Screenwriting Symposium Faculty
The Hollywood Connection Faculty
Faculty Bios & Sessions
Click on a faculty member's name or event to view more information.
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Ian Abrams
Since 1998 Professor Ian Abrams has been head of the Screenwriting & Playwriting Program at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Prior to that he worked in Hollywood for twenty years, ten of them writing and producing film and TV. He wrote the 1993 MGM film Undercover Blues starring Kathleen Turner, Dennis Quaid and Stanley Tucci, and was co-creator of the long-running CBS show Early Edition.
Ian has written for or sold screenplays to Warner Bros./CBS, TriStar, Universal, DeLaurentis Entertainment Group, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, and Spelling Films.
His titles reflect his wry sense of humor: "The Dust Devil In His Greatest Adventure," "House-O-Matic," "Murder Can Be Fun," "Weirdos," "Too Many Husbands," and "Presumed Impotent."
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Sam Alexander
THE WOLPER ORGANIZATION
, Creative Executive
Bio Coming Soon...
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Terry Borst
Terry studied with screenwriting gurus Lew Hunter, Richard Walter and William Froug. His credits include many episodes of the BBC action-adventure series Bugs (syndicated in 30+ countries), the TV movie sequel Midnight Run Around and the independent feature Private War. He has written other screenplays for Paramount Pictures, USA Network, the BBC, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and various independent producers.
For more than a decade, he co-wrote a trade publication and website column, *alt.screenwriters*, focusing on the collision of screenwriting and new media technologies. He's taught screenwriting at the College of Santa Fe, UCLA, USC, Moorpark College, Santa Fe Community College, and Canada's Banff Centre for the Arts, and his students have won film festival competitions and been accepted at top film schools around the country.
You can find more about Terry at www.terryborst.com.
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Steve Carter
SCSFE
, Webmaster
Having spent the past several years as a conference attendee and member of the SCSFe staff, Steve is finally moving to the front of the room to lead a seminar at this year's conference. As a writer, his focus on screenwriting has evolved over the years from the new-writer dream of selling the next $100-million box office smash to focusing on doing whatever it takes to just get his movies made. A techno-geek since birth, the explosion of widely available, inexpensive, and easy-to-use digital video cameras and editing tools means this goal is closer than ever... for every screenwriter.
Recently uprooted from his Texas roots, Steve is busy establishing a new network of like-minded screenwriters and filmmakers in Sin City. He can be reached at steve.carter@yahoo.com.
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Steve Davis
Screenwriter/Screenwriting Consultant
Steve Davis served as the Dallas Screenwriters Association President 2005-2008. His popular monthly column, "Like I Always Say, Sometimes," appeared in the DSA Features newsletter. In addition to writing, Steve is a screenwriting teacher, and script consultant. He has written several screenplays, including "Skydiving Isn't for Cowyards," "Daze Away," "Criminal Defense," "The Color of Clouds," "Last Chance for Romance," and "Fill er Up" (scheduled for production in 2009). He also co-wrote "Double or Nothing" and "Bloodstone."
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Steve Davis
Steve Davis served as the Dallas Screenwriters Association President 2005-2008. His popular monthly column, "Like I Always Say, Sometimes," appeared in the DSA Features newsletter. In addition to writing, Steve is a screenwriting teacher, and script consultant. He has written several screenplays, including "Skydiving Isn't for Cowyards," "Daze Away," "Criminal Defense," "The Color of Clouds," "Last Chance for Romance," and "Fill er Up" (scheduled for production in 2009). He also co-wrote "Double or Nothing" and "Bloodstone."
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Matt Dines
SPYGLASS ENTERTAINMENT
, Creative Executive
Matt Dines was raised in Los Angeles and attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During college, he worked on television shows such as THE O.C. as well as interning for Walter Parkes at Parkes/MacDonald Productions.
After graduating college and spending a few months traveling, he began at Spyglass Entertainment as an assistant to the Director of Development. He quickly transitioned over to the President's desk, working on such films as FOUR CHRISTMASES and LEAP YEAR. In 2009 he was promoted to development executive, helping to bring each project from inception to greenlight.
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Jay Durrwachter
Jay Durrwachter wrote and directed Love Like Neruda, an official selection of the 2009 Cleveland International Film Festival and the 2009 College Film Tour.
His feature film script, "The Reckoning," was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a top 20 script in the Nichol Fellowship competition.
