Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara

Thursday, February 9: Shelly Lowenkopf

2012-01-25T10:36:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Nationally Renown Book Editor

Shelly Lowenkopf

"How to Unfriend Your Characters"

Thursday, February 9, 7 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

Shelly Lowenkopf has held major editorial positions with general trade, mass market paperback, literary, and scholarly book publishers in addition to executive editorial participation in special interest, literary, and genre fiction magazines. Those companies include: Sherbourne Press (Editor-in-Chief); Dell Publishing (Director, Los Angeles office); Clio Books (Editor-in-Chief); Ross-Erickson (Editor-in-Chief); and, Capra Press (Advisory and Acquisitions Editor). He has seen over seven hundred book projects and hundreds of short story and essay projects through the publishing process.

Currently a freelance consultant and teacher, his clients include novelists, retired and active academics, and the humorist creator of one of the most popular television series of all time.Lowenkopf taught courses in short story, novel, dramatic writing, editing, genre fiction, and revision at the graduate level in one of the most prestigious writing programs in America at University of Southern California, where he was given a Lifetime Teaching Award.

He is a past regional president of the Mystery Writers of America; his book reviews have appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The National Catholic Reporter, The Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Publishers’ Weekly, the Santa Barbara News-Press, and the Santa Barbara Independent. He has been the weekly reviewer for the Montecito Journal since 2005.

Lowenkopf has had over 35 books published, along with short fiction, pulp novels, essays and reviews. His most recent book, The Fiction Writer’s Companion, is a guide to terms, concepts, and forms related to storytelling.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, January 12, 2012

2012-01-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara met again at Brooks Institute on Cota Street. A stunning exhibit of student work, mostly documentary photography lined the walls as the group made their way to hear Candace Schermerhorn speak about making documentary films.

Lisa Angle opened asking for any announcements. Chuck Kent mentioned an upcoming film called The Secret Ingredient directed SASB Past President Rashi Bahri Chitnis. It will be shown February 2 at the Metro 3. as part of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Maria announced the upcoming play The Jaguar’s Nest by Synergy Entertainment Group.

Members were asked to donate $25 so visiting speakers can be taken to dinner before the lecture and to help with expenses. It’s so little, let’s all chip in because the speakers are world class. Such was the experience of listening to Candace Schermerhorn. As a producer, director, and writer her expertise and passion lie primarily in first person narrative and documentaries addressing contemporary issues. Her credits include work for Children’s Television Workshop, the National Park Service, Massachusetts Council for the Humanities, Harcourt Brace Publishers, American Masters, and Turner Broadcasting. She directed, with Bestor Cram, the independent award-winning documentary You Don’t Know Dick, an intimate film about female-to-male transsexuals. For many years she has taught documentary film making at Santa Barbara City College and was the Director of Programming for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

It was amazing to watch clips of the films after listening to the lecture. Candace told the group that documentaries start with footage and more footage. “That’s what the film will become,” she said. “You won’t know what you have till you go back over it.” And even then it might not be what you expect. She explained the process of writing the story from the transcripts. Every single line, every single expression, every sound are painstakingly recorded, and in this way, the story is culled from the masses of footage a documentarian shoots.

She showed the group an immense idea board made of tiny different colored Post-it notes that was the organizing principle behind her film of women in Nigeria called The Naked Option.

“Documentary film making is about what truth is going to evolve,” she told the audience. “Observe as much as possible.” On truth, she cautioned the audience “Whose truth are you telling? All documentaries are exploiting on some level, and what is truth shifts and varies.” Always be prepared to defend your choices. “You are challenging truth and it is challenging you at the same time.”

The bigger story in a documentary is made up of all the little stories, she said. Sometimes it just takes one little line from the transcripts to tie everything together. The lines and the shots of expressions act as bridges to tie the greater whole of the story together. “Train yourself to be moved by stories, to look for them and be moved by them.” What the audience wants is for you as a writer to tell them things, so they can follow you as the writer. “Stick to what you know, if you love something stick to that,” she said. There are basically three questions to ask: What is my story, why do I want to do it and what am I trying to achieve?

Most impressive was watching the film You don’t know Dick. The music, the cutting and the lighting really add to this documentary in ways that show just how masterfully a story can be told in small stories that add up. You can see how this comes together at this link: http://www.myspace.com/video/northern-light-productions/you-dont-know-dick/27328935

It’s just seamless the way this flows as a documentary. The audience was rapt watching too. “Set things up so you can tell the story,” she said. Watch the above and you will see a master storyteller at work. This is how to make the footage flow seamlessly with the music, tapping all the little stories within stories that add up to the bigger picture.

Thursday, January 12: Documentary Filmmaker Candace Schermerhorn

2011-12-31T13:31:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Documentary Filmmaker

Candace Schermerhorn

Thursday, January 12, 7 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

Candace Schermerhorn got her start at Northern Light Productions in Boston, MA where she became a staff producer. As a producer, director, and writer her expertise and passion lie primarily in first person narrative and documentaries addressing contemporary issues. Her credits include work for Children’s Television Workshop, the National Park Service, Massachusetts Council for the Humanities, Harcourt Brace Publishers, American Masters, and Turner Broadcasting. She directed, with Bestor Cram, the independent award-winning documentary You Don’t Know Dick, an intimate film about female-to-male transsexuals. For many years she has taught documentary filmmaking at Santa Barbara City College and was the Director of Programming for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. She wrote, produced and directed The Naked Option: A last resort, celebrating the grassroots mobilization of women in the Niger Delta and their struggle against the multinational oil corporations. She is currently in preproduction of her third independent feature documentary, The Last Utopia, about the ancient seafaring Lapita Navigators and their migration due to sea level rise.

Holiday Mixer at Casa Blanca

2011-12-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

Please join other writers and filmmakers in celebrating this magical season!

Holiday Mixer
Wednesday, December 14
5-7 pm
Casa Blanca Restaurant and Cantina
330 State Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
805.845.8966

Who: Screenwriters Association of SB, The Table SB, Indiecoop: Co-operative of Independent SB Producers, SB Filmmakers

What: networking, drinking, eating, laughing, meeting new people who can help you with your projects

When: Holiday party primetime – December 14

Where: a beautiful new restaurant in the heart of Santa Barbara’s old town

Why: This is where other local entertainment production professions will be. Happy Hour prices 3-8 pm. You’ll be downtown shopping anyway. Check out the new restaurant in town. It’s gonna be fun!

Meeting minutes for Thursday, Novmeber 10, 2011

2011-11-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

By Adrienne D. Wilson

November opened with another packed classroom for the Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara at Brooks Institute. The Zicrees are a power couple, known as “Supermentors” in the industry.

Marc and Elaine Zicree have over 100 credits to their name, including series such as Star Trek-The Next Generation, Sliders, Deep Space Nine, Lazarus Man, Beyond Reality and Babylon 5, plus multiple pilots for NBC, ABC and Showtime. They have written for virtually every major studio and network, and their work has been nominated for the Humanitas Prize, Diane Thomas Award, and American Book Award.

Lisa Angle, President opened the meeting by reminding the group that donations to host the speakers coming up from Los Angeles can be made to Chuck Kent.

Also mentioned was a series of shorts out at UCSB coming up on November 30th. Don Hurtzfeldt of Bitterfilms.com, a UCSB graduate whose cult short films have gone on to win big awards will be at the Pollock Theater giving a showing of three plus an onstage interview afterward. See link above for more, and check the Youtube versions at this link to get a taste of an animator at work.

The Zicrees are responsible for “The Table” that has spread all over the world and can be found here in Santa Barbara at Max’s restaurant on Wednesday nights where screenwriters and filmmakers gather.

She, gamine and he tall and funny–the Zicrees filled the room with warmth and possibility.

“Be unstoppable!” The group heard that again, if you want to make a film.

“It’s about selling attachments,” they nodded. This means thinking about branding and linking, and that can terrify a screenwriter. There are two reasons for writing a screenplay the Zicrees confirmed. Two goals. One is “My goal is to reach an audience” or “My goal is to write it and sell it for money.” This made the audience laugh. Most screenwriters probably want both.

“Screenwriting isn’t a solo game, it’s a matter of gathering teams.”

Everybody in the audience was given an opportunity to talk about what they were working on as the Zicrees went around the room. Individualized feedback was key.

Teambuilding starts with The Hollywood Creative Directory which got passed around. Go through that book and make a list of 50-100 people that matter in Los Angeles. “Start figuring out how you can meet them.”

“Have a filmmaker you idolize?” You can begin by letting them know. Try and hang out where they do. “Don’t be scared.” You can start going to events and be personable. “See yourself as a peer!”

The Zicrees give classes in Hollywood, where budding screenwriters ready to make the leap into that creative directory set will learn how to chart goals with specific steps, how to really target A-List people, how to pitch yourself and your project and get agents, managers and production partners who really work for you.

Supermentoring!

Find out more at www.zicree.com and click here to learn about their classes.

Thursday, November 10: Marc & Elaine Zicree

2011-10-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Writers & Producers

Marc & Elaine Zicree

Thursday, November 10, 7 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

Writing both individually and as a team, Marc and Elaine Zicree have over 100 credits to their name, including series such as Star Trek - The Next Generation, Sliders, Deep Space Nine, Lazarus Man, Beyond Reality and Babylon 5, plus multiple pilots for NBC, ABC and Showtime. They have written for virtually every major studio and network, and their work has been nominated for the Humanitas Prize, Diane Thomas Award, and American Book Award.

Marc and Elaine served as Executive Producers on Real Story, a pilot presentation they wrote and produced in association with OZ's Tom Fontana, starring Buffy's Armin Shimerman. They also co-wrote Two Sisters, a MOW for Warners, to which director Tony Bill was attached, and Magic Time, a two-hour pilot for Henson, which was spun off into a best-selling series of books published by HarperCollins from 2001-2005.

Author of The Twilight Zone Companion, Marc Zicree has written 15 screenplays and over 100 teleplays. He has been a guest on over 100 radio and TV shows, including The Today Show, All Things Considered and Entertainment Tonight. He currently writes best-selling novels, writes and produces TV series, network pilots and feature films, and has also been a commentator on NPR's Morning Edition.

Elaine Zicree has served as a writer, actress, director and producer Off-Broadway and in LA. She is currently working on Caesar, an independent feature she has written and will be producing. She and Marc have also recently written multiple episodes of PBS's Liberty's Kids, a dramatic series about the American Revolution starring Walter Cronkite, Michael Douglas, Billy Crystal, Dustin Hoffman and Arnold Schwarzenegger, which garnered them the Humanitas Prize nomination.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, October 13, 2011

2011-10-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

By Adrienne D. Wilson

Jamie Fleming, Director of the Ojai Film Festival opened the lecture by encouraging the packed audience to attend the upcoming movies and the festival in Ojai. There will be 77 films shown this year. He smiled, saying that Ojai was another universe but just a stone’s throw from Santa Barbara and well worth the trip especially for the festival. A listing of films can be seen at on their website. The festival runs October 20th through the 23rd. Fleming mentioned that the film Jolene would have a special screening at the Matilija Auditorium with a question and answer session afterward with Greg Laemmle and the filmmakers. Watch the trailer for Jolene to get an idea of the caliber of the Ojai Film Festival. “We’ve got oranges, great restaurants and the pink glow of the mountains just a few minutes away,” Fleming laughed. Arrange for tickets, and it sounds as if a wonderful weekend can be yours.
______________

A screenwriter’s hands. That’s something to watch, because those hands produce magic on the page. Walter Halsey Davis has a magnificent pair of hands and they were in constant motion, sculpting the air itself as he talked to the audience about writing. “People think we write dialogue, but it’s like building a house,” he said. “You have to create a world before you can have anybody talk.” You can build that world from the very first shot, he added. “A world, a time, a certain set of expectations...”

Every scene has to be a mini-screenplay. “Start at the top of a scene and get out as fast as you can.” Davis said he learned this credo from Waldo Salt, screenwriter for the film Midnight Cowboy. You can take a look at the screenplay to see how fast it moves. “Start at the top of a scene and get out as fast as you can.”

