Introduce Yourself To the Groupf

[Megan Schemenauer]

Good morning from EST!

My name is Megan Schemenauer. I’m originally a playwright with just over a dozen scripts on the market. During the pandemic, I started to test the waters of screenwriting and now have written 4 features to date. Hoping to learn more about how to structure and write a series for television so I can get a few ideas out of my brain.

[Suzanne Frank]

Hi, I’m Suzanne Frank. I’ve published ten books and taught adults how to write novels for decades. However, I’ve only written a few screenplays (one through the awesome Profound class here!) I am verrrry excited to up-level my thinking, skills, and writing. My last series gave me a platform on which to build a bingeable watch and that’s what I’ll be doing. I also create a “soundtrack” for every project and this one is starting with Bridgerton tunes.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  Suzanne Frank.

[Dave Arena]

Hey everyone! Our names are Victoria & Dave Arena. We are a husband and wife comedy writing team from NYC. We have written 4 original pilots so far. What we want out of the class is a good framework for coming up with binge-worthy series which is what attracted us to this. We waste a lot of time it seems by getting to the pages too quickly and we’d like a process where we feel like we have a solid, sellable idea first before we end up having to write 8 versions of the pilot lol. Something unique about us, hmmm, Dave is a stand-up comic and I was a makeup artist on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for the first 5 years of it being back here in NYC. We are excited to start this journey!

[Mr. Brunken]

Rodney D. Brunken

Hello, everyone!

This is an entirely new adventure for me. I have never written any script, although I have written small non-published pieces for the enjoyment of myself and my friends. I am undertaking this challenge because I want to experience the satisfaction of creating a project that I can share with the public. I am semi-retired and a grandfather to boot, and I feel the need to complete this goal while I still can. I wrestled with the idea that maybe I was taking on something out of reach at this point in my life, but then I decided that proving myself wrong in this regard was part of the challenge I wanted to face down. I have decide to use my own memories of growing up in a town on The Mississippi River as the starting point for my series idea. The preliminary title I am using is, “Catfish Bend” which was the nickname for the town I grew up in. The characters and events will be inspired by real people and events that are taken from my time coming of age in that town. I am excited to finally be starting on a project like this and using it to grow both personally and as a writer.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  Mr. Brunken.
• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  Mr. Brunken.
• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  Mr. Brunken.
• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  Mr. Brunken.

[Helen Roberts]

Hi all, Helen Rose Roberts here. I did my pro series so long ago I can’t remember what number it was, but I took it in 2010. This is my second time around for binge worthy, I was in Master Screenwriter certificate 3.

I’ve written eight features, one animation/live action hybrid special and my binge worthy pilot was completed last month.

I signed with an agent/manager last year. She is an agent, but her hands on approach of reading and giving notes for my scripts seems more like a manager. I feel blessed that she took me on and we are working together to get my projects out there.

I was hired to write a feature script three years ago, it was completed and led to an agreement to expand and cowrite the concept as a series with the producer/director.

I hope this class will help me hone my skills in developing a new binge worthy series script in my brand of comedy/dramedy for family, children, teens and young adults. Leaning more towards teens and young adult these days.

Something unique, hmmm, a little I guess, I’m from that town the Broadway hit Come From Away was inspired by.

[Tom Minier]

Hi all,

My name is Tom Minier. I’m a writer and actor who flirts with filmmaking, currently based out of Atlanta. I just completed the 2nd draft of my 10th screenplay (7 features, 3 pilots). I have three pilots in my head that want out, and I learned from the ProSeries that the process goes exponentially faster with a plan—that’s why I’m here. Unique, special, strange or unusual??? I don’t know if this will register for any one, but it’s special to me, dammit! I recently wrapped on shooting a film I wrote, acting with my first acting mentor—it was a pretty cool full circle moment in an epic location.

