INDUSTRY 101: SPEC YOURSELF
So you’ve decided you want to write for film and television. The first step is obvious: write a screenplay. Sounds easy. Except now you have a bunch of decisions to make. Should your script be a feature or a teleplay? Do you want to write a drama or a sitcom? Should that teleplay be a pilot or a spec of an existing show? Then once you have made up your mind on all of that, where do you start? Do you need an outline? Should you fly by the seat of your pants?
To help you embark on your writing journey, listen to this conversation between Joel Thompson, Christina Strain, Nikyatu Jusu, and Daniel Jackson hosted by Cynthia Hsiung. They’ll discuss where new and emerging writers ought to focus their energies, what format might be best for them to write in, and how to determine what practices will help them produce their best work.
Humanitas's Industry 101 event series has been made possible with support from our series sponsor Sony Pictures Entertainment.
American Sign Language interpretation services will be provided by Pro Bono ASL.
THE PANELISTS
Daniel Jackson
Daniel Jackson is a screenwriter whose most recent script Cauliflower topped The Black List in 2021. He’s currently a Senior Staff Writer for Thrillist, where he covers film, television, and music. As a journalist, he’s written for XXL, CMJ, Spin, and Esquire.com. He is repped by UTA and Bellevue Productions. He earned a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and now lives in Los Angeles.
Nikyatu Jusu
Sierra Leonean-American filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu's films have played at festivals nationally and internationally, garnering her many laurels and awards. Her first feature film, Nanny, debuted at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize (US Dramatic). Professor Jusu is the second black woman director and Nanny is the first horror film to be so honored: the film is opening in theaters and streaming on Prime Video in Fall 2022. The rights to her next film project have been won by Universal Studios and Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw Productions. Professor Jusu developed Nanny as a Fellow at the Sundance Institute’s 2020 Directors & Screenwriters Lab. In 2022, she received the inaugural MPA Creator Award, and appeared with Nanny at New Directors/New Films in New York City. She is currently Assistant Professor of Directing and Screenwriting, Film and Video Studies, at the College of Visual & Performing Arts at George Mason University.
Christina Strain
Born on and raised outside an Army base in Seoul, South Korea, Christina Strain moved to the US at 18 to attend Louisiana State University, where she received a BFA in Graphic Design. After, she went on to color comics for Marvel comics for 10 years, and during her last few years at Marvel, she started writing her own webcomics. Shortly after attending several UCLA extension classes (for screenwriting) Christina retired from coloring comics to pursue her masters degree in screenwriting at The American Film Institute. Since, she's written and produced on TV shows like The Magicians and Shadow and Bone and written the Netflix film Finding ‘Ohana.
Joel Anderson Thompson
Joel Anderson Thompson, TV writer-producer, instructor, and Invisalign wearer: Between projects he gives seminars on writing and is a part-time instructor at USC, UCLA-Extension, and other institutions. Joel brazenly escaped medical school and by some miracle if not well-executed extortion made his way into NYU to receive an MFA in writing for film, theater, and television. On the path to becoming a professional writer, his day jobs ranged from story analyst for Icon Pictures, Village Roadshow, and Gerber Productions, to teaching in the Compton Public School System, content writing for e-commerce and being a professional mayonnaise taster (while secretly hating mayonnaise).
His writing credits include Boomtown, House MD, Battlestar Galactica, Falling Skies, Co-Creating and showrunning Superstition, Co-Executive Producer on Krypton. Joel also was a Co-Executive Producer on “Roswell, NM” while writing on Apple TV’s upcoming third installment of the WWII limited series Band of Brothers. Presently, he has two projects in development. One is a psychological-crime drama with Macro Studios. The other is a historical sports drama. He has also sold pitches to various networks including CBS, HBO Films, and Disney's Stage 9 Productions.
THE HOST
Cynthia Hsiung
An Executive Producer, Director, Writer and Development Professional, Cynthia Hsiung was series producer and showrunner on Young Hercules starring Ryan Gosling. She has been a creative executive at HBO, MTV and Warner Bros. Online in Original Programming Development and Production. She was part of the teams which launched HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, Taxi Cab Confessions; MTV Jams with Bill Bellamy, MTV's the Real World and its spinoff Road Rules; VH1's Behind the Music; Warner Bros. Online's animated game series Steppenwolf and Arcane. At MTV she also worked with talent including Madonna, Michael Jackson and the Spice Girls. Ms. Hsiung launched and ran the writers room on Alibaba’s first sci-fi drama series written in Hollywood. Additional showrunner credits include the series FanAddicts! She won Best Director and Best Screenplay awards for her independent feature film which has enjoyed continued international distribution. Ms. Hsiung was the Trainer and Instructor for the Lord David Puttnam ProducersLab 2020 and 2021 at LaSalle College in Singapore which trained junior series creators and showrunners in a 12 week professional program. She notes, however, her most honored position is as a continuing Instructor for UCLA Extension Writers Program and Entertainment Studies where she was bestowed the Distinguished Instructor Award in 2022.
