I attended LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival recently, and while I had zero expectations heading in, it turned out to be one of my most enjoyable film festival experiences in a while. Held at Downtown Independent Theater and Hilton Doubletree nearby, the festival is a mix...

Well, not in real life, but Stacey and I just put together a short called STACEY DASH IS NORMAL: The Dip, and in it, you better believe she does what the headline says. The short was partially inspired by the Seth Godin book, The Dip a...

I've known Stacey Dash for several years, since I first moved to LA after college. We met on the set of an indie film, where a friend was working in casting. Stacey had a supporting role, and there was considerable down time, so we ended up discussing movies and TV....

Alex Karpovsky is all over the place. Whether you know him by name or not, if you've been following independent film for the past several years, you know his face. He has starred in Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture, Brian Poyser's Lovers of Hate, Andrew...

One of my favorite shows is Curb Your Enthusiasm. I love the improvisational feel, the show's fearless approach to tackling taboo subject matter and how various story lines seem to weave together effortlessly. I recently had the chance to discuss Curb with executive producer, Tim Gibbons. Mr. Gibbons,...

Creating a micro-budget indie film that is both hilarious and wildly original is no simple task. The Exquisite Corpse Project, which has been racking up awards at festivals in Los Angeles, is a film deserving of a much larger audience. Part absurdist storytelling, part documentary on the nature of the...

I've attended my fair share of entertainment industry-related conferences in Los Angeles in the past few years. Perhaps my favorite is the Produced By Conference, put on by the Producers Guild of America. It's a who's who of top-tier producers in film, television and new media...

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...