“All you have to do is be brilliant.”

Like say, the film Network. Davis used this film classic as an example of “emotional events” in movies. He strode over to the board and wrote this line: “I have nothing to say.” You can watch the scene Davis referenced on YouTube to see how dialogue shapes everything about drama and character.“When you do your plotting you have to make each scene a surprise, but it has to seem completely inevitable.” On cutting, Davis told the audience that every frame either adds or subtracts -- no frame is neutral. “Every word adds or subtracts from the screenplay itself.”

“Each scene has to change the condition of the story, and that action is not always physical, it can be psychological.”

“Anything that makes a bad dream makes a good movie,” he said.

What you want are noble characters with flaws. This makes characters unforgettable to the audience. “Put the main character into a scene where the character has to do something that is the hardest thing in the world for that character.”

“Comedy and drama work by the same rules,” Davis cautioned mentioning Socrates -- “the unchallenged life is meaningless.”

Your writing is like a metronome going in a symphony in terms of the volume, colors of the instruments -- your screenplay can’t be loud the whole time or stay intense the whole time. “Study acting and get in plays,” he said. To learn about dramatic pacing and how actors work the material.

Davis has long been on the faculty at the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference and it was an honor to listen and watch the hands of such an accomplished writer and playwright as they flew through the air, sculpting the lecture. He has won the following awards for his work: An Emmy, a Writers Guild of America Award and two Nominations, an Edgar Allan Poe Award, two Christopher Awards, the Lucille Ball Comedy Writing Award, the Goldwyn Writing Award, the Texas Bicentennial Playwriting Award, the Red Cross Prize at the Monaco International Television Festival, The Peabody Award, The Humanitas Prize, a Golden Globe nomination, and the American College Theater Festival Playwriting Award (Region V).

To see some of his work you can check Netflix, and a list of his films are on IMDB.

Thursday, October 13: Walter Halsey Davis

2011-09-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Screenwriter & Playwright

Walter Halsey Davis

Thursday, October 13, 7 pm

*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

After serving four years in the Navy, Walter Halsey Davis went to France with the notion of writing a novel. Just when he was about to run out of money, he was mysteriously cast in a small part in a movie filming in Paris. This early exposure to the movies didn't take, however, and he took off for Austria where he worked in a ski factory until sawdust and solitude drove his north into Germany where he worked as a television repairman while he attended the University of Mainz.

Davis returned to his native California. He attended UCSB where he took a Bachelor and Masters Degree in English literature, and went on to UCLA where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater Arts.

Davis' first play, The Tapioca Misanthropa (a verse drama cum cosmic vaudeville), was produced for ABC television in Santa Barbara and later broadcast in Los Angeles on the PBS station KCET. "Tapioca" won the Lucille Ball Comedy Writing Award and was published by Painted Cave Books in Santa Barbara.

Davis' second play, Panhandle, a chronicle of a Texas family's struggle through the Great Depression, was first produced at UCSB, then the Oxford Playhouse in Los Angeles, the Scott Theater in Fort Worth, North Texas State University, Texas Tech University, and in New York at the Walden Theater. Panhandle won the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award, the Texas Bicentennial Playwriting Award, and the American College Theater Festival Playwriting Award (Region V). On the basis of Panhandle, Davis was selected to be a playwright in residence for one year at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

Davis' third play, Tilden (written in collaboration with Pierre Delattre and Lew Catching), is based on the life of the tennis champion Big Bill Tilden. It has been produced in Minneapolis.

Davis sold his first screenplay, a science fiction piece called The Locus while he was still a graduate student at UCLA. Since then he has worked constantly as a screenwriter and has written feature films, television mini-series, and movies for television. In an effort to maintain a greater degree of control over his material, he has managed to become a producer on his more recent projects and is looking forward to directing.

He has won an Emmy, a Writers Guild of America Award and two Nominations, an Edgar Allan Poe Award, two Christopher Awards, the Lucille Ball Comedy Writing Award, the Goldwyn Writing Award, the Texas Bicentennial Playwriting Award, the Red Cross Prize at the Monaco International Television Festival, The Peabody Award, The Humanitas Prize, a Golden Globe nomination, and the American College Theater Festival Playwriting Award (Region V).

Meeting minutes for Thursday, September 8, 2011

2011-09-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

By Adrienne D. Wilson

Lisa Angle, new President of the Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara, opened the lecture at Brooks Institute by taking a few questions about the Association which began 35 years ago as an offshoot of a class at Santa Barbara City College. The group once had a “script library” but with the nature of screenplays being available online that had fallen by the wayside. There was interest in making the library available again.

Lisa mentioned resources available for writers in Santa Barbara, such as “The Table” at Max’s Restaurant every Wednesday at 6:30 pm where screenwriters gather and talk film. Indiecoop is a directory for local independent producers and those working on independent film in this area.

Our speaker was Director, Writer, Producer John B. Macurdy, who has written over a dozen original feature film screenplays and is a 2008 Telly Award winner. Films he has worked on include The Pharaoh Project, A Murder of Crows, and the award-winning Nate and the Colonel.

Cool, calm and collected in a pea green shirt, the best thing Macurdy gave the group was the idea that if thirty people wanted to make a film and all had their hearts in it, and all donated $1,000 each, it could be done! “You know why?” he asked. “They are going to want their names on the credits.”

In big Hollywood’s current focus on comic book heroes, franchises, remakes and so forth, “go independent,” he told the group. “We as writers need to stop putting obstacles in our way. I always wrote my screenplays because I wanted to see them.”

“Moviemaking is creative problem solving.”

Macurdy made the group laugh when he told us about Stonehenge. “Do you really need to go to England or can you use stock footage and then just have your actors posed against a rock as a backdrop?”

Need people in costume?

“Get Historic Reenactors.”

“They already have the costumes and they love what they do,” he said, chuckling.

Most important is a cinematographer you can rely on, because an experienced cameraman will let you know what shots you are missing. Macurdy gave the group his definition of a script: “A screenplay is a condensation of significant events arranged or organized for maximum dramatic effect.”

On directors, Macurdy spoke of the importance of a script analysis because that will give the sense of each character’s “dramatic spine.” Details in a script give the actor and director something to chew on, “but the actor might not do that” the way the writer wrote it. He told the group that screenwriting draws the picture, but it is in the collaboration that the magic occurs.

“One of the hallmarks of low budget films is white walls,” he laughed. “Get colors!”

“Get the best sound you can.”

Independent film is all about stories with a heart. “Take an acting class to understand how to be a director,” he said. This is to help learn about locations, set design, costumes and what the camera is going to do. Watch the film, My Dinner with André and you will understand what can be done with just two characters.

He left the audience with this thought: “If you have a story you want to tell, you can do it. You can make your movie.”

Making a film just might be sailing off to sea in a beautiful pea green boat if everyone’s collective heart is in it. Take a look at The Pharoah Project and see how you can be inspired!

Thursday, September 8: "From Screenplay to Production"

2011-08-22T23:21:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

"From Screenplay to Production"

with

John B. Macurdy, PhD

2008 Telly Award Winner

Thursday, September 8, 7 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

Director, Writer, Producer John B. Macurdy, PhD has written over a dozen original feature film screenplays and is a 2008 Telly Award winner. Films he has worked on include The Pharaoh Project, A Murder of Crows, and the award-winning Nate and the Colonel. He has also produced and written series pilots for Target, Chance of a Lifetime, and Against the Wall. His workshops on “Feature Film Directing” and “Micro-Budget Feature Film Production” were offered in Santa Barbara this last summer, and he plans to offer more workshops soon.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, August 11, 2011

2011-08-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

By Adrienne D. Wilson

The Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara convened at Brooks Institute, which generously donated a classroom to the group. It was fitting to be at the premier center for photography and film making in California, in a real classroom with abstract felt grayscales dangling from the ceiling and a gorgeous student show lining the halls.

Changes were in order as outgoing President Rashi Bahri conducted elections. Lisa Angle of Ninety Degrees Media was voted in as the new President, Ernie Witham of Ernie’s World accepted the Vice President position, and Faith Ellington agreed to be Publicity Director. The Treasurer, Secretary, and Membership Director positions will be determined later.

This month’s speaker was The Story Coach, and what a coach he was. Patrick A. Horton has been called “one of the most empowering and innovative guides for story and storytelling” and he lit up the room with nonstop illumination about what drives the heart of good writing. His background is a blend of scholarly cultural anthropology and the lecture began with how fast change is happening in our society and the industry. “In a world that increasingly has no maps you are going to have to get better at finding your own compass.”

“Be unstoppable,” he said, grinning.

Horton has a new model for finding the heart of the story and the levels of depth story can reach to effect change. “Being a storyteller gives permission for others to find their voice.” Writing involves the A and B story - A being the surface plot line with all its action, tangles and twists and B being the depth of it all where the emotion lives. “The story is never what it is really about,” he said. The meaning depends on which characters the audience resonates to most.

The audience wants to know “this feels real,” Horton told the group. “Great storytelling always means raising the right questions.” That’s the B story. What questions do you want to raise in your writing? “In order to re-frame the world you have to convince the audience it is okay to be open to the scary stuff because there will be something on the other side.” This means that the writer should not fear to tread into the deepest parts of self in order to mine the material. The writer has to let go of something in order for the audience to learn something new. “Tell the stories that matter to you,” he advised the writers. “Authenticity is everything.”

In funny asides Horton spoke about actors needing real material from the writer in order to inhabit the character. “Writers want to write great deep emotional stuff without being connected emotionally to it,” but that won’t work, he cautioned the group. “Whatever you have gone through in life, it’s material.”

That’s the gift of his “practical magic” and the way screenwriters can find deeper levels of voice and meaning on the page. “Glean what moves and matters to you and that will be your best story.”

Thursday was a prelude to the free workshop Horton offered Saturday at Brooks. For more information you can visit www.thestorycoach.com and see his book on screenwriting, Mastering the Power of Story.

Thursday, August 11: Patrick A. Horton, PhD / The Story Coach

2011-08-02T10:15:00.001-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

"Life As Screen Play"

with

Patrick A. Horton, PhD / The Story Coach

Divining the Life in Story - Defining the Story in Life

Thursday, August 11, 7 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street, Room C-3
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

Patrick A. Horton is one of the most intuitively empowering and radically innovative guides for the development and promotion of story and storytelling of all kinds - not only for writers but for all those myriad collaborative players who must contribute along the way to bring any project from concept to fruition.

In addition to being a paid and optioned writer, screenwriter, and script doctor himself, Dr. Horton is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild, founding principal of Wind & Thunder Productions, and an ongoing presenter, panelist, and mentor for a wide variety of media industry organizations, guilds, and professional groups. His workshops and forthcoming book are the first to speak effectively across professional media specialties to address both the private and collective aspects of the development process from conception to completion, and effectively merge the creative and commercial aspects of story development and promotion for a more artistically, commercially, and socially viable media. First and foremost, however, he remains an applied cultural anthropologist and change agent dedicated to promoting life affirming visions, and practical strategies for effective personal, social, and global change.

Thursday, July 14: Film Critic Leo Braudy

2011-06-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Film Critic & Author

Leo Braudy

Thursday, July 14, 7 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street, Room C-3
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

Leo Braudy is among America’s leading cultural historians and film critics. Currently University Professor and Leo S. Bing Chair in English and American Literature at the University of Southern California, he teaches Restoration literature and history, American culture after World War Two, popular culture and critical theory, including the histories of visual style and film genres. His work appears in journals such as American Film, Film Quarterly, Genre, Novel, Partisan Review, and Prose Studies—to name a few.

His book Jean Renoir: The World of His Films was a finalist for the National Book Award. The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Harper’s. His book From Chivalry to Terrorism, was named Best of the Best by the Los Angeles Times and a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times.

His most recent book is The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon (New Haven: Yale university Press, 2011).

