Women in Film and video offers about 200 programs a year. One unique program is Script DC Script DC brings Hollywood level resources to the D M V for filmmakers at every level throughout their career, such as actors, producers, screenwriters, and directors. I'm your host, Sandra Abrams, and in this episode I will be chatting with Melissa how.

Women in Film and Videos. Fantastic. Executive director. She's been with the organization since, well, forever, but we'll learn more about it as we go along. Melissa will share the history of Script dc, how the program has evolved sinces in inception, and how it can help your career. Plus, during our conversation, you'll hear funny stories from past conferences and why.

Joan Darling, a director from the Mary Tyler Moore Show is such a favorite speaker. Welcome Melissa to Media and Monuments.

Thank you. I'm excited to be here. I love talking about what whiff is.

Well, we're here to talk about and highlight script d c, so maybe you can give me a little history about what is Script D.  Gimme a little like what is script DC because people see it and I hear from others and they'll say, what is script?

So Script C is a filmmaker's conference, and what we all understand is any media project starts with a word. You've gotta have a script. . So it's really about, yes, we have programs for writers, but we also have programs for filmmakers, those producers, directors, editors, talent,  you mentioned Joan Darling earlier who got a shout out at the Oscars this year and,  2023 from the Daniels.

Um, we're hoping she will be back this fall teaching her amazing two day directing actress workshop. So it's got those very intense masterclass program.  and then we'll do a program on formatting for a brand new filmmaker. it states back to the fall of 2006, so

it started in 2006.

yep.   shortly after I came to Women in Film and Video in 2005 when I thought I was coming into a non-fiction focused organization. I was hearing from a lot of our members that they wanted to make fictional movies. How would we get them to do that?

So Script C really is member generated and community generated. And you're right, we bring people from. Whatever centers of media are available. And we also feature some of the fantastic talent that we have in the Mid-Atlantic. And because it works with both fiction and non-fiction stories. We have projects for documentary filmmakers, for narrative filmmakers, shorts, features series, and then other things like,  how are you gonna distribute it.

So the idea is how are we taking you from idea to.  most years has been a two and a half day in-person conference.  but since 2020, we've been largely on Zoom, which we've gotten good at But, we all miss that in-person interaction. You have,  when you're a writer working on your own.

It's great to be with people and get feedback. this year  we are hoping to be back in person in October, November, but we're also in the midst of doing some Zoom programs right now.

what happened with Script DC because I've been to the event. And it's been the weekend presentation with very intense, you go from this program to that program  you show a film and there's lots of different speakers, and then all of a sudden the pandemic happened.

So how did that shift evolve? Was it something where you said, oh, we know exactly what we're gonna do? Or did you think maybe we won't have, script DC during the time of the pandemic,

Yeah.  well the pandemic, as we all remember, started in March, so we had a little bit of time to think about what we were going to do. We had just finished a scripty, see that previous fall, and everybody was assuming we'd be back in person. the following fall.  when it became clear that wasn't going to happen, none of us wanted to sit in a Zoom situation for two and a half days.

It was just like, that's crazy. So we've split it out into like separate strands  the last two years we've done 24 script DC workshops. and there were different nights across the year kind of focused across fall to early spring, and again, covering a lot of the basics.

How do you format a screenplay? How do you budget for one? How do you schedule for one? We had a great program recently on strategizing for a series. You know what, what really drives a series? Are you ready to write 39 to a hundred episodes of something? And, and working back through that to like, oh, Never thought of that.

You know, a television network they want a hundred episodes cuz they need that money to make back their money. A streamer, they're content with 39 episodes. That's still a big pile of writing. So we're always trying to give,  the people that attend the programs largely from the mid-Atlantic, both the framework on the technique of what they're trying to do, but also what's the landscape for what they're trying to. so I never thought about it one way or another. Limited series we're seeing almost solely on streamers.  But series are still on network television, but then they're putting it over to their streamer and then it goes into syndication, which is where they make back their money.

 I did see that recently, the program that you had mentioned, strategizing your series with Layla, uh, Villa.

Villalobos.

Thank you

she's been a script DC speaker before,  at the previous conferences that I've attended.  what's the benefit of having someone at that level,  speak to our members,  who participate in this type of program?

