Welcome!
www.austinscreenwriters.org is the
website of the Austin Screenwriters Group.

Mission Statement:

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ASG CALENDAR
1st Sundays from 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at Heritage at Gaines Ranch (NEW location)
3rd Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at Austin History Center

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ASG NEWS!

• December 2011: Bookpeople asked us to start paying for the use of their meeting room. Which we no can do -- we ask for minimal optional dues and we spend our money on bringing Hollywood people here for workshops. Rick Abbott got us a free meeting room at the Heritage at Gaines Ranch, an upscale retirement center off S. Mopac about 1/2 mile south of Loop 360. Thanks, Rick!
• October 2011: Agent Ryan Saul with APA was enthusiastic about the idea of ASG sponsoring him to return for Austin Film Festival 2012. We can talk and plan more on how to leverage this great opportunity!
• August 2011: We had a great workshop with author, script consultant and UCLA screenwriting instructor Karl Iglesias. He focused on lessons from his wonderful book, Writing for Emotional Impact. Plus he made himself available for dinners and lunches, and did one-on-one consultations most of Sunday. He was impressed with our group too! Thanks to the many people who chased down projectors and venues, collected money and brought coffee, etc. Especially to Karen Cupp who handled all the registration!
  
  It was a sold-out room for the ASG Karl Iglesias workshop.
  
  Karl makes a a point during the workshop.
  
• March 2011: Melanie Alberts had to step down as ASG Scheduler -- many thanks for her work! Kathy Albert generously agreed to step up and take over the scheduling duties. Same email, but now it goes to Kathy: asgscheduler@gmail.com.
• October 2010 : An amazing evening with Franklin Leonard, Director of Development at Universal Pictures and co-founder of The Black List. Nancy Smith (First Look Scripts) worked with Maya Perez at the Austin Film Festival to help us find a wonderful guest for the group who could also work the AFF panels and roundtables. Franklin met with ASG and listened to pitches, gave very helpful notes. Our event location, food and details were coordinated by Kathy Alberts. Great job, everybody!
• May 2010: Had a great Saturday workshop with writer/consultant/producer Tim Albaugh on "Building a Script from the Ground Up" and "The Art of the Pitch." Plus he gave us his insights as a UCLA instructor and long-time writer in Hollywood. Many thanks to Tim, who also made himself available for social, dining and consulting time with the members of ASG! And thanks to Wendy Wheeler (your humble Website manager) who coordinated bringing him in; Melody Lopez who handled the registration and questions about the event; Kathy Albert who got a free, large meeting room in Bee Cave; Jill Oleson who handled the finances and new members; and the many other folks who volunteered to help out with donuts, A/V set-up and more. Here's Tim teaching to the class of 32 folks:
  
• April 2010: UCLA screenwriting instructor and producer with Popular Films Tim Albaugh agreed to come teach ASG a weekend screenwriting craft workshop and do consultations on May 22-23. More details at the Albaugh Workshop Page.
• December 2009: Joan Johnson has stepped down as Treasurer of the Austin Screenwriters Group and Jill Oleson has volunteered to step up. Many thanks to Joan for years of service. And thank you to Jill! Plus there's now a special email for our Treasurer: asgtreasurer@gmail.com.
• December 2009: Jill Oleson created a page on YouTube to collect and display works by and with and associated with Austin Screenwriters Group members.
• June 2009: We had a great Story Mastery workshop with Michael Hauge, followed by a fun, social potluck BYOB with Michael that evening at the home of Peggy Schatz in Spicewood. Michael Hauge is a well-known and respected story consultant for all the major production studios and best-selling author. He spent most of Sunday morning doing one-on-one consultations for us too. Here's Mike reacting to the camera during the last hour of the class:
  
  
• October 2008: In connection with the Austin Film Festival, the ASG had some wonderful networking opportunities. Our thanks to the folks from Hollywood who met with us, in receptions and dinners: Robert Markovich, Director of Original Programming at Starz Entertainment; Curtis Burch, producer with Latitude Productions; and Tim Albaugh, UCLA screenwriting instructor and producer/writer with Popular Films. Your Website editor forgot to bring a camera to most events, but here's one of the ASG with Curtis Burch at Stubb's BBQ the Saturday night of the conference:
  
• July 2008: Screenwriter and craft guru Blake Snyder (Save the Cat) came to Austin to teach an intensive workshop on July 12-13. The ASG took Blake to dinner again, at Threadgills South, again.
  
  Randy Brown, Blake Snyder, Jill Oleson (and others) at dinner at Threadgill's.
  
