How Writers Really Get Repped (The 90/10 Rule You Need to Know), Take 10 with ISA Founder Craig James

The most recent Table Read My Screenplay contest brought the grand prize winner to the South of France during the Cannes Film Festival. Hear from screenwriter Allegra Oxborough & director Paul Lindsay.

Jen Butler is a comedian and storyteller who specializes in writing feature-length, multi-layered dark comedy screenplays focusing on the complex nature of humans as they navigate spiritual and emotional awakenings.

When not writing screenplays, Jen tells comedic real-talk stories to her 275,000 online followers (@jenbutlersays IG, TikTok, & Threads), performs improv and stand-up comedy, practices martial arts and ballroom dance, and rewatches The Matrix for the 900th time. 

Find more about Jen here: https://www.networkisa.org/profile/jenbutler

A. J. BERMUDEZ is an award-winning author and filmmaker based in Los Angeles and New York. Her first book, Stories No One Hopes Are About Them, won the 2022 Iowa Short Fiction Award and was a 2023 Lambda Award Finalist. Her most recent feature film project, My Dead Friend Zoe (co-written with director Kyle-Hausmann Stokes, starring Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman), premiered at SXSW and won the Narrative Spotlight Audience Award in 2024. Her work has been honored at Sundance, the LGBTQ+ Toronto Film Festival, the Yale Center for British Art, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of the Diverse Voices Award, the PAGE Award, and the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize. In addition to writing and filmmaking, Bermudez is also a former boxer and EMT, and her work gravitates toward contemporary explorations of power, privilege, and place.

Find more about AJ here: https://www.networkisa.org/profile/ajbermudez

Stephanie Bast was abandoned in Korea, adopted by Italians and raised in a town so small and white, someone asked: “How are you gonna understand her when she starts speaking?” Fiercely loved and protected, she was taught to fear “the other” while knowing “the other” was herself. She started to write comedy to heal a wound. Now she writes to heal others, creating characters who think they’re not enough, desperate to prove they’re worthy of being saved.

Stephanie lives in Los Angeles and is currently ISA’s Story Farm fellow, Roadmap’s Diversity Fellow, studied at UCLA extension and placed as a Finalist for Austin Film Festival, Final Draft’s Big Break, CineStory, PAGE and The Writers Lab winner. A Broadway and TV/Film actress in the time when presenting as Asian was a detriment, she has turned the pain of her race into a super power.

Stephanie writes for everyone who’s adopted. She writes for everyone who hates looking in the mirror. She writes for her children, so they may always love their eyes. In a pinch, Stephanie can perform a reverse vasectomy.

See more about Stephanie here: https://www.networkisa.org/profile/stephanie-bast

Suicide at Noon Logline: A newly organized but suicidal woman must withstand the various objections of her friends and family and convince them to support her or be forced to cancel her perfectly scheduled upcoming suicide.

There's a lot to unpack here as Linda Seger is full of interesting stories and lessons learned along the way. As a pioneering female entrepreneur, she was on the cutting edge of a new type of business - being a screenplay consultant. Her passion, drive, and wiliness to dive into every opportunity took her from small town Wisconsin to lecturing around the world and collaborating with massive Hollywood stars, all while her midwest roots kept her grounded and working hard. Find her book on Amazon, available now.

A native New Yorker, Adam received a BFA from Ithaca College and completed one year of his MFA at UCLA before deciding to quit because those hard wooden classroom chairs were really chafing his ass. Writing began for him when his first play was produced at the West Coast Ensemble Theater in Hollywood. A creative executive who happened to be in the audience one night called Adam the next day and asked him to write a movie for him. Spoiler alert: it never got made. Shocking, I know! Nevertheless, he persisted.

