
supervises the Writers Guild's interactive
organizing activities, estimates that hundreds of
guild members have worked on new-media projects.
ΚΚΚΚΚ "I'm getting a tremendous amount of calls
from people asking for Hollywood writers,"
Leiberman said. Among the requests are those for
writers of games, educational CD-ROMs,
entertainment-oriented Web sites and interactive
training programs.
ΚΚΚΚΚ Still, even as some things change, others
stay the same, said Debbie Weil, a veteran
reporter for Roll Call, a newspaper that covers
Congress, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
who now writes a column called Online WordBiz for
Editor & Publisher Interactive
(http://www.mediainfo.com).
ΚΚΚΚΚ "It still takes solid reporting, good
writing and interesting quotes," Weil said.
"That's not going to go away."
ΚΚΚΚΚ Times correspondent Karen Kaplan covers
technology and careers. She can be reached via
e-mail at karen.kaplan@latimes.com
ΚΚΚΚΚ
Copyright Los Angeles Times
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