Yeah. we're always thrilled when Leia can, be with us because she's been a writer. She is a writer. She's written films, short stories, series, and she's been in writer's rooms for major series that we've all seen. So she's been on both sides of the trenches. She's also organized writing programs for many of the networks, and she teaches, so she gets that thing of just not, I'm gonna come in a room and tell you how to do it.

I'm also gonna listen to what your questions are, and then I'm gonna give you this framework, not.  this is how many beats you need per page, but do you really know who's taking that kind of story? You don't wanna pitch, an HBO story.  to.

Hulu. so she's bringing that very practical knowledge as well as the theoretical knowledge, but she's been on both sides of the desk. So she's pitching projects to be made, but then she's also working with people who are pitching their projects to her to have them made. So people who attend those programs really get a sense of what's the landscape?

How does this work? And that's something you don't get taught in school.

So it sounds like what makes a script DC program, because we do offer many. Throughout the year is one, it has to be a certain speaker or presenter. Is that correct? Or  what other aspects go into what makes a script DC program?

 we do tend to bring a high caliber. Of speaker, but we do that to all of our programs. They do tend to be people who've been on both sides of the desk and they tend to be a little bit less point a, point B point C technical, and they tend to be, what's that landscape question?

So they're grounding it in that bigger landscape. So that's why we have the director and Fletcher several years ago, and we had her editor, Emma Hickock, and we got to hear the both of them, how they worked together as an editor, director. Where they're producing their programs. And they had just recently released dumpin that year, so we showed that.

But, Anne Fletcher is one of the most, I mean, she's got an amazing track record as a director, and she was here for two days and did both directed in-person things and then brought her conversations. So I think that's the big difference with scripty C. We're trying to take the work that we've been building over that year, leading into that conference.

and put it up into that landscape of, okay, what's the bigger landscape now of as you're going out, who are those connections you can make? what are those people who've been in it for a long time? if we only had people who'd been making media for the last two years, their idea of how you'd make media was completely different than someone who's been doing it for 20 years and it's been through four or five or 10 mergers and updates and, oh, you can only do these programs here and you can only do them.

So we do like bringing people, particularly to script C, who have that long-term view of how work gets made.  the other programs we offer across the year sometimes are a little bit more directed.  we've got a first five page readings coming up soon, which is taking some particular scripts.

We've got great actors from the actor center who do table.  and then the writer is getting feedback to reincorporate into what they're doing. So it's very much more, here's a hands-on,  we're doing a drone program later this year. it's much more that kind of tactile program in some ways.

I think that might be one of the differe.

When it comes to script DC I do recall attending a few years ago, and Tom Schulman, who is the screenwriter for Dead Poet Society, who went on to win the Oscar for his script. And he was wonderful. And he was saying how you have to work with everybody on the team. he had explained the story. That he didn't wanna change a certain line in the script or a certain aspect, and he eventually did.

And he talked about how working with everybody and then once you see the movie and how that was the right decision to go ahead and make those changes. And I thought that was wonderful. I would not have heard something like that had he not come to the conference 

Well, and I wanna thank you for being a speaker at Scripty C one time, because you did the all important conversation of, well, how do you actually promote and publicize your film?  do you have a press release? Do you have some stills? Do you know who needs them and when they need them? And that's, another part of that team.

And I, I think really across scripty C what we try to do is,  What are all those pieces that you need to know? I think the benefit we've had, to be honest from it, going to Zoom the last couple years, when it's two and a half days, you can take four or five workshops. , maybe six max because we're, we're running six strands of workshops.

You can't be at all of them at the same time. We've taken those 24, 36 workshops and spread them out, and so it's been interesting to see people being like, oh, I never got to attend that one. Now I understand why. I need to figure out how to actually budget something. I thought I was just gonna be,  I was gonna be a script supervisor.

I didn't need to think about budget. , I need to think about budgets so they have enough so they can hire a script supervisor. You know, how do I make myself a little bit more indispensable in that team?  I think it's gonna be interesting to see what happens. I think we'll stay in a bit of a hybrid situation where we are doing in-person programs and we're pulling the amazing experts we have from the East coast.

 the myth that you can only make movies in California or Atlanta. Wrong,  we've got amazing people doing work here. We've got two features going into production this summer, actually I'm very excited about.  really, again,  it's a great way for us to really show people the ecosystem we have for media production here by having those experts in as well for those hands-on pieces.

 and a couple of our major speakers like Dara Marks or Leaky Villa Lobo. Sarah, Elizabeth Timmons, Laurie Sheer, they're spread all over. And instead of them having to give us four to six days to get here and teach, it's much easier for them to say, I can do three, two hour lectures. You know, I can do that.

