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

[ NEWS ] [ MONTHLY MEETINGS ] [ MAILING LIST ] [ RULES FAQ ]

[ CALENDAR/EVENTS ] [ LINKS ] [ EDUCATION] [MEMBERS] [SHOP ASG]

 

Mission Statement:

The Austin Screenwriters Group is a resource to serve local screenwriters, providing guidance and support in all areas of the field. We offer networking and marketing opportunities, critical feedback on works-in-progress, and a sense of community for our members. We are open to screenwriters of all levels of experience. Script readings are specifically designed to help our members hone their screenwriting talent.


ASG CALENDAR
Regular Meetings - 1st and 3rd Saturdays or Sundays from 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

MEETING DATE

WHO / WHAT

LOGLINE/DESCRIPTION

27 June

Workshop: Story Mastery with Michael Hauge
9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Location - Oak Hill United Methodist Church Classroom #206
Cost is $95 for ASG members, $125 for non-members (cash, check or money order only)

Topics: Screenplay mastery, 60 second pitches, and more -- see description

ASG members get to submit manuscripts for Michael to read and possibly use during the workshop. Lunch will be on your own and the fee includes a workshop booklet. Read more on the workshop page. Register by sending an email with name, email, telephone and method of payment to Juanita Scheer at citizen1ita@yahoo.com. She'll give you Joan Johnson's address for sending checks.

27 June

Potluck Social and BYOB with Michael Hauge
7:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m.
All are invited -- Peggy Schatz will host at her home in Spicewood (about a 20 min drive on Hwy 71 past the Y) and will cook fajitas! Bring a dish to share and something to drink.
1049 Lake Shore Dr., Spicewood, TX 78669. Directions on this page.

28 June

Coaching on Screenplay Mastery
Michael Hauge will also schedule one-on-one coaching sessions at $125 per 30 minutes.
Sunday morning (his flight leaves around 3:30 p.m.)
Location - Probably the Starbucks at Barnes & Noble, 360 and Bee Caves
Email Wendy Wheeler if interested.

4-Jul - Saturday NO MEETING - Happy 4th of July
19-Jul - Sunday David Harrienger - The Peace Project Experiment Idealistic teens start a media project to promote peace. Suddenly they find the world moving relentlessly toward WWIII.
1-Aug - Saturday Cody Davis - The Hour of the Patriot Paralyzed in a wheelchair, a school teacher squares off against terrorists as a host of an Internet video talk show which gets broadcast on the TV networks. As she rallies the American people, both the terrorists and the government close in on her secret location.

15-Aug - Sunday

Dustin Warden - Strange Winds

A storm takes a Man's family and he tries to rescue them.

5-Sep Erik Engstrom - The Girl Without Her family fallen from grace, Prudy Caraway must overcome her past to find an inheritance hidden within a Chicago homeless shelter. In her way is a devious minister who will stop at nothing to protect the shelter from corruption.
19-Sep Chelley Pyatt - A Revolution in Three Parts Albany Washington was always content on being invisible in this war-torn era, where The Constitution is a long forgotten relic and freedom only exists in your mind. Inspired by a provocative, but chance, meeting with the handsome and charismatic James Finn -- leader of a movement to reinstate the Bill of Rights -- she begins a journey of self exploration and anarchy. Haunted by the memory of her dead freedom fighting mother she is spurned on to restore liberty to the world. But is this all real or just in her head?
3-Oct

Anton Diether - Tripwire (based on a novel by Brian Garfield)

Revenge western with an African-American lead. A buffalo soldier from the Indian Wars is tricked into taking part in a complex bank robbery. Left for dead, he turns lone avenger and hunts down a supergang of racist outlaws with a fortune in gold bars, evolving into a one-man army against fifty killers.

17-Oct Richard Billingsley - Zombie Hunt A zom rom com. When the Zombie Liberation Front successfully disrupts a small town's annual Zombie hunt, the Zombies go on a rampage. Walt, a hunter, and Fiona, the leader of the ZLF, work together to stop the Zombies.
21 - 25 October Austin Film Festival: The ASG typically has multiple events with visiting producers and agents around and during the conference.
7-Nov Kathy Albert - Band Mom Ian is a struggling indie music producer in L.A. with creditors on his tail. After Dad's unexpected death back in Cleveland, his unconventional mom might be the lynchpin to pull his life back into place.
21-Nov Lynett Oliver - Nana Rose Takes Off Taking a rundown RV cross country, a woman and her granddaughter fulfill grandpa's dream of flipping off Castro.
5-Dec Open! Contact our scheduler to book this slot.

Do you want to have a table reading? Contact Dustin, our scheduler.

Need to reschedule/cancel your reading?
Contact Dustin right away so we have time to find a new screenplay and the weekend meeting won't be wasted!!
 

Please email Wendy Wheeler at scripts@wendy-wheeler.com with your loglines, if they're not posted. To get onto the schedule, contact the scheduler above. Please note that you MUST be a paid member of the ASG to be scheduled, and have attended at least 4 meetings.

More details on the ASG requirements are on our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list.


ASG NEWS!


ASG MONTHLY MEETINGS


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 to verify), and you should be on the list for the moderator to approve you. (We had to add this step because spammers were joining just to send us off-topic email.)
  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.


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.


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.

BookPeople has been hosting our twice monthly meetings since early 2000. They are great people, and generous in their support of Austin arts! Show your appreciation by shopping at the store as often as possible!

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 Heart of Film Conference and Austin Film Festival. What an awesome opportunity for education and networking they provide for local screenwriters! The Heart of Film 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 wonderful cinema-related events throughout the year.


The contents and graphics of this website are © 2001-2009 by the Austin Screenwriters Group.
Please don't copy without permission. All other trademarks and service marks are acknowledged.
If you are a paid member of the ASG, you may copy the ASG logo at the top of the page to display on your own website.
For any problems with this website, contact the volunteer webmaster. Last revised on 2009-June-21.