Anne Norda
Anne Norda is a director, writer, producer and teacher. Her debut feature film, “Red Is the Color Of,” won two “Best Feature Film” festival awards and earned international distribution. Her short zombie/comedy is on the festival circuit, and she’s preparing to direct her second feature film, a comedy/horror. Anne is the creator of The Script-a-thon, an international screenwriting competition inspired by the NaNoWriMo. MovieMaker Magazine’s website features Anne’s blog, “Notes from Movieland.” She received a BFA from the Parsons School of Design and was a Fulbright scholar in Finland. Anne teaches a private screenwriting workshop (www.writebrainworkshop.com) and loves to inspire other writers.
Aubry Mintz
Aubry Mintz has worked as a feature animator (Industrial Light and Magic, Square USA) and as an award-winning freelance animation director for TV and the Internet for clients such as MTV, Smirnoff, McDonald’s and General Mills. Passionate about teaching, animating and telling stories, Aubry is an Associate Professor at California State University, Long Beach, and continues to produce, direct and animate short films for festival release. Currently, Aubry is writing a book with his mentor and co-author, Ellen Besen, for Michael Weise Productions exploring integrated storytelling in a range of animated and live-action masterworks.
Bob Schultz
Bob Schultz has been the Executive Director of the Great American PitchFest & Screenwriting Conference (GAPF) for seven years, helping guide it from upstart to the premiere event of its kind. Along with GAPF founder/screenwriter Signe Olynyk, he produced the thriller BELOW ZERO, starring Edward Furlong (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, American History X, The Green Hornet) and Michael Berryman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Hills Have Eyes, The Devil’s Rejects). BELOW ZERO is currently in post-production. Bob and Signe are currently producing the zombie thriller I-15, which Bob also wrote.
Carole Kirschner
Carole Kirschner was a senior-level television executive for 16 years, including stints at CBS and as Vice President of Television at Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, where she helped develop “Murphy Brown” and “Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures.” She currently runs the CBS Diversity Writers Mentoring Program and the Writers Guild of American Showrunner Training Program. In her entertainment-career consulting practice, she only works with motivated clients and teaches them exactly what they need to exceed their career expectations. Her book, Hollywood Game Plan: How to Land a Job in Film, TV and Digital Entertainment, was published by Michael Wiese Productions in March 2012.
Chad Gervich
Chad Gervich is a television producer, author, and playwright. He has worked in development and production at NBC Studios, Sony Pictures, CBS Productions, and Twentieth Century Fox where he was involved in the development, production, and maintenance of Love, Inc., Malcolm in the Middle, Like Family, Time Tunnel, Star Search, and Do Over. Chad created and produced Style network’s hit series Foody Call and executive produced Celebrity Drive-By, a talk show pilot for E! Entertainment. He is the author of mediabistro.com “Small Screen, Big Picture: A Writers Guide to the TV Business” and is a contributing editor for Writers Digest, where he writes “Script Notes,” a regular screenwriting column/blog. Chad also writes for Daily Variety, Fade In, Moving Pictures, and Orange Coast. www.chadgervich.com
Chris Jones
Chris Jones is passionate about all things film, and has spent his life watching movies, making movies and helping others make their movies. His major projects include action thriller ‘The Runner’, serial killer thriller ‘White Angel’ and paranormal horror ‘Urban Ghost Story’. Chris also co-created and authored The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series, and currently there are seven editions! In 2009, he made the multi-award winning and Oscars shortlisted ‘Gone Fishing’. More recently Chris has run a series of London based festivals, kicking off with the London Screenwriters Festival. And has started a web based TV show for film makers called The Production Office LIVE! which he co-host with Judy Goldberg.
