Advice > Interviews with Writers & Authors
Sometimes reading interviews with writers and professional screenwriters
Interview with John Truby
Question: What’s the best advice you can give writers to help them develop their own unique voice and style? John Truby: Voice and style are among the most misunderstood of all elements in storytelling. Voice and style aren’t simply a unique w...
Read more... | Published: 10/17/11 | by John Truby
Excerpt from "Hire Me Hollywood!" - David Janollari, Head of Programming - MTV
David Janollari Head of Programming, MTV David Janollari grew up in Rhode Island. He was a popular guy who had a lot of friends. He went to Boston College for two years then transferred to NYU film school. He turned his sights on Hollywood, and...
Read more... | Published: 09/22/11 | by Keith Fenimore and Mark Scherzer
Future of Story Interview Series: Michael Weise
Michael Wiese is a producer, director, author, and publisher. After producing the highly popular “Hardware Wars” (a Star Wars parody), Michael was an entertainment executive with Showtime and later Vice President of Vestron Video where he launche...
Read more... | Published: 08/02/11 | by Ann Baldwin and Michael Wiese
Future of Story Interview Series: D.B. Gilles
D.B. Gilles has taught comedy writing in The Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for nearly 20 years. He also taught comedy in The Dramatic Writing Department at NYU, the Graduate Fi...
Read more... | Published: 08/02/11 | by Ann Baldwin and D.B. Gilles
Future of Story Interview Series: Pamela Jaye Smith
Pamela Jaye Smith is a world renowned mythologist, speaker, consultant, writer, award-winning producer/director, and the founder of MYTHWORKS with over 30 years of experience on features, TV series, commercials, documentaries, corporate an...
Read more... | Published: 08/02/11 | by Ann Baldwin and Pamela Jaye Smith
Future of Story Interview Series: Kathie Fong Yoneda
Kathie Fong Yoneda has over thirty years of successful experience working in film and television. She has held executive positions at Disney, Touchstone, Disney TV Animation, Paramount Pictures Television and Island Pictures, specializing in deve...
Read more... | Published: 08/02/11 | by Ann Baldwin and Kathie Fong Yoneda
The Future of Story Interview Series: Pilar Alessandra
Pilar Alessandra is the director of the Los Angeles-based writing program On The Page and a highly sought-after speaker and script consultant. She’s worked as Senior Story Analyst for DreamWorks and Radar Pictures, trained writers at ABC/Disney a...
Read more... | Published: 07/14/11 | by Ann Baldwin and Pilar Alessandra
The Future of Story Interview Series: Christopher Vogler
Christopher Vogler is one of Hollywood’s premier story consultants for major film companies such as Disney and 20th Century Fox, a respected teacher of filmmakers and writers around the globe, a popular speaker on screenwriting, movies, and myth,...
Read more... | Published: 07/14/11 | by Ann Baldwin and Christopher Vogler
The Future of Story Interview Series: Jen Grisanti
Jennifer Grisanti is a highly respected author, script consultant, public speaker, and writing instructor. She started her career as an assistant to Aaron Spelling. She climbed the ranks and eventually ran Current Programs at Spelling Television ...
Read more... | Published: 07/14/11 | by Ann Baldwin and Jen Grisanti
The Future of Story Interview Series: Pen Densham
Pen Densham is an accomplished and award-winning writer-director-producer-author and a principal of Trilogy Entertainment Group. He’s spent his lifetime in the business of entertainment, selling films and television series, as well as hiring, men...
Read more... | Published: 07/14/11 | by Ann Baldwin and Pen Densham
Don't Say "Networking": A Discussion With Kathie Fong Yoneda & Ellen Sandler
KATHIE FONG YONEDA: Everybody knows that getting hired in this business is about who you know. So, Ellen, you’ve been hired to write on over twenty shows, how do you get to know people and even more important, how do people get to know you? What ...
Read more... | Published: 07/14/11 | by Ellen Sandler and Kathie Fong Yoneda
John Truby Interview February 2011
John Truby is Hollywood's premier screenwriting instructor and story consultant. Over the last 25 years, more than 30,000 writers have attended his sold-out seminars around the world, with the American Film Institute declaring that Truby's "cour...
