Abe Schwartz

One of my favorite shows is Parks and Recreation. I recently had the chance to sit down, drink iced tea and talk with staff writer, Aisha Muharrar. Aisha penned several of my favorite episodes, including "Born and Raised" and "Operation Ann" this season. Here are ten things that you should...

If you haven't heard of Movie Cloud, allow me to lay it out for you. Dov Simens (the world-renowned film instructor) and Derek Christopher (president of TV/Film Seminars) have set out to revolutionize the way independent films are produced, distributed, and consumed. The duo...

This past week I attended Digital Hollywood at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Marina Del Rey, CA. It's always an interesting conference to check out, consisting of a mix of entertainment industry professionals, top players from established digital companies and people looking to make connections with both. With the digital...

Last weekend, I attended day one of No Budget Film School's "The Art & Science of No-Budget Filmmaking" at Raliegh Studios in Hollywood. The event was run by Mark Stolaroff, who probably knows as much about no-budget filmmaking as anyone. Mark used to be a principal...

I recently attended the TV/Film Summit, a two-day conference at the Westin by LAX focused on writing and selling for television and film. The days were long (12 hours each!) and jam-packed with quality information from experts Chad Gervich, Ellen Sandler,

I saw three different narrative features this past week at Los Angeles Film Festival that were set in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. I live in the area, and it was cool to see familiar spots captured through different eyes.

How to Cheat was amazing, and...

Last week, I attended the Produced By Conference, put on by the Producer's Guild of America and held on the Disney lot in Burbank. I attended the Produced By Conference last year, and it inspired one of my first (or several) pieces...

I've been really curious about creating short-form content for the web for a while now. Sure, there are hundreds of millions of clips on Youtube that technically qualify as short-form content, but the world of webisodes and short-form branded entertainment has been especially foreign to me. I typically like to...

One of my first attempts at screenwriting was a spec, or sample episode of South Park. In mine, both Cartman and Eminem are put on antidepressants and lots of weird, crazy South Park stuff happens as a result. My focus has shifted mainly to writing features, though when...

I've been a fan of Joe Swanberg since I first saw his films, LOL and Hannah Takes the Stairs, which were inspirations for me to direct my own feature. Swanberg is considered one of the fathers of "mumblecore," though that...

I attended Dov Simens' 2-Day Film School back in early 2006 in New York after graduating from Penn State. I enjoyed the class a lot, and Mr. Simens played a big part in inspiring me to write, produce, and direct my own low-budget feature, Bad Batch....

It seems everyone's looking to tell better stories these days. Peter Guber's Tell to Win and Seth Godin's All Marketers are Liars are both wildly popular and illuminate the concept for businesspeople, not just writers. As marketing becomes more about communicating to people instead of at...

Recently, I was lucky enough to attend Film Finance Forum West, presented by Winston Baker. They did an excellent job at rounding up some of the sharpest minds in the world of film financing, who collectively painted an interesting/optimistic/encouraging/bleak portrait of what it takes to get...

I've been hearing about Google TV, Boxee, Roku, etc., since last year's South By Southwest. Basically, they're connectivity boxes. They connect you to the internet and enable access to the services you'd most want to access on your TV and through your home audio system: Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, etc.

Javier Grillo-Marxuach is pretty much the man. He's written for and served as producer on several well-known, critically-acclaimed shows including "Lost", "Medium", "Charmed", and more. He served as showrunner on "The Middleman", which he created, and he continues to be a force in the world of...

I've been fascinated by the idea of crowdfunding for a while now, especially since I heard Peter Broderick and Yancey Strickler (of Kickstarter) speak on the subject at LA Film Festival back in June. After all, the idea of pooling together money and resources from family, friends, and...

Distribution has been maybe the most humbling part of filmmaking. Or maybe it was post-production? Regardless, it's been a humbling year learning about new forms of independent film production and trying to get people to see my first feature, Bad Batch.

After several rejections from festivals, IFC, and...

DSLR cameras are currently all the rage for indie filmmakers, especially since Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture took top honors at South by Southwest this past March. That was shot with a Canon 7D, and I've been looking into all the different types of DSLR's as I prepare to shoot my...

Recently I attended my first American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, CA. I'd never been to anything quite like AFM, the meeting place for the American and international film business.

I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but this was nothing like South by Southwest or...

Recently I had the chance to attend Cinema Language, taught by Tom Provost and presented by Mark Stolaroff of the No Budget Film School. I've attended a lot of conferences and workshops related to making movies, and this was definitely one of the more...