Adam’s day job as an Executive Producer of unscripted television shows such as “The Real Housewives of Orange County”, “The Real Housewives of Dallas”, “Southern Charm” and “The Bradshaw Bunch” pays his bills while he writes. To date, his sojourn in the scripted world includes selling a treatment to Disney Feature Animation, being a staff writer on comedy pilots for AMC and Discovery Kids, acceptance into the Warner Bros Comedy Writers Program, being a finalist for the Disney Fellowship in Screenwriting, developing a romantic comedy with Bryan Cranston for him to direct, and writing several features and pilots that have all received accolades from each contest in which they’ve been entered.

Adam's most recent success includes being one of ISA’s TOP 25 SCREENWRITERS TO WATCH IN 2025. His Horror / Comedy "HELL HOLES was one of five ISA Staff Picks for December 2024 and one of ISA's 25 Top Reads for Winter 2024. "HELL HOLES" is also in the TOP 8% of all scripts on COVERFLY.

Adam’s bread and butter is comedy, and his peanut butter and jelly is infusing other genres like horror, action and sci-fi with that comedy. Except for his one drama feature. That one is strictly a BLT on toasted wheat, light mayo.

"Offbeat," pilot episode, 2020 Table Read My Screenplay Grand Prize Winner, written by Marshall “gripp” Gillson.

Please enjoy a performance of the Table Read My Screenplay Award-Winning short script, "The Icebox" by Brian P. Glass. Cast: Elijah Terrell Haney, Hye Bin Lee, Carson Grant, Damon Evans & narrated by Felicity Wren.

Green and Gold: A struggling family farmer wagers everything on a high-stakes Championship bet, while his granddaughter's musical ambitions could be their ticket to a new beginning. Starring Brandon Sklenar, Craig T. Nelson, M. Emmet Walsh

Solid pitches sell screenplays. Join us to watch pitches delivered to Creative Executives at prominent companies and hear live feedback. Learn the DOs and DON'Ts of great pitching, so you'll be prepared when you're in the room!

Caroline Dillingham is the Chief Executive Officer of Morning View Entertainment LLC, where she leads the company in its mission to discover and develop compelling stories from across the United States, with a focus on creating content for the North American audience. Under her leadership, Morning View Entertainment is dedicated to producing impactful, culturally relevant stories that resonate with diverse viewers.

A writer at heart, Caroline has written and co-written three feature films, bringing her creative vision to life both in front of and behind the camera. Prior to founding Morning View Entertainment, she served as President of Power On Digital for eight years, where she led the development of digital strategies and content initiatives. She also held the position of Lead Content Developer at Lions Road Productions for four years, working on a variety of innovative media projects. Caroline is a proud graduate of the University of Boulder at Colorado and has been a regular speaker at UCLA, sharing her expertise on marketing, business operations, and entrepreneurship.

Neal Ludevig is a producer, director, and entrepreneur credited across fiction and nonfiction. He is most known for producing the 50th Year Anniversary of Black Woodstock (connected to the “Summer of Soul” documentary), the Winter Jazz Fest concert w/Maurice Brown and Anderson, Paak (on Quincy Jones’ Network), the acclaimed mini-series “Insomnia”, among others. He was awarded the Rainin Grant by SFFilm, was a finalist for the 2022 Sundance Producers Fellowship, won the 2023 LES Film Festival's "Stay Indie" Project, and was a top 10 Finalist for the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival Untold Stories Competition.

He leads Snarky Elephant Productions as its Chief Creative Officer, hosts the podcast "Leave Looking Up", founded the media agency Moon31, and is the Executive Producer for the Revive Big Band’s 1st album, a 20+ piece big band with a combined 27 Grammy wins and nominations by its group members, led by the current MD for Ms. Lauryn Hill.

Neal is a Grammy member, was named an Emerging Leader by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, awarded a Congressional Proclamation for his work via Harlem Arts Festival, was a 2024 Protect. Blue Wavemaker, and helped launch the national CPG company Enlightened. He is most passionate about projects connected with climate, music, and mental health.