Jay has scripts under consideration at production companies including: This Is That, Corp. (Ted Hope), Payaso Entertainment (at Paramount), The Steve Tisch Company (at Sony), FR Productions (Fred Roos), Cine Mosaic (Lydia Dean Pilcher), Ballyhoo, Inc. (at Mandalay Pictures), Manifest Film Company (The People vs. Larry Flynt), Amy Robinson Productions (Autumn in New York), among others.
Jay has developed visual concepts on feature films for directors including Alan Pakula, Gus Van Sant, John McTiernan, Danny Devito, Nicholas Hytner, Irwin Winkler, Harold Becker, James Foley, George Wolff, and Mick Jackson; on features including Lackawanna Blues, The Devil's Own, The Thomas Crown Affair, Finding Forrester, Death to Smoochy, Object of My Affection, At First Sight, and City Hall.
He won an Art Director's Guild Award for his work on Live From Baghdad for HBO.
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Kirk Ellis
Writer, Producer
Santa Fe-based writer/producer Kirk Ellis won two Emmys and the Humanitas Prize for his work on John Adams starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. Ellis wrote and co-executive produced the seven-part HBO miniseries, which is based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography. The miniseries scored a record 23 nominations, second only to Roots in Emmy history, and won a record breaking 13 Emmys in total, as well as four Golden Globe awards. Ellis has also received a Writers Guild of America nomination for his script.
Ellis will continue his association with McCullough and the American Revolution on his next project for HBO, 1776. Like Adams, the miniseries will be produced with Tom Hanks' Playtone Co. In addition Ellis is adapting the James Ellroy novel "American Tabloid" as a series for Playtone and HBO.
For the big screen, Ellis is working on the feature project Blood and Thunder, an epic drama of Kit Carson and the Navajo Wars, and Escape, the true story of Carolyn Jessop, who escaped from a plural marriage in a fundamentalist Mormon compound under the leadership of Warren Jeffs. Katherine Heigl will star and produce under her Abishag banner along with Michael Menchel of Relevant Entertainment.
Ellis' collaboration with Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks brought him the Western Writers of America's Golden Spur Award for Best Drama Script for Hell on Wheels, an episode of the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated TNT/DreamWorks miniseries Into the West on which Ellis served as supervising producer and writer. He also received the Wrangler Award for Best Television Feature from the National Western Heritage Museum for his work on the miniseries.
Previously Ellis received an Emmy nomination and won the Writers Guild of America and the Humanitas Prize for the ABC miniseries Anne Frank which he wrote and co-produced. Additional credits include writing the award-winning ABC miniseries The Beach Boys: An American Family, co-executive producing Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (which earned him a Critics' Choice Award) and writing The Three Stooges telefilm.
Ellis made his feature film debut writing and co-producing The Grass Harp based on the coming-of-age novel by Truman Capote. He has also collaborated on projects with such esteemed directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Roland Joffe and William Friedkin.
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Mike Farris
Mike Farris is a literary agent with Farris Literary Agency and an entertainment attorney with the Dallas, Texas, law firm of Tipton Jones. Mike has negotiated numerous sales of his literary clients' movie and television rights to producers and major Hollywood studios.
As a screenwriter, he adapted the award-winning novel Balaam Gimble's Gumption, which was produced as a short film in 2009. His feature screenplay "Live From the Boneyard" is currently being cast by Sweet Revenge Entertainment, and his inspirational family screenplay "Reaching Jordan", based on a true story, is in development with Advocate Pictures.
In collaboration with New York Times best-selling novelist Patrick A. Davis, Mike is co-creator of two television series based upon Davis's novels that are currently under contract to a Los Angeles-based television producer.
In 2009, he collaborated with rodeo cowboy turned actor/director/producer Robert Hinkle to write Hinkle's memoir, Call Me Lucky: A Texan in Hollywood, published in 2009 by the University of Oklahoma Press. In addition to all the above, Mike's novel Kanaka Blues is set for publication this summer by Savant Books.
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Darren Foster
SCSFE
, Conference Advisor
Darren Foster teaches screenwriting at the University of Colorado, Denver and the Colorado Film School. He is the Founder and President of Film Scribe (www.filmscribe.com), a website dedicated to supporting screenwriters worldwide, and the Co-Director of the Screenwriting Contest at the Vail Film Festival (www.vailfilmfestival.org) where he is also a member of the Festival's Advisory Board. Darren has taught at various festivals, conferences and educational institutions nationwide and has been on the faculty of The Screenwriting Conference in Santa Fe since 2005.