I can build that longer term relationship. So we're trying to figure out what that balance is gonna be. I'm really excited to see people in the room. you know, Sandra, writers write by themselves. Editors edit by themselves. But when you get them together and they get to talk about what projects they're working on, there's this whole other dynamism in the room and they understand there are other creative people who are storytellers and you just don't get to run into them at the grocery store.

No. Well, speaking of having people there and being in the room, do you have any particular stories that you wanna share with previous speakers?

you know, the Anne Fletcher Emma Hicock, conversation was just fascinating in terms of,  Emma, the editor at one point said, I wanna do my full out edit. I wanna do what I picture this to be. And then Anne and I work together to get close to what she wants, but she doesn't always see the possibilities.

I see. Because I'm looking at the footage differently. And I love that idea of how you make space for all those  technical pieces to come in. Another film we screened, Michelle Mauer was there With her hat on as independent director and,  distributor.

And it was a film called The Light of the Moon. Stephanie Beatrice,  was the lead actor in it criminally underst seen film, but  it's a film about,  a woman who is raped and how does she respond to that?  wanting not to be either a victim or a eventual. Angel and we realized at the time, none of us had seen a film that depicted it that way before, and we were just having a conversation today.

None of them has seen a film since. That doesn't fall into those other tropes. So we love bringing those kinds of films  into the mix too. And then having the director, the distributor, whomever, talking about it and what their journey has been to do that, because so often the film will. And it takes seven years or 10 years to get made and how do you maintain yourself through that?

So there are a couple like that. I think Joan darling watching her in the acting class and literally watching light bulbs go off over people's heads, plus she has more energy than the Energizer bunny. So having her to, you know, multi-day conference is great cuz you can't be dragging your butt blower than she. because she's still going strong. So that kind of dynamism.  a lot of our local people too, we've really watched collaborations develop in that in-person piece where they're working on, not the same story, but there might be some overlap. Or I might have been to Mozambique last year.

Oh, and you're going this year. Oh, great. You need to. Charlotte, the fixer, you know, whatever it is. So I, I think those are probably my most favorite. When people were sitting down and having lunch or having coffee and you just watched them find a new member of their tribe that they didn't know existed.

And watching the excitement of that happening and then seeing our speakers see that creativity and action. So a lot of our speakers are return speakers. In part they, they're watching the progress. Of people being more accomplished at what they're doing and those long-term relationships then help it.

When you've really reached,  higher on that career ladder, you can send a script to X and say, Hey, would you read this? And would you recommend it to somebody? Or Would you introduce me to someone? And they're saying Yes now. And that wouldn't have happened in 2006.

Right. And, and a lot of people are thinking, oh, well I have to go to LA or I have to go to New York. And yet we're able to have that creative community here in Washington, DC um, Baltimore and Virginia.

Well, in fact, I'd say the way, media is going and, I'll climb on my soapbox for a minute. We're one of the only countries in the world that does not support, artists' work and creative content as opposed to other countries where they pay you to make the film and then they have a dedicated station to broadcast it and they send you to the festivals. and I think the way,  media creation is going in this country, there is a huge opportunity for independent makers. There is a huge opportunity. Every film, some films should cost 300 million. Well, actually, I don't think any film should cost 300 million, but you know, there, there are reasons why some films are multimillion dollar films, but that is also a certain kind of, And I think what I love about here  and a lot of the people we're working with, they're seeing those other stories that, you know, in air quotes or smaller stories, but they're not less important stories. And they're those stories that just get shunted off to the side, whether they're about, as someone you don't look at when you walk down the. or women's history or older person's history or actually very young person's history or that color's history or that places, or what are those stories? What's that perspective? And I love in this place where they're not being forced into telling the same story over and over again, that we can explore them differently and then, work to try and get them made and then work to find distribution.

And that for me,  is a thrill. I don't need to see, I believe there may be six stories in the world, but it's the way we're telling them.  there's some fabulous stuff coming out of here of those different perspectives, and it's a treat, it's a real honor actually, to get to work with people who are willing to stick their neck outs to tell a different story.

Is there any success that you wanna talk about or share, uh, that came outta script DC that people may not be aware of?