Sarah Paek is the Coordinator for Film at Atomic Monster. Before joining Atomic Monster in 2022, Paek worked for three years at Daniel Dae Kim’s production company 3AD, rising from Development Assistant to Coordinator. Previously, she worked in Post Production at Warner Bros. TV, where she first served as a PA on iZombie, and then became a Post Coordinator. Paek started her career in the aerospace industry, working as a Systems Engineer at Northrop Grumman. She holds a B.S. in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California.

Moderator:
Felicity Wren is the VP of Development at the ISA and Co-VP of Development for Creative Screenwriter Productions.

An award-winning actor, originally from London, she studied all areas of Performance for her Honors and then Master’s Degrees. She then formed her own Production Company, Unrestricted View, which runs a theatre in London and curates three film festivals annually.

Since moving to Los Angeles over a decade ago, Felicity has continued acting and producing, winning five performance awards and producing sixteen film projects to date. She splits her time between Creative Screenwriter Productions and the management of the ISA Development Team, working directly with the Development Slate Writers, ISA Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch, and the ISA community. The Development Team has fostered enduring relationships with many of the industry’s finest, ensuring their writers projects get in front of eminent producers, managers and agents in Hollywood. Through Felicity and her team’s efforts, they have successfully paired several writer/director partnerships with productions underway, introduced writers to their managers, and have been instrumental in facilitating screenplay options with their contacts at C2 Motion Pictures, Fear Not Productions, Ethea Entertainment, Endless Media and Adam Krentzman Films. Felicity has been pitching CSP’s slate of projects to Hulu, Doozer Productions, DreamWorks, Groundswell and Fuzzy Door, to name a few. Felicity regularly appears on panels for the ISA and others, most recently for Vancouver Women in Film.

One of our co-hosts, Scott, was recently featured on the Tube documentary, Famously Haunted Hollywood. We go over the stories featured in the documentary: The Black Dahlia, The Manson Murders, Comedy Store, Peg Entwhistle, The Cecil Hotel.

Kristy Strouse of Film Inquiry interviews screenwriter Andrea Berting, who has been an ISA Fast Track Fellow and is now on their Development Slate.

Sandy King is a film producer & businesswoman who is known for In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Vampires & Ghosts of Mars, all of which were directed by her husband John Carpenter. She co-created the comic book series Asylum.

Zoë Hodge is an award winning writer & director born in the Boogie-Down-Bronx. Her work often explores yearning & the deep solitude that comes from denying yourself. As a writer, Zoë grew up on Everybody Hates Chris and Jane Austen adaptations.

This is the replay of a live event Max & Scott did along with the International Screenwriters' Association. They welcomed screenwriting aficionado Jen Grisanti, who has a long history of working with screenwriters as an executive and consultant.

Screenwriter Thuc Doan Nguyen went from Vietnamese refugee to writing for The Lost City with Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum & Brad Pitt. Hear her story here.

Adam Karlson signed a shopping agreement with CS Productions and is now managed by Gravity Squared Entertainment due to introductions made by the ISA.

Each year the ISA lists 25 talented writers. Our first interview is with multi-talented screenwriter & novel writer Kim Hornsby. I spoke with Kim about her journey, projects, and recommendations for other screenwriters! Check out more at FilmInquiry.com

Scott (and his wife Wendy) fill Max in on their adventure across the Emerald Isle, discussing the haunted hot spots and legendary tales they discovered along the way... also the adventures of driving on the other side of the road.

Chaseedaw Giles moved to LA as everything shut down for the pandemic. However, she used that time to work on her craft. She's taken an approach of being proactive and using darker story topics to find positivity.

Big thanks to the horror blog WonderfullyWeirdAndHorrifying.com for making this conversation happen. What did you think of "Hereditary?"

An ISA Top 25 Writers To Watch in 2019, Diane has taken her work behind the camera, screening her directing work at the DGA and garnering awards and laurels. Creating and collaborating through film are her driving force.

Kiefer Lloyd's a writer who uses genre to explore queer narrative and masculinity. He is a Lambda Literary fellow, an alumnus of the Tin House Fiction Workshop & holds an MFA in fiction from Vermont College.