There are many ways to get noticed in Hollywood. Spielberg started working in an open office on the Universal lot. Trey Parker and Matt Stone got South Park on the web. Diablo Cody wrote a funny blog. However you do it, you have to get yourself out there, even without an agent, a manager, or so-called "connections." Producer/Writer David Silverman will delve into real-life example of how famous writers and some of his friends got jobs writing in Hollywood.
Writer/Producer/Literary Consultant Brad Brad has written for all media, done consultations for worldwide clients when he was V.P. at Chris Vogler’s Storytech, and has been writer-producer for PBS. Brad created the series North Mission Road, which ran six seasons on truTV.
A five-minute pitch meeting is plenty of time to impress an executive as long as you don't pitch for the full five minutes. In 90 Pages/90 Seconds, the founding team behind the Great American Screenwriting Conference & PitchFest will discuss how to maximize your time to deliver an effective and efficient pitch.
In this insightful teleconference, Dr. Melody Jackson, founder and Chief Smart Girl at Smart Girls Productions, will break down a variety of distinctions in screenwriting that have always been thought to be subjective. She turns them into a list of measurable checkpoints for evaluating your script's "saleability".
In this interview, some of the points she will cover are:
So many writers are seeking a formula for success, but don’t know the truly essential ingredients. Combine a powerful concept with self-knowledge and industry awareness for a real recipe for success. Discover and develop these components and then harness the extraordinary power of using them in concert to advance your career to the next level in this teleconference with producer Barri Evins.
From the industry's top stars to first-time comedy screen and TV writers, producers, directors and performers, Steve Kaplan has worked with and coached the best. His Comedy Intensive offers proven and practical methods and principles that help you reveal and understand comedy from the inside out.
There have been enough prequels, sequels, reboots and remakes. It is time for new, authentic screenplays to be written for the collective consciousness. Laurie Scheer has a writing method that assists you in successfully preparing, writing, and pitching your screenplay. The secret is learning how to master your genre.
Listen to this webinar with Candace Kearns Read and learn how to: Identify the theme of a true story; Use a story’s themes as a springboard for the development of plot and character; Translate real life into dramatic action; Develop engaging characters from real people; Choose what to leave out in the interest of dramatic craft.
There are different kinds of creative blocks and kinds of cures. Special guest David Silverman - writer, producer, LMFT - and ISA Teleconferences host Laurie Lamson discuss what writer’s have done in the past and what they can do now using psychology.
Linda's job as a script consultant, seminar leader, and author is to guide writers to make their script the best script it can be. She has an objective professional eye to help solve elusive script problems and to help writers become better writers. The author of one of the most widely known book on screenwriting, "Making A Good Script Great", Linda Seger is the best of the best.
Join Novel Consultant, Leslie Lehr, for a talk about why now is the best time in history for screenwriters to work on a novel, and why screenwriters are uniquely qualified to succeed. As a prize-winning novelist, produced screenwriter, and NY Times Essayist, Leslie knows whereby she speaks. She applies the Truby Writers Studio 7-Step Structure method to fiction and screenplays alike.
John Truby has been one of the world's leading story theorists, as well as one of Hollywood's most respect script doctors. In this free teleconference, Mr. Truby covers some of the most important elements of the writing process. The Importance of a Good Story. Why Writers Fail at the Premise. The Importance of Genres. The #1 Most Important Element in Developing Character and the stark difference between Professional and Amateur Writers.
Having worked with James Cameron, Wes Craven and Martin Scorsese, to name just a few, you would think writers of such a caliber would simply be too busy to spend time on a podcast, but the writing team of Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier joined the ISA for one of our favorite interviews to date. The writing team is eagerly awaiting their upcoming installment of the Terminator series – Terminator: Genisys - which releases on July 1, of which they give some fun tidbits about their experience working on set with Schwarzenegger. They’re currently working on more projects with David Ellison’s team at Skydance.
