KAILUA-KONA — Thousands of miles away from Hollywood, writers on the Big Island may have the inspiration and talent to write, but not the resources to make their stories a success.
Jen Grisanti, a screenplay consultant based out of Los Angeles and owner of Jen Grisanti Consultancy, Inc., will use her knowledge and years of experience to help those in Kona with that problem.
Grisanti has partnered with program director John Mason to bring a screenplay writing workshop to the island. Screenplay Writing for Television and Film will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Fairmont Orchid in Waikoloa. At the all-day workshop Grisanti will share techniques and insights of screenplay writing that she has taught to many clients throughout the years.
Grisanti has previously spoken at the Big Island Film Festival, and she said her and Mason, who is responsible for organizing and producing the workshop, saw there was a need for her business on the island.
“(Mason) recognized that there are so many people in Hawaii, creative people, who want to learn how to navigate the landscape of how do you become a working writer,” Grisanti said. “He wanted me to work with anybody there who has a dream and wants to write and doesn’t know what it takes to get there, what do I need to do, what do I need to write, how do I write, what does story structure look like and what are the tools it take to write a script that sells.
“That is the intention, to help people recognize that there is a path, and you can take action and become a working writer, whether it is a screenwriter in film or a screenwriter in TV.”
Grisanti started her career when she was 24, working as an assistant to television producer Aaron Spelling. Grisanti worked with Spelling for 12 years before becoming vice president of current programs at CBS/Paramount. In 2008, Grisanti created her consulting firm.
“It just started as recognizing that I had learned how to give story notes from the very beginning of my career until my last day at the studio, and it was what I was known for,” Grisanti said. “So I thought, how do I turn what I loved about my job into a business where I don’t have to have all the stuff that I didn’t love about my job involved, and that led me to creating Jen Grisanti Consultancy, Inc.”
Discussions at the workshop will center around topics such as the elements of strong and compelling story structure and development, writing a script that sells and writing memorable characters and character dynamics. Grisanti will also offer career advice, insights into how Hollywood works and a general question and answer session from participants.
“I’ll be going through all facets of how you get started to become a working writer,” Grisanti said.
Grisanti said one exercise that is done at her seminars is called “loglines for your life.”
“Loglines for you life is taking a moment in your life, a pivotal moment, and crafting it into a logline for a script,” Grisanti said. “Loglines for your life is kind of a first step into getting them to mine their well inside themselves as far as types of stories that they’ve lived and that they know… and how to turn that into something conceptually.”
An example of a client that Grisanti considers to be a success are T.J. Brady and Rasheed Newson. As a team, Brady and Newson have worked on television shows such as “Lie to Me” and “Narcos.” Grisanti said the two came to her as seperate clients before recognizing that they could work well together as a writing team.
Grisanti said that Brady and Newson are examples that anyone can attend the workshop and further their career.
“I know so many writers are worried about age and wonder ‘what if it’s too late,’” Grisanti said. “T.J. had come to me in his mid-30s, and he had another career and he was in the military. It was really taking the worldview that he had experienced in life and putting it into writing and utilizing it that led to doors opening, because he and Rasheed wrote scripts that couldn’t be ignored.”
Mason and Grisanti believe that there is a section of writers on the Big Island who just need a small push in order to become successful.
“We have a lot of creative talent on the Big Island with interesting stories to tell,” Mason said. “Under Jen Grisanti’s inspired guidance, it is my hope that the workshop participants get much closer to their goals as professional storytellers in film and television.”
Grisanti shares Mason’s vision for what participants will get out of attending the workshop.
“I think for me, the biggest thing is helping writers move past their fear of expressing too much or going too deep,” Grisanti said. “Or, thinking that because they don’t live in Los Angeles, they can’t have a writing career.”
Email John Mason at johnmasonkona@gmail.com for more information or to register, or call at 464-4379. Registration fee is $15 for students and $25 for the general public.