Meeting minutes for Thursday, June 9, 2011

2011-06-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

Steve Beisner offered several suggestions for "The Right Tech for Writing" at our June 9th meeting at our new venue, Brooks Institute on Cota Street. His first piece of wisdom was that sometimes the right tech was low tech, like a pad and pencil. Occasionally, the best way to research for your writing is to keep your eyes and ears peeled, and use a cardboard box full of files.

When talking about social media and email, he warned, “Don’t get obsessed or abuse it.” If we turn off the “You’ve got mail” signal, we’ll be less distracted while writing. When we do use email, he encouraged us to use it effectively, for example be sure to have a signature at the bottom with your contact information.

For sparking the inspiration to write, Steve shared a trick he learned from a lady he once knew, who would write a letter everyday to somebody she admired, whether or not she sent the letters is beside the point – she wrote everyday.

Moving on to the more “high tech” tools, Steve recommended a whole list of software for research, record keeping, and drafting and rewriting. An example of these resources was OmniOutliner (available for Mac and iPad), a program for brainstorming new ideas and organizing information. He also told us about some alternatives to the writing software many of us use, for instance OpenOffice is a free, open source, alternative to MS Word. Also on the list was the free program he developed himself, InkByte Tracker to help writers manage submissions to journals, publishers, agents, or any market. For the full list of programs Steve talked about, feel free to email him at beisner@alum.mit.edu. He welcomes writing-related tech questions from writers – it’s his way of “paying it forward” for all the help he’s gotten from other writers.

Then Steve gave the floor to his lovely wife Melinda Palacio, who opened by telling us, “If you remember one thing from tonight, I hope it’s that Ocotillo Dreams would make a great movie.” This pitch to screenwriters who might want to adapt her new novel into a screenplay was a tongue-in-cheek lead in to her point about how important community is to writers. Her connection to Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, who was in the audience that night, got Melinda her first reading as a poet. Ways she connects with other writers include blogging for La Bloga and attending the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, where she and Steve met. She uses Facebook and Twitter to meet people she wouldn’t normal meet otherwise, and this is helpful for marketing. With Ocotillo Dreams going to press soon, marketing is big on her mind, since publishers rely on authors to do the bulk of it. To illustrate her promotional efforts she brought along the book cover poster and postcards, which she also mails out to old friend. Her other plans include a virtual book tour as well as real time signings at independent bookstores.

The problem is all this promoting takes Melinda away from her writing, and distractions are not good for a writer. She says she doesn’t compose on the computer because that’s too distracting. Sometimes she uses Scrivener, one of the high tech tools on Steve’s list, to concentrate on composing and structuring, but mostly she begins her writing with the low tech pad and pencil.

Thursday, June 9: The Right Tech for Writing

2011-06-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

"The Right Tech for Writing"

with

Melinda Palacio & Steve Beisner

Publishers of Ink Byte

Thursday, June 9, 7 pm

Brooks Institute
27 East Cota Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 617-4503
FREE and open to everyone!

South Louisiana native, Steve Beisner, is a writer, musician, and computer scientist. He has published short stories and poems, and was recognized for his short fiction by the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. His short story "Matchbox" won the Country Roads Magazine fiction contest in 2008. He is currently writing a novel. Steve is an editor at Ink Byte Press, co-editing Ink Byte, a magazine for writers. Steve's long involvement as a developer and teacher of technology has led to a quest to make technology more accessible to writers more interested in magnifying their creativity than playing with gadgets. His free, professionally developed software for writers include InkByte Tracker to help you organize and manage your submissions to journals, publishers, agents, or any market.

Melinda Palacio grew up in South-Central Los Angeles. She holds two degrees in Comparative Literature—a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a Master’s from UC Santa Cruz. She co-edits Ink Byte Magazine and writes a column for La Bloga. She is a 2007 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2009 poetry alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Askew Poetry Journal, BorderSenses, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Buffalo Carp, Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature, Maple Leaf Rag III and IV: An Anthology of Poems, the Naugatuck River Review, New Poets of the American West: An Anthology of Eleven Western States, Oranges and Sardines Poets and Artists, PALABRA: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art, Pilgrimage Magazine, Quercus Review, Strange Cargo: an Emerging Voices Anthology 1997-2010, San Diego Poetry Annual 2010-11, the San Pedro River Review, Squaw Valley Review, and forthcoming in Bop, Strut,Dance: A Post-Blues Form for New Generations and Southern Poetry Anthology IV: Louisiana (Texas Review Press 2011). Her poetry chapbook, Folsom Lockdown, is the Sense of Place winner, Kulupi Press, 2009. Arizona State University Bilingual Press will publish her first novel, Ocotillo Dreams, July 2011.

Melinda and Steve live in Santa Barbara and New Orleans.

Thursday, May 12: The Script-a-Thon Creator Anne Norda

2011-05-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Filmmaker & Creator of The Script-a-Thon

Anne Norda

Thursday, May 12, 7 pm

Karpeles Manscript Library
21 West Anapamu Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805)962-5322
FREE and open to everyone!

Anne Norda is a filmmaker and photographer. Her debut feature film, Red is the Color of with Irina Bjorklund (The American) which she wrote, directed and produced won “Best Feature Film” at both the La Femme Film Festival and the Oxford International Festival, garnered international distribution and is available on Netflix. She studied photography and filmmaking at the Parsons School of Design in Paris and New York and was a Fulbright scholar. Hard to Love, a comedy short she wrote and directed, is on the festival route.

Anne is preparing to direct her second feature film, the comedy/horror Stop, I’m Not Dead Yet! The concept trailer for the project recently won The Bleedfest’s Inana Award. She is a freelance writer for MovieMaker Magazine, has a blog on their online edition, and teaches an ongoing creative writing workshop called “The Write Brain Workshop.” Anne is the creator and co-director of The Script-a-thon, a national screenwriting competition. She is a published poet and a produced playwright, collaborating on her first musical theater piece, Trouble, with Broadway actors, Stephan Stubbins (Mary Poppins) and Arielle Jacobs (In the Heights). Anne holds both a Finnish (E.U.) and US citizenship.

Elections! We will hold elections for our Board of Directors at our August meeting. If you would like to nominate yourself or somebody else for this opportunity to contribute to the Santa Barbara writing community, please email screenwriterssb@gmail.com and let us know.

Townhall meeting in lieu of April Speaker

2011-04-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

Townhall Meeting
Thursday, April 21, 7-9 pm
Karpeles Manuscript Library
21 West Anapamu Street
in downtown Santa Barbara

As many of you know, the Goleta Borders will close by the end of May. The Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara is sorry to say a liquidation company took over the bookstore a couple weeks ago and as a result our April speaker was canceled. We are looking into alternative locations for our meetings beginning in May, and plan to continue to host speakers who inspire us in our creative endeavors. We assure you SASB will survive this transition.

In lieu of a speaker in April we will hold a townhall meeting on Thursday,April 21, 7 pm at Karpeles Manuscript Library, 21 West Anapamu Street in downtown Santa Barbara. We want everyone's input. So please come and bring your voice, your ideas and your opinions. Help keep SASB going! We're here for you!

Stay tuned! You will receive an email about our May 12th program in late April.

Please accept our apologies for the interruption in our schedule. We look forward to seeing you all at our townhall meeting.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, March 10, 2011

2011-03-12T23:57:00.000-08:00

The Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara convened in a cozy corner of Borders in Goleta for an evening with screenwriter, director, actor and keynote speaker Perry Lang.

Prior to Mr. Lang’s introduction, association president Rashi Bahri opened the floor to the audience for input on the Association itself in regards to what those present were looking for in future meetings. Email Rashi at rashi.bahri@gmail.com with your input and suggestions.

Also announced was next month’s speaker:

April 14 – Goleta Borders - Leo Brady, teacher and author of The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon.

For those planning to attend, please take note that Borders will be hosting a special event prior to 7pm, therefore there will be no admittance into the store until 7pm.

Perry Lang was introduced and immediately opened up the floor for questions.

As for his current projects, he has created a twenty-one episode web show entitled Blue Bell. The show can be viewed at: 3minutepictures.com. In the past, he has written and directed action, comedy, broad comedy, drama and teen shows.

He is teaching a class at UCSB this summer on making a pilot for a web series, where students learn to write, create and shoot a web pilot.

Perry described his process of writing as being flexible: sometimes he outlines or cards pieces out and sometimes he just starts writing. Once he reaches the stage where he’s writing in script form, he uses Final Draft. Starting out as an actor, it helped him become a ‘detective’, which only helped his writing. He wrote to keep himself engaged while acting; starting out with prose. His favorite genre to write is comedy, stating it’s just more fun.

Right now, it seems the advertising world still thinks television networks are worth investing in, but he thinks eyeballs are going toward the web these days. His idea is to take narrative drama and build sponsorship into that narrative. It’s product placement taken further, very much integrated.

Perry’s tips for your screenplay: Make it as succinct as possible. The people reading your script want to love it. They want to start reading and get through it to the story. How does an idea germinate? The whole narrative can fall off the boat or it can be like pulling teeth. You can always get started by making notes and writing stuff that may not work as a way of moving forward. One of the most valuable things he has learned in his writing are that character and structure are the same thing; they should live together. When you see your structure go awry, it’s usually the character going awry. As for how to work on writing weaknesses? Write, write, write and get a good mentor.

The meeting adjourned at 8:50pm.

Thursday, March 10: Perry Lang at Goleta Borders

2011-02-28T21:07:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Screenwriter, Director, Actor

Perry Lang

Thursday, March 10, 7 pm*
*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30pm
Goleta Borders
7000 Marketplace Drive
(805)968-1370
FREE and open to everyone!

Starting to work in film as an actor at 17, Perry Lang has acted in over thirty films and seventy hours of television. His film work includes Sam Fuller's The Big Red One, Steven Spielberg's 1941, and John Sayles's Sunshine State, as well as Eight Men Out where Perry played one of the indicated eight who threw the 1919 World Series.

His television work as an actor includes M*A*S*H, the title character in the Emmy winning television special Hewit's Just Different, A Rumor of War and numerous guest appearances, including many projects that he has himself either written or directed.

As a writer and director, Perry started professionally writing doing Tales From the Darkside in New York. Among a number of studio assignments, he wrote the first film he directed, Little Vegas then rewrote the second, the action adventure Men of War.

Since then Perry has directed over sixty hours of television including NYPD Blue, ER, Alias, Weeds and NCIS:Los Angeles.

Video meeting minutes for Thursday, February 10, 2011

2011-02-21T10:46:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara presented novelist and Santa Barbara Writers Conference owner Monte Schulz on Thursday, February 10 at Goleta Borders.

Monte Schulz, Novelist from dolphingal805 on Vimeo.

2011-01-25T22:52:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association

of Santa Barbara

Presents

Novelist and Santa Barbara Writers Conference Owner

Monte Schulz

Thursday, February 10, 7 pm*
*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30pm
Goleta Borders
7000 Marketplace Drive
(805)968-1370
FREE and open to everyone!

Monte Schulz received his M.A. in American Studies from UCSB and published his first novel, Down By The River, in 1990. He spent the next twelve years writing a three-part epic, which he wrote for his father, the late cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz. The series of novels set in the Jazz Age began with This Side Of Jordan and the second book, The Last Rose of Summer, is due out this March. Monte has been a workshop leader at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference since 2001 and bought the conference last year. The 2011 SBWC will take place June 18-23 at the Hotel Mar Monte.

Literary Gumbo: Monte Schulz from Literary Gumbo on Vimeo.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, January 13, 2011

2011-01-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara convened our first meeting of 2011 at our new venue at the Goleta Borders in the Costco shopping center. Queen of Espionage, and longtime SASB supporter, Gayle Lynds spoke to a captivated group of writers.

It took Gayle 20 years to write her latest novel, The Book of Spies, the beginning of her first series. She did a lot of research before and during the writing process, and enjoyed it. “Research,” she said, “is better than sharpening pencils to avoid writing.” If she hadn’t written about a subject that fascinates her, the book would never have been finished.Gayle knows a fraction of the ending before she starts to write. She doesn’t worry about ending chapters with a cliffhanger, rather she relies on the rhythm of the story to tell her where to break. At the end of a workday she writes one sentence at the top of a new page telling what will happen in the next scene or chapter so she has something to start with the next day.