Corey Mandell
Corey Mandell is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter who has written projects for Ridley Scott, Wolfgang Petersen, Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Warner Brothers, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000, Fox Family, Working Title, Paramount, Live Planet, Beacon Films, Touchstone, Trilogy, Radiant and Walt Disney Pictures. Corey teaches screenwriting at the UCLA Writer’s Program and offers private online classes using video conferencing to allow participants to see and hear each other in real time. His highly popular classes draw students from across the U.S., Europe and Australia. As a teacher and script coach, Corey focuses on helping screenwriters learn and develop the essential skill sets required to write at a professional level. His students have gone on to sell or option scripts to Warner Brothers, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Disney, Fox, Fox 2000, MGM, Universal, USA Network and Lifetime. Others have gained admission to the USC Graduate Screenwriting Program, the AFI Conservatory Screenwriting Program and Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab. A sought-after speaker, he has lectured on screenwriting and industry-related topics at UCLA, Harvardwood, The Screenwriting Expo, The Writer’s Fair, UCSC, ChicagoHollywood, San Francisco State, The Water Bucket Gang, The Writer’s Studio and KCRW’s The Business of the Business. Visit www.coreymandell.net for more information.
Danny Manus
Danny Manus is an in-demand script consultant and CEO of No BullScript Consulting (www.nobullscript.net) and author of No B.S. for Screenwriters: Advice from the Executive Perspective. He was ranked one of the Top 15 “Cream of the Crop” script consultants in CS Magazine in 2010. He was previously the Director of Development for Clifford Werber Productions (Cinderella Story, Sydney White), a Development Consultant for Eclectic Pictures and the DOD at Sandstorm Films (The Covenant, 8MM2), which had a first look deal at Screen Gems. He’s attached to produce several projects independently, is a columnist for Business of Show Institute, and teaches seminars and workshops all across the country.
David Skelly and Jennifer Skelly
David Skelly and Jennifer Skelly are a husband/wife screenwriting team with a deep understanding of story, character development and story structure. Sought-after script doctors with a specialization in animation, they are able to quickly identify story problems and offer creative and actionable solutions. David was part of the story development team at Pixar Animation Studios on “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters Inc.” and “Cars,” and he recently co-wrote the upcoming hybrid feature film “Walking with Dinosaurs” for Fox/BBC. He designed and built Muppets for the Jim Henson Company and is a member of Henson Alternative’s puppet improv workshops. Jennifer is a story and science consultant for “The Zula Patrol,” an animated series on NBC and PBS, and with David, wrote several episodes of “Zevo-3,” an animated TV series on Nicktoons that has outperformed the network’s highest-rated shows. Together, David and Jennifer wrote a Batman comic book for DC Comics that hit the stands in August 2011. The Skellys teach story development and improve at CalArts and are working on their upcoming book, Improv for Writers. They are currently consulting on several studio feature projects in development. For more information, visit www.improvforwriters.com.
Ellen Besen
Ellen Besen has spent 38 years observing and working in such media as animation, TV and the Internet. She has directed award-winning films that have been shown at such institutions as MoMA, taught at top animation schools such as Sheridan College and worked as a broadcast journalist for CBC Radio. She has spent many years analyzing the true nature of our relationship with media in general and animation in particular. Her most recent projects include two books on applied theory for animation storytelling: Author- Animation Unleashed (MWP) and Whole Cloth Storytelling (in progress).
Jen Grisanti
Jen Grisanti is a story/career consultant, writing instructor for Writers on the Verge at NBC, former studio executive, blogger for The Huffington Post and author of two books, Story Line: Finding Gold In Your Life Story and TV Writing Tool Kit: How To Write a Script That Sells. Grisanti began her career in 1992 as an assistant to Aaron Spelling, who was her mentor for the next 12 years as she climbed the ranks and eventually served as VP of Current Programming at CBS/Paramount. In January 2008, Jen launched Jen Grisanti Consultancy Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to helping talented writers break into the industry. By drawing on her 12-year experience as a studio executive where she gave daily notes to executive producers, Jen personally guides writers to shape their material, hone their pitches, and focus their careers. Since launching, Jen has worked with over 400 writers working in TV, film and novels. Twenty-six of her clients have been staffed as writers on TV shows and 10 have sold pilots, two that went to series.
Jennifer Dornbush
Jennifer Dornbush is a film and TV writer, crime scribe, forensic science maven, children’s book author, and college instructor. She has scribed the upcoming MWP publication Forensic Speak: How to Write Authentic Crime Stories (working title). When not making visits to the coroner’s office or hanging out with CSIs, Jennifer is writing about it. In 2011, her TV drama pilot and family feature script were both Second Rounder picks at Austin. She and her two writing partners are making things happen with their half-hour pilot, “Home Bodies,” loosely based on her life as a coroner’s daughter. She and her husband and their two wiener dogs live in Los Angeles. To get other helpful insider tips on crime writing, sign up for her newsletter at www.jenniferdornbush.com.
