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Anything goes in Independent films. So how do you get started? This panel explores crafting a compelling on-screen story, with limited money and resources.
Panelists include Gordy Hoffman, William Martell, Randall Jahnson, Todd Trigsted, Lise Raven and Frank Bruckner.
About the Instructors:
Gordy Hoffman:
Gordy Hoffman's screenplay, "Love Liza," starring his brother, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. He made his feature directorial debut with his script, "A Coat of Snow," which had its world premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival. His latest short film, “Dog Bowl,” had its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Hoffman founded the BlueCat Screenplay Competition in 1998 and remains its judge. He has taught screenwriting at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and has led workshops all over North America, Poland and the UK. He has served as a panelist for the IFP Script-to-Screen Conference in NYC, Women in Film’s Script DC Conference in Washington, D.C., the George Eastman House Film Festival, the Willamette’s Writers Conference, and Lighthouse Writers’ Lit Week, as well as a judge for the McKnight Screenwriting Fellowships in Minnesota. A proud Jayhawk, he sits on the Professional Advisory Board of the Film and Media Studies Department at his alma mater, the University of Kansas. Currently teaching screenwriting at UCLA, Gordy is writing a movie for Abigail Spencer.
Gordy Hoffman's screenplay, "Love Liza," starring his brother, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. He made his feature directorial debut with his script, "A Coat of Snow," which had its world premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival. His latest short film, “Dog Bowl,” had its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
William Martell:
William C. Martell has written 19 films: three for HBO, two for Showtime, two for USA Network, and a whole bunch for Cinemax. He has been on some film festival juries, including five times at Raindance in London (once with Mike Figgis and Saffron Burrows, once with Lennie James and Edgar Wright, and once with Julian Assange).
The late Roger Ebert discussed Martell’s work with Gene Siskel on his 1997 Oscar show, "If We Picked The Winners.” Martell is also quoted a few times in Bordwell's great book, "The Way Hollywood Tells It." His USA Network film, “Hard Evidence,” was released on video the same day as the Julia Roberts' film, “Something To Talk About,” and out-rented it in the U.S. In 2009 Martell had two films released on DVD on the same day and both made the top 10 rentals. Recently, he wrote the remake of a hit 1980s horror flick for a mini-major studio, and later this year should have a family film shooting in the U.S.
Randall Jahnson:
Randall Jahnson has been a professional screenwriter for 30 years. Among his credits are The Doors, The Mask of Zorro, Dudes, Sunset Strip, and the forthcoming Norwegian feature, Dryads: Girls Don't Cry. In addition to rock singer Jim Morrison, he has written scripts about such diverse historical figures as inventor Nikola Tesla, psychedelic pioneer Timothy Leary, Texas outlaw John Wesley Hardin, and African- American silent film director Oscar Micheaux. He's currently at work on a web series.
Todd Trigsted:
Todd Trigsted is a 15-year veteran of film production with more than 300 documentary short movies to his credit. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with an emphasis on drawing and sculpture. He earned his Master of Science in Technical Communication while creating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) first interactive multimedia studio designed to craft technical information into a more visually engaging format. His acclaimed work as an EPA "Artist-In-Residence" was funded in part by a $6.2 million sponsorship.
He has exhibited at international technical conferences and art galleries in Poland, Cuba, Japan and many U.S. cities. His photographs have been published in international academic publications and popular media. Todd currently works as a freelance video journalist for the American Legion Magazine producing video stories about the challenges veterans face while returning home. He is also looking for investors for his next film, “Football, Inc.: What’s The True Cost of American Football?”
Lise Raven:
Lise Raven’s first feature film, “Low,” screened in over 30 international film festivals. She helped to found the Slamdance Film Festival, after which she wrote and directed three films for the Showtime network. In 2000 Raven moved to Berlin, Germany after being awarded the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm Artist Residency in Film. While living in Europe, Raven’s feature film project, Snipe, was funded by the Irish Film Board. Raven and her co-writer, Frank Brückner, wrote the 2014 award winning feature film “Kinderwald,” which is the second part of “The Kinderwald Trilogy,” a trilogy of films that are inspired by fairy tales about children. Raven and Brückner are currently writing the third part of the trilogy, a story inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's “The Little Match Girl.”