As a writer she makes a contract with the reader to give them something of value. She warns new writers against creating cardboard characters, and told us to make sure they come across as real people. The hero must be capable of action, plus have one flaw to make him appear human. The villain has to be a worthy opponent who believes in what he wants, not somebody we can ridicule, and he should have a redeeming quality to add to his realism.

Consistency is also important. If there’s violence throughout the story, she gives the reader violence in the end.

Gayle offered excellent advice to beginning writers. “The way you learn to write is to just sit down and do it and make a lot of mistakes,” she said. For example she told us starting a story off with ‘If she’d only known…’ is amateurish. But she told new writers to make their mistakes now because when they get famous, people will know who they are.

A true professional, Gayle is the award-winning author of nine spy novels and she ended the evening by signing her latest, The Book of Spies.

Thursday, January 13: Gayle Lynds at Goleta Borders

2010-12-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association

of Santa Barbara
Presents

New York Times bestselling Author

Gayle Lynds

Thursday, January 13, 7 pm*
*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30pm
Goleta Borders
7000 Marketplace Drive
(805)968-1370
FREE and open to everyone!

Gayle Lynds is the award-winning author of nine spy novels and has been called the Queen of Espionage. Her newest, The Book of Spies, is the beginning of her first series. Gayle began her writing career as a reporter for The Arizona Republic, where her investigative reporting made such an impact that it led to changes in state legislation. Later she was an editor with rare Top Secret security clearance at a government think tank. Soon she began writing short stories, which were published in literary journals, and at the same time in what some considered schizophrenic, she also wrote male pulp novels in the Nick Carter and Mack Bolan series.

Her first Gayle Lynds novel Masquerade, was a New York Times bestseller and a People magazine “Page-Turner of the Week.” Others of her novels have been prizewinners. The Last Spymaster won Best Writers Society of America. The Coil won Best Contemporary Novel from Affaire de Coeur. Mosaic was Thriller of the Year at Romantic Times. Mesmerized was a Daphne du Maurier Award finalist.

With Robert Ludlum, she created the Covert-One series and wrote three of the novels. One of them, The Hades Factor, was a CBS miniseries. Another, The Paris Option, was People magazine Beach Read of the Week.

Holiday Mixer

2010-12-15T10:37:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara joins Indiecoop: Cooperative of SB Independent Producers and the SB chapter of The Table in presenting a

Holiday Mixer

Tuesday, December 21, 5:30-7:30 pm
Dargan's
18 East Ortega Street
Downtown Santa Barbara
(805) 568-0702

Meeting minutes for Thursday, November 11, 2010

2010-11-14T12:26:00.000-08:00

The Association convened at the top floor of Borders on this evening to meet, welcome and listen to Gary Byrne and Lance Mason, authors of Seven Paths to Poverty, speak on the topic of Financial Literacy for Writers.

General announcements were made prior to the presentation as follows:

There will be no formal meeting of the Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara in the month of December.

Screenwriters Association will regroup for the January 13, 2011 meeting at Borders with guest speaker Gayle Lynds, a suspense novel writer. Her latest book is titled The Book of Spies.

Attendees were invited to offer suggestions for possible February speakers. Please contact Rashi Bahri, SASB President, with ideas.

Dues of $25 will be up in January of 2011. These dues keep the group running. Dues can be given to Chuck Kent, SASB Treasurer.

Information on two other local groups was shared:

Indie Coop – focusing on independent production. Meets the second Tuesday of every month at Silvergreens restaurant on Chapala Street.
The Table – run by one of our previous speaker, Joe Palladino, will be meeting next Wednesday, November 17 at 6:30 pm at UCSB. The group will be reading a screenplay by Michael Reeves and a discussion with the writer will follow.

Proceeding the announcements, the floor was turned over to the featured speakers of the evening.

First up was Gary Byrne Ph.D., co-author of Seven Paths to Poverty. At the age of twenty-five, while in the Foreign Service, he learned the valuable lesson of knowing WHO you’re writing for. President Lyndon Johnson was in need of a speech to welcome the German chancellor. The others submitting speeches seemed to be writing speeches on what THEY might have said. Gary wrote a speech that he felt reflected President’s Johnson’s perspective and this was the speech that was ultimately chosen.

The idea of ‘Capitalized Value’ intrigued Gary at a young age; the idea of taking the money that you’re spending on one thing in your life and saving it.

The authors explained that Seven Paths to Poverty is a book about saving money. The duo hopes to write a follow up book about how, then, to invest that money saved.

The book is made up of essentially nine segments and was written as a map to a journey, one that makes the reader think about if what they’re doing financially will affect their goals and one that gives the reader the power by taking responsibility of their own finances.

Lance Mason, D.D.S. spoke about the challenges and advantages of self-publishing (which is how this book was published) and admitted that “You never learn anything as well as when you teach it.” The teaching of the concept of the book really affected the outcome of the content of the book, in this case, he reported.

The overview of the book spelled out by the authors included:

Chapter One – Introduction: goals, goal setting, values and goals tied to personal values instead of artificial goals.
Chapter Two – Guidebook: concept, origins, traditions, power and retraining the power to direct the reader’s life the way they want to go, not what others want. “Self-knowledge is the most important knowledge to have.”

The book goes on to veer down seven various paths that are some of the ways people lose financial control of their lives (i.e. internet, credit cards). The authors feel there is now a disconnect between the merchant and the customer, as opposed to relationships of the past when the merchant would possibly have to take responsibility if the customer didn’t pay their bill, tab, etc.

The authors pointed out that there are plenty of get-rich-quick books in the market today. The very title of their book, they pointed out, was a point of contention several times along the way in getting the book made. But they stuck to their title because they feel there are a lot more people afraid of poverty than people who believe that they are going to get rich.

Copies of the book were for sale for $14.95 at the discussion’s conclusion. The attendees departed the meeting in pursuit of their own paths, most likely a little more financially-savvy than when they arrived, thanks to the information imparted by the speakers of this evening.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, October 14, 2010

2010-10-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

Joe Palladino, former Production T.A., intern at Orion Pictures, a PA for infomercials, a vault archivist for a post-production house and for the last seven years, adviser for the Film Studies Department at UCSB, addressed an enthusiastic crowd at Borders and told them about an interesting new thing going on in Santa Barbara called “The Table.”

Based on a much larger group of professionals in Los Angeles by the same name, the purpose of The Table is to bring together writers, producers, directors, actors and other industry people, who may have projects they need help with or want advice on; while others in the group may be between projects and want to get involved in something.

Joe told meeting participants of his own project he was working on – a documentary of local radio station KTYD – and how people from The Table were getting involved with and helping him with his project. He then said he would like to conduct a demo Table using the group gathered there that evening.

He said The Table starts with someone talking about their project and what they need in the way of help in taking it to the next phase. He then went around the room and asked people what they were working on.

SASB President, Rashi Bahri, said she has completed several short films, one of which was included in the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. A recent mom, Rashi said she has purchased a Canon 5D Mark II and for her newest project she wants to capture the world through the eyes of an infant. She wants to work with an editor as the project progresses.

Marjorie Shields has written a few short pieces but not sure what to do next. Joe suggested getting a short story out there on the social networks and seeing where it goes. He said publishers, editors, producers, etc. are constantly combing the Internet looking for new talent.

Lisa Angle, SASB Vice President, is rebuilding her website and working on a novel that is part of a trilogy. She has been a camera operator and produced many television segments for local access TV. She’s hoping she can connect with someone to coach her.

Mary-Ann Vanover, SASB Event Coordinator, is working on a memoir/travel/historic book based on her many trips to Italy. She’s having trouble organizing her journals. Joe suggested she start a blog to show people what she’s up to and gain valuable feedback.

Guy Goldstein is working on a screenplay about a Zombie detective. He has also created a computer program that compares your script to great scripts in hopes to answer the question “What’s so bad about my script.” Joe suggested he market his screenplay ideas directly to smaller production companies owned by actors that might be interested.

Mark Ravitz is a filmmaker and wants to work with others in the group on projects. He said each project is like a duel.

Ellen Sherwood, a caterer from Ojai, is shopping around a comedy adventure book and is working on a second book of interviews with fascinating people. She found a number of people in the group interesting.

One attendee wanted to know about self publishing a book, so the SASB Director at Large, Ernie Witham, who writes a humor column called Ernie’s World for the Montecito Journal, talked about his two books which were co-published. Similar to self-publishing, except that he worked with a real publisher who has a distributor so his books are available anywhere. He has a memoir set in 1969 that he wants to keep true to the time period and he is looking for help.

Others talked about film projects they had worked on in different capacities and projects they hoped to get involved with.

Joe concluded the meeting by congratulating the group on a highly successful “Table” and invited anyone in the group to attend the Santa Barbara Table held at Max’s Restaurant on Wednesday evenings.

People stayed well after the meeting networking with each other about their projects.

Thursday, October 14: Joe Palladino

2010-10-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Direct from the UCSB Film & Media Department

Joe Palladino

Thursday, October 14, 7 pm*
*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30pm
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
FREE and open to everyone!

Born in Burbank, not far from NBC, Joe Palladino has spent maybe too much of his life in front of a TV tube. Growing up in Santa Barbara, his early memory of film was watching super eight silent films at Rusty's Pizza Parlor on Milpas. This planted his great love for old films and Italian food. He graduated from UCSB as a Film Major. At one point or another he has worked as a Production T.A., an intern at Orion Picutres, a PA for infomercials, a vault archivist for a post-production house, a hospital cook, a manager of a comic book shop, and for the last seven years an advisor for the Film Studies Department at UCSB. In his spare time (when he finds it) he still watches too much TV.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, September 13, 2010

2010-09-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Kurt Brown joined the Screenwriter’s Association on September 9th to speak on the topic of “Getting the Most Out of Your Writing.”

Preceding the evening’s presentation, general announcements were made as follows:

If you haven’t already joined the association e-mail list, please do so at screenwriterssb@gmail.com
The Connection: Creative Writing Workshops for Young Writers will be held at the Central and Goleta libraries. Please contact Janice Rorick, Program Coordinator or Marcia Meier, Creative Director for details.
Saturday, September 18 – Patrick Horton, The Story Coach, will be conducting a seminar entitled “Giving Characters Voice” in Studio City at the cost of $15.
Fred Klein will host Literary Gumbo, a half hour interview show about writing and publishing. Future shows will include many local writers as guests. The show can be viewed on the Internet and Cox cable Channel 17.

Following the announcements, Laure-Anne and Kurt, published authors and editors, addressed the crowd and invited attendees to weigh in on a wide variety of subjects, including why writers write, where the writing world is headed and how technology will affect that path.

As writers, what is our responsibility? To bear witness. What is it that makes you a writer? What is the emotion that makes you unable to remain quiet on your subject matter? Storytelling is our way of making noise before we croak.

Every story has been told, every love poem has been written. But nobody has ever been you. That’s the ground you’re standing on. You’d better really love what you’re doing if you’re a writer. You’ll be ignored, rejected and chances are you probably won’t make a lot of money.

Fundamentally, screenwriting is telling a story through imagery. It’s about the people, texture, fabric, passion for detail, curiosity.

The world is more of a visual culture now. It’s all about sound bytes. Everything is quicker, briefer. But people still just want to be heard, as has been the case throughout time. There’s still a passion, fervor and an electricity in using language to communicate. The world is finding different avenues to do it with the advance of technology: rapping, tweeting, texting.

No matter what direction technology takes, we will never get away from storytelling. The universe is made up of stories. Some say it is made up of atoms and molecules. But none of us have ever seen those things. We only know about them because of stories.

When movies came along, it was said that it was the end of radio; but it wasn’t. When television came along, it was said it was the end of the movies; but it wasn’t. There are some things that computers and digital books can’t give you. Don’t think that books are going to disappear. Bad books may disappear, but good books, literature, will survive, as it has over time.