An active screenwriter, Darren has written more than a hundred screenplays with several under option and/or contract. He is the Owner and President of Film Scribe Productions and the Co-Founder of Serotonin Rising Pictures, LLC. His latest projects include co-writer on Nephilim (www.nephilimthemovie.com) slated for production in Wisconsin in 2009 and writer and co-producer on the film Serotonin Rising (www.serotoninrising.com) currently in hiatus but scheduled to resume production in late 2009. Darren also co-developed the TV pilot Happiness 101 with Tony Perri and Warren Miller Entertainment that is currently being pitched to a variety of networks.
Darren resides in Estes Park, Colorado with his wife, Shana.
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Andy Fraser
MORGAN CREEK PRODUCTIONS
, Vice President
As Vice President of Physical and Post Production for Morgan Creek, Andy Fraser is responsible for overseeing their feature films from their earliest stages through delivery. His credits include such films as The Good Shepherd, Man of the Year, Two for the Money and Georgia Rule. Andy has worked with such directors as Robert Altman, Alan Rudolph, Barry Levinson, and Garry Marshall in their film endeavors and also has extensive experience in scripted television series.
For more information go to Morgan Creek Productions on IMDb.
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Mark David Gerson
Mark David Gerson has taught and coached writing as a creative and spiritual pursuit for nearly 20 years in the U.S. and Canada, guiding writers in all genres to unleash their creative potential and express themselves with ease.
A writing coach, script analyst, editor, broadcaster and project consultant, Mark David is also host of radio?s The Muse & You with Mark David Gerson and a popular speaker on topics related to creativity.
Mark David?s two books,The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write and The MoonQuest: A True Fantasy, have each won critical acclaim and multiple awards, and his screenplay adaptation of The MoonQuest is in active development. He is now working on a MoonQuest sequel.
For more about Mark David, visit www.markdavidgerson.com.
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Peter Hanson
Peter Hanson is the director of the screenwriting documentary Tales from the Script, which will screen at this year's conference. His other films include the documentary Every Pixel Tells a Story and the award-winning short Stagehand. He is the author of The Cinema of Generation X, Dalton Trumbo, Hollywood Rebel,and the Tales from the Script companion book. He co-wrote the narrative feature The Last Round and the upcoming documentary feature Old. Hanson studied film at New York University and journalism at the University at Albany. His website is www.GrandRiverFilms.com.
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Rich Henrich
Rich Henrich teaches screenwriting at the Institute of American Indian Arts and Film for Change, a non-profit dedicated to the production, presentation and promotion of socially conscious stories that entertain. He is the Founder and Director of the Albuquerque Film Festival and producer of the sci-fi indy, Starwatch.
Rich has written scripts for Regent Entertainment and K.I. Productions. An active screenwriter, his latest projects include "Permanent Phase," a twenty-something coming of age road movie with American Auteur Monte Hellman set to direct. Rich was once a reader at Showtime and has taught workshops and juried at a few film festivals, including Santa Fe Film Festival and Durango Independent.
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Jane Lee
Screenwriter, Consultant
Jane has written five screenplays and was a quarter-finalist in the American Screenwriting Competition. She worked with the major studios and networks in the Hollywood media milieu for 10 years and served as marketing director for the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards. She is the author of several books and has produced numerous award-winning websites and videos. Jane studies Archetypes and Sacred Contracts with Caroline Myss and produces the Filmmakers and Screenwriters Guide to Archetypes seminars in Los Angeles. She is currently working on her new book, "Contemporary Spirituality".
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Marc Manus
MANUS ENTERTAINMENT
, Literary Manager - Executive
Marc Manus, a former award-winning photojournalist, attended USC film school before entering the field of artist representation. His first job was with manager Cathryn Jaymes who represented Quentin Tarantino, among others. He held positions at various management companies before partnering with talent manager Jamie Gold. A few years ago, he ventured out on his own to form Manus Entertainment and has a short roster of up-and-coming writers and directors.
Marc's clients are currently involved in film and television projects at companies such as 20th Century Fox, HBO, Lionsgate and Summit. Some of his recent spec sales include "The Highest Bid," which went pre-emptively to Intrepid Pictures, and "Foreign Exchange," in development at Mandate Pictures.
