In Her Voice

Women Directors Talk Directing
by Melissa Silverstein

Book Review by Ann Baldwin

Melissa Silverstein is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood, one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film. Women and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates for gender parity across the entertainment industry. She is the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Athena Film Festival held at Barnard College in New York. She’s on the advisory board of the Women’s Media Center and a member of NY Women in Film and TV. She was the founding project director for The White House Project and Chief of Staff at the Ms. Foundation for Women. She has created social media campaigns and events for a variety of films such as My Week with Marilyn, The Iron Lady, Gloria Steinem: In Her Own Words, Revolutionary Road, Becoming Jane, and The Hours. Her work has been featured on CNN, the BBC as well as in Newsweek, Salon, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Ms. Magazine, Washington Post, and NY Times among others. Women and Hollywood was named one of the top 100 websites for women by ForbesWoman in 2012 and 2011. In Melissa’s new book, In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing, volume one (Women and Hollywood 2013), She expands your perspective on filmmaking and heightens your awareness of some remarkable filmmakers and intriguing films by interviewing over 40 women directors of features and documentaries from the U.S. and abroad.

You’ll hear a variety of compelling stories not only about these directors, but the characters within their films as well. Many of these directors are also writers, actresses, cinematographers, and/or producers, which adds to their vast array of experience and knowledge. Melissa’s interviews include a brief biography of each director with links to their Imdb page, film website, and movie trailers.

Some of the diverse voices you get to listen to are from directors such as Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone), Courtney Hunt (Frozen River), Callie Khouri (Mad Money), Roberta Grossman (Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh), Gini Retiker and Abigail Disney (Pray the Devil Back to Hell), Hannah Rothchild (The Jazz Baroness), Katherine Dieckmann (Motherhood), Alison Eastwood (Rails & Ties), Amy Redford (The Guitar), Shana Feste (The Greatest), Kasi Lemmons (Talk to Me), Lynn Shelton (Humpday), Sally Potter (Rage), Lone Scherfig (An Education), and Susanna White (Nanny McPhee Returns).

Melissa’s questions are insightful, respectful, and intelligent producing some illuminating, uplifting, empowering, and inspiring answers. In Her Voice is like a breath of fresh air in a healthy, organic garden. I highly recommend for all filmmakers who want to enrich their knowledge about the craft and everyone who wants to learn about the other half of the films being made, so they can explore, experience, and enjoy them.

You can connect with Melissa Silverstein at http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood and purchase a copy of In Her Voice at Amazon and InHerVoice.net

Ann Baldwin is a screenwriter (The Power of Dreams, Scent of a Trail, Dream Catcher) with several spec scripts in development. She reviews books on screenwriting and filmmaking, writes articles, interviews, and has several books (fiction & non-fiction) in-progress. Prior to launching her writing career, she was a special event coordinator and manager in the hospitality and entertainment industries for over 25 years. You can visit her website at http://www.annbaldwin.net and her blog page at http://ahigherfrequency.blogspot.com

* * * * *

Change Your Story, Change Your Life

A Path to Success
by Jen Grisanti

Book Review by Ann Baldwin

Jen Grisanti is a highly respected script consultant, public speaker, author, and writing instructor. She started her career as an assistant to Aaron Spelling. Jen climbed the ranks and eventually ran Current Programs at Spelling Television Inc., covering all of Spelling’s shows including Beverly Hills, 90210; Melrose Place; and Charmed. In 2004, Jen was promoted to Vice President of Current Programs at CBS/Paramount where she covered shows including Medium, Numbers, NCIS, 4400, and Girlfriends. She served as a mentor in the CBS Diversity Program, which seeks out and nurtures young writers and directors. In 2008, she launched her own consultancy firm, Jen Grisanti Consultancy, dedicated to helping talented writers break into the industry. She is also a Writing Instructor for NBC’s Writers on the Verge, taught classes for the Scriptwriters’ Network, The Screenwriting Expo, and The Great American Pitchfest and served on panels for the WGA and Final Draft/The Writer’s Bootcamp. Her books include, Story Line: Finding Gold in Your Life Story (Michael Wiese Productions 2011) and TV Writing Tool Kit: How to Write a Script That Sells. In her new book, Change Your Story, Change Your Life: A Path to Success (Divine Arts 2013), Jen uses the elements of story, her profound insights, and simple steps to guide you to an awareness of your passions and strengths, so you can find your niche in life; by aligning your personal and professional self, you can succeed and live a more fulfilled sense of purpose from the inside out.

Life is a series of transformations and we will all experience turning points in the process; these are often called “all is lost” moments in stories when our world gets turned upside-down and where we’re thrown into a dilemma of being forced to decide a new direction to take next. Whether it’s losing a job, the break-up of a relationship, or being displaced from our home, we can either fall victim to the circumstances or rise heroic to overcome the situation.

