Catalyst Storieroad

E41 - Special Guest: Catalyst Founder Seminar with AJ Tesler

A conversation with AJ Tesler, the original Founder of Catalyst (formerly ITVFest when it was first created). Hear about the origins of the organization, why it was founded, how the early years changed with the growth of the digital industry, what motivates industry professionals to be interested in independent artists, and where he thinks the industry is headed.

E40 - Festival Podcast Lounge: If I’m Alive Next Week

Robbie Sublett joins us in the 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge to talk about the short comedy, If I'm Alive Next Week. 
 
Logline: When a foul-mouthed, 80-year-old grandma gets dumped and booted from her boyfriend's brownstone, she's forced to return to the rent-stabilized apartment housing her broke-ass, ungrateful kids. An irreverent meditation on aging that asks: can you really reimagine your life on the cusp of its twilight?

E39 - Catalyst Spotlight: Dinh Thai

Welcome to our Catalyst Spotlight with Dinh Thai!
 
A dynamic writer/director, Dinh was born in Vietnam, fled to France & finally settled in LA. His work blends visual style with realism, focusing on comedy & drama with strong musical influences. His commercial clients include Adidas, Beachbody, T-Mobile, Toyota, and the US Navy.
 
In 2018, Dinh's MONDAY won "Best Short Film" at Catalyst. It has since aired on HBO & Cinemax. It has garnered 50+ festival awards, including first place in the inaugural HBO Asian Pacific American Visionaries competition. Along with being an alumnus of the Disney TV Director Program & NBC’s Emerging Director Program, Dinh has shadowed on AMERICAN HORROR STORY (Ryan Murphy's Half-Initiative), and MAYANS M.C. (Touchstone TV). He recently directed an episode of WU-TANG: AN AMERICAN SAGA (205 Visionz) for Hulu as well as season two’s final episode of NEW AMSTERDAM (218 “A Matter of Seconds”). Dinh has co-written an Asian American pilot for Freeform & is actively developing his short film into a TV series while pursuing directing assignments.
 
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.

E38 - Indie Panel: Music Contracts For Every Budget

The Catalyst Storieroad Institute proudly presents "Music Contracts for Every Budget". Learn how to secure music for your series and much more. Our guests are: Paul Bezilla - Entertainment Attorney and Alex Mueller - Entertainment Attorney/Composer. Hosted by Charlie McCarron - Composer and Film Score Fest Executive Director.
 
Topics include:
What’s the process for licensing an existing song?
What should be in a composer contract?
Public domain and royalty-free music
 
Paul has worked in law firms and corporations in Los Angeles, Nashville and Minneapolis, including a multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, an international law firm and an international record company. He understands negotiation, finance and contracts in the entertainment industry from all sides of the table. His entertainment law practice includes music, film, television, e-commerce, internet, advertising, branding, production, distribution and new media. Before law school, Paul was a professional touring musician and was inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Paul was an adjunct professor for the University of Southern California’s Music Department (Music Business) from 1988 to 1995.
 
Alexandria (Alex) Mueller is a media composer and entertainment attorney. She is the Chair of the Sports, Art and Entertainment Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association and author of a chapter on music transactions in the Intellectual Property Deskbook for Business Lawyers, published by the American Bar Association. Alex works with businesses of all sizes in a variety of industries including filmmakers, event vendors, musicians and performing ensembles, composers, artists, authors and game and software developers to manage their rights.
 
Charlie McCarron is a film composer, video producer, visual artist, and board game designer in Minnesota. He is the executive director of Film Score Fest and produced the podcast Composer Quest. Notable films Charlie has composed for are Emmy-nominated Beneath the Ink, STARZ documentary Silicone Soul, and Kare 11’s Love Them First: Lessons From Lucy Laney Elementary, the best-selling film in the history of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival.
 
Thank you to the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences, WDSE-WRPT Duluth, The Wrap, and the WGA-East for supporting Storieroad.

E37 - Festival Podcast Lounge: Good Help Is So Hard To Find

Steve Fisher and Jake Issacs swing by the 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge to discuss their short comedy, Good Help Is So Hard To Find.
 
Logline: Good Help... is a serialized short form series that follows a millennial couple in a constant state of simmering crisis as they fail to find an adequate couples therapist.

E36 - MediaU & A Business Roadmap for Indie TV

An Introduction to MediaU & A Business Roadmap for Indie TV!
 
MediaU opens the doors of access and upskills professionals like you for content creation, filmmaking, and television, with an emphasis on practical outcomes and careers. It’s accelerated online training to get you ready for your next level. MediaU has several new programs rolling out before the end of the year, and members of the Catalyst Community will get a special MediaU discount code.
 