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Tony Mark
Independent Producer
Tony Mark has produced almost 40 films that range from art house to commercial studio fare. His films have appeared in numerous festivals including Venice, Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Telluride, and Sundance. Most recently, he Executive Produced Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker." It received 9 Academy Award nominations and won 6 Oscars including Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay for 2009. Other Academy Award nominated films that Tony has been involved with as a producer include "The Mirror Has Two Faces" and "The Fisher King."
Also in 2009 Tony produced Lifetime's "Georgia O'Keeffe" (filmed entirely in New Mexico) which was nominated for 3 Golden Globes including Best Picture, PGA and DGA Awards for Best Picture and won the WGA Award for Best Screenplay. Emmy nominations have come for "Witness Protection" and "Starring Pancho Villa as Himself," both for HBO. He won the 2004 Imagen Award (established to recognize the positive portrayal of Latinos in media) for producing "Pancho Villa."
Tony has written scripts for MGM, ABC, NBC, Showtime and USA Networks and has directed second unit on numerous films for HBO, CBS and Dimension. Notable filmmakers he's worked with include Ms. Bigelow, Robert Rodriguez, Robert Wise, Bruce Beresford, Terry Gilliam, Barbara Streisand, Bob Rafelson, and John Avildsen.
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Dara Marks
Dara Marks, Ph.D. is a leading international script consultant, seminar leader, and author of one of the top selling books on screenwriting, Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc. Dara has specialized in the analysis of the modern screenplay for the past two decades, and Creative Screenwriting Magazine has consistently rated her the number one script consultant in the business: "Dara Marks is in a class by herself." She has worked for most major Hollywood studios and her advice has been sought on a variety of films and television programs. Dara has a doctorate degree in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute, focusing her thesis on The Transformative Function of Story. Her groundbreaking work in this field continues to help writers engage more deeply and effectively in the creative process.
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William Martell
IN HIS OWN WORDS: I just handed in the first draft for the studio 3D remake of a 1980s horror film, and I've written 19 films that were carelessly slapped onto celluloid: 3 for HBO, 2 for Showtime, 2 for USA Net, and a whole bunch of CineMax Originals (which is what happens when an HBO movie goes really, really wrong). I've been on some film festival juries, including twice for Raindance in London (once with Mike Figgis and Saffron Burrows, once with Lennie James and Edgar Wright - back to "jury duty" in October of 2009).
Roger Ebert discussed my work with Gene Siskel on his 1997 "If We Picked The Winners" Oscar show. I'm quoted a few times in Bordwell's great book "The Way Hollywood Tells It". My USA Net flick HARD EVIDENCE was released on video the same day as the Julia Roberts' film Something To Talk About and out-rented it in the USA. In 2007 I had two films released on DVD on the same day and both made the top 10 rentals.
You can find more about William at www.scriptsecrets.net.
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Sammy Montana
Sammy Montana has worked on several independent productions in many capacities including the recent HALLOWEEN remake. He has read over 1000 scripts in his career at Trancas International Films where he is the VP of Production and Development . He has had three stories published and received an honorable mention for his screenplay "ROBERT THE DREAMER." His script
consulting services are highly sought after where he specializes in dialogue and story structure. Currently, he is involved in several projects in various stages of development, three of which are set to shoot this year.
Trancas International Film's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution, television, merchandising, product placement, internet development, operation of studio facilities, development of new entertainment technologies and distribution of filmed entertainment worldwide. The company has offices in Los Angeles and London, and operates out of Twickenham Film Studios in the UK. Its operating units
include: Trancas International Films, Inc., Compass International Pictures, Inc., and Tring Entertainments, Ltd.
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Josh Olson
After writing and directing the horror/comedy cult movie INFESTED, Josh Olson broke into the studio world when he sold his original script THREE GUN BLUES to Paramount Pictures, with producer Gale Ann Hurd attached. That led to his first studio assignment, adapting the graphic novel A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE for New Line. Olson's work on that film was nominated for the Academy Award, the BAFTA, the WGA award, and the Edgar.
Since then, Olson has collaborated with legendary author Harlan Ellison on an adaptation of Ellison's The Discarded for the ABC TV Series "MASTERS OF SCIENCE FICTION". The episode starred Brian Dennehy and John Hurt.
He worked on adapting the hugely popular video game HALO for producer Peter Jackson and director Neill Blomkamp, and has adapted the Dennis Lehane short story UNTIL GWEN, which he will also direct. He contributed the script for "HAVE I GOT A STORY FOR YOU" to the smash hit BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHT project.
