Catalyst Storieroad

E61 - Festival Podcast Lounge: STORMCHASER

Gretl Claggett joins us in the 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge to talk about the short drama, STORMCHASER. 
 
Logline: All Bonnie Blue ever wanted was to chase tornadoes with her Dad. But dreams die with time. Now, she’s become a different kind of storm chaser — hawking roofing, siding and storm doors “door-to-door” for her charismatic boss, Flip Smyth: a cult-like father figure to Bonnie and his tribe of young sales bucks.
 

E60 - Indie Panel: The Pursuit Of Indie Distribution

What do you do after you've produced your project? Join us for an in-depth discussion about the inner workings of the journey to distribution with a group of indie filmmakers who have done it.
 
Our panelists are:
Katie Locke O'Brien is an actress, writer, and director who has appeared in shows including COMMUNITY, JUSTIFIED, and CHUCK, and has directed episodes of A.P. BIO, PERFECT HARMONY, and the new SAVED BY THE BELL. In addition to THE THING BEFORE THE THING, she collaborated with the same team for THE REAL TRUTH BEHIND THE REAL TRUE STORY: DONNIE MILLER, and her 2018 short HAVE IT ALL won several awards including from NBC and HBO, and played at over thirty festivals nationwide.
 
Mike Piccirillo is a working crew-person on many high-profile films and television projects, including WESTWORLD, THE CALL OF THE WILD, and GODZILLA VS. KONG. But what he really wants to do is direct. And write. And produce.
 
Shannon Michael Wamser is an actor, director, writer and fight director living in New York City. He is currently on faculty at Molloy College/CAP21 where he teaches movement, physical comedy, stage combat and devised theatre in their BFA musical theatre program.
 
Hosted by Scribble & Point's Nikki Coble: An actor, writer, producer, and Catalyst alum, Nikki is the award-winning creator of the original series, AWKWARDLY, and host of the new entertainment interview series, SCRIBBLE & POINT.
 
Thank you to Catalyst Storieroad's sponsors: National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences, WDSE-WRPT Duluth.
 
 

E59 - Special Event: Practicing Your Pitch with APTV

The Catalyst Storieroad Institute proudly presents "The Pitch Process: From Creator to Executive" with (All People TV)."
 
You can watch the entire chain of events and see what happens as the pitch makes its way through the system of multiple layers of executives, just as a real pitch would. To do this, we have 5 real-life producers and executives joining and playing roles in a fictional network (All People TV) consisting of: 
 
Brent Coble & Zeke Rodriguez Thomas (Director of Production & Development)
Erica Kraus & Kimberley Browning (Senior Vice President & Vice President)
Jennifer Vasquez (President of APTV)
 
Brent Coble currently serves as the Director, Production & Development at ViacomCBS Digital Studios. In this role, Brent leads Nickelodeon's digital creative strategy, content development, and series production for screens of every size! In his tenure, Nickelodeon's YouTube channel has launched 25 new original series, gaining 6.5M additional subscribers along with over 3.5B video views.
 
Zeke Rodrigues Thomas is an award winning filmmaker and on-camera talent with over a decade of experience in the entertainment industry. As Executive Producer at Mindjam Media he produced 'Don't Go Alone', a scripted anthology Halloween series for Nickelodeon as well as serving as showrunner on Super League Gaming's Minecraft City Champs also Nickelodeon. Most recently he's also served in a creative development capacity on 'Annie vs. Hayley: LeBake Off', Throw Back with Nickelodeon, and many other VDS projects.
 
Erica Kraus - Erica Kraus is a Producer, Development & Production Executive, and Creative Strategist, working in film and television. Erica was an Executive Producer with Ripple Entertainment, developing a slate of documentary and scripted original films & series. She recently produced the critically acclaimed series Take My Wife for NBCU, and feature documentary Origin Story, currently playing on Amazon Prime. Of late, Kraus was a Production, Development, and Creative Strategy Executive at Rampante, working with Time Inc. to develop a film and TV initiative across their many brands. While there she greenlit projects including emmy-nominated Mars Generation (2017 Sundance Film Festival opening night film.) She has developed and produced documentary, scripted, and unscripted TV and film for studios and networks including NBC, Fox, Showtime, Bravo, Warner Bros., PBS, Disney Channel and Youtube. Kraus is a 2017 Sundance Documentary Fellow, and member of the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy.
 
