Brian Koppelman is a screenwriter, director, and TV showrunner (co-creator of 'Billions'). He discusses how writers can transition into showrunners by accepting ultimate responsibility for production outcomes.
“If you don't have control, you don't take the blame. So if you're comfortable, if you can find a way to be comfortable with failure, which as a writer you have to, or comfortable in your mistakes, then you can be comfortable in wanting to be the final voice on what the product is going to be.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Brian Koppelman
Insight
Koppelman: Uncredited writers should write spec scripts to maintain creative leverage
“If someone's willing to pay you guys who have no credits, 5000 dollars now, write the thing, and you'll have a much better chance of success. And we've taken that lesson to heart still to this day to write unencumbered. We like to go in a room and let our idea…”
Brian KoppelmanApr 1, 2019▶ 7:03a16z Podcast | For the Billions of Creatives Out There
Insight
Koppelman: Creative work does not require abandoning your other identities
“One mistake I see people make when they decide they have to do some kind of artistic work is they think it means they have to grab that identity so hard that it has to shut out the rest of their identity. But what I found was you don't have to do that.”
Brian KoppelmanApr 1, 2019▶ 5:32a16z Podcast | For the Billions of Creatives Out There
Insight
Koppelman: The expected value of unwritten creative ideas is zero
“The expected value of not doing the work is zero. Like there's no question about the EV of just thinking I'd like to write and not writing.”
Brian KoppelmanApr 1, 2019▶ 8:26a16z Podcast | For the Billions of Creatives Out There
Opinion
Koppelman considers 'Solitary Man' to be the best film he ever made
“Solitary Man, which was a commercial failure. I mean, it made its money back, but it was not a big commercial success, but I know it's the best movie we ever made.”
Brian KoppelmanApr 1, 2019▶ 13:06a16z Podcast | For the Billions of Creatives Out There
Insight
Koppelman: Morning pages eliminate writer's block by creating momentum
“I meditate every morning, and I do morning pages every morning. So morning pages, like out of Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way, I do three longhand pages, a real brain dump, where I just Let the pen move for three pages, no matter what. And it has this i…”
Brian KoppelmanApr 1, 2019▶ 14:06a16z Podcast | For the Billions of Creatives Out There
Disclosure
Koppelman instructed his kids to burn his journals upon his death
“No, you burn, I, my, there, my kids have instructions to burn upon my desk.”
Brian KoppelmanApr 1, 2019▶ 15:06a16z Podcast | For the Billions of Creatives Out There
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 1,000 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.