Jessica Sitomer
Jessica Sitomer has worked in the entertainment industry for eighteen years as a writer, an independent producer, a development associate, a director, and an actress. For fourteen of those years she’s been a career coach for Entertainment Industry Professionals. Within that period she served for seven years as the in-house career coach for the International Cinematographers Guild. Jessica has coached over 1000 people one-on-one, created over 40 seminar topics, run over 30 mastermind groups, and developed a successful mentor program. Now she personally works with working entertainment industry professionals who are clear on the work they want, but have hit a plateau, that neither their agent, nor themselves can propel them from. Jessica consults all classifications in the industry, above and below the line. She speaks professionally as a Keynote, College, and Expert Consultant to entertainment industry organizations. A regular on BuZZ radio, and a contributor to Cynopisis.com Advantage, The Greenlight Coach also answers a question per day at www.AndActionBook.blogspot.com
José Silerio
José Silerio is a screenwriter who served as Blake Snyder’s Development Director. José has been integral to the success of Blake’s workshops and classes, as he worked alongside Blake to school writers in the “Cat!” method. As a teacher and consultant, José continues to help numerous writers learn Blake’s paradigm and apply it to their projects. “José is my right-hand man when it comes to script consultations.” –Blake Snyder, Save the Cat!® Strikes Back More Trouble for Writers to Get Into… and Out Of. The Screenwriting Beat Sheet Workshop.
Kathie Fong Yoneda
Kathie Fong Yoneda is a script consultant, international workshop leader and author of The Script-Selling Game: A Hollywood Insider’s Look at Getting Your Script Sold and Produced, now in its 2nd edition. A former exec and development specialist, Kathie has worked for Disney, Paramount, Fox, Touchstone, Universal and Disney TV Animation. She was a keynote speaker at the Smithsonian and an invited guest of the Soviet Peace Committee in Moscow. Past clients include Romance Writers of America, Women Writing the West, Singapore MediaCorp TV, TAM Conference Thailand, RAI-TV Rome, ScreenTraining Ireland, THOT Fiction Marseilles and Writers University. Visit www.kathiefongyoneda.com for more information.
Ken Rotcop
Ken Rotcop has written every form of TV and is considered one of the top script doctors in Hollywood. His last picture was “Baby On Board” with John Corbett and Heather Graham. Ken has won the Writer’s Guild Award, the Neil Simon Award and the Image Award, among others. Has been written up in the Wall Street Journal, appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared twice on Starz’ “Entertainment Tonight.” He lectures all over the world, most recently in Paris, Spain, Italy and Croatia. As a screenwriter, Rotcop’s most prestigious production (which he both wrote and produced) was For Us, the Living: The Story of Medger Evers which starred Laurence Fishburne.
Marilyn Horowitz
Marilyn Horowitz is an award-winning New York University professor, producer, screenwriter, and New York City-based writing coach who works with bestselling novelists, produced screenwriters, and award-winning filmmakers. Marilyn is the author of six books, including How to Write a Screenplay in 10 Weeks and The Four Magic Questions of Screenwriting. Marilyn presents classes, seminars and workshops every year for the Writer’s Guild of America, East, NYWIFT, New York Script Club (NYSC), Women in Film and Video in DC and Women in Film (WIF) in Los Angeles. Production credits: Caleb’s Door, (2009), Found In Time (2011), and Nocturnal Agony, (2011), and The One, (2010), as well as And Then Came Love (2007) starring Vanessa Williams, distributed by Warner Bros. www.marilynhorowitz.com
Melody Jackson
Melody Jackson, Ph.D., has been named in the Top 3% and a “Cream of the Crop” Script Consultant by Creative Screenwriting Magazine in three different surveys spanning more than ten years. Melody’s mission is to help you fulfill your vision while crafting your script to have commercial appeal. Please accept our FREE information at www.SmartG.com:
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Pamela Jaye Smith
Pamela Jaye Smith is a mythologist, author, international consultant/speaker, and award-winning producer/director with 30 years’ experience in features, TV, commercials, documentaries, music videos, corporate and military films and Web series. She authored The Power of the Dark Side, Inner Drives, Symbols-Images-Codes and Beyond the Hero’s Journey. Her company Mythworks helps people use mythic themes, archetypes and symbols in their stories, projects and presentations. Pamela appears on panels, gives workshops, judges and provides on-on-one consultations at many pitchfests and screenplay contests. She is founder of Mythworks (www.pamelajayesmith.net) and co-founder of Alpha Babe Academy (www.alphababeacademy.com).