In closing, the authors mentioned that they’d never heard a writer say, “If only I’d been a bookkeeper.” Something to chew on as the presentation wound down and the writers that had gathered scattered into the night…

Respectfully submitted by Danielle Greene, Association Secretary

Thursday, September 9 "Getting the Most Out of Your Writing"

2010-08-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Laure-Anne Bosselaar
& Kurt Brown

"Getting the Most Out of Your Writing"

Thursday, September 9, 7 pm*
*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30pm
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
FREE and open to everyone!

For our September 9th meeting we have two speakers who are award-winning, widely published writers and editors, Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Kurt Brown. Come ready with your questions about the creative process, getting published, and attending writers conferences. These well-versed scribes will offer answers based on their vast knowledge and experience.

Laure-Anne Bosselaar grew up in Belgium, where her first language was Flemish. She is the author of a book of poems in French, Artemis (1973), and two collections of poems in English from BOA Editions: The Hour Between Dog and Wolf (1997) and Small Gods of Grief (2001), which won the Isabela Gardner Award. She is also editor of three anthologies, Outsiders: Poems about Rebels, Exiles and Renegades (Milkweed Editions, 1999), Urban Nature: Poems about Nature in the City (Milkweed Editions, 2000), and Never Before: Poems about First Experiences (Four Way Books, 2005). With her husband, she co-edited the anthology Night Out: Poems about Hotels, Motels, Restaurants and Bars (1997), also from Milkweed Editions. A new collection of poems, New Hunger, was published by Ausable Press in 2007. She taught poetry workshops at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York and was the Bruce McEver Visiting Chair in Writing at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia in February, 2008.

Kurt Brown is the editor of Drive, They Said: Poems about Americans and Their Cars (1994) and Verse & Universe: Poems about Science and Mathematics (1998) both from Milkweed Editions. He is also co-editor, with his wife, of Night Out: Poems about Hotels, Motels, Restaurants and Bars (1997) also from Milkweed Editions. In addition, he has edited three books of lectures delivered at writers’ conferences across America: The True Subject (Graywolf Press, 1993), Writing It Down for James (Beacon Press, 1995) and Facing the Lion (Beacon Press, 1996). A fourth collection of essays, The Measured Word: On Poetry and Science, appeared from University of Georgia Press in 2001. His own first collection of poems, Return of the Prodigals, appeared from Four Way Books in 1999. A second collection, More Things in Heaven and Earth, was published by Four Way Books in 2002. A third collection, Fables from the Ark, which won the 2003 Custom Words Prize, was published by WordTech in 2004, and a fourth, Future Ship, appeared from Red Hen Press in 2007, followed by a fifth collection, No Other Paradise, in 2010. He is the founding director of The Aspen Writers’ Conference and Writers’ Conferences and Centers, now part of the Associated Writing Programs.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, August 12, 2010

2010-08-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

Janie Hewson, owner of Marketing Creatives, spoke on the topic of “Powerful Marketing for your Writing Career” at our August meeting. She encouraged writers to give yourself the opportunity to become extraordinary; by submitting, competing, showing your work. Nowadays, a writer must compete for the chance to be published. You will most likely find yourself shut out at every turn. You need a plan to figure out where you’re going. That’s where good marketing comes in.

“It takes nine times of seeing something to remember it.” - a marketing saying.
Through marketing, you can define yourself as a business rather than just a ‘little writer’.

What is it to market? In marketing, you are seen and remembered. If you can’t find a way to be known or seen, you’re not putting yourself in the market where you can be sold.

Websites, blogs, and all forms of new media raise your status as a writer. These tools are changing and will continue to change. Find a new one every year. Learn it. Use it. Most people are not surfing the web to find you. You need to get them to go there. The Internet is a great place for editors, representatives, organizations and other writers to make connections with you.

Where are you? Where can they find you? See you? Who are you in the world? This is a marketing strategist’s job. Know who you are. What do you write about? Know who ‘they’ (the public) are. Who are you giving this to? What makes them spark to you as an individual? Remember, it’s all about being seen first. How can you be seen first?

Set goals. Move yourself from where you are. No one’s going to do all this for you. Your deal is to take responsibility for yourself. Make a list. Make goals and meet them. Get it together and make it happen. Important: when you set these goals, you need to meet them. If you’re not, you’re living by excuses. Give up your excuses.

In this business, you need clients; buyers; money. Develop relationships. Be friends with the people who are in the world you want to be in. The creative business also requires money. Know that going into it.

Persistency, consistency; all the things your mother told you about, are key in this business. Being seen and remembered means you do the same thing over and over and over again. That’s your job as a writer…

Janie Hewson is available for consultations. Her website is: marketingreatives.net.

Respectfully submitted by Danielle Greene, Association secretary

Thursday, Aug 12 "Powerful Marketing for Your Writing Career"

2010-07-27T23:09:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara
Presents

Janie Hewson

"Powerful Marketing for Your Writing Career"

Thursday, August 12, 7 pm*
*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30pm
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
FREE and open to everyone!

Janie Hewson, owner of Marketing Creatives, "loves" the creative mind and loves to do business. She has been in the business of marketing creative business entrepreneurs for 15 years. Hewson has met and guided the careers of hundreds of creatives beginning with her work as an Artist Representative, her years with the Creative Black Book and several stints as a Studio Manager for creative businesses, including photography and film.

For seven years Hewson was the marketing instructor for Brooks Institute of Photography and Film, where she taught classes to photography, film, graphic design and photojournalism students helping them to create powerful marketing for their careers. In 2004 she was named Teacher of the Year.

Hewson holds a Masters’ degree in Organizational Psychology, and a Bachelors’ degree in Communications. She is married to a filmmaker and they are the proud parents of an 20-year-old equestrian competitor, her high jumping horses, a high jumping dog, and the sweetest kitty ever.

Minutes: July 8, 2010

2010-07-15T01:41:00.000-07:00

Adapting Sideways

“Some screenwriters are turning to novelization as another way to the silver screen.” 

General announcements preceded the evenings’ dual keynote speakers, Jon James Miller and Charlotte Cook. Members were invited to share news, progress, and updates on their writing with the group. Rashi Bahri announced that our August 12 speaker will be Janie Hewson, speaking on the topic of powerful marketing for your writing career.

Did you know that readers want to be seduced? That they desire to know what’s going to happen next, which is what keeps them turning the page of your novel? That they thirst to know who this person is? And why is this happening to them? You as a novel writer bring along your strengths as a screenplay writer; you’re taking your commitment to story and moving it to another canvas in writing a novel.

Jon James Miller is a screenwriter/ novelist and Charlotte Cook is a publisher/story editor. They conduct a seminar-workshop and provide consulting and editing work. Their book is Adapting Sideways: Your Gateway to a Publishable Novel. At our July 8 meeting, tricks from the duo on how to segue from screenwriter to novelist were multitudinous. How do you seduce that reader? Take something familiar and bring it back in an extraordinary way! Blow them away with something they think they’ve seen before…then do something different with it. Balance is dull on canvas. Equal color is dull on canvas as well. Your novel is your canvas. You begin with a blank one. Fill it with the world. The reader willingly opens their mind and lets you, the writer, fill the canvas for them. The challenge is knowing what to fill it with.

A novel needs a compelling story, dialogue that sings, engaging characters and a setting in time. Use your screenplay (which should have all these components) as an outline for your novel…sometimes it only works best for the initial translation or sometimes it can help throughout the process. The bottom line is to have commitment to your story. When it comes time to add that dialogue that sings: take the strengths that you have in the screenplay…just because you’re writing a novel doesn’t necessarily mean there needs to be more dialogue! Ask yourself; does my characters’ dialogue move art forward? Or inform art? Moving forward is key. Use back story ONLY as the reader needs it. Find creative ways to disguise back story, for example, in a character’s dialogue.

Once you’ve wrapped up that novel, move on to stage two: Do you want to take it public? And stage three: How DO you take it public? Publishing is a consignment business. It’s very hard for them to end up with their investment back. What you do get in publishing is a world where a certain amount of stability exists. If a large publishing house puts out one hundred titles a year, it’s a good chance they’ll do at least one hundred the next year. BUT Agents and Publishers are flooded by submissions. They are looking for the cream of the crop. There are more agents in publishing than there were two years ago. And they are very hungry for well-written work.

Remember: it’s a process if you’re serious about adapting your screenplay into a novel. Write something in your comfort zone. And you must first learn what this zone is. Ask yourself, “Why would I turn the page?” And don’t take any shortcuts. Just work as fast as you feel you can.

Thursday, July 8 "Screenwriter to Novelist"

2010-06-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents

Charlotte Cook & Jon James Miller

"Adapting Sideways: The Not-So-Straightforward Transition from Screenwriter to Novelist"

Thursday, July 8, 7 pm*
*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30pm
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
FREE and open to everyone!

Jon James Miller and Charlotte Cook will show how adaptation is a two-way street, doubling your odds of selling your story. Novelization is a realistic strategy extending the life of your script and publishers want well-conceived novels by committed writers. Story drives the process. These experienced novelists/screenwriters teach basic structure transitions and world building for a publishable novel.

Charlotte Cook is president and story editor of KOMENAR Publishing as well as a popular presenter at writers conferences and events, and a successful teacher and workshop facilitator. She has an MFA in Creative Writing as well as practical business experience in the book industry. As an acquisition and story editor, she brought to publication far more books, articles and stories than the six award-winning novels she published for KOMENAR. As a result, Writers Digest interviewed Charlotte about her career and publishing company in February 2008.

Jon James Miller worked for several years in cable documentaries for A&E, Lifetime and The History Channel while writing original feature length screenplays in LA. He’s had three screenplays optioned; two historical dramas and one dark comedy about the film industry. In 2008, Jon’s original screenplay “Garbo’s Last Stand” won Grand Prize of the AAA Screenplay Contest sponsored by Creative Screenwriting Magazine and was featured in the May/June issue. In 2009, the same script won The Golden Brad Award for Drama sponsored by the Movie Script Contest. Jon will be a juror at the 2010 Big Bear International Film Festival and a panelist at the 2010 CreativeScreenwriting Expo in LA. He is currently adapting his award-winning script “Garbo’s Last Stand” into a novel with an interested publisher.

“The Four Trends Roiling Publishing” June 10 Meeting Minutes

2010-06-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

Marcia pointed out that there has been an incredible amount of change in the publishing business over a relatively short period of time. She used her own long and varied career as an example. She started out as a newspaper reporter fresh out of college when newspapers were just moving from hard copy to computers. Reporters started having to not only write their stories, but also news summaries and sometimes even headlines. Then along came the Internet, and the 24-hour news cycle was born. Reporters suddenly found they also had to be, in some cases, videographers. Today, the printed news industry seems to be in the death throes. Marcia left newspapers in mid-1990s, and now not only writes books like Navigating the Rough Waters of Today’s Publishing World but she blogs for several online news magazines, as well as her own website and occasionally for The Huffington Post. She refers to herself today as a “content provider.”

But she is quick to point out that change also means opportunity. Writers just have to figure out how to take advantage of today’s market and be prepared for tomorrow’s as well. She said there are four trends today affecting the way writers work and get published:

Technology is Constantly Advancing
Big Publishing Houses Are Continuing to Cut Back
Smaller Publishers Are Starting to Step Up and Take On More Clients
Self-Publishing is Becoming the Choice For Many Writers

Publishers will continue to publish celebrity books and books by well known, popular authors, but they are also looking at new ways to survive themselves. They know that innovations like the iPad, e-Books and interactive books are becoming more and more commonplace. Penguin views the iPad platform as an opportunity to create an entirely new kind of book with streaming video, audio and gaming built in. For writers this means a greater emphasis on content and packaging. According to the people at Authorlink, the printed book is part of a total package that can be adapted into other formats.

This also means content should be shorter so it works in smaller chunks. As writers we should start thinking in terms of shorter chapters and quicker pacing while still telling a great story. Also in terms of what works online as more and more publishing will be done online.