Read more... | Published: 02/22/11 | by John Truby
Interview with Jeffrey Stepakoff, Author and TV Writer
Jeffrey Stepakoff has been writing professionally in Hollywood since 1988. He has credits on shows including The Wonder Years, Sisters, Major Dad, Beauty and the Beast , and Dawson's Creek . Stepakoff has also created and developed pilots for ma...
Read more... | Published: 07/09/07 | by The Writers Store
A Little Confession is Good for the Soul: An Interview with Writer/Director Stefan Schaefer
Every script can (and should) be a learning experience for the writer. The more we write, the more we experiment and stretch, and the quicker we learn what works and what doesn't. We take these learnings to our next script, where we build on them ...
Read more... | Published: 06/06/07 | by John Gaspard
Interview with the "Stranger Adventures" Writing Team
When the first Emmy Award category honoring new media programs was announced, it ushered in unprecedented opportunities for screenwriters. Not since cable television has the industry experienced such a shift. Those willing to write for the Interne...
Read more... | Published: 04/27/06 | by Christie Taylor
Interview with Syd Field
A real gem on the craft of screenwriting, the third edition of Syd Field's preeminent book, Screenplay , provides easily understood guidelines on writing a script from concept to finished product. Syd sits down to talk to the Writers Store about ...
Read more... | Published: 12/04/05 | by Athena Hayes
Interview with Steven Priggé, author of Created By: Inside the Minds of TV's Top Show Creators
Steven Priggé, a one-time assistant on the hit sitcom Spin City starring Michael J. Fox, has written a new book entitled Created By: Inside the Minds of TV's Top Show Creators . Between the covers, Priggé delves into the minds of people like Ma...
Read more... | Published: 10/31/05 | by The Writers Store
Interview with: Shawn Lawrence Otto - Screenwriter of HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG
WS: You graduated magna cum laude AND Phi Beta Kappa from a small, private liberal arts college, Macalester in St. Paul. What was your major and did it have any impact on your careers as house painter, apartment house owner, and prize-winning s...
Read more... | Published: 12/19/03 | by The Writers Store
An Industry Interview with Manager/Producer Andy Cohen on Selling Books to Hollywood
Andy Cohen is the President of Grade A Entertainment, a production and management company representing writers, directors and authors in feature films, episodic and long-form television. Before founding Grade A, Andy spent ten years as both an exe...
Read more... | Published: 06/20/03 | by Howard Meibach
Interview with Dave Hackel: Creator and Executive Producer of the TV Show 'Becker'
Dave Hackel's producing credits include such long-running hits as Paramount's comedy series 'Wings' and 'Dear John.' Hackel's first writing assignment for a series came in 1978 for the 'Barney Miller' spinoff, 'Fish,' starring Abe Vigoda. While wr...
Read more... | Published: 12/31/01 | by The Writers Store
Interview with: Vickie Patik - Writer/Director/Actor
Vickie Patik has enjoyed success in nearly every facet of entertainment, first as a singer/dancer in Los Angeles civic light opera and Broadway productions and actress on soap operas, then as a screenwriter of numerous movies for television. A fr...
Read more... | Published: 12/31/01 | by The Writers Store
Interview with: Lewis Colick - Award Winning Screenwriter
Lewis Colick: Script Tips Lewis Colick estimates that he's been writing for 25 years and 'making a living at it for about 18.' His critically-acclaimed 'October Sky earned him the 1999 Humanitas Prize for Best Feature Script and a Writers Guild n...
Read more... | Published: 12/31/01 | by The Writers Store
Interview with: Donald Spoto - Biographer/Historian
Biographer and historian Donald Spoto believes the goal of the biographer is first and foremost to tell the truth. 'Our purpose,' he said, 'is to set the record straight, celebrate lives, and set forth certain aspects of history and human behavio...
Read more... | Published: 12/31/01 | by The Writers Store
Interview with: John Wirth - Television Writer/Producer
John Wirth is writer and executive producer of 'Nash Bridges' starring Don Johnson and Cheech Marin. He serves on the board of the Writers Guild of America west on its Television Writers Council. He graciously took time out to tell us about his ca...
Read more... | Published: 12/31/01 | by The Writers Store
Interview with: Lenny Ripps - Comedy Writer
It's hard to imagine television without the situation comedy, perhaps the most intrinsically American form of comedy today. From 'I Love Lucy' to 'Friends' the genre has taken many twists and turns, going from one-camera to three-camera setups, fr...
Read more... | Published: 12/31/01 | by The Writers Store
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