Pen Densham
As a principal of Trilogy Entertainment Group, Pen is an accomplished and award-winning writer/director/producer who has spent his lifetime selling films and TV series as well as hiring, mentoring and collaborating with A-list writers along the way. He created the story for the revisionist “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and co-wrote and produced the screenplay with his Trilogy partner, John Watson. He wrote and directed “Moll Flanders” for MGM and “Houdini” for TNT. Pen is also an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s prestigious School of Cinematic Arts and was named the 8th most powerful person in science fiction by Cinefantastique magazine.
Pilar Alessandra
Pilar Alessandra is the director of the popular writing program “On the Page.” She’s worked as Senior Story Analyst for DreamWorks and Radar Pictures, and has trained writers at ABC/Disney, MTV/Nickelodeon, the National Screen Institute, the Los Angeles Film School, The UCLA Writers’ Program, and more. Her students and clients have sold to Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Bros, and Sony and have won prestigious competitions such as the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition and the Nicholl Fellowship. Pilar’s weekly podcast “On the Page” can be found on iTunes. Her book “The Coffee Break Screenwriter” was released in the fall of 2010. www.onthepage.tv
Rhett Reese
Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote Paramount Pictures’ G.I. Joe: Retaliation, starring Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis, slated for a June 29, 2012 release. Retaliation follows Reese and Wernick’s first feature collaboration, Zombieland, which they wrote and executive-produced for Columbia Pictures in 2009. Zombieland received critical acclaim (90% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and fast became the highest grossing zombie movie of all time ($100M+). Reese and Wernick have recently written screenplays for X-Men: Deadpool, starring Ryan Reynolds, for Twentieth Century Fox, Cowboy Ninja Viking for Universal Pictures, and Micronauts for Paramount, with Hasbro and Bad Robot producing. Reese and Wernick first collaborated in 2001, creating, writing, and executive-producing The Joe Schmo Show for Spike TV. The series drew Spike’s highest-ever ratings. Joe Schmo was named to numerous Best Of lists, including TIME Magazine’s Top 10 TV Shows of the year and Entertainment Weekly’s 50 Best TV Shows Ever on DVD. Reese and Wernick followed up with Joe Schmo 2 and Invasion Iowa, a high-concept comedy hybrid starring William Shatner. Reese has written movies for Pixar Animation Studios (Monsters, Inc.), Walt Disney Feature Animation (Dinosaur), and Warner Brothers (Clifford’s Really Big Movie), among others. Wernick has produced several network reality shows. He won three Emmy awards for his work in news.
Richard Botto
Besides being a screenwriter and an actor, Richard Botto is the CEO and co-founder of Stage 32 (Stage32.com) – the premier social network for film, theater, and television creatives – as well as the CEO of Fair Warning Productions. In 2011, Richard was an associate producer on Sam Levinson’s debut, Another Happy Day, starring Ellen Barkin, Demi Moore, Thomas Hayden Church, Erza Miller, and Kate Bosworth. Richard’s screenplays have been quarterfinalists, semi-inalists, and finalists in many major screenplay competitions. Prior to his entry into the film industry, Richard was the founder, publisher, and editor of Razor Magazine as well as a sports radio host for ESPN and Fox affiliates. Oh, and he was once named one of People Magazine’s most eligible bachelors (no lie).
Richard Walter
Richard Walter is a celebrated storytelling guru, movie industry expert, and longtime chairman of UCLA’s legendary graduate program in screenwriting, Professor Walter enjoys a unique perspective regarding both show and business. Internationally recognized as a master teacher, pop culture critic, writer and media pundit, students in the program he supervises have written ten projects for Steven Spielberg, plus dozens of mainstream commercial Hollywood blockbusters (such as Spider-Man, Benjamin Button, Charlie’s Angels, Mission Impossible) and prestigious indie productions, including two Oscars in three years: Milk and Sideways.