• May 2008: The ASG Spring Workshop the weekend of May 31-June 1 was coordinated by First Look Script Analysis (Nancy Smith) and brought in the amazing Dave Trottier. Dave presented his seminar "Four Keys to a Salable Script," gave tips on pitching, listened to members' pitches, and joined us in a wine and cheese party. He also chose the First Annual Hook Contest Winners from our 8 finalist scripts. More information about the events on the Spring Workshop page. Congrats to the winners: 1st place: KITTYHAWK by Julie Kenner. 2nd place: BECOMING QUANAH PARKER by Steve Warren. 3rd place: LIFE WITHOUT FATHER by Anton Diether.
  
  
  Nancy Smith and Dave Trottier
  
• ASG Goods to Buy: Thanks to Helen Cates, the Austin Screenwriters Group now has t-shirts, mugs and more on CafePress you can buy with our ASG logo on it. Wear 'em proudly!
  
  

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ASG MONTHLY MEETINGS & DIRECTIONS

• 1st Sundays and 3rd Saturdays of (almost) every month and cost nothing to attend
• Sundays are from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. in the activity room of the Heritage at Gaines Ranch, 4409 Gaines Ranch Loop. Go south on Mopac, crossing over Loop 360, and within 1000 feet or so you'll see the frontage road exit on the right. Gaines Ranch Loop is a quick hard right off the frontage road, by the LaQuinta. Enter the LaQuinta parking lot and go to the far northwest corner to park by the gate to the Heritage center (an upscale retirement home). From the Heritage front entrance, follow the main hallway until it ends at the activity room (make 2 rights -- so you'll walk in a U).
• Saturdays are from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at the Austin History Center, 810 Guadalupe Street (the southwest corner of Guadalupe + 9th), which is between the main public library building and the gazebo park. The City parking meters start charging at 11am, so just buy time until 1pm (about $2.50).
• Typical format: Networking and introductions are followed by an out-loud reading of the screenplay to be critiqued that day
• Anyone with an interest in screenwriting is welcome to the meetings! To have a script read and critiqued, however, you must be a dues-paid member of the ASG and meet a few simple rules, which are covered in the FAQ.

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ASG MAILING LIST

The Austin Screenwriters Group has a mailing list on Yahoo. We highly recommend that you sign yourself up! We share networking, news, upcoming events, etc. Last-minute schedule changes are posted there, and are often the only way you'll know about them. Joining the list is easy, and you don't have to be a dues-paying member for it. Please note you must subscribe first, before you can post emails. The listserver software will bounce back emails that come from unregistered email addresses!

1. Start from within the mailing address you wish to register, and send an email to: austinscreenwriters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. (The reference line and content aren't important in the message.)
2. You'll get a confirming email from the listserver at YahooGroups. Just follow the instructions (usually, it just asks you to respond and be sure to type at least a quick message to prove you're not spambot), and you should be on the list for the moderator to approve you. Sorry it's not one-step, but it's an anti-spam precaution.
3. Once you get the message from Yahoo saying the moderator has approved you, you're registered on the listserver software and can then send emails easily to everyone on the ASG list by addressing them to: austinscreenwriters@yahoogroups.com.

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ASG FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) List

The FAQ list is on another page, and contains instructions on signing up for a reading, preparing your script for the reading, conducting the reading, and the feedback session. We suggest you visit the page and print it out. You can also get a copy of the information if you download a copy of the ASG brochure as a Word document, click here for that.

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LINKS TO OTHER USEFUL WEBSITES

We keep a list of helpful writing and screenwriting books on another page.

How to format a script? It's a question at the top of the mind of many beginning writers. Here's a good discussion with samples written by a fan of Austin (he comes regularly to the Heart of Film Conference) Greg Beal, who coodinates the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship.

Writers Guild of America is the group that lobbies and negotiates on behalf of American screenwriters. It's also the place to register your scripts for protection, and if you live in Texas you should use the WGAw (West). The U.S. Patent Office issues copyrights for more-formal protection. Most of the screenwriting contests require that your script submissions be registered, in fact.

MovieBytes is another useful site which also features a listing of the many screenwriting contests each year, along with their open and closing dates, as well as other information.

Another wonderful host (this time, on the Internet) for the ASG is Randy Martin, who has the Web design and Web hosting company, Chili Design. Check out the awesome portfolio on his website! (And please note he had nothing to do with the dorky design of the ASG website!)

The ASG enjoys a very close relationship with the Austin Film Festival and Conference . What an awesome opportunity for education and networking they provide for local screenwriters! Originally called the Heart of Film, it was the first screenwriter-specific conference (now it has many imitators). It's a can't-miss event that happens in Austin each fall. Many of us submit scripts to the Heart of Film competition. Many of us also volunteer to be HoF readers each year--be looking for announcements on that to come from the HoF folks each spring. And the AFF provides other wonderful cinema-related events throughout the year.