Enjoy the latest from our blog, member happenings, and industry news below.
Summer is Here
Welcome to Smashcut! A PSA Newsletter dedicated to giving you all the industry news in an entertaining and informative way. June is underway – Summer is officially upon us. From scorching temps that last for days on end to blockbuster films in the theaters, we are feeling the heat. Not to worry, though, we have just the thing to keep you cool - another outstanding newsletter this month – chock-full of great industry news and membership happenings. So, get out your electronics and see all the great stuff this month’s issue has in store for you.
Our guest columnist this month, Joe Gruberman (screenwriter/filmmaker and PSA member), continues with story structure – part 2 of a 3-part series. Jessica Brown (PSA board member and screenwriter) will review the book The Defining Moment by Christopher & Kathy Riley. Looking for good books on screenwriting? Jessica will give you the real deal on what books make the grade and what ones don’t.
Want to know what’s happening in Hollywood? The deals, the dealmakers, and dealbreakers? Look no further than Smashcut. We do the work, so you don’t have to. From membership happenings to box-office numbers, Smashcut has what you need. So, sit back, pull up your smartphone or tablet, and be prepared to spend all day enjoying the wealth of information we have obtained. If you are so inclined, please drop us a line – have any news to share, would like to contribute to the newsletter? We’d love to hear from you. We’d love to hear from you.
Carlo Dall’Olmo (Screenwriter/Board Member): Started writing his novel – 10 pages in (only 195ish to go). Will be taking a much-needed break in June and visiting wife’s family in Germany. They will be introducing their daughter to her grandparents.
William Douglas (Screenwriter/PSA member): After a rough couple of weeks, due to her medical scare, William’s wife is doing very well and they look forward to seeing everyone at actors reading writers. He is well into his second screenplay, a romantic comedy. It's a story about a small-town guy who comes to Hollywood with a can't miss screenplay. Two years later he's got serious panic attacks and he's driving a beer truck for a living, but you can't stop a dreamer.
Paco Madden's (Writer/PSA member) raucous political satire stage play MISTER ROG'S NEXTDOORHOOD GOES BUCKWILD will have a staged reading at The Valdez Theatre Conference on Monday, June 13 @ 1:15 p.m. at the Valdez Convention & Civic Center in Valdez, AK (http://www.theatreconference.org/play-lab/). He was also accepted to the Sundance's Screenwriting: From Outline to First Act and TV Writing: From Outline to Pilot Draft courses where he is working on his sci-fi screenplay NEW EARTH and sci-fi pilot BIONIC GIRL. Paco will be teaching a science-fiction and film course July - August at ASU through the Film School.
Scott Gore (screenwriter/PSA Board Member): His screenplay ‘Woman in the Maze’ finished filming here in Arizona and is currently in post-production. Along with being screenwriter he is also Executive Producer.
Roxanne Ruane (screenwriter/PSA member), lovingly known to PSA as Roxie, is trying her hand behind the scenes on set as Assistant Producer for the film Joemanland. Roxie brings her years of theater production experience to this film. Building props, making costume pieces, and overall just making stuff that needs to happen, happen.
Joemanland is a phantasmal journey through grief and the impact of suicide; navigating the AFTER-land of loss and love.
This film, coming Fall 2022, is directed by Ann Cabano who was inspired by footage of her son Joey Cabano found a year after his death. It is now based in the hope to bring awareness to a difficult topic while teaching people about grief and mental wellness.
Every person involved in this project has 100% volunteered/donated either their time, skills, and/or supported the film financially either by pure monetary donations, or by purchasing costumes and props and supplies on the Wish List.
The amount of public support for this project truly reinforces the need of getting people to talk about the very important topic of mental health.
You can learn all about the project and its cast and crew at www.joemanland.com. There are still lots of ways to be involved:
Follow Joemanland on Instagram and Facebook. Share their progress on your pages to help spread awareness of the topic. You can make a financial donation and/or you can make a "donation in kind" for items still needed for this passion project (funded only by the generosity of friends of the project). https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=6FYLC5DQ9UU4Q
Roxanne is proud to be involved in this project, which started out as a small idea to honor Joeman "Joey" Cabano, and which the Universe has organically grown into a very important educational piece in which far too many people in the world can relate.
Christina Huvelle (writer/PSA member): She is wrapping up the last details on her debut novel, Seeking Lydia. It is historical fiction.
Lydia is a 19th century wife and mother grieving a lost child. She makes an unlikely decision that fractures her family. What repercussions will it have for future generations? Can she come home to repair broken relationships?
June 1 is her projected release date. Christina intends to go wide through Amazon, Ingram, etc. It will be available in ebook and print formats, including large print.
Her website is chuvelle.com or seekinglydia.com.
Happy summer! After she teaches summer school for 5 weeks, her reward will be a trip to London for a writing conference and two weeks of play in her favorite city.
Janet McGinn (screenwriter/PSA member): In April, she entered the Nichols Screenplay contest with a Hallmark Romance screenplay called, "Dog Gone Memories."
End of May, she will submit a screenplay to the Austin Film Festival. On a fourth rewrite, her true crime story, "Most Wanted Dad," follows the format of "Forrest Gump" since the flashbacks show the "crimes committed."
Her December plan, when she hears back from those 2 contests, is to contact the Meridan Literary Manager, Conrad Sol, to request a professional script reading for more feedback.
Excited to be writing.
Phoenix Screenwriters Association would like to welcome our new members in 2022, we are excited to have you as a member and look forward to watching you grow as writers: Cecil Hernandez and Angela Teachout.
This is the second of three parts. If you missed the first part, you may want to read that first, just to put everything in context. We’re using “Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting” (by Syd Field) as the basis for a discussion of one of my favorite movies, “It’s A Wonderful Life”. You can apply this exercise to your favorite films as a way of improving your own writing, and as an alternative to studying actual scripts.
….now. “Now to identify the key, defining moments in the lives of the characters that we create for our stories, and how awareness of those critical events can help us write more compelling and realistic characters and more thrilling and emotionally charged scenes and situations.”
Scriptcake Podcast - Audience Manupulation with Lovinder Gill
Many screenwriters don't think about how their story will impact an audience on a scene-by-scene basis. Listen to this podcast to understand how to bring your scenes to life.