They’re a powerhouse team of writers, but we were especially thrilled with how down-to-earth and just plain real they were on the call. If there is anyone who can give advice to screenwriters, it’s these two. Patrick with an extensive career working with auteurs like Craven and Guillermo del Toro, and Laeta with, as stated, Scorsese and Cameron – their insights into the business of writing, working as not just a team but true collaborators, and the special advice they give at the end of the interview, is enough to make this podcast a must-listen. We can’t thank Laeta and Patrick enough for taking the time out of their busy schedules to join us – Laeta was even ready to take notes and brainstorms in case anything spurred her creativity on the call. They were consummate professionals with a no-bull approach and they’ve found a new fan in the ISA. We're excited to see what’s next for them. So take a listen, and feel free to spread the word about our Curious About Screenwriting podcasts. Enjoy.
The term “young writer” doesn’t necessarily mean “young in age”. A young writer is simply someone who is still early in his or her career and pushing forward in their own creative growth process. Technically speaking, we as writers and filmmakers are always growing, but the more experience we gain from writing our seventh or eighth script, or shooting our tenth or eleventh film, the more we grow in a personally creative way. Melissa Hoppe joined me to talk about her recent short film STEALTH about a transgender 11-year old and the challenges she faces as a young girl simply fighting to come into her own. Melissa graduated from AFI in December of 2014 and was awarded the Bricker Award for her work on STEALTH, as well as received a College Television Award in Children’s Programming. Her career is well on its way, and from her work on STEALTH, it is clear that we have future star on our hands.
In our conversation, we talked about the importance of staying practical in an incredibly creative world, how important education is, and the true value of friends and your personal network. In a long line of educational interviews, this is another back-and-forth that will inspire you to grab a pen or a camera, take that story you’ve been daring yourself to create, and just do it. Enjoy, and we wish Melissa the best of luck in her future projects.
A veteran TV comedy writer and producer, Gloria Calderon Kellett joined me to talk about…well, to talk about so many things! A comic and performer at heart, Gloria’s personality shined while chatting with her about the highs and lows of the TV writing world, her experiences writing on How I Met Your Mother, Devious Maids, and iZombie, but most importantly she gave us some valuable insight on how a writer’s room works. Her experience speaks for itself, but she reminds us that experience is only gained through hard work and a dedication to your passion.
Our podcast guests always give fantastic advice, but Gloria’s advice on how to become a working TV writer was inspiring and quite frankly, a lot of fun to listen to! She was fun, open, honest, forthright and answered my questions with enthusiasm. If you’re looking to enter the world of TV writing, Gloria is a perfect model of inspiration. Give it a listen, take some notes, and we hope you get something from this. Enjoy.
Another in a long line of extremely informative interviews, Max Timm, the Director of Community Outreach for the International Screenwriters' Association (ISA), invited Leigh Savidge to discuss a rather vast array of industry elements and tidbits. From his upcoming movie, the 90’s hip-hop biopic, STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON (set to release in August of 2015), and his experiences writing that movie, to his work as the Founder and CEO of his distribution company Xenon Pictures. Founded in 1986, Savidge has taken Xenon from a small upstart to what in 1998 the LA Times proclaimed, “a pioneer in the video market for films geared toward young African Americans.”
A former stand-up comedian, freelance journalist and film editor, Mr. Savidge built Xenon from an under-financed pipe dream with one program and no major customers, into one of the film industry’s most successful independent distributors.
Leigh was gracious with his time, patient with his answers, and offered up fantastic insights into the writing world as well as the importance of approaching your screenwriting career with a business mind. We hope you enjoy, and thanks for listening.
SEINFELD producer/writer Peter Mehlman discusses different types of humor and various comedy genres, how to find the humor in a situation, what he learned from working with Larry David on Seinfeld, and more.
Learn the writing strategies to get your script ready to win the big contests, and learn how to use these contest wins to advance your writing career. Screenwriter and script consultant, Mark Stasenko, will enlighten us on the ins and outs of the screenwriting contest circuit.
