SWW Storyteller

Conferences

SouthWest Writers offers conferences to advance the skills and marketability of writers. Each conference features experienced writers and often editors and agents whose presentations reflect the reality of getting published.

SCREEN & SCRIPT 2012

One-Day Screen-Writing Conference

Keynote Speakers: Doug Eboch, Miles Swartout and Rick Reichman

Saturday February 25, 8:30 am -– 5:00 pm

Location: Eleganté Hotel, 2020 Menaul NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87107.

$155 - Early-Bird for everyone who registers and pays before February 12th - SWW members and non-members alike
$150 - Students with current photo identification of enrollment
$175 - Everyone who registers on or after February 12th except Students.

Click here for the conference schedule.

Speaker Biographies

Doug Eboch

Douglas J. Eboch is a professional screenwriter and director who wrote the original screenplay for the movie Sweet Home Alabama starring Reese Witherspoon, which still holds the record for biggest September opening weekend gross. Recently he has written content for the Facebook game Nightmare Cove. He also wrote the children's play Sleepover at the Stable, which has been performed hundreds of times around the U.S. The Scriptwriter¹s Network awarded him the Carl Sautter Screenwriting Award for Best New Voice in Feature Films. He has a BA in Film Production and an MFA in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California, and is currently teaching screenwriting and pitching at Art Center College of Design and screenwriting workshops for the Singapore Media Academy. His popular screenwriting blog, letsschmooze.blogspot.com, was recently translated into Russian by the Cinemotion Lab in Moscow.

Miles Swarthout

Miles Swarthout is a Spur-winning novelist for his first Western, The Sergeant's Lady (Forge Books, 2004). Miles is the only son of the late bestselling novelist, Glendon Swarthout, and adapted his dad's masterpiece, The Shootist, for John Wayne's final film in 1976. Miles received a Writers Guild nomination for Best Adaptation. Besides writing original screenplays, Miles has adapted others of his father's novels, including A Christmas Gift, which was retitled A Christmas To Remember in the 1978 CBS TV-Movie starring Joanne Woodward and Jason Robards. Miles has recently completed a sequel novel to The Shootist. More about the Swarthouts' backgrounds and books, as well as the 8 films made from Glendon's novels are posted here: www.glendonswarthout.com.

Rick Reichman

Rick Reichman has optioned two scripts and has had several documentaries and training films produced. His first book Formatting Your Screenplay has sold over 14,000 copies, and his new book 20 Things You Must Know To Write A Great Screenplay was nominated for Foreword magazine's writing instruction book of the year and New Mexico Book Association's non-fiction book of the year. His students have sold scripts to Fox, Warner Brothers, HBO, Showtime, PBS, TNN, all the major networks, and to Roseanne, Friends, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Crossing Jordan, to name a few. One of his former students is currently Executive Producer of CBS' The Mentalist.

Marc Calderwood

Marc Calderwood is an award winning screenwriter and founder of the Duke City Screenwriters, the oldest screenwriting critique group in Albuquerque. In 2008 he made his directorial/producer debut in the 48 Hour Film Project completing the short "Water Torture," an award winning short that was shown at the Santa Fe Film Festival. Calderwood received his Screenwriting Certification from UCLA in 2009. Currently Marc coordinates a program working with disadvantaged kids developing film, media and computer with resources secured from Intel and the Museum of Boston.

Cliff Gravel

Cliff Gravel was born to French-Canadian parents and spent an adventurous childhood that included being run over by a car, getting shot, and being stabbed. Cliff moved out of that neighborhood. After high school he became intensely involved in Community Theater, which led to studies at the Circle-In-The-Square Theater in New York City. Later Cliff earned a B.S. in Science Education, and an M.A. in Film and Theater.

