Screenwriting

My fellow creatives, we’ve chosen a path that’s not for the faint-hearted. You have to believe, all the way down into the core of your being, that you can do this thing -- that you can create worlds, that you can bring imagination to life. And we ride the pendulum, sometimes on the daily, as it swings between godlike swagger and the abject fear of not being enough. And then there’s dealing with feedback. We are our own harshest critics in so many ways, but we all have our blind spots. Part o...

Happy Sunday, Creative Army! Have you had a creative weekend so far? I have some content here for you that is sure to get the creative juices flowing, so grab your coffee, and let's dive in. First up, in this video from StudioBinder, you'll dig into how scenes in cars or done. From the safety to production options to lighting and sound design... there's so much that goes into these scenes that makes them seem impossible to do cheaply. And yet, there are definitely ways to pull them off at ev...

Writing dialogue is more than just studying how other people speak. It helps to move your story forward and gives a voice to what you’ve put down on paper. Here are some tips to make this voice as strong as possible. 1) Do Your Research An upper-class woman in Victorian England is going to have a very different life than a teenage boy in 2010. Know who your character is and how they navigate life based on their occupation and social status. Find out as much as you can about the career th...

Still Happy New Year! I am that person who celebrates the new year all month long, embracing fresh dreams and aspirations. While we are motivated to make this year better than the last one, many of us feel hesitation, even paralyzed, unable to move forward. I, too, have been in this place, feeling stuck and overwhelmed by fear. What has helped me? Learning to take a leap of faith, to believe in myself and a power greater than me. Today’s message aims to inspire you to do the same, offering in...

Happy Tuesday, Creative Army! As many of you already know, this past September at the 80th annual Venice International Film Festival, we made a huge announcement! In partnership with Catalyst Studios–a groundbreaking U.S. production company supporting female-fronted projects– we launched a first-of-its-kind screenwriting contest for feature films with a focus on social impact! We were overjoyed and impressed with the flood of submissions that we received from all over the world. This past we...

Before I turned 30, I decided to pursue acting. In 2016, I joined acting classes and met people who would not only become my best friends but also huge inspirations for me. Some of them introduced me to the idea of writing my own script. I got into acting because of my love of old horror movies and wanted to pursue this impossible dream before starting a family. Even before I started acting, however, I always had an idea - a personal passion project - stuck in my head that I knew, one day, I...

I hope all of you are well and looking forward to making some pretty amazing connections on Stage 32! I am a mother of three girls, one and a half college grads, and a little Einstein. My eldest is an entrepreneur and teaches influencers how to grow, increase leads, and sustainability. My middle child attends SCAD and has been in more films than I’ve ever written. My baby girl has mastered 2D, 3D, and all things technical more than mommy and preparing to do some work for Crunchyroll. I didn’...

Female-driven movies center around strong, multifaceted women, navigating the complexities of life, often breaking societal norms, and supporting each other in pursuit of their dreams, unraveling powerful narratives of strength, friendship, and self-discovery, that highlight and celebrate the diversity and complexity of women's stories. All-time classics like LITTLE WOMEN and HIDDEN FIGURES remind us of the importance of family and friendships, while globe-trotting adventures lik...

Alright, let me ask you a question. What's the hardest part of screenwriting? Is it building the plot? Crafting the theme? Maintaining story structure? In my opinion, it's developing characters. Without characters, there's no story. And everything else in the screenplay doesn't matter because the audience needs something to connect to. Knowing this, I put all my efforts into creating the best characters possible. I spent years reading books, watching YouTube videos, and scavenging the internet...

Over the last 7 years in LA as a director and producer, I feel like I've seen so many sides of the filmmaking world. I've done backyard shorts with friends and family with guerilla shooting, I've done features for over a million dollars, I've directed a big studio episodic for TV, and I’ve even funded my own short docs. As everyone in the industry knows, this work can be intense. We often have long hours. We give 120% of our brain power dissecting scripts, making shot lists, and scouting locat...