The ISA Podcast

Denise Meyers began her professional career at the William Morris Agency as an assistant to literary agent, Judy Scott-Fox after graduating from Oregon State University in 1982 with a degree in broadcast communications. After working as a freelance story analyst for independent film and distribution companies, Meyers became a screenwriter herself, but after twelve years in the film business with nothing but a handful of free options to show for her efforts, she moved to Utah to pursue a successful career as a full-time artist. When the economy bottomed out in 2009, Meyers returned to what she calls “the dream that wouldn’t die”. Principal photography was just completed on a short film she wrote in 2015 entitled THE DARK OF NIGHT (a Table Read my Screenplay Grand Prize Winner, Austin Film Festival 2015). The film, directed by Robin Wright, stars Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell, and was shot with the crew from House of Cards (including award winning director of photography, Dave Dunlap). In February 2016 she was named an Athena List winner at the Athena Film Festival in New York. Meyers is the only writer in the six year history of the festival to have two screenplays make it to the finals; RIDE THE WIND: The Bessie Stringfield Story, about the only African American woman to serve as a motorcycle dispatch rider in World War Two was an Athena List winner, and LUCKY 13, an Athena Finalist, is about the first American women to fly military aircraft in wartime and the significant role they played in training male pilots how to fly the B26 “Widowmaker” in advance of the D-Day attack on Normandy. Lucky 13 was recently chosen as one of three winners of the 2017 Atlanta Film Festival screenplay competition. For more information on Denise, please visit her website at: www.delicateflowerfilms.com. You can, also, connect with Laura Powers at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on facebook and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers.

Pilar Alessandra started her career as Senior Story Analyst at DreamWorks SKG. In 2001, she opened the Los Angeles-based On the Page Writers’ Studio dedicated to teaching and consulting with screenwriters and TV writers at all levels. She’s the author of the top-selling scriptwriting book, “The Coffee Break Screenwriter,” and host of the popular “On the Page Podcast.” An in-demand speaker, she’s taught seminars at Disney Animation, ABC, CBS and MTV, and traveled the world teaching in the UK, China, Poland, Vietnam, Columbia, Portugal and South Africa. Pilar’s greatest accomplishment is the success of her students, many of whom have won top competitions like the Nicholl Fellowship, are working on TV shows such as “The 100,” “The Walking Dead” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” and have sold scripts and pitches to studios including DreamWorks, Warner Bros. and Disney. We discussed screenwriting versus web series and tv writing. For more information about Pilar, her classes, consultations, book and podcast, go to www.onthepage.tv. For more information on Pilar, please visit her web page at: www.onthepage.tv. To connect with Laura Powers, please do so at: www.laurapowers.net. You can, also, connect with Laura on facebook and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers.

Lynn Povich is an award-winning journalist who has spent more than 40 years in the news business. She began her career at Newsweek as a secretary. In 1970, she was one of 46 Women who sued Newsweek for sex discrimination. Five years later, Povich was appointed the first woman Senior Editor in the magazine’s history. Her book on that landmark lawsuit, The Good Girls Revolt, was published by PublicAffairs in September 2012. A fictionalized 10-part series inspired by the book, Good Girls Revolt, has been running on Amazon Prime since October 2016. In 1991, Povich became Editor-in-Chief of Working Woman magazine and in 1996, she joined MSNBC.Com as Managing Editor / East Coast. Povich has received numerous honors, including a 1976 Matrix Ward from Women in Communications for Exceptional Achievement in Magazines and the 2006, Exceptional Woman in Publishing Award from Women in Periodical Publishing. For more information on Lynn, please visit her personal web page at: lynnpovich.com. You can, also, connect with Laura Powers at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on facebook and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers.

Robin Colucci helps coaches, consultants, and speakers write books that grow their businesses. Through ghostwriting or coaching, her professional team helps leaders in thought and business and other change. She is the author of How to Write A Book That Sells You. Her clients have been published by major publishers, such as Random House, DoubleDay, Hay House, and Wiley, while others have self-published. Get Robin’s free report: 5 Reasons You Might Need A Book Deal http://needabookdeal.com. To find out more about Robin Colluci’s services, please visit: http://www.robincolucci.com/. You can, also, connect at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on facebook via Write Hot and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers.

Laura spoke with Kevin about building towards multiple NYT bestsellers, working with Hollywood, and book bundling. Kevin J. Anderson has published 140 books, 54 of which have been national or international bestsellers. He has written numerous novels in the Star Wars, X-Files, and Dune universes, as well as unique steampunk fantasy novels Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives, written with legendary rock drummer Neil Peart, based on the concept album by the band Rush. His original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series, the Terra Incognita fantasy trilogy, the Saga of Shadows trilogy, and his humorous horror series featuring Dan Shamble, Zombie PI. He has edited numerous anthologies, written comics and games, and the lyrics to two rock CDs. Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta are the publishers of WordFire Press. If you would like more information on Star Wars, Dune, and a New World of Publishing you can connect with Kevin J. Anderson the following ways: wordfire.com Twitter: @theKJA Facbook: Official Kevin J. Anderson Page. You can connect at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on facebook via Write Hot and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers. Laura’s new book Supernatural Survival Guide is now available, you can buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Supernatural-Survival-Guide-Laura-Powers-ebook/dp/B01MQ5K0L8/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8! Today's podcast is brought to you by audible.com - get a FREE audiobook download and 30-day free trial atwww.audibletrial.com/writehot. Over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