Big publishers are in trouble and they will continue to decline. People are still reading but more and more online. This means an increase in interest in print on demand (POD) and self-publishing. Marcia shared some startling statistics: While the number of fiction titles dropped by 11% in 2008, self-published books increased 132%! 2009 figures were even more astounding. This will leave many mid-list writers unable to get published by the big publishers. However, great new opportunities exist with small, regional, and specialty presses.

The most significant trend for writers today is the increasing number of self-publishing options. There are many services like iUniverse and Lulu that allow authors to make and sell their own books and keep more profit than ever before, though they will have to do their own marketing, record-keeping, and selling utilizing their own websites, blogging, and social media.

Marcia’s new book Navigating the Rough Waters of Today’s Publishing World. Critical Advice for Writers from Industry Insiders includes many more examples and tips on how writers can take advantage of today’s changing and challenging world of publishing.

- By Ernie Witham

Marcia Meier: Author and Journalist from dolphingal805 on Vimeo.

Writer & Teacher Marcia Meier

2010-05-31T00:06:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents Writer & Teacher

Marcia Meier

"Navigating the Rough Waters of Today’s Publishing World"

Thursday, June 10, 7 pm*
*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30pm
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
FREE and open to everyone!

Marcia Meier is an award-winning writer, teacher, published poet and former director of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. She will speak about her new book Navigating the Rough Waters of Today's Publishing World, Critical Advice for Writers from Industry Insiders(Quill Driver Books, 2010). Her last book was Santa Barbara, Paradise on the Pacific, a coffee table book (Longstreet Press, 1996). She has written for numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Santa Barbara Magazine, Central Coast Magazine, OC Metro magazine, The Seattle Times, and Arizona Republic. She is a contributing writer to Miller-McCune Magazineonline and an occasional blogger with The Huffington Post. Her degree is in Journalism and she has taught a number of writing classes for various institutions in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo including Cal Poly, Westmont College, Brooks Institute and SBCC Adult Education. Marcia is a member of the Author's Guild and Pen USA.

May 13, 2010 Meeting Minutes

2010-05-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

Calling card. Validation. Examples. What you can do. Do’s. Don’ts. Context. What he has learned about writing. All these topics and more were broached during the Thursday, May 13 Screenwriter’s Association meeting at Borders Bookstore with author, SBCC screenwriting instructor, UCLA Film School grad and showbiz vet Jonathan O’Brien at the helm.

Association President, Rashi Bahri called the meeting to order at 7:30pm. She announced that the Association is considering holding screenwriting workshops in addition to continuing to host invited speakers. At next month’s meeting, scheduled for Thursday, June 10, the Association will host speaker Marcia Meier, author, teacher and published poet.

“The Shorter the Better”; How Writing, Producing and Marketing Your Short Film Will Better Prepare You To Write Your Feature-Length Screenplay—the theme of this evening’s discussion.

A short film isn’t just a film, it’s your CALLING CARD. It shows your style. Each new writer and filmmaker that has had any success has their own unique way of telling a story. Screenplay readers used to have ‘to read’ piles. Nowadays, they most likely have ‘to reject’ piles. If you can make a short film that shows your unique point of view that gets people’s attention, it could get your feature length screenplay to the top of the ‘to reject’ pile. When you submit a script, the person receiving it wonders “How do I know this person can tell a story that will get people to want to see more?” If a film is a marketing tool, your goal is to get people talking about it.

You need a way to VALIDATE your work. Instead of telling people you can tell a story, you can SHOW them with a short film that you have a unique, creative way of telling a story. You don’t have to compete with Hollywood, you just need to have a unique voice. How do you ‘get in’ to Hollywood? They don’t dump another artist and replace them with you, they make room for you if they like your work.

And, you don’t always have to be in love with your work. Just go out and do it. Don’t make excuses. No camera to film? Do you have a cell phone camera? Do you have an old Beta Max camera? Dust it off. Lone filmmaker? You’re here at a screenwriters meeting. Get a few people together to work on something.

EXAMPLES: Office Space, Boogie Nights, District 9, 12 Monkeys, Saw, Sling Blade, Sin City, Darjeeling Limited, Boyz in the Hood, Napoleon Dynamite, 9. Feature films that all started as short films.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: According to Stephen King, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write.” Same holds true for short films. Make the time to watch them. Do this before you start making them. Go all the way back to the short, silent comedies. Learn how to convey emotions without dialogue.

DO’S FOR SHORT FILMS: Do have a high concept. Get your idea down to one line that stands out. Ask yourself what is going to attract people to it? Make it stand out? Can you tell a story in three minutes? Three or four minutes is a good time framework. You can develop fewer characters better. Try to come up with an idea that needs very little exposition. What’s happening is happening right there.

DON’TS: Dialogue in a short film is deadly. When you rely on dialogue in a short film, it’s a crutch. When you don’t rely on dialogue, you rely on emotion. Don’t make a documentary short film—‘they’ don’t consider it as storytelling. No experimental films. If you’re going to do something like a mockumentary short film, first ask yourself how you can make room for a new style. Something that HASN’T been done before. The industry rewards those for taking chances and thinking outside the box.

These days, think about writing and directing according to CONTEXT. Remember how films are watched. For example, at film festivals, your film will be advertised and chosen by viewers based on a one-line description. What is your emotional apex? What is it the characters want to say, but can’t? How good of a story can you tell with what you have? Convey emotions clearly and concisely. It doesn’t cost much to put heart into something. Get the value out of the motion, not your production cost limits.

WHAT HE HAS LEARNED ABOUT WRITING: What is the ‘secret of writing’? How do you help people figure out the essence, what is the apex and the point of the scene? Is the best line of dialogue no dialogue at all? Frank Capra’s secret was to find out whose scene it is and then heighten the point of the scene. Cutting film can help you discover this point. If you can tell a story in three to four minutes, it can help you when you go to tell a story in two hours for a feature length screenplay.

Remember, agents and producers are looking to get at someone talented before anyone else does. They’re not waiting for a well-written screenplay to fall into their lap. Find out how to get them to come to you. Make a short film and show them you can tell a story with a unique voice in three to four minutes. If you believe in your story, nothing is going to stop you from telling it. That will come across in your film.

Before the meeting concluded, attendees were treated to a viewing of an eight minute short film, George Lucas in Love.

Respectfully submitted by Danielle Greene, Association Secretary.

The Shorter the Better

2010-04-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

Jonathan O'Brien

How Writing, Producing, and Marketing Your Short Film Will Better Prepare You To Write Your Feature-Length Screenplay

Thursday, May 13, 7 pm*
*Come early to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent. The speaker presentation will start around 7:30 pm
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
FREE and open to everyone!

Jonathan OBrien is a UCLA film school graduate, a former network program executive, creator and former co-host of NPR's Beyond Words, a former juvenile hall writing instructor, and currently an ever-popular adjunct screenwriting instructor at SBCC. He has combined 35 years of diverse creative experiences with his passion for teaching to create his groundbreaking program design method resulting in nonprofits winning more than $385 million in competitive grant money. One of his educational program designs is permanently enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution. Two of the charter schools he helped to create are in the top 100 Charter Schools in the nation according to the America's Best High Schools analysis as reported by US News and World Report.

April 8th Meeting Minutes

2010-04-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

Paul Levine, entertainment lawyer and literary agent, spoke on the topic of “Legal and Business Aspects on Writing Books and Scripts” to a packed third floor crowd at the April 8, 2010 Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara that took place at Borders Bookstore on State Street.

Mr. Levine shared with the audience how his trek to Los Angeles, in 1978, came about by way of York University (Toronto, Canada) and family responsibilities. He is an entertainment law attorney who mainly represents book authors and journalists.

Very important in his negotiations on behalf of writers is this guiding principle: Retain all rights that the book publisher doesn’t exploit. If the publisher is going to exploit the right, sell it to the publisher. If they’re not going to exploit it, retain for yourself. This way, for example, later down the line, you retain the rights for technology that may not exist now, but possibly could later down the line.

Another topic addressed for writers was how to go from fingers to keyboard to money, in regards to advances and royalties. Some publishers pay no advances, most pay small-to-medium advances, while top tier authors and celebrities like presidents are paid huge advances. The only time an author wouldn’t get to keep that advance is when the product isn’t delivered. Royalty payments to the author come into play after enough books have been sold to cover the advance against royalties, which the author has already received. In general, the book business operates on a fifty percent margin. If a book sells for $14.00, a retailer will pay a publisher fifty percent of what list price is (in this case, $7.50.) Also, he pointed out that reviewers don’t review soft cover books. So if you want your book reviewed, thus garnering more public interest, publish it in hard cover first. Also, libraries only buy hardcover books. Of the 17,000 or so libraries in this country alone, he said, most of those will buy at least one copy of the hardcover when it comes out, a great boost to book sales.

As a writer, he says that it’s very important to form critique groups to obtain constructive criticism from people who could care less about your ego. Your friends and family are great, but they generally just stroke the ego of a writer. Honest feedback is what a writer needs.

A suggestion for first time writers who have a book being published is to hire your own publicist. Also, a good reference book in searching for an agent is Guide to Literary Agents, which provides agent names, contact information and ways in which the agents preferred to be queried. The purpose of a query is to get the recipient to ask for more. So begin by giving them what they want to receive. Mr. Levine says he personally looks at a submission and considers: “Can I sell it?” not “Do I love it?” and “Do I know enough buyers who are going to want to buy it?” If the answer to either of these are no, he won’t take it on.

Some interesting statistics: According to Mr. Levine, seventy percent of all fiction books sold are romances. Eighty percent of all books are bought by women, generally annually between November 15 and December 26. If men do buy books, the majority of them are sports biographies and car books. The biggest sellers of nonfiction are “How to” and “Self help” type books.

In answer to the question “Should a writer write what is ‘trendy’ at the time?” Mr. Levine does not think so. He pointed out that by the time your book is ready to publish, more than likely that trend will have changed.

Another question was “Is it good for a writer to enter contests?” He suggests the writer consider the quality of the contest and not to enter just for quantity of submissions. If you can say you’ve won a prestigious competition, this could be a great asset to your writing resume.

As the meeting concluded and the Santa Barbara writers in attendance scattered into the night, one woman was heard to remark: “I learned a lot tonight.” Yet another enlightening, entertaining and insightful meeting of the Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara!

Respectfully submitted by Association secretary, Danielle Greene.

Legal and Business Aspects of Writing Books and Scripts

2010-03-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara Presents

Entertainment Lawyer & Literary Agent

Paul Levine

Thursday, April 8, 7 pm*
*Come a half hour before our usual time (7:30 pm) to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent.
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
FREE and open to everyone!

With over a quarter of a century of legal experience, Paul S. Levine began handling entertainment transactions and litigation directly out of law school. Now, through his private law practice, he represents a diverse clientele ranging from individual “creatives” to large production houses, in a wide range of media, including: film, television, music, visual arts, and book publishing.

Levine is one of the few lawyers on the West Coast who specializes in book publishing. As such, he offers comprehensive literary legal services and acts as a literary agent. He particularly enjoys assisting screenwriters who wish to adapt books into screenplays, as well as “reversing the process” by working with writers who have “reverse-adapted” their screenplays into books, helping them sell their novels to publishers, and finally selling the “movie rights” to those novels, along with their screenplays, to “Hollywood”.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, March 11, 2010

2010-03-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

The meeting began at 7:25 p.m. with Lisa Angle, the association’s ‘PR Czar’, welcoming the attendees. General announcements were made in regards to the groups Twitter and Facebook Groups.

Rashi Bahri, the association’s president, was introduced and she then introduced the other officers of the association.

The evening’s speaker, Mary Rose Betten, a retired character actress, poet and playwright was then introduced. She was here to speak about humanity; how to work with the best of you.

“Look around you. Don’t wait. What are these things you know, that you see about other people? Be faithful to that. Do you really watch people? Do you watch how they react? In writing, you want to really capture a character. Anger isn’t interesting. Come back to humor. Begin to look for the goodness in things. This is where you’re really going to find humor. Open your humanity to really see other people. Living in the goodness of yourself. Humor is a condition most natural to childhood.

