What the heck is “elevated genre”?
STUDIO SKYFIRE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH STOWE STORY LABS PRESENTS:
GENRE SCREENWRITING:
WHAT THE HECK IS ELEVATED GENRE?
Come join us for a free, fun & informative one-hour Zoom panel for screenwriters of science fiction, fantasy, speculative history, euromanga, horror, thrillers, you name it.
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2022
Time: 10 AM HST, 12 PM PST, 3 PM EST
TOPICS
What does "elevated genre” mean? Do we even need the term?
What are some key takeaways for our audience to raise the level of their work?
What are some networking tips for genre screenwriters?
Diversity in genre - what would you love to see?
Stowe/SKYFIRE Genre Screenwriting Fellowship and the Stowe/NYX Horror Screenwriting Fellowship for a Woman-Identifying Writer 40 and Over, including details on the Stowe Application Cycle, early deadline is November 21. Learn more here.
Q&A
ABOUT STOWE STORY LABS
Now entering its eleventh year, Stowe Story Labs is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Stowe, Vermont, which offers labs, retreats, writing programs, and mentoring programs to top emerging screenwriters, filmmakers, and creative producers from around the world. Stowe’s mission is to help emerging talents get work made and seen, and through that, to bend the world through story. Learn more about Stowe Story Labs and its programs at www.stowestorylabs.org.
PANELISTS
MELODY COOPER, Writer, director, producer and co-Founder of NYX Horror Collective
Melody is writing the feature adaptation of the best-seller fantasy novel BEASTS OF PREY for Netflix. She was a 2021 Sundance Episodic Lab and Adobe Women at Sundance Fellow and has a deal to develop a horror series. Currently a co-producer on Starz’ Power Book IV: Force, she started as staff writer on CW's Two Sentence Horror Stories while still in the 2019 HBO Access Writing Program. Before joining Force, she was story editor on the 22nd season of Law & Order: SVU. Winner of Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at 2018 Urbanworld Film Festival, Melody is also an award-winning playwright, with plays produced in NYC. She writes comic books: OMNI (Vol. 2), the sci fi story "Igbo Landing" in NOIR IS THE NEW BLACK, and "Sky's the Limit" in DC's Milestones of History. A co-founder of NYX Horror Collective, Melody co-produced 13 MINUTES OF HORROR on Shudder.
PHILIP EISNER, Writer
Philip Eisner’s produced work includes EVENT HORIZON (1997), FIRESTARTER 2 (2001) and MUTANT CHRONICLES (2008). SWEET GIRL (2021) marks his first partnership with novelist Gregg Hurwitz. He teaches screenwriting at UCLA Extension and mentors for Cinestory.org. In his spare time, he gets beaten up studying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and spends too much time playing videogames. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, son, and critters.
KAREN LAM, Writer/Director
Karen has worked full-time in the film and television industry since 2000. Starting her career as a producer and entertainment lawyer, Karen has since written and directed eight short films, two music videos, series directed a true-crime documentary series for Investigation Discovery (US), a web series “Mythos” (2015) created for TELUS, and four feature-length films -- “Stained” (2010), “Evangeline” (2013) and “The Curse of Willow Song” (2020), which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival in September 2020. The film won the award for Best British Columbia Feature Film, and Karen received a Best Director award at the British Columbia Leo Awards (2021). Karen has also written television scripts for SYFY and Netflix on the series Van Helsing and Ghost Wars. In 2021, Karen directed the seventh instalment in the Bring It On cheerleading franchise, a Halloween horror special titled Bring It On: Cheer Or Die (2022) that premiered on SYFY in October, and is available for rental on Hulu, Amazon Prime and iTunes.
CHRIS BOLTON, Writer
Chris Bolton is a screenwriter who’s done sketch comedy, made short films and a web-series, won the ScreenCraft Horror and Animation Contests, and published a series of award-winning kids’ graphic novels. Chris is most passionate about horror and the supernatural—so much so that he eagerly moved into a house inside a cemetery. (Haven’t seen any ghosts yet, but he keeps looking.) After growing up with an alcoholic father, a Black stepfamily, and a gay brother, he’s learned that families can be scary and funny at the same time.
BLAKE AVERY, MANAGER, ORIGINAL INDEPENDENT FILM, NETFLIX
Blake Avery is currently a Manager in the Original Independent Film group at Netflix, serving as a studio executive on such titles as Cedric Nicolas-Troyan’s KATE starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead & Woody Harrelson, and Adam Randall’s NIGHT TEETH starring Debby Ryan, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Megan Fox & Sydney Sweeney. Blake’s upcoming films include Mike Barker’s LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE starring Mila Kunis, Gareth Evan’s HAVOC starring Tom Hardy & Forest Whitaker, Jeremy Saulnier's REBEL RIDGE starring Aaron Pierre & Don Johnson, and Johan Renck’s SPACEMAN starring Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan & Paul Dano.
Blake is also a founder and leader of Indigenous @ Netflix, an employee resource group that advocates for greater representation and accurate portrayals in the stories told by Netflix, while also seeking to build an inclusive, supportive community for Indigenous employees.
Blake began his career at Creative Artists Agency working in the Motion Picture Literary department while also serving as a full time reader for Sundance’s Screenwriter Labs, then jumping into film development at Studio 8 of Sony Pictures. Prior to joining Netflix, Blake worked in the feature film team at Legendary Entertainment, where he helped shepherd titles like Chris Landon’s ERNEST, the reimagining of the cult VHS-era hit FACES OF DEATH, and the revival of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE franchise.
Blake was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and is an enrolled member of the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak. Blake is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in Film and Gender Studies.
MODERATOR
JEN THYM, Writer/Director and Founder of Studio SKYFIRE
Jennifer Thym is an award-winning writer-director based in Honolulu. Her fantasy web series LUMINA earned a Webby Award and a Streamy nomination, and her action short film BLOODTRAFFICK won prizes at HollyShorts & Etheria Film Festival and is distributed by The Horror Collective on Amazon Prime. She’s a proud Stowe Story Lab alum. Jen’s work has advanced to the Second Round of the Sundance Episodic Lab and the Feature Development Track and have earned placements with PAGE, Stage 32, Screencraft, Outstanding Screenplays, and the Coverfly Red List.
