Catalyst Storieroad

E31 - Indie Panel: Making Music Decisions For Your Series

The Catalyst Storieroad Institute proudly presents: Making Music Decisions for Your Series. Our guests are: Jason P. Schumacher - Director/Producer/Writer/Editor (Twin Cities, This Is Home); Tom Scott - Composer/Orchestrator/Producer (Time for Ilhan, Mystery Science Theater 3000); Norah Shapiro - Director/Producer (Time for Ilhan, Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile); and Andy Thompson - Composer/Producer/Orchestrator (Dessa’s Sound the Bells with the Minnesota Orchestra, Jeremy Messersmith’s discography). Hosted by Charlie McCarron - Composer and Film Score Fest Executive Director.
*Special note: All of these incredible industry guests are Minnesota based.*
 
Topics include:
Who do I approach first about music?
How do I know when to use original composition vs existing music?
What’s the best way to communicate ideas to a composer?
 
Jason P. Schumacher is a Minnesota-based narrative and experimental filmmaker, creating works primarily focused on mental health. He also keeps busy producing the work of other writers and filmmakers through his production company, GreyDuck.
 
Thomas Scott has over 20 years experience as a composer and music producer working in film and television. Recent work includes the 2017 Netflix reboot of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 – which included orchestrating and producing a theme recorded by a 65-piece orchestra. He also created the sound design for the dramatic short, New Neighbors (2017 Sundance Film Festival). Additional documentary projects include scoring War Dance (Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature and winner of a Sundance Doc Directing Award 2007), Miss Tibet: Beauty In Exile (2014) Pretty Village (2014) and Holy Wars (2010), and Battle For The Elephants (2013) for the National Geographic Network for which he arranged choral arrangements recorded by the Kenyan Boys Choir in Nairobi, Kenya.
 
Emmy Award winning filmmaker Norah Shapiro left a decade-long first career as a public defender to work in documentary filmmaking, and hasn’t looked back since. Her most recent film, Time for Ilhan, about the political rise of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, received Catapult Film Fund development funding, was selected for the 2017 IFP Film Week, the 2017 TFI/A&E Story Lab, premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. Time for Ilhan won multiple audience awards, was nominated for a 2018 NAACP Image Award for Best TV Documentary, and received a 2018-2019 Daytime EMMY Award for Outstanding Directing Special Class. Norah is currently producing a documentary (in post-production) about the far-reaching impact of a notorious abduction of a young boy in rural Minnesota, and is also directing/producing a short film about a young woman’s quest to create the nation’s 1st Memorial to survivors of sexual violence in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Norah is a founding member of the Minnesota Chapter of Film Fatales, and is the proud mother of 3 young adult/teens.
 
Andy Thompson's compositions and productions have been licensed by Target, Garmin (Super Bowl ad and AICP award nomination for original music), Saturday Night Live, VICE News, The Voice, Goodyear, Sprint, Best Buy, The Minnesota Twins, Coleman, Lifetime Fitness, The Climate Reality Project, Ellis Island Foundation, TLC, NBC, ABC, CW, ESPN, and Cartoon Network. He's also scored some award-winning short films along the way. Andy can be found making music with the likes of Jeremy Messersmith, BOY, Dan Wilson, Taylor Swift (including a Grammy nomination for Red), The Minnesota Orchestra, Dessa, Belle and Sebastian, Daniel Johnston, Kevin Steinman, Colbie Caillat, Atmosphere, Mike Doughty, and Puffy AmiYumi.
 
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 Wrap, WDSE-WRPT in Duluth, and the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences for supporting Catalyst Storieroad.
 
 

E30 - Festival Podcast Lounge: F.A.M.

Anthony Williams comes through the 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge to discuss the drama, F.A.M.
 
Logline: A father fights to maintain a tangled web of relationships between three women; his sexy wife, his hellcat ex, and bi-curious teen daughter.