Laura and Marika met at Book Expo America 2016 in Chicago at a panel on PR for authors. Marika Flatt launched PR by the Book, LLC in 2002, combining her love of the media, public relations and books. Leading up to that, after garnering experience as the host of two cable television shows (The Teen Report & The College Report) in San Antonio, reporting for her college newspaper and producing for her college TV station, and working with NBC-TV in Dallas, Marika spent seven years leading the publicity team of an Austin-based book publicity firm. While there, she was the Director of Publisher Services, handling the company’s key publicity campaigns and serving as the company’s spokesperson. Marika received a Gold Bulldog Award for a publicity campaign that resulted in exposure in over 700 media outlets. Marika is a regular speaker at conferences around the country, educating audiences on topics related to publicity and promotion. Keeping her in touch with her journalism side, Marika has been a travel writer for over a decade and serves as the Travel Editor for Texas Lifestyle Magazine. Also, Marika can be heard on the statewide NPR show “Texas Standard,” giving her Weekend Trip Tips. If you would like more information on PR by the Book LLC and Marika Flatt you can find her at: http://www.prbythebook.com/, Blog: http://feeds.feedburner.com/prbythebook, FB: https://www.facebook.com/prbythebook/, Twitter: https://twitter.com/prbythebook/, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prbythebook/. You can follow Laura Powers at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on Facebook via Write Hot and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers. Today's podcast is brought to you by audible.com - get a FREE audiobook download and 30-day free trial atwww.audibletrial.com/writehot. Over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

Signe Olynyk is a Writer / Producer, as well as Founder of ScriptFest (www.scriptfest.com) and www.pitchfest.com, which includes the Great American PitchFest, the Great British PitchFest, and the Great Canadian PitchFest. She lives in Canada, and runs the highly regarded Sooke Writers Retreat from a secluded, oceanfront home, where dozens of select writers join her each year for their personal writing retreats. In addition to this, Signe has written and produced a number of television pilots, series, documentaries, and feature films, and works in the industry. She has professional credits on more than 120 productions, including her two latest feature films, ‘Below Zero’ (www.belowzeromovie.com) and ‘Breakdown Lane’ (www.breakdownlanemovie.com). Her work has been seen around the world on the CBC, Discovery Channel, Scream Channel, Fox, the BBC, and various others. To connect with Signe or pitch her, go to www.scriptfest.com and [email protected] can connect at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on facebook via Write Hot and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers. Today's podcast is brought to you by audible.com - get a FREE audiobook download and 30-day free trial atwww.audibletrial.com/writehot. Over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

"...The process of writing a screenplay is different from writing a play in many essential ways. The first is the difference in the use of action.

For screenwriters, action is the primary tool of structure. But for playwrights, the primary tool is dialogue.

Don’t get me wrong. As a playwright, you need to visualize to some degree what is happening on the stage in order to really create your dialogue, in order to create the piece. But you don’t have to communicate that to anybody else. People don’t need to see your play in their mind like they do when reading a screenplay; they need to hear it, and they need to see the big elements.

You get to rely on the director, because plays have this thing called rehearsals. 

It is crazy that rehearsals, for the most part, don’t exist in filmmaking. Even though some of the really great film directors do rehearse-- for example Francis Ford Coppola had a history of bringing the cast up to his estate to rehearse-- most film directors don’t rehearse at all. 

That’s for a very simple reason: stars cost about $20 million bucks..."

"...If you’ve been following my podcast, you know that I’ve been talking for some time about the desperate need for some smart people to start writing superhero movies.

Action movies and superhero movies are the mythologies of our time-- millions of people see them, and as much as we might like to dismiss them as pure entertainment, the truth is, they irrevocably shape our view of the world, our children’s view of the world, the stories we tell ourselves about how to be our best selves, how to solve our problems, and what it means to be a hero.

In this way, all action movies are political.

Which is why it’s so darn nice to see a movie like Wonder Woman kicking ass at the box office..."

Kate Drane is Indiegogo’s Senior Director of Outreach for Tech and Hardware. Her favorite thing to do is democratize access to resources, and considers herself as a VC of the people. Since starting at Indiegogo in July 2012, she's empowered more than 500 entrepreneurs to collectively raise over $80M on the Indiegogo platform, including Canary, Misfit, and Skulpt. For more information on Indiegogo go to www.indiegogo.com or connect with Kata on Twitter @katedrane. We met at the Industry conference in Cleveland http://indsum.com/.You can connect at www.laurapowers.net. You can also find her on facebook via Write Hot and follow her on twitter @thatlaurapowers. Laura also is now taking pre-orders for her new book Supernatural Survival Guide! You can get order the book and get great perks at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/supernatural-survival-guide-book/x/2967887#/.