Writer/Director Lee Whittaker spent years as a stunt man, stunt coordinator and second-unit director before setting out to make a feature film on his own. Hear what he learned from his experience and desire to make a movie with a message.
Writer/directors Dave Merlino and Dustin Sweet set out to document the stories of the men who served in the 9th Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam. But what they ended up with was a documentary about the need to talk through trauma. Here they discuss their years-long journey making and distributing Apache Blues: Welcome Home .
From providing a performance space for the UCB in New York to contributing to "Second Draft” evenings in Los Angeles, writer Ellen Ancui continually brings together groups of creatives and builds her own supportive writing community.
Writer Crescent Imani Novell won the Nickelodeon Writing Fellowship in 2018 and has been writing on an animated shows like Dreamworks' Fright Krewe , Marvel’s Moon Girl and Mattel's Barbie: It Takes Two . She’s got excellent advice about story, character and dialogue, with a little personal hustle thrown in.
Writer Seth M. Sherwood ( Leatherface , Light as a Feather ) discusses common horror themes from “screwed by the system” to “man plays God” as written about in his new book, The Scary Movie Writers Guide .
Writer Nick Smith joins Pilar and her husband Pat Francis in a discussion about Hammer Films, the production company that made Dracula , The Curse of Frankenstein , The Mummy and much more!
From writers' room minimums to guaranteed second steps, career coach Lee Jessup talks about the “exceptional” gains made by the WGA as a result of the 148-day writers’ strike.
Writer/director Nico Casavecchia has made award-winning movies and short films with everything from VR to carbon monoxide molecules. Here he discusses his approach to telling story through unconventional mediums and ways to think of AI as a potential creative tool.
Last time writer/actor Michael-Leon Wooley was on the podcast his script Hey Wait A Minute had just gotten the attention of UTA. Two years later UTA is repping another script, Witch Please , and both have been optioned and packaged by major production companies. His ultimate goal? To write "everyone’s favorite movie."
Leigh Medeiros, co-founder and co-director of the Hollywood Climate Summit’s Pitchfest for Film and TV , talks about how climate screenwriting equals good storytelling and gives “ten reasons why the time is now for screenwriters to help save the planet."
Daniel Augustin and Sh’Kia are actors, writers, musicians and spouses. Listen to how they learned production from music, acquired filmmaking skills from auditioning and started writing directing and starring in their own projects to keep it all alive.
Producers Trishtan Williams and KC Chan Haimes describe the storytelling process behind their new docuseries Why Not Us: Howard Golf and discuss their approach to finding narrative and character authenticity in all of their work.
Whether it’s the factual truth for documentary or the emotional truth for her fictional narratives, writer/director Alicia Ontiveros believes in truth and fairness in her work. Here she talks about what she’s learned from her work in docs over the years and where she’s going next in her screenplays.
What does Once Upon a Time In Hollywood and Barbie have in common? They’re both examples of “Metamodernism." Writer M. Elizabeth Eller explains it all!
Writer Marc Haimes stresses the importance of creative collaborations and the need to have fun as he returns to the podcast to talk about his latest projects, Nimona , Ultraman and Lost Ollie .
Rocky (RaKenna) Luckey talks about how she took the skills she learned from “pressure cooker" jobs in music, production and film festivals to write a spec and land a job in television!
Dr. Laura Erickson–Schroth, psychiatrist, writer and activist, discusses positive and negative portrayals of mental health issues in film and television.
Managers versus agents, packaging deals versus spec sales. Zack Zucker from Bellevue Management breaks it all down for us.
Proving that a couple who creates together stays together, writer Elizabeth Musgrave and artist Frank Forte talk about their adventures turning features into plays, plays into short films and scripts into comic books.
Pilar helps you “declare your independence” from a conventional screenwriting school of thought on outlining, branding, daily writing and more!
Actor/writer Scott Turner Schofield, Executive Producer of They/Them and consultant for Euphoria , talks about his work bringing complex and authentic stories of trans-characters to script and screen.
Jon Fitzgerald, co-founder of Slamdance and author of Filmmaking for Change talks about ways to get attention at film festivals, the importance of a call to action in movies with a message and how his latest venture, Cause Cinema, highlights content with social impact.
Writer Bill True, Department Chair at the Scottsdale School of Film and Theater , talks about the specific factors that helped propel a community college in Arizona to Variety’s list of "Top Film Schools in North America.”
Bafta-winning, Academy Award-nominated writer Tony McNamara, ( The Favourite, The Great, Cruella ), talks about his approach to telling story and creating period pieces with a contemporary stamp.
Jennifer Cram’s experience in casting helped her say “yes” to directing her first feature. Jen talks about the years-long journey of her soon-to-be-released feature film, Sick Girl , why it’s fun to write about unlikeable characters and how she’s learned to be an advocate for her own work.
Advice from Brian Keith Etheridge ( Mythic Quest, The Neighborhood, The Ranch, Mike and Molly ), will help you with pitching and characters, and may just make you a better poker player as well!
For Mother’s Day, Pilar’s 18-year-old daughter Rita Dodson shares her thoughts and wisdom about on-screen content that portrays teenagers in accurate and interesting ways.
Career coach Carole Kirchner returns to the podcast to talk about ways to brave career obstacles and overcome writers block.
WGA writers are striking to get the pay and benefits they deserve. But how does this effect non WGA writers as well? Career coach Lee Jessup explains it all.
A little scared about AI’s role in the writing world? So are we. Writer and communications data analyst Michael Grebb helps us understand what’s happening now and what might be ahead.