Mark J. Stasenko Jr. is a screenwriter and script consultant. He has recently won the Grand Prize in the Francis Ford Coppola American Zoetrope Contest, the ScreenCraft Fellowship, and the Nevada State Film Office Screenwriting Competition.
Mark will discuss on the call the importance of contest wins and how to obtain them. We'll start by discussing how to stand out against the thousands of other scripts that enter the contests. Most of the major contests award Grand Prizes to less than the top 1% of writers, and so there are some important things to consider to make sure that your script doesn't get lost among the pile.
We will also talk about elements to consider when choosing a contest to enter. Unless money is no object or issue, you won't be able to enter every screenwriting contest available. We will talk about the various considerations at different parts of your writing career so that you better understand what the best contests are for you.
While winning a competition like the Nicholl Fellowship is pretty much a guarantee to the start of a career as a writer, there are plenty of other big contests that will still require effort on your end even after the win. With the right strategy, you can turn contest wins or even finalist placements into reads from top agents and managers. There is more than one big writer today who didn't win Nicholl, but started his or her career with a contest success.
Ed Klau was named the Grand Prize Winner of the Table Read My Screenplay - PARK CITY contest. The Table Read staff flew Ed out to Park City during the recent Sundance Film Festival, put him up in a posh little hotel and showed him around the beautiful ski and winter wonderland town of Park City. These were simply perks of his grand prize win, but the real value came from experiencing the full table read of his horror/thriller, BRIGHTS, read aloud by professional actors, directed by a professional director, and receiving immediate feedback from a participating audience.
Table Read My Screenplay is one of those contests that offers so much more than a simple cash prize or short coverage/feedback. They provide a true experience. Take a listen to Ed's response to his experience with Table My Screenplay and consider submitting your project to the upcoming HOLLYWOOD contest, where they will fly the winner out to Los Angeles for a round of not only industry experiences, but an impactful Table Read experience.
"Story" is such a vague word for an incredibly complex idea. What makes a compelling story? How do the intricacies of a story entertain? Have you ever wanted to ask these questions, but felt intimated? This live Q & A/interview gave our members the chance to not only learn from the best, but to ask the best.
Mr. McKee joined your fellow ISA members in a unique presentation with the master of Story. Robert McKee made himself available to answer all Story-related questions. It was interactive, open-minded, and an incredible learning experience. It was a rare opportunity to pick the brain of the truest of experts and spend time focusing on the most important aspect of the entertainment industry - Story.
Robert Mckee, a Fullbright Scholar, is the most sought after screenwriting lecturer around the globe. He has dedicated the last 30 years to educating and mentoring screenwriters, novelists, playwrights, poets, documentary filmmakers, and directors internationally. Peter Jackson has lauded him as "The Guru of Gurus". For the writers of Pixar, McKee's STORY Seminar is a rite of passage. Emmy Award-Winner, Brian Cox, also portrayed Mckee in the Oscar-nominated film ADAPTATION.
The ISA has been lucky to have hosted some wonderful guests for these podcasts, and we look forward to even more insightful and inspiring interviews, but this interview happens to be one of our more enlightening. Lewaa Nasserdeen is a staff writer on the series, The Goldbergs, and his tenacity, positivity, and overall love for the writing craft is something we can all learn from. His insights into the TV writer’s room and how to navigate its hierarchy, along with his experience applying for and being accepted into the Disney/ABC Writing Program are priceless.
A Canadian, Lewaa made his way to Los Angeles with the very clear intent to become a working writer. Still young and just beginning his career, he has already accomplished so much and we look forward to hearing more success stories from him. If you’re looking for an interview that will get you excited to write and work your way into this business, this is the one you should listen to. A big thank you to Lewaa, and if you’re into it, you should follow him on Twitter @LewaaNass and thank him for spending his time with us. Enjoy the interview.