Kimberley Browning - Kimberley Browning is a filmmaker and film festival programmer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Washington DC, she studied music and film at University of Southern California and began her production career at Disney’s Touchstone Television. Her directing and producing credits include docuseries for A&E Networks, as well as drama, comedy and lifestyle episodic programming for broadcast and digital platforms including ABC, Rollingstone.com, CBS, Warner Brothers, Comedy Central, RealNetworks and My Damn Channel. Kimberley is the founder and festival director of Hollywood Shorts Film Festival, launched in 1998. She serves as Associate Short Film Programmer at Tribeca Film Festival, and is the Senior Programmer at Catalyst Content Festival. Kimberley is the Executive Producer of HBO Access, a directing and writing fellowship program for emerging talent from diverse backgrounds in episodic television.
 
Jennifer Vasquez -Vice President of scripted programming at Awesomeness TV.
 
Thank you to the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences, WDSE-WRPT Duluth, The Wrap, and the WGA-East for supporting Storieroad.

E58 - Festival Podcast Lounge: One Year Dark

Andrew Barrack and Aaron Roberts swing by the 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge to tell us all about their documentary, One Year Dark. 
 
Logline: One Year Dark explores the effect of the potential mass extinction independent music venues are facing, and their fight to keep the historic stages we know and love.

E57 - Catalyst Spotlight: MaryLynn Suchan

Our Catalyst Spotlight with MaryLynn Suchan (Showrunner's Assistant to Krista Vernoff). What’s the smartest thing MaryLynn did on her way to where she is now? Tune in to find out!
 
MaryLynn is a bi-coastal writer/producer based in LA after spending the previous eight years of her career in NYC. MaryLynn produced an award-winning web series, Catalyst Content Festival, performed in several Off-Broadway shows, and other streaming content during her time in NYC. Since moving to LA, MaryLynn produced three short films, production-coordinated a feature with Lynda Carter, Shelly Long & Luke Wilson, and UPM’d on various sets. Currently, MaryLynn is the showrunners’ assistant to Krista Vernoff (Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19, Rebel). 
 
This program is brought to you by Catalyst Storieroad's partners: the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences and WDSE-WRPT Duluth, in collaboration with our individual donors.

E56 - Indie Panel: In The Room: Creating A Network TV Series

Our guests are:
Dan Levy - Showrunner/Executive Producer/Writer (Indebted, Goldbergs)
Neel Shah - Producer/Writer (The Bold Type, Messy)
 
Topics include:
Setting Up The Show
What is the basic structure and roles in a writers’ room?
What typically happens in a staffing interview?
What is a showrunner and why do networks use this structure?
 
Dan Levy is a comedian-writer-producer based in Los Angeles. He is currently the creator and executive producer of the NBC comedy Indebted starring Fran Drescher. Dan previously wrote on shows like The Goldbergs and Whitney, and since getting his start as a comedian in college, he has performed on numerous late night shows and Comedy Central and in 2016 he released a special for NBC’s comedy network Seeso.
 
Neel Shah is a producer and writer, known for The Bold Type (2017), Powerless (2017) and Men at Work (2012). He also created a new show coming out on Netflix in October called Messy. It’s a 6-episode comedy that was shot in India!
 
Thank you to The Wrap, WDSE-WRPT in Duluth, and the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences for supporting Catalyst Storieroad.

E55 - Festival Podcast Lounge: Not Moms

Katie Von Till, Julie Wittner & Evan Silver discuss the comedy, Not Moms, with our 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge.
 
Logline: Not Moms is the coming-of-(middle)age story of neurotic-but-lovable Julie, and willful, unfiltered Katie who find themselves outside the norm; their love lives precarious, careers devalued, and friendships dissolving.

E54 - Indie Panel: The Development Process - What It Is & How It Works

Welcome to our panel on The Development Process! 
 
Our guests are:
Eden Perry - Development Exec & Producer
Kate Imel - Dir of Development at Alloy Entertainment
Loretta Ramos - SVP of Creative Affairs at Halfire Entertainment
 
Topics include:
What is development?
How do creators get the chance to pitch and how are projects decided on?
What are the requirements for representation?
How does development transition into production?
 
