2017 Austin Film Festival Wrap-up

Panels, sessions, meetups, old friends, new faces, a great writers weekend.

I am currently in the Austin airport awaiting my flight back to Chicago after a terrific long weekend at the 2017 Austin Film Festival. Here’s a quick wrap-up.

Friday, October 27
1:30pm
Roundtable: The Art, Craft, and Business of Film

Met 15 writers from all over the U.S., Canada, the U.K., even Sweden. I answered their questions for 75 minutes including my advice on how to create the path of least resistance toward landing management representation.

3:15pm
Deconstructing: Blade Runner
With Jon Hoeber, Doug Jung, and Anne Cofell Saunders

I moderated this panel which was great, a deep dive into a classic science fiction movie, topped off by a special appearance by actress Sean Young who played Rachael in the original film. She shared some great anecdotes about the film’s production and I think it’s safe to say the entire panel’s mind was blown by the experience.

9:00pm
Scriptnotes, Live!
With John August and Craig Mazin

John and Craig played to a packed Driskill Ballroom along with a slew of other writers including Tess Morris, Scott Frank, Guinevere Turner, Scott Alexander, Dana Fox, Megan Amram, Oren Uziel, Jason Fuchs, and Scott Rosenberg, as well as producer and former studio executive Lindsay Doran.

Saturday, October 28
10:45am
Combating Common Challenges
With Dana Fox, Eric Heisserer, and Scott Rosenberg

I moderated this panel which took on Procrastination, Perfectionism, Writers Block, and Self-Doubt. It was a wonderful event as the writers were both hysterically funny, but also filled with insights about how to become better and more productive writers.

2:45pm
A Conversation with Scott Frank
With Craig Mazin and Scott Frank

Scott Frank’s screenwriting credits include Out Of Sight, Minority Report, Get Shorty, Marley & Me, Little Man Tate, and Logan. He and Craig did a deep dive into Frank’s writing process which I’m glad to hear is strongly character-based. I took copious notes and will feature them in an upcoming post.

Sunday, October 29
3:00pm
Writing a Worthy Nemesis: Your Protagonist’s Shadow

I did a 75 minute presentation in the packed Maximilian Room (they had to move to a bigger venue due to the crowd size). Not a list of tips, but rather a comprehensive look at a unique starting point for developing a story’s Nemesis character: Begin with the Protagonist. I received dozens of emails requesting the presentation’s PowerPoint slides and spoke with countless people afterward. One young woman in particular was teary-eyed in explaining how she had been struggling with her MFA thesis script, but while listening to my presentation, it all started to become very clear to her what she needed to do.

Honestly, it’s moments like that which make what I do worthwhile.

Of course, much of the time I spent meeting with writers, many of them Go Into The Story fans, Zero Draft Thirty Facebook members, Screenwriting Master Class alumni, and Twitter buddies. Feels like I interfaced with well over 100 writers here in Austin.

All in all, a great time and I’m happy to announce, I’ve been invited back for the 2018 Austin Film Festival. If you couldn’t make it this time, how about next year?

Many thanks to Colin Hyer, Harrison Glaser, Olivia Riordan, Samantha Johnson, and the many volunteer staff who helped make my stay in Austin a special one.

See you next year!