E29 - Pitch World: Week Five - The World Of Your Show & Its Rules

Welcome to Pitch World with Carlo Gonzales-Moss! This week is Class #5, focusing on THE WORLD OF YOUR SHOW & ITS RULES. We'll also be discussing a number of optional topics you might want to include in your pitch, such as: Tone, Themes, Visual Style & Influences.
 
Each week, Carlo will teach you everything you need to know about the entire pitch process and will reveal the format and structure that he uses for each and every one of his pitches.
 
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.

E28 - Indie Panel: Composition & Orchestration - Learning From The Pros

The Catalyst Storieroad Institute proudly presents "Composition and Orchestration: Learning from the Pros." Our guests are: Ryan Elder - Composer (Rick and Morty, Harmonquest, Boss Baby: Back in Business, The Simpsons, Wizards of Waverly Place) and Robert Elhai - Orchestrator/Composer/Arranger (Frida, Fast and Furious, Crazy Rich Asians, The Avengers: Age of Ultron). Hosted by Charlie McCarron - Composer and Film Score Fest Executive Director
 
Topics include:
Composing for animations like Rick and Morty
What should you think about when planning music for a series?
Working with an orchestra W
What’s involved in a large-budget music production? 
Ryan Elder is a television and film composer known for his diverse, eclectic comedy and sci-fi scores. His music for Adult Swim's Rick and Morty has been recognized for the strange and fantastical worlds it helps create. He also co-composes the music for Harmonquest (VRV) and the Dreamworks animated series Boss Baby: Back in Business (Netflix.) He has contributed music to FOX's The Simpsons and Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place. Ryan has also composed music for numerous advertising clients (Nike, Toyota, US Bank). In 2010 he won a London International Award for his work on New Balance's campaign "Feet on Head." He has been writing music for Los Angeles's monthly Channel 101 screenings since 2006 where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.
 
Robert Elhai is an award-winning composer, orchestrator, and arranger. He has contributed orchestrations to over 150 film scores including those for Frida by Elliot Goldenthal (winner of the Academy Award for best music) as well as The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 3, Crazy Rich Asians, and five of the Fast and Furious movies by Brian Tyler. Also listed on his IMDb page: three Alien movies, two Batman movies, and the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. He has often collaborated with film composers Elliot Goldenthal, Brian Tyler, Michael Kamen, Klaus Badelt, Ilan Eshkeri, Edward Shearmur, James Newton Howard, as well as many others, and has been involved in projects that have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards as well as many other honors. He grew up in Southern California, lived in New York for 7 years, and currently lives in Minneapolis.
 
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.

E27 - Festival Podcast Lounge: Dear Brown People

Maurício Costa comes to the 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge to chat about his documentary, Dear Brown People. 
 
Logline: Dear Brown People debates the need for and practices of the “racial courts”, so-called “verification boards”, in Brazil, whose purpose is to verify the color, race, and ethnicity of candidates who are applying for affirmative action and, in particular, the systematic discrimination against mixed-race people in this process.

E26 - Indie Panel: The Journey From Assistant To Staff Writer

The Catalyst Storieroad Institute proudly presents: The Journey from Assistant to Staff Writer. Learn about making the career move into the writers' room at some of the industry's most well-known studios. 
 
Matthew J. McCue is a screenwriter and producer who was born and raised in New York. He's a Fulbright Scholar, Tarot Card reader, and David Bowie fan who once freed a llama from a petting zoo. Most recently, Matthew has worked on 'Hit & Run' for Netflix, 'Pachinko' for Apple's streaming service, and is currently working on 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' for Showtime."
 
Eugene Ramos is a Humanitas Prize-nominated writer from Chicago. He is an alum of Columbia University’s Film Division, the CAPE New Writers Fellowship, and the Clarion Science Fiction Writers’ Workshop. Most recently he was the Showrunner’s Assistant on Netflix’s “Daybreak” and wrote for the show’s podcast spinoff, “The Only Podcast Left.”
 
Alexa Babin is a writer who most recently worked as a Writers' PA on the Netflix dramedy series, Daybreak. She's also worked as an assistant to the executive producer of NCIS: Los Angeles and as a production assistant on a various reality tv shows.
 