Oh my gosh.  a group in town called Flo State Films. I think you've interviewed some of them. Kylie Krakowski and Leola Kalo Stewart and Rachell Shapiro.  worked in and out of script DC for several years  on a documentary, which in the last year. As the American diplomat was part of the American experience and it took a long time and it was lots of,  how do we work with you on that?

 I think some of the other success stories that have come out of it are other programs we've created out of it. So after Scripty C was going for a while and we were really identifying what are some of the issues for documentary filmmakers, we've started in funds. The seed fund for documentary filmmakers didn't exist before Scripty C  last year.

we started a narrative script development fellowship because a lot of people, their scripts were better enough that now it's like, oh, you're only two or three steps from actually getting it to someone else who might make it for you. Let's help you get up those next two or three steps. So I think some of what's come out of some of the successes have been those other projects that this organization invests in to make happen to support the ecosystem.

 but then again, there are people like Jane, Barbara and Robin Newnan Price,  who kind of met up there and all realized they could make these short films and they could figure out how to do it and they could keep working on it. And they traveled around the world with their short films.

And there are lots of filmmakers. I can think of many others who are making short films and getting them in festivals everywhere. another. Documentary that came out of here is the Last Battlefront about the quest for the vote in Washington DC 

So I think there are a lot, plus there are people who are like, well, I thought I'd be a production assistant my whole life, but I think I could be an editor. And that class they were taking with editors and hands on with, Lily and Caitlin demonstrating Black magic da Vinci system or something like that.

They're like, my mind does work this way. Okay, what do I do next? So, partly it's,  one of the joys of a smorgasboard. You don't know what you want to eat until you try something and script C kind of works that way.

that, that's a great metaphor to talk about how there's so many different options that you can.  and the, all the offerings that had that.

Yeah,

a lot of the offerings and a lot of the speakers are who do, who do people wanna hear from? So,  Dara Marks has been here a few times. Amazing

is Dara Marks? Can you just highlight the importance of

yeah, she's, she's a teacher. She's a script. consultant, she's an author and  she really gets into the nub of story. What's the universal, you know, kernel of your story. And another thing that I adore about her, she's really explored, we all hear about the heroic journey. Oh, and  the modifier that we don't say is, oh, we're talking male heroic journey. Well, what's the feminine heroic journey, which. Way  different, and to be honest, much more interesting.

And the film. So one of the first years she was talking about it,  I was like, well, what film, do you think exemplifies the female, the feminine Her journey? And it was the Piano by Jane Campion, which then when you look at that film with that idea in your head, it's almost a completely different film. and so it's so much fun. Now I have this whole other perspective on the world of,  there are things about the woman king for example, that it's very much that tropic, power struggle, military might, but there's a huge amount of feminine hero journey in there and the way it turns out. And it's just that slightly different way of telling the story that opens it up to more people to understand the.  again, I think, among those perspectives that we don't see often enough,  it gives you a glimpse into other ways of telling story, which is great. And yeah, Dara's great. Laurie Shear has come several times. She's great with knowing your genre, really understanding the landscape you're working in and how do you pitch to it.

 she's written several books. She's taught for years. She ran a writing program at the University of Wisconsin, so she bring. Studio experience, teaching experience, and she's a writer. And again, she loves, I'll be totally honest,  we don't invite divas to be presenters at Script C. We bring people who really care about what's that next generation of talent or what's the current generation of talent that needs another lift and that are people who are excited about creativity, not afraid of somebody else being creative. and being in competition, it's like, no, how do we collaborate to make this happen? And I think that's another, kinda special sauce about script C.

Well, especially Joan Darling, I did not know her story and yet I had been watching. . Mary Hartman. Mary Hartman. I did not know that's how she started. I did not know that Norman Leer gave her her start. And then she told several stories about how she directed Mary Tyler Moore, especially when the clown episode, when the clown died, which is one of the best.

And she just gave insight into what was happening as to while she was directing it in the different backstory as to what was going.  and I just thought this, what's is what makes her an amazing speaker and to have this moment in person with her.

Yeah, that, that episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show is called Chuckles Bites the Dust, and it is still considered the funniest half hour of television. And and she started as an actress. She expected to be an actress. That was how she was going to make her mark. And she's an amazing actress.

