To Live and Write in LA

Alameda Writers Group: Kickstarting Your Film

(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) “What the suits want isn’t always the same as what the fans want,” explained screenwriter and author Marc Zicree at the October meeting of the Los Angeles based Alameda Writers Group (AWG). Zicree and his wife Elaine spoke to over 100 writers at AWG’s monthly meeting about non-traditional ways of getting […]

Alameda Writers Group: Everything About Screenwriting

(First published on blogcritics.org) If you left the May meeting of the Alameda Writers Group (AWG) with unanswered questions about screenwriting, it was your own fault. The featured speaker at the AWG General Membership meeting was writer, director, producer, author and UCLA instructor Tom Lazarus. AWG President Marc Cushman (Star Trek, Diagnosis: Murder) introduced Lazarus whose credits include writer/story consultant for many […]

The Making of ‘Effigy’

(First published on blogcritics.org) Opening e-mail is usually pretty uneventful, but that day in August was different. I saw an ad for the “The 2nd Annual Debra Hill Fellowship presents Producers Guild Weekend Shorts Contest”. Heck of a long name for a shorts contest. I’d heard of competitions like this before and they intrigued me. The goal […]

How to Succeed in Hollywood by Really Trying

(First published on blogcritics.org) How would you like to rub shoulders with producers and directors, find out insider secrets from produced screenwriters, recruit actors and production talent, and learn how to jump start your Hollywood career? You could havedone all of this and more at the September meeting of the Alameda Writers Group in Glendale, California. The […]

Alameda Writers Group: Power to the Writer

(Originally published on blogcritics.org) Writers, long domesticated by publishers, producers, and other men in suits, are now empowered to break through the barriers and take charge of their careers as never before. That was the message writers Jim Sorenson (Transformers Animated: The Allspark Almanac, Vol. 2 ) and Courtney Joyner (Stealing Candy) shared at the Alameda Writers Group (AWG) July general membership […]

Movie Review: ‘The Interrogation’

The Interrogation, written by award-winning playwright and screenwriter Lilly Thomassian,debuted January 9 at the monthly meeting of the Alameda Writers Group. The short subject film deals with the interrogation of an Iraqi woman by an American soldier, but the reason for the interrogation is left vague. The focus of this study is not about politics or military […]

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