Have you seen the shows, 24, Revolution, Fringe, Person of Interest, or Criminal Minds? Most of you probably have, or you’re well aware of how popular they were and are (though we're still sad Revolution was cancelled). Jon Cassar was the exec producer and director of multiple episodes on all of those shows! He’s a two-time Emmy award winner with his work on 24 and the mini-series, The Kennedys, and Jon was cool enough to sit down with Max Timm, Director of Community Outreach with the ISA, and talk about the TV industry, how to work your way up as not only a young writer, but a budding filmmaker, and to give a reality check as to just how difficult this industry really is.
It was kind of funny when Max asked him how a new writer can attempt to open doors. He was very real with his answer – he didn’t know exactly how! He reinforced that this industry is one of the most difficult to get into and much less make a living – as if we didn’t know that already - but with that reality check came an inspirational breakdown of his own rise through the ranks as a camera operator to now being a sought-after TV director. He’s also directing his own features with a movie coming out in the fall of 2016. He basically told us to stick to our guns, be persistent, and do whatever you can to knock down doors. Giving up is not an option. Enjoy the interview and as always, thanks for listening.
Many of our students have contacted us recently with questions about Meditative Writing: what it is, how it’s used, and how it can forever change the way you view writing.
So in this podcast, we’ve decided to give you all a free 30 minute sample of a meditative writing class with Jessica Hinds, recorded here in Costa Rica during our summer screenwriting retreat.
Jessica breaks down the structure of a scene from both a traditional and a meditative perspective, showing you how you can use meditative writing not only to get to the heart of your character and your story, but also to improve your craft and the structure of your movie.
On this podcast, rather than looking at movies in terms of two thumbs up or two thumbs down, we look at movies and we look at screenplays in terms of what we can learn from them as screenwriters. We look at good movies and we look at bad movies, we look at movies that we loved and movies that we hated.
Today we are going to be talking about the genre of movies that I affectionately like to call “The Big Dumb Action Movie,” with the latest installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise, Furious 7.
And, hopefully, we’re going to be looking at Furious 7 in a way that’s valuable not only if you’re a big action movie writer, but also if you are a writer in any other genre: if you are writing a thriller, if you are writing a comedy, if you are writing a drama, if you are writing an independent film or even if you are writing an art film.
In an odd way, “big dumb action movies” and super experimental art films actually have a lot in common. That’s because they both exist in a world of expressionism.
Oftentimes, when young writers sit down to write a movie, they think that most movies take place in the world of realism. But this is simply not true.
There are very, very few movies that take place in the world of realism.
Most movies actually don’t take place in the world of realism. They take place in a world of naturalism, which is a slightly heightened version of reality.
On this podcast, instead of thinking about movies in terms of two thumbs up or two thumbs down we like to think about movies in terms of what we can learn about them as screenwriters.
So we’re going to look at all kinds of movies. We’re going to look at good movies, we’re going to look at bad movies. We’re going to look at movies that we love and movies that we hate. But we’re going to look at them in a way that helps us to better our own writing.
Today’s movie is certainly one of the more controversial movies that are out right now: American Sniper by Jason Dean Hall. Let me just start off by saying that my politics are certainly not Clint Eastwood’s politics and that made American Sniper a hard movie for me. I think it made American Sniper a hard movie for a lot of people.
I’m not the kind of person who believes, as Chris Kyle says at the beginning of the movie, that there are three types of people in the world: sheep, wolves and sheepdogs. I’m not a person like Chris Kyle who believes that things are purely black and white, and that there’s very little grey. Watching a movie that cuts directly from planes crashing into the World Trade Center to the war of Iraq and makes that argument all over again, linking Iraq to the September 11th attacks, politically – that’s hard for me to watch.
That said, those are the politics of the main character, Chris Kyle. Those are the politics of a lot of people like him who went into this war, believing they are the heroes. Believing that the people they are fighting are savages, and as Americans, they are purely a force of good in the world.
There is something to be said about directing and writing a movie that looks at the world through the eyes of your protagonist. The hope of course, as you work on such an adaptation, is that even as you’re looking at the world through their eyes, you’re also maybe revealing something to the audience, and to yourself, that is even more complicated than the main character can see.