Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 78

How to Frame Your Story for Hollywood Webinar

With Story Merchant's Ken Atchity and Alinka Rutkowska and Andrew Dupy of Leaders Press. Listen here

Chapter 2 “Dealing with your Type-C Creative Mind” – What’s Going on In There⁠

Whether they ask the question aloud or not, people always want to know what makes a writer's mind work. 

For all storytellers—novelists, screenwriters, journalists, nonfiction writers, and children’s book writers.⁠⁠ 

If you'd like more details or enroll in one on one coaching to perfect your story visit  The Writer's Lifeline 

Ken’s Weekly Book Recommendation⁠

This week "Writing Treatments to Sell" by Ken Atchity and Chi-Li Wong  ⁠


As Hollywood insiders know, the first step in selling your story idea for film or television is preparing a treatment, the brief pitch that sells the concept to a busy producer or agent.  ⁠

This manual is a step by step guide to writing the perfect treatment, and to using it to perfect your dramatic art and market your work to entertainment buyers and gatekeepers.⁠

Available on Amazon

FORBES: Filmmaker Nicole Conn On Promoting Her New Film And Caring For A Child With Special Needs During COVID-19

Acclaimed filmmaker Nicole Conn has dedicated her career to increasing lesbian visibility in film. With her cult classic, Claire of the Moon, and films like Elena Undone and A Perfect Ending, she has racked up dozens of awards and built quite a following.

Right now, Conn is currently navigating the virtual promotion of her newest film while simultaneously prioritizing the safety of her son, Nicholas, who has special needs. Nicholas was born extremely premature, and his severe chronic lung disease makes him enormously susceptible to COVID-19.

“He cannot be exposed to this,” says Conn. As such, Nicholas’ 24/7 nursing rotation has been reduced from the usual seven nurses to only two who see no other patients. “We’re on a tight protocol around him,” Conn says. “He cannot be around anyone but me, my daughter, and these nurses.”

Despite these challenges, Conn also continues to promote her new film honoring Nicholas. More Beautiful For Having Been Broken, released in April, is the story of a woman who escapes from her problems to a small town, where she bonds with Freddie, a boy with special needs, and his mother. Freddie has a rare disease called Fanconi Anemia and is based on Nicholas.

“The representation of kids with special needs, or even adults with special needs, is so grim in the industry,” Conn says. “I really wanted to share who my son is with people. Because I, like many other moms, sit in elevators where people are averting their eyes…Our children are so exceptional and wonderful. I don’t want them to be a secret anymore.”

Conn hopes the film communicates the beauty her son brings to her life.

“Nicholas has always completely blown me away with just who he is in the world,” Conn says. “I know it sounds beyond corny, but he has always been my greatest teacher. He’s got mindfulness down. You cannot be around him and not just sort of absorb his universe.”

More Beautiful For Having Been Broken, she says, should help viewers understand that they needn’t pity parents of kids with special needs. “I don’t want people to feel sorry for us. I want them to realize we have something really special in our lives. That’s what I really want the film to say. That, and don’t make our kids invisible.”

Conn is grateful that the film made its way through the festival circuit before lockdowns began, but now, she is also thankful to have time to connect with fans.

“By having all this extra time, I’ve been able to communicate with people from all over the world,” she says. “It’s been sort of a blessing.”

On May 8, there will even be an interactive livestream event that includes a viewing of the film as well as a live Q+A with the Conn and the cast.

Of course, More Beautiful For Having Been Broken also features a lesbian love story, but Conn is proud that sexuality is not at all a focal point. “Today we’re at a place in our filmography where we can basically not discuss lesbianism, but just show our lives,” Conn says. “I just feel like we’ve done the coming out story. We’ve really, really examined that.”

And yet, Conn says it is still far too difficult to find lesbian films. “It’s just excruciating,” she says. “Unless the movie is studio made, like Carol, it’s almost impossible.”

As such, in addition to working on another film of her own, Conn’s current focus is on Nicole Conn Films Global, an international group that will fund and promote lesbian filmmakers in all genres.

 “We just want our library to be full fledged,” she says. “There is more than enough room for all of us. Women think there is only room for one lesbian writer, one lesbian director, one lesbian show runner, and that’s just not the case.”

Conn is hopeful that she can help lesbian and other LGBTQ+ films become more mainstream. More Beautiful For Having Been Broken, in fact, was picked up for worldwide distribution through a partnership with Vision Films and Wolfe Video.

Conn hopes the film’s success will help bring more awareness to the need for special needs representation in film. So far, she says, its reception has been “pretty unanimously wonderful.”

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website. 
Molly SprayregenI am a freelance writer who specializes in LGBTQ issues

Tips For Screenwriters

Getting Your Story Straight Series by Ken Atchity

Welcome to "Getting Your Story Straight" series on Instagram @storymerchant. This week's topic is Great Heros.




Professional coaching tips to help you figure out point of view, structure, and master all the elements of story. If you'd like more details or enroll in one on one coaching to perfect your story visit: http://www.thewriterslifeline.com/

Story Merchant Film Closet

Ken’s Weekly Book Recommendation⁠ ⁠

This week "The Picture Kills" (The Quintana Adventures) by Ian Bull 

⁠ A fun, fresh, sexy, snappy, fast-paced thriller that starts in celebrity-obsessed Hollywood and climaxes in the exotic and remote cays of the Bahamas.⁠ ⁠ 

Available on Amazon ⁠⁠ 

Nicole Conn and Lissa Forehan's "More Beautiful For Having Been Broken" will be available for streaming Friday, May 8th.

There will also be a worldwide watch party premiere on cya.live at 11:00am (PST) on May 8th.

A broken FBI agent, suspended from her job and struggling with the loss of her mother, travels to the small mountain town she used to visit as a child. She is befriended by a special needs boy who possesses the extraordinary gift of healing others through his unbroken spirit and unique outlook on life. Though she is hurting, she begins to see through his eyes as the puzzle pieces fall into place.

Streaming available at: https://bit.ly/3eFyUK9

Tips for Screenwriters