This past Memorial Day Weekend, I was invited to take part in the 8th Annual Big Island Film Festival in Hawaii. Over the course of the festival, I watched 22 films including 18 shorts and 4 features – and this only included a fraction of the screenings. What fascinated me the most was how you [...]

Last week I had the thrilling opportunity to premiere my second short film, Deal Travis In, at the New York International Short Film Festival. This was the second consecutive year I premiered a short at this festival and my mind was flooded with memories of how I felt at this time last year. I had [...]

Ah, the Cannes Film Festival.  Where glitzy red carpet premieres and ball-gown and tuxedo-clad celebrities abound, everyone drinking champagne, hobnobbing and dancing until the break of dawn.  Oh, the glamour of it all… … or so I mused while on my flight to France, reading aloud a French phrase book a friend lent me, practicing [...]

With this week’s starting up of the Festival de Cannes film festival season is said to be in. But with at last count over 4,000 film festivals every year it’s always festival season. Some festivals disappear, never to return, while new ones are popping up all the time. Pick any theme or a film-loving community [...]

When I speak at screenwriting conferences, I often remind people to look to their left and then to their right. The people sitting next to you are the ones you should be networking with, not just the speakers. Now I have proof. Meet Rebecca Norris and Kevin Resnick, filmmakers on their way to Cannes Film Festival [...]

I’ve always enjoyed blending genres, even though many of the great tomes of screenwriting wisdom caution against it. “From the first few pages of your screenplay, the audience has to know exactly what genre it is.” I’ve come to learn that it’s not the audience that needs to know what genre it is – the [...]

After twenty-five years of writing screenplays, always while working two jobs, an Ohio woman decides that she has had enough.  Along the way, there have been nibbles here – producers who have taken a shine to a particular script, free options, partial financing – and bites there – mangers and agents who have promised the [...]

Yes, my specialty is marketing and publicity on behalf of film and television programs, but I’ve also been told that I have a flare for coming up with campaigns that are tailored to meet the needs of my projects. In this column, I hope to share some of my passion and expertise and provide you [...]

“Everyone thinks my film is great! You guys don’t know what is really good.” “I’ve seen the films you program and mine is so much better.” “My film won awards at four other festivals! I don’t understand why you didn’t pick it up.” I receive these complaints (and worse) daily from filmmakers of every level [...]