The ISA is excited to include Luke Jaden as part of our Curious About podcast series of interviews. In this interview, Max Timm – the Dir of Community Outreach with the ISA – holds possibly one of the more inspiring interviews yet.
Luke is a 19 year-old writer and filmmaker hailing from Detroit, and over the past four years has gone from making a documentary about the abolitionist John Brown specifically for a history class homework assignment, to landing an Oscar nominated actor in his fifth and up and coming film.
Luke is an inspiration for writers and filmmakers of all ages, and we think you’ll especially enjoy his passion, spunk, and overall excitement over what he loves to do.
Top script consultant and author of the industry-renowned and screenwriting staple, The Screenwriter's Bible, Dave Trottier will join Laurie Lamson (author of the Now Write! series of screenwriting books) in an open session, broadly-based Q & A teleconference for ISA members. This opportunity does not arise often as Dave is one of the most sought-after consultants in the industry. You can find more information on Mr. Trottier and his services at www.keepwriting.com
An expert on screenplay formatting, treatment writing, project pitching, marketing, and the entertainment industry as a whole, Mr. Trottier is available for this one-hour free teleconferene to answer any and all of your questions. Don't be shy! Come equipped with specific questions or general industry curiosity, and Dave with the help of Laurie Lamson, will gladly support you and your efforts to move forward in your screenwriting career.
About Your Host
Laurie Lamson is honored to share her passion for screenwriting as the host of the Int'l Screenwriters' Association' free teleconferences. She is always interested in deepening her understanding of all that is necessary to make a great screenplay, and she has been lucky enough to collaborate with several indie producers on screenwriting assignments. She enjoys helping fellow and sister screenwriters take their own projects to the next level.
Laurie is the editor of Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror, co-editor of Now Write! Screenwriting and Now Write! Mysteries, published by Tarcher/Penguin. Learn more and connect with Laurie at: jazzymaemedia.com or nowwrite.net.
The best guidance given to real sleuths and armchair detectives alike to point them towards their next clue is, "Follow the money." The same could be said for people looking for their next careers, including Rose Spinelli, a former journalist, who followed the crowd funding dollars on her way to a new career helping people raise money for their projects. When Kickstarter and Indiegogo first hit the scene, all you needed (well almost) to hit your fund raising target was a well layed out page, a decent video, and a few mentions on Twitter and Facebook to start the dollars flowing into your account.
Today it is a different world. There are almost as many crowd funding platforms as there are projects and the effort to get a project noticed among the avalance of new requests asking for money is a serious endeavor, and this is where Rose can be very valuable to a campaign owner. She started her crowd funding company to provide guidance and to take off some of the load of building and running a successful campaign. She will tell you to engage her early so that she can provide you with maximum impact.
After you listen to my chat with her, head on over to her website: thecrowdfundamentals.com where you'll find her blog and a ton of great resources as you launch your next crowd funding campaign.
Slava Rubin, the founder of the crowdfunding site, IndieGogo, discusses the site's successes, nuances that have propelled IndieGogo to the top of the Hollywood crowdfunding game, as well as future plans for expanding the crowdfunding bohemoth.
IndieGogo has garnered massive acclaim within the entertainment industry, especially for filmmakers who already have a large following (see Alan Tudyk's recent web show, "Con Man").
Raising money to finance your project is becoming easier and easier, and Mr. Rubin discusses the pro's and con's, the positives and negatives, as well as tips on how to run the best campaign possible.
It can sometimes feel like success and "breaking in" to Hollywood is based on some secret handshake you just haven't been taught. But in truth, it's just about knowing how to deliver what execs and reps are looking for, and how to seem normal and professional enough to stay in the room longer than the next writer.
Writers always ask, 'What is an executive looking for? How come they don't see what I see?' During this teleconference, Danny Manus will go through the questions executives ask themselves while reading and the most common script notes executives give - but also what those notes really mean. Often, an executive's notes can seem contradictory, vague or totally unnecessary. We will discuss how to find and address the note behind the note, and how to apply those notes to your next draft.
Rewriting is much differenting than writing a first draft, and can often mean reworking or cutting the things you loved most about your story. Rewriting is also the only way to sustain a screenwriting career. So before you start hacking away to address the notes, know where the executive is coming from and what the development process is like. This teleconference with script consultant and former executive Danny Manus will you direct insight into that process from the executive's perspective.
Meeting with an exec doesn't have to be a nerve-wrecking pressure cooker. It just takes knowing meeting etiquette, how to prepare, what's expected of you, and how to deal with execs during and after your meeting. Register today for our free Executive Crash Course with Danny Manus and survive the meeting, rewriting, and development process with flying colors.