This session, we have the multitalented Ken Atchity, a best-selling author, producer, literary manger, professor and editor who aptly goes by the moniker The Story Merchant. He got his B.A. at Georgetown, his Ph.D. at Yale. He was a tenured professor of comparative literature at Occidental College and a distinguished instructor at UCLA Writers program. He’s worked in publishing and filmmaking and is a member of the TV Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the Producer’s Guild.
Listen Now
This session, we’re excited to have with us James Vanderbilt, a screenwriter and producer with over 20 years of major feature film experience including blockbusters such as White House Down, The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2, and, one of Tom’s favorites, The Rundown. He is also the Chief Content Officer of Project X Entertainment.
Listen Now
Streaming services have broken the mold on episode length. In this session, we discuss how they’ve changed the measuring stick on script length and where, when and if it still matters.
Listen Now
With shorter and shorter seasons, accelerated by streamers with big budget, high-quality event shows, has the era of 24 episode season containing the inevitable filler episode come to an end? And how would this change impact writers?
Listen Now
The end of an era. Tom is leaving Los Angeles and heading back to Cleveland, Ohio. We discuss his nine years in Hollywood, what he accomplished, learned, and what he’s taking with him to continue screenwriting outside of Tinsel Town.
Listen Now
With technology already able to create real actors in movies, and soon their voices, what’s next for A.I. in Hollywood? Experiments in A.I. screenwriting are ongoing. Should you worry?
Listen Now
Like the pandemic that won’t go away, here is our COVID-19 One Year Later in Hollywood episode. What’s changed? What hasn’t? Where do we go from here?
Listen Now
It’s hard to open YouTube without seeing a video on the “Exodus” from Los Angeles and the death of Hollywood. In this session, we debate the health status of Hollywood from the writers’ room to the movie theaters and everything in-between.
Listen Now
We speak with writer, producer and director Jeff Deverett about writing movies for the growing streaming market and how his experience, as a lawyer and distributor helped in producing seven movies and distributing three of them on Netflix.
Listen Now
Our guest in this session is Mike Miller, CPA (disclaimer: Mike is Tom’s accountant from Cleveland, OH) to discuss what creatives should consider when preparing their tax returns. Including: What qualifies as a creative performer? Do you need an LLC? What’s deductible and what’s not? What about stimulus checks? What if student loans get forgiven? And more!
Listen Now