Life After Film School: Nina Jacobson & Brad Simpson Interview

I had the opportunity to get to interview Nina Jacobson & Brad Simpson, the producers of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, for Life After Film School.

Check out the episode here!

http://bit.ly/ig6b5a

PREVIEW:

"Most important thing we should know before graduating film school?"

Nine: It's not easy, but it's possible.

Brad: That you don't really know anything yet!

What Goes Around Comes Around

Hello all!

Check out the guest blog post I wrote for my very good friend, Craig Ormiston!

http://bit.ly/iAfPn7

180%

So my first week on the job went well. I went above and beyond, as I always do. It's important in this business to give 180%. You always hear, give 110%, but that's just a little more than a good job, right?

On my first assigned project, I was told to create a list of people. So I could have gone the traditional route and just made a list in a Word doc....which would have been fine. But I decided to go all out and not just create a boring list, but an interesting visual as well. I transferred my list into a PowerPoint document with attractive fonts, quotes, and multiple pictures for each slide.

Fast forward a day later.

My boss's boss called me into his office.

Boss: Lauren, did you do this?

Lauren: Yes

Boss: You created this?

Lauren: Yes....I'm kind of a PowerPoint nerd....

Boss: This is AMAZING. I want all of these people. I'm putting you on the phone with New York right now, you're going to help on the campaign. Good job.

And from then on, I felt like I was in the club.

My advice--go all out, give 180%.

Write, Write, Write: Everyday

This weekend we filmed the pilot episode of the webseries I've been collaborating on. It went really well and had everyone on the crew cracking up during takes. I can't wait to get it all edited together so we can start showing it off! I think it has real potential.

Almost done with first feature length screenplay. Way to go me! I have several others lined up and I'm so excited about those, its really pushing me to finish this one. I have a problem where I can't finish screenplays because I get too excited about the next ones!

When I spoke to an agent at ICM who is married to a famous film director, she told me that her husband wrote every single day. When he was working as a PA, he would come home and write a little bit. Didn't matter if it was 10 words or 10 pages. He always got something down on paper. He sold a screenplay eventually, and it was met with critical acclaim. So on the next feature he sold, he was able to negotiate a deal that set him in the director's seat.

I have been using this knowledge as incentive to get myself to write as much as I can each and every day. It can be tough at times! There always seems to be something else I tell myself I need to do. But I have been getting better. Its one of my 3 month goals: Write everyday.