Jen shows you how to take these turning points and use them as starting points for new and better journeys. You will learn how to face and conquer your turning points, dilemmas, and obstacles, find the motivation to take action, get clarity on and align your internal and external goals (what you want and why you want it), and identify themes in your life that may be holding you back and no longer serve you, so you can move forward and succeed. She uses examples from her own personal and professional experiences as well as from films such as Up in the Air, The Sessions, Crazy Stupid Love, Hope Springs, and The King’s Speech.

Change Your Story, Change Your Life is like a magnifying glass that gives you a clear focus and a compass that keeps you moving in the right direction. I highly recommend for everyone who wants to take charge, control, and command of their life by being an active verses reactive heroine/hero and all writers and storytellers who want to gain a deeper understanding of the elements of story and the true process of character transformation.

You can connect with Jen Grisanti at http://jengrisanticonsultancy.com and purchase a copy of Change Your Story, Change Your Life at Amazon.

Ann Baldwin is a screenwriter (The Power of Dreams, Scent of a Trail, Dream Catcher) with several spec scripts in development. She reviews books on screenwriting and filmmaking, writes articles, interviews, and has several books (fiction & non-fiction) in-progress. Prior to launching her writing career, she was a special event coordinator and manager in the hospitality and entertainment industries for over 25 years. You can visit her website at http://www.annbaldwin.net and her blog page at http://ahigherfrequency.blogspot.com

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Hidden Tools of Comedy

The Serious Business of Being Funny
by Steve Kaplan

Book review by Ann Baldwin

Steve Kaplan is the industry’s most sought-after expert on comedy writing and production, a script consultant, producer, director, author, and teacher. He has taught at UCLA, NYU, Yale and other top universities. In New York he was co-founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan Punch Line Theatre where he developed writers such as Peter Tolan (Analyze This, Finding Amanda), writer/producer David Crane (Friends, Joey, The Class), writer/producer Tracy Poust (Ugly Betty, Will & Grace), Michael Patrick King (The Comeback, Sex and The City, Will & Grace), Will Scheffer (Big Love), Howard Korder (Lakeview Terrance starring Samuel Jackson), Kenneth Lonergan and Mark O’Donnell (Hairspray starring John Travolta), and Sandra Tsing Loh (Chicken Little). In Los Angeles, he created the HBO New Writers Project and the HBO Workspace, a developmental workshop in Hollywood that introduced and presented performers such as Jack Black and Tenacious D, Kathy Griffin, and Josh Malina. At the Workspace, he was Executive Producer for the award-winning HBO Original Programming documentary Drop Dead Gorgeous. Steve has developed, produced, and directed in regional theaters and Off-Broadway. Steve has been teaching his Comedy Intensive workshops to thousands of students across the globe. In his new book, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny (Michael Wiese Productions 2013), Steve gets to the heart of our funny bone, so you can give life to your comedies that will leave your audience in stitches.

Through Steve’s abundance of knowledge about and experience working with comedy he’s developed several tools for fixing scripts that aren’t producing enough belly-laughs. While he doesn’t consider his book a ‘how to’ for creating comedic films and T.V. shows based on a specific set of structures to follow, Steve does give you instruments to use to repair parts that aren’t functioning properly; it’s more of a ‘user’s manual’ to show you the mechanics of comedy and how it works. This process allows you the freedom to use your instincts to create and write what’s funny to you.

By understanding the dynamics of what makes us laugh and why we find certain things funny, you can develop better skills for crafting your comedies. Some of the things you’ll learn are the physics of comedy, ‘The Comic Equation,’ the power of the ‘Non-Hero,’ how to apply ‘Metaphorical Relationships’ among your characters, and how to create comic focus using the ‘Straight Line/Wavy Line’ tool. He gives clear, concise examples from films such as Big, Groundhog Day, There’s Something About Mary, Liar Liar, Meet The Parents, Annie Hall, and As Good As It Gets along with T.V. shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Saturday Night Live, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Monk, The Odd Couple, and Everybody Loves Raymond.

Steve’s approach is “keep it simple, Silly, and the comedy writes itself.” Clarity served with humor; what better way to learn the Art of Comedy?

To connect with Steve Kaplan, you can visit his website at http://kaplancomedy.com and purchase a copy of The Hidden Tools of Comedy at Amazon and MWP.

Ann Baldwin is a screenwriter (The Power of Dreams, Scent of a Trail, Dream Catcher) with several spec scripts in development. She reviews books on screenwriting and filmmaking, writes articles, interviews, and has several books (fiction & non-fiction) in-progress. Prior to launching her writing career, she was a special event coordinator and manager in the hospitality and entertainment industries for over 25 years. You can visit her website at http://www.annbaldwin.net and her blog page at http://ahigherfrequency.blogspot.com

~ ~ ~