The four elements of humor are: surprise, reverse logic, exaggeration and conflict.

How can you bring humor into your life? Get the ‘room tone’. Feel the writing in the air. When you see somebody, see if you can get the room tone of them.”

As an exercise at the meeting, the attendees were invited to ‘go back’ to find comedy. The two options were:

Go back to when you were fourteen years old. Eighth grade going into high school? Go back for that feeling. Or look at the 1949 picture of the young teen girls provided. Go back to the feeling from that time or the picture. Who was your hero when you were fourteen? Write what comes from that feeling of those characters.

Take the short story about a priest and a prostitute provided to set the stage. What happens next? Write what comes from that feeling of those characters.

“Look into all these characters. When you are a writer, you can really keep going. Nowadays we don’t make the time to get to know people. Take the time to get to know these characters. If you begin to care, you’ll get to get insights that were never there before. If we care enough, we will see things other people don’t see and that will fascinate people.”

The attendees wrote for five minutes. At the end, Mary Rose invited attendees to volunteer to read their work. Brief examples were read and enjoyed by the group.

The meeting concluded at 8:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Danielle Greene, Association Secretary

Writing Comedic Dialogue with Mary Rose Betten

2010-02-23T23:23:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents Actress & Playwright

Mary Rose Betten

"Writing Comedic Dialogue"

Thursday, March 11, 7 pm*
*Come a half hour before our usual time (7:30 pm) to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent.
FREE and Open to Everyone
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
Email Us

Please bring a pen, paper and something to write on. Mary Rose will provide us with an optional writing prompt and give a few minutes for writing, then those who wish can share what they’ve written.

Mary Rose Betten is a retired character actress, poet, and playwright. She studied with the Los Angeles Playwrights at The Mark Taper with the late, Oliver Hailey. Her published and produced plays include: Mary M., A Visit with the Magdalene, People Of The Passion, Hildegarde 2000, Is Anybody Home? and she co-wrote The Bar Off Melrose, produced at The Melrose Theatre, published by Samuel French. Recently she was commissioned to write Holocaust theatre and after extensive research wrote and directed, Becoming Alleluia, available for purchase on DVD.

As a character actress she appeared on stage, screen and television and won three Clio awards for her comedic appearances in television commercials. As a stand up comic she was introduced as a new comedienne appearing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas by the Dean Martin Comedy Hour, and went on to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show and The Merv Griffin Show and starred as a stand up comic on the Playboy Club Circuit.

At Ghost Ranch in New Mexico she serves on the faculty of “A Room Of Her Own,” for women artists and writers where she was a recipient of a scholarship to their original retreat in 2001. She teaches in Perie Longo’s Santa Barbara Poetry Workshop and with her husband, Dr. Patrick Mitchell, gives workshops on spirituality and the arts.

*Also this month we'll have a special give-away. And, as always, samples from the Borders cafe.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, February 11, 2010

2010-02-22T23:14:00.000-08:00

By Chuck Kent

A large crowd of fans gathered at Borders Books for the monthly meeting of the Screenwriters Association to share a delightful evening of poetry readings and commentary by David Starkey, who directs the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College and is Santa Barbara’s current Poet Laureate. He’s also the author of two textbooks: Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief and Poetry Writing: Theme and Variations.

He also hosts a popular local television show, The Creative Community, in which he interviews a wide variety of writers and artists. Lisa Angle, who works on that television show with him, presided over the meeting and introduced David to the crowd.

David read a selection of new poetry he’s recently written as well as selections from his published books, which include Starkey’s Book of States, Adventures of the Minor Poet, Ways of Being Dead. David Starkey’s Greatest Hits and Fear of Everything.

David answered questions and interacted easily and humorously with his assembled fans, making for a fun evening, at the end of which he signed books and visited individually with fellow writers.

Lisa announced that on March 11^th our guest speaker will be funny actress Mary Rose Betten who will interact with attendees about "Writing Comedic Dialogue."

Borders Books, our monthly host at 900 State Street for about the eighth year, provides the Screenwriters Association with a great meeting space upstairs on the second Thursday of each month at 7 pm, and supplies free coffee and bakery snacks. The public is always invited for no charge.

Evening of Poetry with David Starkey

2010-01-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association 
of Santa Barbara

Presents an evening of poetry with Santa Barbara Poet Laureate

David Starkey

"Poems About Writing & Reading"

Thursday, February 11, 7 pm*
*Come a half hour before our usual time (7:30 pm) to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent.
FREE and open to the public
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street 
(805)899-3668
Email Us

David Starkey directs the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College. Among his poetry collections are Starkey's Book of States (Boson Books, 2007), Adventures of the Minor Poet (Artamo Press, 2007), Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (Artamo, 2006), David Starkey's Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2002) and Fear of Everything, winner of Palanquin Press's Spring 2000 chapbook contest. A Few Things You Should Know about the Weasel will be published by the Canadian press Biblioasis this year. Over the past twenty years he has published more than 400 poems in literary journals such as American Scholar, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cutbank, Faultline, Greensboro Review, The Journal, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, Nebraska Review, Notre Dame Review, Poet Lore, Poetry East, South Dakota Review, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Poetry Review, Sycamore Review, Texas Review, and Wormwood Review. He has also written two textbooks: Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008) and Poetry Writing: Theme and Variations (McGraw-Hill, 1999). With Paul Willis, he co-edited In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (Iowa, 2005), and he is the editor of Living Blue in the Red States (Nebraska, 2007). Keywords in Creative Writing, which he co-authored with the late Wendy Bishop, was published in 2006 by Utah State University Press.

Santa Barbara Poet Laureate David Starkey reads his inaugural poem at his installation at City Hall on April 7, 2009.

President's New Baby

2010-01-21T22:40:00.000-08:00

If you were at our January meeting, you probably noticed that our President Rashi Bahri was expecting a new baby. Well, two days after that meeting she delivered! Ayush Chitnis arrived on the morning of Jan 16th. He is 6 pounds 14 ounces and 19.5 inches tall. Congratulations to Rashi, her husband and her whole family! We always welcome new people at our meetings, but we are glad Ayush didn't arrive during the meeting.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, January 14, 2010

2010-01-15T23:40:00.000-08:00

Meeting called to order approximately 7:30 pm

Rashi Bahri welcomed returning and new attendees.

Lisa Angle made the following announcements:

If attendees want to be added to our list, please send your email address
to screenwriterssb@gmail.com.
Next month’s meeting will be an evening of poetry with Santa Barbara’s
Poet Laureate David Starkey.
Santa Barbara poetry series takes place on February 6 at the public library.

Tonight’s speaker: Catherine Ann Jones

Began her career in New York, pursing acting. Moved on to writing when she didn’t like the way she saw how modern women were portrayed, as either housewives or whores. Thought there must be something in between.
She enjoys writing strong female roles.
She likes to think of writing as a process, not product. Warns that commercial influence of art can be a very negative thing.
Encourages writers to stay true to your own vision.
“When you write what you think they want, you lose. Fashion is ever changing. Write from yourself, it makes it unique.”
Thinks of writing as a marriage. Once you really commit, it’s a long process.
Maya Angelou: “I write in order to discover myself.”
Virginia Wolfe wrote every single day.
“The unconscious writer is always working.”
Catherine teaches “The Way of Story” workshops every six months in Ojai and around the world.
Screenplays that work/sell—write about ONE thing. “If it’s
about everything, it’s about nothing.”
Suggests on the first draft of anything—let yourself run. Second draft-be ruthless!
“The most important part of dialogue is what you don’t say.”
“Most important part of teaching is when you see the light go on in a student.”
Works as a consultant, two tier levels: Story structure—before the writer sits down to write. If there is a first draft—she will edit and provide writer with notes.
New contact email: catherinejones@wayofstory.com or through: www.wayofstory.com

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

Catherine Ann Jones "The Way of Story"

2010-01-04T21:44:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association
of Santa Barbara

Presents an evening with actress, playwright, and screenwriter

Catherine Ann Jones

"The way of Story: The Craft & Soul of Writing!"

Thursday, January 14, 7 pm*
*Come a half hour before our usual time (7:30 pm) to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent.
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
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Catherine Ann Jones has played major roles in over fifty productions on and off-Broadway, as well as television (Great Performances, etc.) and film. Disappointed by the lack of good roles for women, she wrote a play about Virginia Woolf (On the Edge) which won a National Endowment for the Arts Award. Ten of her plays, including Calamity Jane (both play and musical) and The Women of Cedar Creek, have won several awards and are produced both in and out of New York. Her films include The Christmas Wife (Jason Robards & Julie Harris), Unlikely Angel (Dolly Parton), Angel Passing (Hume Cronyn & Teresa Wright) which played at Sundance and went on to garner fifteen awards here and abroad, and the popular TV series, Touched by an Angel. A Fulbright Scholar to India, she has taught writing at The New School University, University of Southern California, Pacifica Graduate Institute, and the Esalen Institute. Ms. Jones lives in Ojai, and leads "The Way of Story" workshops throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, November 12, 2009

2009-12-14T00:07:00.000-08:00

Our November 12 meeting featured Starshine Roshell, voted Best Columnist in the Independent’s 2009 Reader’s Poll. She started out by saying she loves speaking to writers, and she loves to hear “I love what you do.”

Her recipe for successful writing includes a balance of creativity, discipline, patience, and intelligence among other things. She aims for refined wordplay and rhythm. Her goal is to create an unusual voice, a recognizable style, like one of her favorite writers Keith Spencer Waterhouse. Because she has little patience, she needs to hear the rhythm in her writing to be satisfied with it, and encourages writers to read their work out loud. “It’s not what you say, but how you say it,” Starshine said. To illustrate this she read from her book, Keep Your Skirt On.

She relishes bad experiences for material for her columns. Other story ideas come out of conversations with her BFFs and from posting questions on Facebook. But sometimes after sending her columns off to her editor she thinks, “What did I just say?” She feels a rush by saying things other writers are afraid to. These columns get responses and get her invited to church. Some of her readers say, “it must be so hard, you must be so brave”—she says she’s not. She just speaks before she thinks. An example of this is when she used to work for the News Press, but wasn’t part of the first wave of employees to leave the newspaper. At that time, when her former co-workers asked her why she hadn’t left yet, she said, “I think I have more balls than brains at this point.” But this style of writing is working for her because, as she said, “People like to hear uncensored talk.”

One of her heroes is Erma Bombeck and like the best-selling columnist/author, Starshine writes about her family. As a result her husband’s basketball buddies rib him, but her son likes being famous more than being cool. As long as she makes a living by writing about them, they’re happy.

Starshine Roshell speaks at next meeting

2009-11-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara

Presents an evening with journalism professor, magazine writer, award-winning columnist and overwhelmed mother of two

Starshine Roshell

Voted 'Best Columnist' in SB Indy Reader's Poll ‘09

Thursday, November 12, 7 pm*
*Come a half hour before our usual time (7:30 pm) to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with local talent.
Downtown Borders (Upstairs)
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
Email Us

Starshine Roshell named for a song in the 1960s musical “Hair," in which her father starred, Starshine grew up in Los Angeles on the soap opera sets and in the Sunset Strip nightclubs where her parents worked.

She graduated UCLA cum laude and wrote for The Hollywood Reporter before joining the Santa Barbara News-Press as news reporter, theater and rock music critic, Sunday columnist and deputy features editor. She resigned with dozens of colleagues in 2006.

Her syndicated column won a first-place award from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and she has a second-place CNPA award for Business/Financial reporting.

Starshine lives in Santa Barbara with her husband John, a graphic artist, and their two sons.

Here is a sample of Starshine's advice to writers:

Meeting Minutes – October 8, 2009

2009-10-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara
Borders Books, downtown
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The meeting began at our new time of 7:00 PM, and at our new, upstairs location. The management team at Borders graciously agreed to our request to move all future meetings to the more private location and the evening went well.