[JoAnne Strickland]

Hello, I am JoAnne Strickland. I have written too many scripts to count, especially if you count all the episodes for each of the series I have written. I hope to re-invigorate my love for writing, especially on my series, and to learn anything and everything to make my series truly binge worthy and to make sure all ducks are in the row when I market again. Normally I say that I am a writer as something unusual but in this case I will say I have ten jobs, and probably near my maximum at this point, and none of them involve writing (although one is editing). I have taken Hal’s classes before and they are enlightening to say the least.

[Rebecca Jordan]

Hello Everyone,

I’m Rebecca Jordan. I am an actress, singer. I have written one full length feature which I created over 20 years ago and just completely reimagined in the 30 day and the pro rewrite classes. I wrote one short that was briefly in production but never completed. I then wrote that into a full length play which had a well received reading, but I hated it. I also wrote a surreal, to be animated, script. And I have performed in nearly 100 plays.

I enjoy writing and am hoping to improve my skills and have a go to process so that I won’t be discouraged.

Something unique, strange special about myself. Hmmm. I am Puerto Rican American, raised by a Japanese step father. I have performed opposite Ed Harris on stage, as his wife. I’m currently a singer in the #1 Tom Petty tribute band.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  Rebecca Jordan.

[Jeff Glenn]

Hi, guys. My name is Jeff Glenn. I have one script. I also wrote many stories while going to school at Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. I’m hoping to take the fragmented show that is in my head and make it into something real. In my neck of the woods it is not very unique, but in the larger world it is different to have been one of those missionaries with the black name tag, which may have a small presence in my show.

[Ashley Sarikaya]

Hello! My name is Ashley Sarikaya. I’m new to the screenwriting world. I’m working on an MFA in Writing for Film, Television and Digital Media at the Academy of Art, San Francisco. I’m currently working on a script for a short film. Outside of this new passion, I’m a communications consultant for international organizations, focusing on multimedia storytelling. I’m really excited to start this class, and create my very first binge worthy series script. Looking forward to meeting you all!

[Sharilyn Kyle]

Hey yous! Jersey talk from this Jersey gurl Sharilyn Kyle. I’ve written 5 features, a couple of pilots and shorts here and there. I hope to come away from this class with a viable Bible. My uniqueness stems from me playing the cello. I’m not special…only to my hubby. I’m not strange unless you count the fact that I can…and of course there’s that unusual time I…MUAH!

[Evelyn Petros]

I’m Evelyn Petros and I’m finally ready to start this class after dealing with travel, prior commitments, and Covid! I’ve written one feature screenplay which I hope to learn how to turn into a binge worthy limited series. I’m a retired opera singer addicted to period films, especially those of Merchant Ivory. I’ve written an opera libretto, and am currently working on three novels and a play. While living in Vienna, Austria (1991-2008), I was also a contributing journalist/photographer for the Community and Arts sections of Austria Today, an English language weekly.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by  Evelyn Petros. Reason: I initially forgot to mention my other writing experience

[Evelyn Petros]

From this assignment I learned how to start analyzing the first episode of a bingeworthy TV series (using Hal’s 5-Star Points) to find out what makes it bingeworthy.

I was not familiar with any of the shows on our list, but had read the novel “Handmaid’s Tale”, so I started watching the first episode of that series, but stopped after a few scenes because the film makers had done such a good job with the traumatic, graphic visuals, that I had to escape!

I then searched the list for a comedy, because I am writing one and was curious to see how other writers had done it. Not finding any, I focused on a series whose cast features actors whose work I know and admire. After watching the first episode of BIG LITTLE LIES, starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, I was hooked. After watching it through once, I looked at the Scene Breakdowns and noted there were 18 scenes in this 1st episode, then watched the episode again. The gorgeous scenery of Monterey at the beginning nailing down the location hooked me, and theimage of a gun that appears during the opening credits foreshadowed the genre of the show, a crime drama in a domestic setting.

BIG LITTLE LIES – 5-Star Points

1) Big Picture Hook – in the wealthy community of Monterey, CA, the parents of children attending an elementary school are suspects in a murder that occurs at the school’s fundraising event, a fancy costume ball.

2) Amazing and intriguing Characters – 5 families of mothers, fathers, and children in intruiging relationships with each other.