Thank you to WDSE-WRPT in Duluth and the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences for supporting Catalyst Storieroad.

E25 - Indie Panel: From Pre To Post - The Details Of Being A Pro Indie Producer

The Catalyst Storieroad Institute proudly presents: From Pre to Post - The Nitty-Gritty Details of Being a Professional Independent Producer. Our guests are Kimberley Browning (HBO Access/Hollywood Shorts) and Jessica Petelle (Fox, SYFY, Viacom, Netflix).
 
Topics include:
How to find the script you want to work on & how do you secure your job on the project?
How do you hire all the different departments?
Budgeting
The day-to-day of set life
Staying on schedule
Post-production, Picture Lock & Music
 
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.
 
Jessica Petelle has over fifteen years of experience as a producer of award-winning independent film, television, music videos, interactive and digital content for advertising and entertainment. As a digital content producer, she has worked with Merman to produce the award-winning interactive digital film OUTAGE for IBM. Other clients include work for Volkswagen, Comedy Central, GaiamTV.com, Fox, SyFy, BlackBoxTV among others. Over the past several years, she has felt the embrace of the vibrant filmmaking community in Canada, dedicating time and talent toward international co-production. She has served as a production consultant on FOX’s WAYWARD PINES, and SYFY/SPACE Channel series BITTEN, as a Co- Producer for two seasons of THE SHANNARA CHRONICLES for Viacom, and as a Co-Executive Producer for Netflix Original Series, V- WARS.
 
Thank you to WDSE-WRPT in Duluth and the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences for supporting Catalyst Storieroad.

E24 - Festival Podcast Lounge: COUP!

Brian Goodheart and Matt Klaus Esolda join us in the 2021 Festival Podcast Lounge to tell us about their comedy, COUP!
 
Logline: COUP! is a web series about a CIA analyst who plunges her life and career into chaos when she saves her brother, a recently deposed dictator, from an assassination attempt and lets him crash on her couch.

E23 - Pitch World: Week 4 - Sample Episodes & Season Arcs

Welcome to week 4 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 #4, focusing on SAMPLE EPISODES & SEASON ARCS!
 
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.

E22 - Storieroad Lecture Series: #2 The Showrunner - TV’s Mysterious & Powerful Role.

Catalyst Executive Director, Philip Gilpin Jr., delves into the intricacies of being a showrunner with writer, showrunner, and executive producer, Karl Gajdusek. 
 
Topics covered included:
What's the process of getting your show made?
Pitching to networks
The writing room process
Leading a large production
Indie vs network productions
 
Karl's current feature projects include The King's Man at Fox/Disney with Matthew Vaughn directing Ralph Fiennes in the next film in the Kingsman franchise. The gun-violence story His Only Living Boy for Amazon Studios for Ben Affleck, the original FOX/Disney sci-fi feature Courage also with Matthew Vaughn directing as well an adaption of the sci-fi novel Salvation Day for E1 Entertainment. Television work includes showrunning Season 1 of Stranger Things at Netflix, creator and showrunner of ABC’s Last Resort with Shawn Ryan (The Shield, Timeless, SWAT), and Riverview with Daren Aronofsky at HBO. Most recently Karl is creating Flickermen for Peacock/USA and an adaptation of the novel Age of Light about the artist Lee Miller. Previous credits include the Tom Cruise film Oblivion, the Pierce Brosnan thriller The November Man, the Nicole Kidman and Nicholas Cage Trespass, Story Editor for the Showtime series Dead Like Me, and feature film Blood Brother at Lionsgate. Other endeavors include Showrunning season 2 of Z: The Beginning of Everything at Amazon, the science-fiction series The Spark at HBO, and an adaptation of the Gary Shteyngart novel Super Sad true Love Story with Ben Stiller. Before establishing himself in TV and film, Karl was a playwright who’s plays have been produced in New York and across the country. Karl has a B.A. from Yale University and an M.F.A. in playwriting from the University of California at San Diego.
 
Thank to you WDSE, College of St Scholastica and our partners for making these educational events possible.