Heath Medley’s experience with Scriptapalooza I had been writing feature length scripts on my own for several years, basically teaching myself the craft through trial and error while studying Journalism at Texas A&M University, then continuing to write scripts while I was training in improv at Second City in Chicago. I moved to Los Angeles in 2005 and continued writing during any free time I had between working the noble gigs one works when new in town - selling carpet at Home Depot and brewing coffee for board meetings at the Directors Guild. Then, in 2008 I finally got the nerve and entered an R-rated comedy titled Fort Worthless into Scriptapaloozas screenplay competition. That script advanced to the semi-finals which is when the man who would become my manager, the amazing Andrew Kersey, contacted me. Andrew had been a judge in the competition, read my script and loved it. He contacted me, told me he was a literary manager, and we hit it off instantly. He saw that I had a talent for comedy that, with a little coaching, could become studio-worthy screenwriting. After a period of brainstorming we settled on the idea for my next script, The Wedding Night, another R-rated comedy. After completing The Wedding Night and getting a master course from Andrew in the dynamics of writing in the big leagues (this dude REALLY knows his stuff), we knew we had something pretty cool. Andrew took the script to an agent at the Gersh Agency named Sean Barclay, and two weeks later Sean became my agent! A great guy with a great sense of humor that scores fat points for a comedy writer. Then my agent and manager sent the script to the town and we received major interest from some big names. I met with Ashton Kutchers production company, John Daviss production company, and finally settled in very happily with the fantastic producing team at Panay Films headed by Andrew Panay (Wedding Crashers, Van Wilder). That script is currently being packaged at Panay Films, and Im working on my next R-rated gutbuster as we speak! In short, Scriptapalooza has made my dreams come true. Im just a regular dude from Texas who wanted to come to Los Angeles and tell my stories. Scriptapalooza made that possible. When writers who have yet to catch their break ask me for advice, I tell them two things. 1) Dont have a fallback plan, or else you WILL fall back on it and give up on your dream. The town is too tough, and starving sucks. 2) Enter your script into Scriptapalooza RIGHT NOW and see if youre as good as you think you are, tough-guy or tough-gal! Thanks again for doing what you do, Scriptapalooza! You rule while others drool! Heath Medley
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 00:01:00 +0000