Tag: screenplays

Hello, my fellow artists! Welcome to another exciting edition of my weekly blog. As you all know, I have two goals that I am focusing on this year. And each week, I am alternating between the two goals to provide updates that are hopefully inspiring and engaging. This week, we are back to my writing goal for 2024: Finish the 1st draft of “The Third Act” feature film script with Kelly Tighe. Once that’s done, do a table read, get feedback, and complete additional drafts.

My writing goal is moving along nicely! On August 28th, October 2nd, and October 9th, the PDP 3.0 Collective met to review the feedback we received on the first draft of The Third Act feature film script. We answered many questions and discarded things that didn’t serve the script. On Wednesday, October 16th, Kelly and I met to begin work on the second draft! It was a wonderful and heartwarming reunion. We were excited to start meeting again and create some more magic. The first step was to figure out where to start LOL. Where do we start with all this feedback? Once we landed on one thing, we expanded upon it. Hooray! We got the ball rolling! From there, we decided to take the next few days to rewatch the Zoom recordings from August 28th, October 2nd, and October 9th to make sure we had absolute clarity of the feedback the Collective went over. Keep reading below 🙂

On October 25th, Kelly and I met again. And this time, we came equipped with ideas because we had more clarity after rewatching the recordings. For example, I presented some ideas on how to make a crucial set-up in the script pay off in the end. I also identified dialogue that we can add to a couple of scenes to strengthen them. Kelly presented five main areas we can focus on to move the second draft forward exponentially. What felt potentially daunting last week now felt more doable and achievable. We are meeting on October 29th to begin implementing the above ideas! Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

Hello, my fellow artists! Welcome to another exciting edition of my weekly blog. As you all know, I have two goals that I am focusing on this year. And each week, I am alternating between the two goals to provide updates that are hopefully inspiring and engaging. This week, we are back to my writing goal for 2024: Finish the 1st draft of the “Third Act” feature film script with Kelly Tighe. Once that’s done, do a table read, get feedback, and complete additional drafts.

Since our table read on July 14th, we’ve received wonderful feedback from fellow artists and industry professionals. The feedback has been universal and consistent, so it lets us know we are on the right track with what we have. We even had a writer-director-producer come into class this past Wednesday to clarify and expand upon his awesome notes. From all the feedback we’ve received, I believe the one that was the most thrilling and heartwarming was from Jeffrey Alan Schechter. Not only is he a two-time Emmy-nominated writer, but he is also the writer of the story structure book that we use extensively at the Richard Lawson Studios, “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story”. His book helped us shape and write “The Third Act”. His book helped me write two feature film screenplays, and I’ve used his book as a supplement during my Sundance writing course. Keep reading below 🙂

Jeffrey read our outline in 2022 and then came into class to provide us with constructive feedback. So, it was important to continue to involve him in the journey. Jeffrey read our script and had many beautiful things to say about it! In addition, he believes that our script is viable, a good and worthy story with characters so compelling as to attract talented actors. To receive this feedback from the same person whose template we follow is the icing on the cake. Special. Magical. Keep reading below 🙂

Our next step as a collective is to read all the feedback again and decide what to keep and discard. From there, Kelly and I will tackle the second draft of the script. Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

Picture from: https://mystorycanbeatupyourstory.com/

Hello, my fellow artists! Welcome to another exciting edition of my weekly blog. As you all know, I have two goals that I am focusing on this year. And each week, I am alternating between the two goals to provide updates that are hopefully inspiring and engaging. This week, we are back to my writing goal for 2024: Finish the 1st draft of the “Third Act” feature film script with Kelly Tighe. Once that’s done, do a table read, get feedback, and complete additional drafts.

On July 14th, 2024, the Professional Development Program 3.0 collective had a table read for the first draft of our feature film script! This journey started almost five years ago and it was based on a true story that Richard Lawson shared with us. From that true story, the collective worked together to research, brainstorm, and map out a story. In mid-2022, the collective appointed Kelly and I to make sense of all the research that was done up till that point and to write the script. On May 9th, 2024, Kelly and I finished the first draft of the script. Keep reading below 🙂

The entire experience was electric from beginning to end. Thank you, Craig Taggart, for lending us your beautiful office space for our art to occur and flourish. We set up the large conference room with tables and chairs. Craig printed out and placed name cards in front of each chair. Thank you Nic Monteilh and Mark Larwood for setting up the cameras and mics. As the actors arrived, there was a sense of excitement and community in the air. Thank you actors for the wonderful performances you gave. It was thrilling to hear these words come out of your mouths. It was also great to hear which moments/scenes worked and which moments/scenes didn’t quite land. Invited guests ranged from Richard Lawson Studios students to outside industry guests, and they either sat in the conference room with us or in another room where they could observe us through a one-way mirror. Thank you all for coming! Keep reading below 🙂

After the table reading ended, we handed out questionnaires for everyone to fill out. Once those were collected, we celebrated afterwards in the lobby area with food and wine. There was a buzz in the air. Actors and guests flowed positive comments and constructive feedback during the reception. After everyone left, Richard and the collective stood behind to debrief and to cement this huge win. This was a huge and successful win for all of us. It felt like we all gave birth, and the feeling was satisfying. This past Wednesday, we read through the questionnaires and discovered common themes, feedback, and suggestions that will be helpful when Kelly and I tackle a second draft. Also, Richard sent a copy of the script to Jeffrey Alan Schechter for feedback. Jeffrey wrote “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story”, and it is his book that we used to structure our outline and script. Fun fact: Jeffrey read our outline in 2022 and then came into class to provide us with wonderful feedback. Keep reading below 🙂

And finally, thank you to such an incredible collective: Richard Lawson, Beth Berlin, Lindsay Hopper, Sayaka Miyatani, Jorge Ortiz (yes, I’m including myself even though I’m writing this blog LOL), and Kelly Tighe. We are all excited for the next chapter of movement and development.

Hello, my fellow artists! Welcome to another exciting edition of my weekly blog. As you all know, I have two goals that I am focusing on this year. And each week, I am alternating between the two goals to provide updates that are hopefully inspiring and engaging. This week, we are back to my writing goal for 2024: Finish the 1st draft of the “Third Act” feature film script with Kelly Tighe. Once that’s done, do a table read, get feedback, and complete additional drafts.

The day has finally arrived! The PDP 3.0 collective will witness an exciting cast of actors perform our feature film script today. We have our location. We have our signed NDAs. The actors received their scripts via email this past Wednesday. We have invited guests to observe. We created questions to ask the actors and guests afterwards. Hardcopy scripts will be available at the table read. We will have food and drink. Richard came up with the exciting idea of filming the table read with three cameras so we could later edit it and send it out as a marketing tool to interested parties. Keep reading below 🙂

I can’t wait to let you all know how it went! See you all next week!