Ruth Atkinson
Ruth Atkinson is a Los Angeles-based script consultant and story editor with over 20 years of experience in the film and television business. Films Ruth has consulted on have won awards and been distributed around the world, including The Perfect Family starring Kathleen Turner—which was the Gala Closing Film at Outfest 2011, celebrated indie The People I’ve Slept With, Genie-nominated Who Loves the Sun, and the New Zealand hit Predicament. Ruth also reviews submissions to the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Screenwriting Lab and was this year’s screenwriting instructor for Project Involve, Film Independent’s (FIND) flagship diversity program. She is available for script consulting and story editing and can be reached at www.ruthatkinson.com.
Signe Olynyk
Signe Olynyk is President/CEO of Protagonist Pictures Inc. in Los Angeles, and Twilight Pictures, Inc. in Canada. She has associate produced two feature films, as well as written/produced several documentaries, one hour specials, tv pilots, and a six part series. Her work has been seen on the CBC, Discovery Channel, FOX, the BBC, and she has professional credits on more than 120 productions. BELOW ZERO, starring Edward Furlong (Terminator II, American History X, The Green Hornet), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, Scooby Doo, Weird Science, The Devil’s Rejects), and Kristin Booth (Young People Fucking, The Kennedys, Crackie) is a feature film she wrote and produced in Canada. Signe also created and founded the Great American PitchFest as a way to help other writers meet the people they need to know for their careers to move forward. As a direct result, more than 60 writers have had their scripts optioned, been hired for writing assignments, or been signed with agents or managers. The PitchFest has also allowed Signe to develop relationship with more than 500 industry executives around the world, and she routines partners new writers with these companies and agencies for representation and script development.
Steve Kaplan
Steve Kaplan has been the industry’s most sought-after expert on comedy for over 15 years. In addition to having taught at UCLA, NYU and Yale, Steve created the HBO Workspace, the HBO New Writers Program and was co-founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan’s Punch Line Theatre. Steve has taught workshops for DreamWorks, Disney Animation, Aardman Animation, Screen Australia and Film Victoria and has conducted workshops and seminars in London, Ireland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as well as around the United States. His book, The Hidden Tools of Comedy, is soon to be published by Michael Wiese Productions.
Todd Klick
Screenwriter and producer Todd Klick, is the author of the best-selling screenwriting book, Something Startling Happens: The 120 Story Beats Every Writer Needs To Know. His screenplays have earned him recognition with the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship and the PAGE International competitions. Five of Todd’s scripts have been optioned, leading him to a story deal with the Hallmark Channel and two deals to develop Broadway musicals. Todd has appeared on “Dateline NBC,”NPR and many popular podcasts to promote his work. He is also a contributor to The Writer’s Store eZine and MovieMaker Magazine.
Tom Lazarus
Tom Lazarus’ approach to screenwriting is based on his real-world experience in the trenches, and he pulls no punches. Tom has written eight movies, including “Stigmata”—the number-one movie in the country when it was released, as well as seven movie-of-the-weeks and over 70 hours of episodic TV. Tom was Executive Producer, Writer and Director of a TV series that ran for five seasons. He’s written two books on screenwriting, has directed five features, dramatic TV and award-winning educational and business films. Tom teaches an Advanced Screenwriting Workshop and Advance Rewriting Workshop at UCLA Extension Writer’s Program.
Tom Malloy
The roster of films written and produced by Malloy over the years includes “Love N’ Dancing,” which was directed by Rob Iscove and stars Amy Smart, Malloy and Betty White, and the psychological thriller “The Alphabet Killer,” directed by Rob Schmidt and starring Eliza Dushku, Cary Elwes, Malloy, Timothy Hutton and Melissa Leo. Malloy’s unique ability to both write projects and raise the funding for them has been a primary factor in his success. Malloy shares his expertise on the subject in his book about independent film financing, Bankroll, which will be released in its 2nd edition in May 2012.
