WORKSHOPS & PANELS

WORKSHOP A: Leading with Authenticity, Confidence & Courage

VIRTUAL ZOOM WORKSHOP

Join this year’s Virtual Workshop with executive and team coach Michelle Claffey (PhD, PCC) on Leading with Authenticity, Confidence, and Courage, focusing this year on how these show up in conflict situations. Healthy Conflict is normal and necessary for relationships and teams to thrive. Learn more about your conflict style and how you might lean into it, practice new skills, and encourage healthy conflict in filmmaking, especially when time pressures and tensions are high. We will explore these concepts together in an interactive, connecting format that fosters individual reflection, group learning, and, of course, fun.

Workshop B / Program #3: Dazzling Dialogue

Secrets to memorable dialogue.

In this workshop we’ll discuss the making of memorable dialogue, explain the rhetorical principles behind famous movie quotes and learn how to use silence, interruptions and voice-over narration.

Bio: Peter Meech is a writer/director/producer of film and television and the author of two books. Most recently he wrote, directed and produced Around Robin, a mystery thriller, which is available on Amazon and several streaming services.

PANELS & WORKSHOP at

Wilshire Screening Room

Sunday, September 27th

Lauren Hynek & Elizabeth Martin are writing partners who have been friends since high school. They love stories about fierce women, no matter the genre. They co-wrote Disney’s live-action Mulan. Recent assignments include: a biopic about genius computer pioneer Grace Hopper; a high-octane heist movie for Alcon Entertainment; and Spellbound (which premiered on Netflix in November 2024), with an all-star cast of Rachel Zegler, Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, for Skydance Animation, directed by Shrek co-director Vicky Jenson, music and lyrics by 8-time Oscar winner Alan Menken and Glenn Slater. Currently, they’re writing an animated comedy for NWave and TF1, a live-action drama for Columbia Pictures, and a book adaptation for Amazon. They are thrilled that their screenplay about German-Iraqi activist Farida Khalaf is about to begin production with Scottish BAFTA-winning filmmaker Hassan Nazer directing. Lauren and Elizabeth are repped by IAG, Anvil Entertainment, and Kleinberg, Lange, Cuddy & Carlo.

Alyson Fouse Alyson Fouse was raised in Compton, California by her two loving parents, Alvin and Mable Fouse. One of her earliest memories was sitting on her father's lap while he read her the Sunday comics. This lead to her love of reading. It wasn't until Alyson was a little girl in church that she realized she had a passion for writing, too. After hearing her mother read the church minutes she'd written in away that kept the congregation engaged and entertained. Alyson knew at that moment she wanted to become a writer.

Alyson began a career in radio when she submitted an unsolicited sketch to a popular Los Angeles morning show, "John London and The House Party" on 92.3 The Beat. She was hired as their first ever free-lance writer. Just a month later, one of her sketches caught the attention of Keenen Ivory Wayans, and she was hired to work with the creator of "In Living Color" on his late night talk program, "The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show".