On The Page

Making movies. Making film festivals. Tony Gapastione of Bravemaker Productions talks about the many things he’s learned as he creates and curates short films and features.

Free-writing, fun writing and brain dumps! Writer/comedian Marc Warzecha talks about ways you can turn an ordinary subject into a hilarious sketch.

Writer/ Producer Mike Royce talks about the ways that life issues and personal stories in the writers’ room inspire episodes of the shows he’s worked on: One Day at a Time, Enlisted, Men of a Certain Age and Everybody Loves Raymond.

Landi Maduro, director and producer at Bluechild Entertainment, offers advice to new filmmakers about creating the emotion, tone and visual look of their on-screen projects.

Writer Delondra Mesa (Z-Nation, Step Up) has paid her dues, working from Zombie-movie writer to Executive Story Editor. Hear how she did it and why she is a better writer because of it!

Writer / producer Erica Rivinoja (South Park, Clone High, The Last Man on Earth) has great advice about turning simple kids stories into big movies, finding the funny in a scene and pitching with confidence in the writers room. 

Shireen Razack and Angela Harvey, co-chairs of the Think Tank for Inclusion & Equity, talk about issues and problems in the industry facing underrepresented writers and the ways in which their report put hard numbers to the anecdotes.  

Writer Tiffany Thomas talks about writing on the reboot of The Proud Family and how working as a sketch comedian helped her on the page and in the writers’ room.

Writer Shannon Houston (Homecoming, Little Fires Everywhere, Station 11) is both a writer on and a fan of the HBO show Lovecraft Country which she describes as "complicated, strange and always unraveling.”

Andrew Chapman, Executive Producer of The Resident, talks about the ways in which the show shines a light on the problems within the medical industry and stresses themes of accountability.

Richard Bosner talks about the ways working as a producer on independent movies like Fruitvale Station, Other People and Mapplethorpe have taught him as a writer and director.

Writer/actor Kemiyondo Coutinho (MTV’s Undressed, Starz’ Step Up:High Water), talks about the ways that creating content for herself led to her current career as a TV writer.

Writer/Producer Michael Jamin (Tacoma FD, Maron, King of the Hill) talks about relying on the truth when he needs to find the story and the funny for TV or memoir.

Screenwriter Alison Peck, writer of Ugly Dolls and You Can’t Keep a Good Girl Down (in development)  talks about her approach to writing story and dance in the new Netflix movie Work It.

Fugitives, murders, UFOs and lost loves! Christine Lenig, Senior Vice President of Cosgrove/Meurer Production, talks about the storytelling that goes into the Netflix reboot of Unsolved Mysteries.

TV showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois (Claws, Self Made, Criminal Minds, ER) talks about what she looks for in writers' participation and pages, how she breaks story in the writers’ room and why a writing career is like getting to eat chocolate chip cookies all day.

Writer Aydrea Walden discusses her recent job as a development executive at DreamWorks TV and her new gig writing for a Disney Jr. show. She also gives some valuable tips about networking and insight into the writers' room.

Writing/Directing brothers Tony Dean Smith and Ryan W. Smith talk about their journey from making movies in their living room to independent filmmaking and the release of their feature film “Volition."

Ten writers from across the country and around the world get together on Zoom to ask questions about the craft of screenwriting. Special thanks to guests Christina Nicole, Danielle Pinnock, Deanna Brauer, Glenn Lawrence, Kennet Bennervall, Lateefah Holder, Mario Kersey, Marky Hinojosa, Mykal Kilgore, Seamus Heffernan and Tony Gapastione.

Actor/writers Danielle Pinnock and Kimberly Hebert-Gregory talk about their annoyance with one-dimensional characterizations of black women in movie and TV stories, their wish for duality and complexity in the roles they play and their hope that the current push for change doesn’t turn out to be a “Jenny Craig moment.”