He recently wrote a sequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ for Warner Brothers, and has just finished adapting the Lee Child bestseller ONE SHOT for Paramount. His Village Voice essay "I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script" became an internet phenomenon, getting upwards of two million hits, and is spawning a book.
He is currently developing a TV drama, "PLEASED TO MEET ME", with the legendary guitarist Slash, and is writing the pilot for "MEANWHILE", a dramatic series he created and sold to producer Peter Chernin and the Fox Network.
Olson can be seen commenting on classic film trailers at Joe Dante's website, TRAILERS FROM HELL.
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Anne Randolph
Anne's screenplays have won awards at WorldFest Houston and were finalists at Chesterfield, Empire Screenwriting Competitions, The Writer's Network, Writer's Foundation, and the Drama League in New York. She teaches writing workshops across the country. Anne is the past General Director of Opera Colorado, Opera Memphis, and the Colorado Symphony. She has directed opera and theatre in London, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and has worked with New York City Opera, the Netherlands Opera, the English National Opera, and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
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Ken Rotcop
Among Ken's many honors, he is the winner of the Writer's Guild Award, the Image Award and the Neil Simon Award for producing and writing, "For Us, The Living; The Story of Medgar Evers".
His latest book "The Perfect Pitch- 2nd Edition" was released in '09 along with his latest DVDs "Let's Sell Your Script!" and "Secrets of Animation".
Ken's first musical "Mama Cass" is scheduled to open 2010.
As a former Creative Head of four Hollywood studios including Embassy Pictures and Hanna-Barbera, Ken supervised Lion in Winter, Carnal Knowledge, The Graduate, and Charlotte's Web.
In 1988 Ken created his first PitchMart where the writers of his workshop could sit one-on-one with top studio executives and pitch their scripts. It has been going strong ever since.
Ken is the subject of an award winning, feature length documentary titled "Talk Fast".
He has been featured on Oprah and is included in "Who's Who in Entertainment". Ken can be reached at: PitchMart@Juno.com
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Corey Sienega
Producer
Corey Sienega currently has several projects in development with longtime producing partner, David Kirschner, and 2010 also brings the official launch of her own production banner, La Sienega Productions. Current projects include "KRISTY," a taut horror-thrilled with Dimension Films; "MOUSEGUARD," a CG animation adaptation of David Petersen's award-winning graphic novel which is being adapted by Mike Werb (Face/Off, The Mask) for Starz Animation (9); and Ray Bradbury's "THE HALLOWEEN TREE," with an adaptation by Craig Titley (PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF), Mark Palansky (IRON JACK, PENELOPE) is attached to direct.
Corey's previous credits include: MISS POTTER (starring Renee Zellweger); MARTIAN CHILD (starring John Cusack); SECONDHAND LIONS (starring Robert Duvall, Michael Caine and Haley Joel Osment); FRAILTY (starring Matthew McConaughey and directed by Bill Paxton); the SyFy mini-series FIVE DAYS TO MIDNIGHT; and BRIDE OF CHUCKY and SEED OF CHUCKY.
Corey was also chosen in 2007 by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the 25 Most Powerful Latinas in Hollywood, proving in her mind that there aren't nearly enough Latinas in the film business. La Sienega Productions has many more stories that will warm your heart or frighten the bejeezus out of you in the near future.
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Howard Suber
Howard Suber was the founding chair of the Film and Television Producers Program at UCLA, where he has been a faculty member for more than 45 years. He has taught thousands of young filmmakers in more than 65 different courses covering most areas of film and television as both arts and industries. In recent decades, 2/3rds of his students have been screenwriters. He has also taught a several-week workshop for the winners of the Independent Feature Project, West's screenwriting competition.
Suber's book, "The Power of Film" (thepoweroffilm.com), produced reactions such as these:
"Howard Suber is one of the foremost teachers of film in the world. "
--Geoffrey Gilmore, Director, Sundance Film Festival
"Howard Suber's understanding of film storytelling fills the pages of this wise, liberating book. Much of it is surprisingly contrary to what 'everyone knows.' A remarkable work."
--Francis Ford Coppola
"For years students in Howard Suber's legendary classes at UCLA begged him to write a book. Now that he has delivered it, filmmakers, scholars and anyone else with a serious interest in film can rejoice. A fascinating and thought-provoking work."
