Writing for the Screen

Producer and screenwriter, Carlos de los Rios hosts an honest conversation about the state of movies and television with a panel of professional producers and writers, including Los Angeles movie and television producer, Lee Caplin (producer of Columbia Pictures’ Ali, starring Will Smith and HBO’s True Detective), screenwriter Tony Griffin (Drop Zone with Wesley Snipes), director and feature film producer, Gabriel Bologna (The Theory of the Leisure Class and African Gothic), and Scott Myers, producer and writer (K-9, Alaska and Trojan War). Topics covered will include the current state of the writing marketplace for movies and TV, breakthrough works that stand out from the pack, and secrets to getting your work seen and heard, as well as top writing secrets employed by the writers on the panel.

Featuring:

• Gabriel Bologna, actor and director, Tango Shalom
• Lee Caplin, producer of Ali and True Detective
• Tony Griffin, actor and writer, Drop Zone, Spaceballs, and Squint
• Scott Myers, producer and writer, K-9, Alaska and Trojan War

Meet the Speakers:

Carlos de los Rios has written and published six books of prose and poetry. He is also a working filmmaker who has written/produced seven acclaimed films for Academy Award-winners Lauren Bacall and Harvey Fierstein, Academy Award-nominee Elliot Gould, Emmy Award-winners Johnny Galecki, Golden Globe-nominee Hayden Panettiere as well as movie stars such as Scott Eastwood (“Texas Chainsaw 3-D”) and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta from the blockbuster hit, “The Hunger Games”). Carlos has worked on more than 20 books, 30 films and has written and or produced seven films. Carlos lectures throughout California and is a sought-after script doctor, writing coach and story consultant. Carlos’ clients include top Hollywood screenwriters and New York Times best-selling writers.

Before Gabriel Bologna’s career as a writer/director, he was an accomplished actor for fifteen years, working with such film directors as Francis Ford Coppola and Mark Rydel. He was discovered by James Burrows while attending New York University Tisch and was flown out to Universal Studios to star in the ABC series, The Marshall Chronicles, where he played loveable tough guy, Jonny Parmetko. The New York Times reviewed Gabriel’s role as “a brilliant Fonzi redux specimen.” Though it only ran a season, the show has been immortalized on Wikipedia as being the impetus for Larry David changing the name The Seinfeld Chronicles to Seinfeld as to not compete with Gabriel’s show which had been launched at the exact same time.

Scott Myers has written over thirty movie and TV projects at nearly every major Hollywood studio and broadcast network. His screenwriting credits include K-9, Alaska, and Trojan War.

From 2002- 2010, Scott was an executive producer at Trailblazer Studios, overseeing the company’s original content development for TV.

Scott has taught in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, receiving its Outstanding Instructor Award in 2005, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and in 2016 joined the faculty at the DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts as an assistant professor.

Since 2008, Scott has hosted GoIntoTheStory.com, the official screenwriting blog of the Black List. Writers’ Digest named it the “Best of the Best Scriptwriting Website” and it gets 2M+ unique visits per year.

His book An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling: The Protagonist’s Journey is being published by Palgrave Macmillan and will be released toward the end of 2021.

Lee Evan Caplin is an American entertainment and communications industry executive. He is the founder of Picture Entertainment Corporation and currently serves as chairman and CEO. Caplin also founded iSTAR at FIU within CARTA in Miami.

Tony Griffin was born on December 8, 1959 in California, USA as Anthony Patrick Griffin. He is an actor and writer, known for Spaceballs (1987), Squint (2001) and Drop Zone (1994). He is married to Tricia Gist. They have two children.