Loretta Ramos is Senior Vice President of Creative Affairs at Halfire Entertainment (Netflix’s Alias Grace), where she oversees all development and production for the company. Previously, Loretta was Bryan Fuller’s producing partner through his Living Dead Guy Productions, working on such critically-acclaimed projects as American Gods for Starz, Hannibal and Mockingbird Lane for NBC, and High Moon for SyFy.
 
Kate currently works at Alloy Entertainment as the Director of Development for TV. In her current role, she aids in the development and staffing of current and upcoming shows (Gossip Girl, The 100, Legacies) and focuses on developing new series with writers based on Alloy book properties or original ideas.
 
Eden currently splits her time as an in-house producer for Cyberia Media and as an independent creative producer, developing scripted projects for film and TV. She formerly worked as a development executive for Adaptive studios under their Project Greenlight Digital banner. She has also enjoyed working with the Catalyst team over the years and most recently oversaw programming as the festival’s VP of Programming in 2019. She has a young dachshund named Ponce de Leon who she is very proud of and who will probably bark at some point during this webinar.
 
Thank you to The Wrap, WDSE-WRPT in Duluth, and the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences for supporting Catalyst Storieroad.

E53 - Indie Panel: The Business Of The Business

THE BUSINESS OF THE BUSINESS with Brianna Ancel & Jordan Ancel!
 
Brianna’s 20+ years of experience representing talent is rooted in her own career in the world of entertainment. She began as a dancer at the age of five in her hometown in Northern California. By eighteen, she was performing, teaching, and choreographing across the United States. After earning her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine, Brianna worked as an Assistant Director for a major talent competition. In 1998, she joined Kazarian/Spencer & Associates as an assistant agent and was promoted to Assistant Director of the Dance Department in 2000. Equipped with several years’ experience and a life-long passion for the fine arts, Brianna created the Theatrical Department at Clear Talent Group in 2003, which continues to thrive. She has been nominated for 3 consecutive years (2010-12) by the Talent Manager’s Association's Seymour Heller Award for Adult Theatrical Agent of the Year. In 2019, she was nominated by both the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and The Los Angeles Business Journal's Women's Council for Executive of the Year. She is currently Vice President of Clear Talent Group as well as the Director of the Theatrical Department. Brianna is also the author of the Amazon Best Selling book "10 Top 10s From A 10 Percenter: Over 100 Acting Career Tips From A Hollywood Agent".
 
Jordan is a multi-award-winning filmmaker & producer, serial entrepreneur, author, artist, and founder of ThrivingActor.com He is currently in pre-production for the horror feature, The Unseen, starring R.J. Mitte of Breaking Bad, and has TV four shows in development. His latest stage production, Melissa Center is… Marrying Jake Gyllenhaal, produced during the Pandemic, was the first of its kind to be a multi-cam live-stream from a theater, bringing the live theater experience to people at home and raising a ton of money for charity through ticket sales to help artists affected by the pandemic. As a coach, he provides actors, entertainment CEOs, entrepreneurs, and artists with his proven methods for problem-solving and growth to help them achieve better results in life and business. Jordan is also currently the Chief Creative Officer of the entertainment Ed-Tech startup MediaU, as well as sits on the advisory board of the AR/VR company, Game Nation, Inc. He founded the acclaimed Greenwich House Theater Company (1993) in New York City, was a highly successful commercial & voiceover actor, and then went into the startup world where he found great success. He’s committed to helping actors and filmmakers thrive and achieve happiness by teaching them actual business skills that work to help them fulfill their dreams. What does it mean to be in professional partnership? Is there industry etiquette for social media? Bring your questions & learn from two of the best in the biz!
 
This program is brought to you by Catalyst Storieroad's partners: the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences and WDSE-WRPT Duluth, in collaboration with our individual donors.

E52 - Festival Podcast Lounge: Marcellus Hall - An Artist In New York City

Justin Joseph Hall shares his documentary, Marcellus Hall: An Artist In New York City, with the 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge. 
 
Logline: Marcellus Hall is a NYC-based illustrator. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and Time, as well as in American Illustration, the Society of Illustrators, and Communication Arts annuals. His first cover for The New Yorker was published in 2005.