--Alexander Payne, Director/Screenwriter, Sideways, About Schmidt
"What Aristotle did for drama, Howard Suber has now done for film. This is a profound and succinct book that is miraculously fun to read."
--David Koepp, Screenwriter, War of the Worlds (2005), Spider-Man, Mission Impossible, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Suber has been a consultant and expert witness for every Hollywood studio and several networks and cable companies, especially dealing with issues of screenplay copyrights and creative control, and he been employed to advise a major studio on screenplays being considered for production.
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Jeffrey Taylor
Jeffrey Taylor has an extensive background in the equipment leasing, banking, commercial real estate and motion picture industries. He has successfully guided movie makers to raise money for their film projects and is considered an expert in private placement equity and tax-enhanced transactions. On a personal note, he has financed several movies which were filmed in the U.S. with post-production in Germany and distribution in the Far East.
Prior to forming Showbiz Management Advisors in 2001, he held senior positions with Citibank, Peat Marwick and the Actors Fund, a non-profit charity, where he served as their CFO.
His most recent book, Going from W2 to 1099, is an excellent resource for corporate professionals and entrepreneurs who are struggling to grow their businesses.
He is currently working on his next book, entitled Film Finance for Beginners, which will be released in 2011. For more information please visit http://jeffreytaylorpressroom.com or e-mail him at JeffreyArizona@aol.com
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Maggie Terryviale
Maggie Terryviale loves attending SCSFe, which, in her sage words, "is simply the best!" Her feature length scripts have won awards in such contests as Fade In, The Maui Screenwrying Conference, and the Austin Film Festival as well as having co-written award-winning short films. Aside from SCSFe, she has studied screenwriting at UCLA Extension Masters in Screenwriting program.
As a producer/owner for Hope Productions, Maggie has had several scripts optioned in Hollywood. In addition she is an artist with an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, a Reverend who assists personal growth through energy healings, and an author. Her new book, Happiness Awaits You! is an anthology of 68 true stories by 44 authors. For book information please go to www.HappinessAwaitsYou.info.
For more info on Maggie please go to www.HopeHealingHands.com.
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Wendall Thomas
For the last twenty-two years, Wendall Thomas has worked in Los Angeles as a casting director, director's assistant, script reader, story editor, development executive, entertainment reporter, script consultant and screenwriter, writing and developing projects for companies including Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, Showtime, PBS, RKO, A&E, NBC, T&C Film, ACC Entertainment, Gabriel Films and Scottish Screen.
In addition to writing and consulting, she has lectured throughout Europe for the Arista Screenwriting Workshops and in the U.K. for the Welsh and Northern Irish Film Commissions, Northern Film and Media, the Folkstone Literary Festival and Screen South. She recently returned from a lecture tour for the New Zealand Film Commission.
She has consulted for the Atelier du Cinema European Producing Program in Paris, served as Writer's Mentor for Screen South's Good Foundations Plus program 2005-2007 and is directing the LA FEATURES program for the UK Film Council's Northern Film and Media for 2007-2009.
She is also a Star Speaker for the annual Los Angeles Screenwriting Expo and runs the Living Room Lecture series in Los Angeles. She is in her thirteenth year as Adjunct Professor of Screenwriting in the Graduate School of Film and Television at UCLA.
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Ray Zimmerman
Independent Producer
RAY ZIMMERMAN is a 30-year veteran of Hollywood, having progressed from P.A. to Payroll Accountant to Prod. Accountant to Production Manager to Producer to Studio Executive.
He was Sr. VP at Sony /Columbia /TriStar Pictures from 1995 - 2005 where he directly oversaw over 200 feature films including: Spiderman, Jerry Maguire, As Good As It Gets, Ali, Godzilla, MiB2, Zorro 1+2, Memoirs of a Geisha, Da Vinci Code, Vertical Limit, Hitch, Holiday, Starship Troopers, Pursuit of Happyness,
and many more with budgets ranging from $6MM to over $250MM.
Ray is also involved in championing several start-up "content exploitation" companies based on a "New Hollywood" business model which he'll touch on during the Saturday Producer Panel.
He and his directing partner, Catherine Hardwicke, (Twilight, Lords of Dogtown, Thirteen, Girl With The Red Riding Hood) have financing in place for their next film, "Bulldog Dance" to be shot in 2011.
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This faculty list is based on the availability of instructors
and is subject to change without notification.
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