Family #1 – The Mackenzies

Madeline Martha Mackenzie – a twice married, career-thwarted, extroverted stay-at-home Mom of two who volunteers at a community theater. Her 2 kids – adorable, cheeky Chloe Mackenzie, a first grader & Abigail Carlson, a typical, rebellious teen who thinks she knows who she is, and exercises her “independence” by pushing her mother’s buttons.

Ed Mackenzie – Madeline’s 2nd husband, a seemingly loving, laid-back, computer/software engineer & CEO of a startup company. So far, he seems a nice guy.

Family #2 – The Chapmans

Jane Chapman – new in town; a single Mom who feels she doesn’t fit in, and may be hiding some trauma in her past; part-time bookkeeper & mother to Ziggy, an angelic looking little boy (whose father is not named) accused of choking a little girl in his class, though he denies it.

Family #3 – The Wrights

Celeste Wright – a gorgeous (stay-at-home?) mother of twin boys; wife of Perry Wright, a handsy, somewhat overbearing corporate type who likes playing rough with their kids. A Big Red Flag in Scene 15! Yikes! Is Perry an abuser?

Family #4 – The Kleins

Renata Klein – a successful business woman, mother of Amabella Klein, the first-grader who was choked at school. Gordon Klein, a business man.

Family #5 – The Carlsons

Bonnie Carlson – a yoga teacher, artsy, New Age, bohemian, in a mixed marriage with Madeline’s ex, Nathan Carlson; mother of mixed-race daughter, Skye Carlson.

3) Empathy/distress:

The show’s writers and directors used techniques that made me empathize with multiple characters:

a) With down-to-earth, level-headed, kind, friendly Madeline for having to deal with her rebellious teen daughterAbigail & for sacrificing career goals to raise her family.

b) With Jane, a stranger in town & part-time bookkeeper suffering from low self-esteem or past trauma while trying to do her best for her son, Ziggy.

c) With little Amabella, who was choked by a classmate on the first day of school.

d) With Ziggy, who may have been wrongly accused of choking her.

e) With Renata who overreacts to protect her daughter Amabella from the kid who hurt her, and who believes her friends resent her for her successful career.

g) With Celeste for having her bodily boundaries broached aggressively twice in this first episode (once playfully & once violently) by her husband Perry. (The guy gives me the creeps!)

h) With Bonnie Carlson, a seemingly nice person who is disliked by Madeline because she married Nathan Carlson, Madeline’s ex and had a daughter, Skye Carlson with him, and because she signed a petition blasting as inappropriate the play Madeline is producing

So far, several of the female characters seem to be in various stages of distress for various reasons, but the men, not so much. Hmmmmm, interesting.

4) Layers/Open Loops: Who is the murder victim at the costume ball? Who is the murderer? Why did the killer/s killthe victim? Is Ziggy lying when he denied choking Renata’s little girl Ammabella? If Ziggy’s telling the truth, then who did the choking? Who is Ziggy’s father? A big red flag for me was Perry Wright’s violent reaction to his wife Celeste when he forbidsher to allow their 2 boys to befriend Ziggy and she calls him on it. Is he a domestic abuser? Is Ziggy’s Mom, Jane Chapman, as nice and as fragile as she seems? What is in her background that would make her need to hide a gun under her pillow? What and whom is she afraid of?

5) Inviting Obsession: In this first episode, lots of unanswered questions in my head about the characters kept me hooked and desperate to learn more about the dynamics and conflicts within the families, their interpersonal relationships with their children and their friends! Lots seems to be going on under the surface. For example, are the snarky comments against Madeline by people interviewed about the murder a red herring, or do the filmakers do this deliberately to make the viewers think that Madeline is capable of murder? What’s the conflict between Jane and her mother all about? It was hard to hear what they were arguing about. Does Perry have an anger problem that makes him lash out habitually at Celeste to control her?

• This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by  Evelyn Petros. Reason: To correct typos and after thinking on this episode further

[Evelyn Petros]

I forgot to tell you that I am a retired international opera singer.