After a brief, “get to know you” chat among tonight’s attendees – our new format – Rashi formally convened the meeting at 7:30 PM, and reiterated our new start time and upstairs location. Before turning over the formal introductions to Chuck made the following announcements:

November 12, 2009 will be our last meeting this year, with Starshine Rochelle speaking.
Ernie Witham is hosting a book signing on Saturday, October 17th at Tecolote Books in Montecito from 3-5PM.
Ted Rhodes is having a photo show titled Mirror Images at Porch Vault Gallery in Carpenteria. The show runs through November 8th.

With no further announcements on the agenda, the meeting was turned over to Chuck who then introduced our speaker, Jim Williams and his talk titled “Writing for Audio Books, Magazines, Movies and Sometimes Money.” Jim’s humorous and informative anecdotes on his extensive background from radio announcer, to publicity information officer at Santa Barbara City College and author, to voice-overs and books on tape made for a lively and entertaining evening.

Jim also shared his personal interactions with magazine editors when sending query letters via email, which “puts you on a personal level with editors.” He advised us to write “Story Query” in the subject line, and how to find individual submission guidelines via Google by simply typing in the name of the magazine and guidelines (i.e., “Redbook Submission Guidelines”). He also advised to include the “hook” and synopses in the body of the email unless the guidelines differ, and that a 720-725 word count is the average number for magazine submissions.

Jim’s upbeat personality and humor moved the evening along and he left us with this consistent advice:
a) Write whenever you can. b) Have a deadline, and c) Read aloud; keeps the story moving forward.

The meeting ended at approximately 9:20 PM.

August 8th Meeting Minutes (Posted Late - Sorry)

2009-10-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

7:36 pm – Chuck Kent opened the meeting by introducing the guest speaker, Ernie Witham.

Ernie Witham is the author of A Year in the Life of a ‘Working’ Writer, A Memoir to the Best of the Recollection of Ernie Witham. This is his second book. His first book is Ernie’s World. In addition to his books, Ernie has had twelve of his stories published in the Chicken Soup book series and teaches at the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference.

Ernie says he goes shopping for humor. He pointed out that you just have to look around to see the humor in everyday life. He reads everything – signs, ads, magazines, brochures. He also finds humor on vacation, in telemarketers, with family and even at Cotsco!

The advice that people usually give is “Write what you know”, Ernie says. He finds it’s easier to find the humor in writing about things you don’t know. He also confided in the group that sometimes he baits a situation for the humor.

On the topic of publishing, Ernie said people don’t want to take chances in the publishing world. The option of self publishing makes it hard to get your book into bookstores which sometimes forces you to sell your book over the internet.

Ernie co-published his new book (as well as his first book) with John Daniel, who edits, secures an ISBN number bar code, registers the book with the library of congress, sends out review copies, gets the book into distributors catalogs and does press releases; some of the things writers sometimes does not want to do.

Ernie wrapped up the talk by reading a few excerpts from A Year in the Life of a ‘Working’ Writer. His book is on sale through Borders Books at $14.95 plus tax.

The meeting ended at 8:45 pm and a book sale and signing followed.

Watch this half-hour video of Ernies talk discribed above:

Ernie Witham Writer from dolphingal805 on Vimeo.

Next Meeting: Thursday, October 8, 7 pm:

2009-09-29T00:12:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara
Presents
“Writing for Audio Books, Magazines, Movies and Sometimes Money”
With Author & Radio Personality
Jim Williams
Thursday, October 8, 7 pm*
*Come a half hour before our usual time to join in interactive discussion, get to know each other, and network with the local talent.
Downtown Borders
900 State Street
(805)899-3668
Email Us

Jim Williams is the author of the audio books The Old West (Sunset Productions) and Tall Tales of the Old West (Americana Books), which he narrated. Look for his article, "Earn $$$ Writing History for Your Local Newspaper," scheduled for Writers’ Journal magazine in early 2010. His writing has appeared in Western Horseman, SHOOT!, Livestock Weekly, American West, Radio World Magazine, Carpinteria magazine, Goleta Valley Voice, and on ropeandwire.com, short-story.net, Orchard Press Mysteries, and writersweekly.com. Three of his stories are in the 2008 anthology At Home and Abroad: Prize-winning Stories (Joyous Publishing). San Francisco’s Shoestring Radio Theatre produced his drama, “Close Encounters of The Confederate Kind,” aired on 100 NPR stations.

A lifelong broadcaster, former KDB Radio announcer and SBCC public information officer, Jim voices part-time for KZSB Radio (AM 1290).

His one screenplay, Flat Out on a Public Highway, was paid for, but never produced. “But I was just glad to get the money,” he said.

He is a Goleta resident, and native of Ojai.

Thursday, September 10th Meeting Minutes

2009-09-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

20 people in attendance.
The meeting opened with those in attendance expressing what their interest in the group is. Each person also gave their opinion on the present group name.
Rashi Bahri gave a brief description of the July meeting regarding why the name change point, among others, was raised.
Lisa Angle gave an overview of the P.R. steps she has investigated regarding domain name, and blogspot blog.
A discussion took place among those in attendance weighing the pros and cons of a name change.
Possible alternative meeting locations
Inviting attendees to arrive a half hour before the meeting or to stay after to network.
What are the unique things this group would like to do? What sets it aside from other local groups?
Can meetings be held upstairs at Borders for better group communications?
Lisa Angle presented the online survey results (PDF).
The title for the domain name for the group was decided to be: screenwriterssb.org.
Commencing next month, the meeting will be begin at 7 pm.
The meeting adjourned at 9 pm.

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Our September Meeting

2009-09-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara

General Meeting

Thursday, September 10, 7:30 pm

Downtown Borders

900 State Street

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For those of you who missed our July meeting where we discussed the future of the Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara, we are giving you another chance on Thursday, September 10, 7:30 pm. We want to hear from you. What would you like to get out of this group? Who would you like to see come speak? What topics would you like to have covered? Should we change our name to attrack a broader audience, such as dropping the 'Screen' to make it just 'Writers'? How can our group help you achieve your writing goals? Regardless of how involved you want to be, your input counts. If you can't make the September 10 meeting, feel free to participate in this quick 2 question online survey: http://bit.ly/56FiU

If you missed Ernie Witham's talk to us last month, you can see it on Wednesday night, September 2, 7:30 pm, on cable channel 17 in Santa Barbara.

Looking forward to seeing you September 10!

Our August Meeting

2009-07-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Santa Barbara Writers Association
(a.k.a The Screenwriters Association of
Santa Barbara)
is pleased to present an evening with Author and Columnist
Ernie Witham
Witham will introduce his new book:
A Year in the Life of a “Working” Writer

Thursday, August 13th at 7:30 p.m.
Borders Books
900 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA

Please join us. All are welcome. Free.

Our August 13th guest speaker will be longtime Screenwriters Association member Ernie Witham. Many of us know Ernie and read his column in the Montecito Journal regularly. You can even download and listen to his podcasts—they’re a hoot! But what you might not know is that Ernie has a new book coming out, and we will be the first group he will make it available to. Below is an excerpt of the press release from Ernie’s publisher, John Daniel at Fithian Press:

Every day of Ernie’s year is a quest for the next column, and his material is all around him, in the everyday life of Ernie’s World. Every year in this writer’s world is full of predictable events: his wife’s birthday, Valentine’s Day, and their anniversary; golf games, farmer’s markets, local festivals; Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Not to mention water fights with the grandchildren and far-flung vacations.

Or calling up the FBI to ask for their advice about smuggling mob money over the Mexican border. Or getting injured in a motorcycle accident—in his own driveway while the bike is standing still. Or sharing an elevator late at night with a six-foot, four-inch transvestite. Even getting a little too cozy with amorous dolphins. Yes, these everyday events are part of Ernie’s World too.

The stuff of Ernie Witham’s life is the stuff of Ernie’s humor column, a family-friendly romp through everyday life.

Another ongoing ingredient of Ernie’s life is placating his long-suffering, wonderful wife and best friend, Pat, by promising to find a “real job.” Honest. As soon as life stops being too funny not to write another column about it.

Like that’ll ever happen.

Well, Ernie won’t find a job this year; he’s too busy. But perhaps a job will find him? Read A Year in the Life of a “Working” Writer and find out!

Ernie Witham is the author of the book Ernie’s World, which is also the title of the nationally syndicated column. He is also a contributing writer to many magazines and anthologies, including more than a dozen volumes of the “Chicken Soup” series. He has taught humor at writers’ workshops throughout the country and is the humor workshop leader at the week-long Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

Come join Ernie for some inspiration and some laughs at Borders Books, 900 State Street, Santa Barbara on Thursday, August 13, 7:30 p.m. All are welcome, including guests and friends. And it’s free. See you soon!

please address any questions and concerns about our upcoming meeting with Vice President, Rashi Bahri.

Meeting minutes for Thursday, July 9, 2009

2009-07-20T22:02:00.000-07:00

The Screenwriters Association 
of Santa Barbara, aka
Santa Barbara Writers Association

PO Box 1410 Santa Barbara, CA 93102-1410
Email: sbwritersassoc@gmail.com

Our meetings are held at Borders Bookstore, 900 State St. Santa Barbara, on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 7:30pm. Meetings are held every month with the exception of December.

Annual membership dues are $30 and can be mailed to the address above, or paid to our Treasurer, Chuck Kent.

President: Ginger Swanson
Vice President: Rashi Bahri
Secretary: Danielle Greene
Treasurer: Chuck Kent
PR Czar: Lisa Angle

Meeting minutes for Thursday, July 9, 2009 @ Borders bookstore

The meeting was called to order at 7:45 pm by President Ginger Swanson

Present at the meeting were: Lisa Angle, Rashi Bahri, Jim Sturnot, Ernie Witham, MaryAnn Vanover, Danielle Greene and Ginger Swanson.

The floor was immediately open to comments about the group, the future of the group, what members are looking for, what members feel they have gotten from the group, what role they would like to play.

The challenge of getting speakers when there is no certainty of how many people might attend was discussed.
Does the group always want to have a meeting set in Borders or just meet at Borders when there will be a speaker?
What is the mission of the group?
Should the group have more of an Internet presence in order to attract more members?
What is the purpose of this group? It was originally formed so people writing scripts could meet agents.
Should the group meetings be suspended annually in June, July and August because of low attendance? Right now the group meets the second Thursday of every month except for December.
Should the group have a monthly calendar?
Should all members be pitching in to line up speakers?
Is the group alienating people who aren’t screenwriters based on the name of the group?
Should the meetings at Borders be moved toward the back of the store?

A motion was made by Rashi Bahri to modify and create a new identity for the group, in changing the name of the group to Santa Barbara Writers Association aka Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara. The motion was seconded by Ginger Swanson.

A motion was made by Ginger Swanson to elect Lisa Angle as the group’s public relations czar (“P.R. Czar”). MaryAnn Vanover seconded the motion.

A motion was made by Ginger Swanson that the group will spend some money for the P.R. Czar to publicize the group. The motion was seconded by Ernie Witham.

A motion was made by Ginger Swanson to elect Danielle Greene as the secretary of the Santa Barbara Writers Association a.k.a. Screenwriter’s Association of Santa Barbara. The motion was seconded by Ernie Witham.

A motion was made by Ginger Swanson to elect Rashi Bahri as the vice president of the Santa Barbara Writers Association a.k.a. Screenwriter’s Association of Santa Barbara. The motion was seconded by MaryAnn Vanover.

A motion was made by Lisa Angle to elect Ernie Witham and MaryAnn Wanover as directors-at-large for the Santa Barbara Writers Association a.k.a. Screenwriters Association of Santa Barbara. The motion was seconded by Jim Sturnot.

It was announced that Ernie Witham will be the speaker at the August meeting. His new book is entitled: A Year in the Life of a ‘Working’ Writer-a Memoir to the Best of the Recollection of Ernie Witham. The meeting will be his first signing for this book.

The meeting adjourned at 9:40pm.