Ending up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Cliff made ends meet by working as mystery shopper, inventory counter, furniture assembler, phone entertainer, textbook editor, stress-reduction instructor, acting teacher, memory course demonstrator, and Radiation Data Analyst. Along the way, Cliff has appeared in over 300 plays, movies, TV episodes, TV commercials, radio ads, improv comedy shows, TV animations, audio novels, bible recordings, live action video games, melodramas, and interactive dinner mysteries. In between all of that somehow he found time to write. Cliff is the author of several stage plays including Spy School Murders, Brigands of the Salty Dog, The Daughter of the Moon, and Character Assassination. Also, he is the co-author of two screenplays: Speaking For the Dead, and Love Your Local Ghost.

Ed Khmara

Edward Khmara and his wife Joy, after splitting time between New Mexico and LA, have recently moved to New Mexico full time. Ed has taught screenwriting and has several screenplay credits to his name including Ladyhawke, Enemy Mine, and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. Ed also has several teleplays and story credits including Submerged and the mini-series Merlin. The TV miniseries Merlin received great recognition including four Emmy Awards from fifteen nominations, and four Golden Globe nominations. In addition to his writing Ed has found time to gain film credits as an actor, story editor and story consultant with recent film shorts produced in New Mexico.

Ann Lerner

Ann Lerner heads up the City of Albuquerque's Film Office, which is located in the Department of Economic Development, Mayor's Office. The mission of the office is to promote and attract the film industry to the City of Albuquerque. Ann says she has the best job in the city.

Job responsibilities for the film office include marketing, location scouting, production meetings, community walk-through, on-site visits, location follow-ups, and coordination of special screenings. She has been involved with job training, business recruitment, educational opportunities and community outreach. Keeping ABQ Film Friendly is her number one goal.

Ann brings a twenty-year background in the film industry to the office, as an owner/line producer for her own commercial film production company, specializing in TV commercials. She has produced local, regional and national television commercials, filming on location all over the United States, and Toronto. She has a Master's Degree from the University of Kansas in Special Education, and taught special needs children for four years, before changing careers and entering into the wacky world of film.

Ann has lived in Corrales since 1977 where she raised two sons, and many chickens.

Carolyn Handler Miller

Carolyn Handler Miller is one of the pioneering writers in the field of digital media, moving into the field after a successful career in TV and feature films. As a writer of New Media content, a profession she calls "digital storytelling," Carolyn's projects include video games, virtual worlds, webisodes, intelligent toy systems, and transmedia entertainment. She was a contributing writer for the classic Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? series of games and wrote the interactive version of the original Toy Story movie for Disney and Pixar. In addition, Carolyn is the author the groundbreaking book on the field, Digital Storytelling, Second Edition: A Creator's Guide to Interactive Entertainment (Focal Press). She is a part time faculty member for UNM's cutting edge Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media program and a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America.

Chris Schueler

Chris Schueler has created over 100 television programs in the past 20 years that have garnered 19 Emmy® Awards and have been broadcast throughout the country and around the world. Focusing on educational and social issues, Mr. Schueler creates youth programming, cultural and social documentaries, and family series television all geared to create "Television to Touch the Heart." His clients have ranged from the United Nations to the PBS network to the CBS Network Foundation.

His social issue projects have aired on PBS, The Learning Channel, The Classroom Channel, and in over 100 domestic markets as well as 35 countries. In addition to the United States, filming locations have included Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Central America and Africa. His documentaries have raised public awareness and also impacted public policy nationally and internationally. The National Broadcast Association for Community Affairs has named Chris Schueler national "Innovator of the Year."

Additionally, Mr. Schueler is the Executive Director of SafeTeen New Mexico which was recently named one of the six best Community Outreach Programs in the United States at a ceremony in Washington D.C. Due to the quality of his work, Mr. Schueler has been honored to be on the Grand Jury for the New York Festivals and, among other honors, he has received, Two International Iris Awards; The National Education Association Award for the Advancement of Learning through Broadcasting; Two CBS network awards for Excellence in Community Service; Two Service to Children's Television Awards from the National Association of Broadcasters; and The Parents' Choice Award.

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