I've seen her early work and it. On the one hand, I'm heartbroken that she didn't get to be that actress, and I'm thrilled because I wouldn't have known her if she was that actress. I got to know her because of the directing work she was doing and the connection she was making that way. And she's teaching at Sundances lab and she teaches at the AFI Conservancy and she's working with filmmakers on a regular basis.

And to bring that kind of both history and excitement to people who are thinking they wanna do it. It might be,  lawyers during the day or. Students or whatever, and this is their creative outlet. And then to meet someone who,  has been able to, to do that journey as well. I mean, Annemarie Allison, um, she's come a couple times.

 her last film was called Golden Arm, kind of jumpstarted by the women arm wrestling, charity, things that happened in Washington dc Who knew? But Kenny, that was the jumping off point for this fabulous independent film called Golden Arm, which takes the buddy comedy trope but puts women in it and doesn't make them stupid.

 puts them in the world of women's arm wrestling. And they pulled it off and they got it made. I mean, they film most of it in Oklahoma cuz they could make it all work there. it's totally cool. And you want those kind of case studies in front of people. Like, look, we have this idea. People thought it was crazy.

No one had ever thought of it before. Her writing partner's in la, So they found a way to work by Coastally and for anyone to say, you have to be in LA to do this anymore.  There's some specific things maybe. But you know, to say I have to be in a writer's room with you is kind of. BS at this point, it's like, well, you did it for two years via Zoom and you liked my writing, and I'm willing to get up those three hours earlier, three hours later or whatever, 

But I'm not willing to move to LA where I can't afford to live. I don't have a tribe of people that are,  supporting my work. I'm not the showrunner, so I don't have to physically be on set. Oh, and you may not be filming there, you may be filming. , British Columbia or Toronto or Guadalupe. 

Creativity can happen anywhere. How do you pull that team together to make it happen? And scripty c we're trying to pull the team together.

Well, you said this fall you're probably gonna do a hybrid of having some sort of conference and then still have some on Zoom. So I guess the question is, how do people sign up for script DC programs or how are they gonna be signing up for the conference?

Yeah. So we're,  wrapping down our, this year of script C that started last fall.  we have a couple more programs coming up and then we'll take a little bit of a break. It will go on our calendar, our newsletter. It goes out that way. Our webs. Site, w i fv org has a very robust calendar in it.  Um, script C usually happens late October, early November.

 we typically are at. A school setting or a, or a church setting actually. So we have enough rooms for the different workshops and then I think the mix will really happen. Who's willing to travel and who's not. But I already have a soft Yes. From Joan. So,  we will have a directing for actors piece.

but then, you know, hopefully Claudia Myers, who's an amazing filmmaker, writer, director from here,  hopefully she will be there in person and talking about her next films and what it's been, what her path has been as an independent filmmaker.  we've got some documentary filmmakers,  Brandon and Lance Kramer.

Their current film is called The First Step and they had every piece you were supposed to have in place to do it, the way you're supposed to do. And it still came down to them doing the work and them promoting it, and them really thinking about who is the audience for this? And yeah, it's great to have some theatrical distribution, but we really want this film to generate conversations.

Where are those people who we can talk to? So hopefully they're gonna come and do a case study about that too.  it takes this kind of time, and even when you have your funding and you have the right person, you have this. Yeah. It doesn't work the way they tell you it's gonna. So  we wanna bring the ones that, oh, it did work the way they tell you it's supposed to work.

But, the other ones are a lot better teaching tools and we have a couple directors here who've done some really good work in short film and they're getting ready to leap into feature. And so we really wanna have them doing some of those projects of, okay, how do you get the mindset to go from here to there?

So really pulling a lot of those pieces in. We'll, probably. A couple hands on workshops, hopefully,  a really good, like a camera petting zoo. So if you're thinking about buying a new camera, you know, let's actually get your hands on it  and it'll be a mix.  some people are not gonna be willing to travel and we'd rather have access to them than to be like, oh, no.

 so we'll be figuring it out. We will probably be announcing it. I'm gonna say by September we'll have a really good idea if we're doing it in person or if we have to and, and what the mix will be. . 

To sign up for the next script DC program, go to www with.org. , you can find all sorts of programs there, whether you're beginning your career or working on your third documentary. The script DCS series provides speakers and workshops that will expand your skills, knowledge, and network. Thank you, Melissa, for joining Media and Monuments.

Oh, it was my pleasure. I really,  appreciate the chance to think about what I'm gonna do for script DC this. And how we can entice you all to attend.