962. Supporting the Writers Room

Writer Brett Melnick (King of the Hill, Dave) walks us through the different jobs and duties of the "support staff" in a writers' room: writers' assistant, showrunner's assistant and script coordinator.

Writer/director Rhona Rees knows what she wants to say before she writes. Here she talks about her award-winning dystopian thriller and her newly completed high-concept comedy, both driven by big issues and a strong message.

Entertainment attorney Britton Payne talks about his work with The Autism Scene, a nonprofit advocating for the inclusion of explicitly autistic characters in kids pop culture. Check out his new competition the AuSPEC AWARDS, a kids animated series spec script competition which requires a series regular meaningfully interacting with an explicitly autistic character.

What happens when you're feeling discouraged in your writing career? You "persevere" and eventually carve out a career like writer-producer LaToya Morgan (Shameless, Parenthood, The Walking Dead, Duster). We read her fifteen-year-old letter to the podcast and talk about what happened next!

Writer Lori Rosene-Gambino does not back down from adding social commentary into her fictional narratives. Hear what she has to say about her movie Anniversary, directed by Jan Komasa and starring Diane Lane.

Krista Knight discussed her work as a playwright, screenwriter, and new media artist, including scripting a ride for Tokyo Disneyland, adapting Trolls for DreamWorks/Music Theatre International, writing a stage musical with the late Jill Sobule and creating a VR puppet play during the Covid lockdown.

Writers Jake Emanuel and Willie Block talk about the "epic intimacy" they created for their fictional podcast Edge of Sleep which went on to become a book and television show.

Rae Benjamin (The Witcher, Sirens of the Deep) says she's "inspired by stories and characters" and isn't afraid to explore any medium to get there.

What happens when fire breaks out on the first day of your film shoot? Writer/director John W. Kim talks about that and other challenges that went into the writing, directing and producing of his independent film Reunion (currently in post-production).

Filmmaker Michelle Muldoon joins Pilar to talk about all of the ways your storytelling and creativity can be applied to other creative work that, in turn, helps fuel your script writing.