Adam Leipzig, like everyone on the MediaU team, has a dual career commitment to both media-making and education. He has been a senior executive at Walt Disney Studios and the President of National Geographic Films, as well as the lead author of Filmmaking in Action: Your Guide to the Skills and Craft, the standard university textbook on filmmaking, and Inside Track for Independent Filmmakers, both published by Macmillan. Adam has been a producer, distributor, or supervising executive on 35 films that have disrupted expectations, including A Plastic Ocean, March of the Penguins, God Grew Tired of Us, Amreeka, Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Dead Poets Society, The Way Back, and Titus. His movies have won or been nominated for 10 Academy Awards, 11 BAFTA Awards, 2 Golden Globes, 2 Emmys, 2 Directors Guild Awards, 4 Sundance Awards, and 4 Independent Spirit Awards. In addition to guiding MediaU, Adam is professional faculty at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He looks forward to working with you!
 
Adam Fratto is an award-winning executive producer with an international track record in TV development, programming, and production, as well as feature films and new media. He recently ran the scripted department for History, overseeing shows like PROJECT BLUE BOOK and VIKINGS, and has produced shows including CLEVERMAN, HAVEN and GREEK.
 
What materials do you need to shop your story around? What is a partnership agreement? Learn this and more when you tune in!
 
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.

E35 - Pitch World: Week Six - Conclusions, Pitch Performance & More

Welcome to week 6 of our new series of Pitch Classes with Carlo Gonzales-Moss!
 
Each week, Carlo teaches you everything you need to know about the entire pitch process and reveals the format and structure that he uses for each and every one of his pitches. This week is Class #6, focusing on CONCLUSIONS, EXEC Q & A, and PITCH PERFORMANCE.
 
Carlo is the Founder and CEO of MARANTY MEDIA, the startup that he created in order to demystify the art of pitching for creators all over the world. Prior to founding Maranty, Carlo was a successful writer, producer, and executive specializing in comedy and animation. He most recently served as the SR. DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AT THE RUSSO BROS’ OCTOPIE STUDIOS and CCO AT EXTRA CREDIT STUDIOS, the animation studio he co-founded in 2013. In the past, Carlo has developed, sold, and produced television and digital properties with a wide variety of partners, including NBCUNIVERSAL, WARNERMEDIA, VERIZON, TWITTER, CHARLIZE THERON, ERIC ANDRE, RONDA ROUSEY, FREEFORM, and SYFY, among others. Along the way, he also created THE MOST POPULAR GIRLS IN SCHOOL, an independent stop-motion series that ultimately became one of Youtube’s most popular and impactful scripted series ever, boasting more than 150 million views and 1 million subscribers.

E34 - Special Guest: Finding Your Authentic Voice With Jenna Laurenzo

The Catalyst Storieroad Institute proudly presents "Finding Your Authentic Voice with Jenna Laurenzo".
 
Jenna Laurenzo is the Director, Writer, Producer and Star of Lez Bomb. Lez Bomb made its premiere at Geena Davis' Bentonville Film Festival where it won the best narrative jury award. The film had a theatrical release in November 2018 and is now on Netflix. Lez Bomb was Laurenzo’s follow-up to her short film, Girl Night Stand, which garnered over 10 million views and drove online cultural conversation for months. Jenna was selected for Shoot Online's 2018 New Directors Showcase, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 2018 Artist Academy. Jenna is currently developing her next feature with Red Hour. Most recently, Jenna was selected to participate in the 2020 inaugural class of The See It, Be It Filmmaker Fellowship.
 
Thank you to the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences, WDSE-WRPT Duluth, The Wrap, and the WGA-East for supporting Storieroad.

E33 - Festival Podcast Lounge: FRESHWATER

Ian Planchon and Lynn Melling join us in the 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge to discuss their documentary, FRESHWATER. 
 
Logline: Freshwater is a documentary that dives into the cold waters of Lake Superior along Minnesota’s North Shore. Despite the fact that it contains ten percent of Earth’s freshwater, this massive force of nature remains largely unexplored.

E32 - Indie Panel: Making The Move & Breaking Through In LA

The Catalyst Story Institute proudly presents: Making the Move & Breaking Through in LA. The stories of how four east coast women moved to Los Angeles and worked their way into key roles at some of the industry's largest studios.
 
Learn the specific career moves they made, pick up some tips on how to navigate breaking in, and answer your questions.
 
Lauren Wells is a writer from New York who has worked on shows such as Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Happy!, and Angelyne. Currently, she is a Writers' Assistant for the FX comedy What We Do in the Shadows.
 
Angela Harrer is an eight-time Boston/NE Emmy® award-winning writer, producer and director who relocated from Boston to Los Angeles in 2018. She is currently a Showrunner's Assistant on Apple TV's upcoming series about the life of Hedy Lamarr, starring Gal Gadot.
 
Jamie Osganian is originally from Massachusetts and graduated from NYU Tisch in 2018 with a degree in Film and Television. She moved to LA 2 years ago and is currently working on scripted TV shows as a Production Office PA. Currently, she is the office PA on a new Tina Fey comedy with NBCUniversal. In the future, she hopes to work as a writer in the scripted television space.
 
MaryLynn Suchan is a writer, producer, and award-winning actor from New Joizy who moved to LA after eight years in NYC. She worked on shows for Discovery, HBO, TLC, and was most recently a showrunner's assistant at Netflix.
 
Thank you to WDSE-WRPT in Duluth and the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences for supporting Catalyst Storieroad.