Filmmaking can feel like juggling ten jobs simultaneously, especially if you’re working solo. You’re the director, the scribbler, editor, sound designer, and sometimes even the one crafting storyboards at midnight. But what if you didn’t have to wear all those hats alone?

You know what's wild about being here in 2024? I'm deep into playing with AI, really getting how it works, while most folks are still trying to figure out if it's Skynet or snake oil. Reminds me of when I first got into games and tech back in the day - that same gap between the folks making stuff happen and everyone else standing on the sidelines.

Let me geek out about what I call "Rolling Reveals" - it's that engaging story engine where each moment feeds into the next, building momentum like a snowball tumbling downhill.

After spending decades writing everything from video game scripts to TV shows, I've learned that sound might be the most overlooked weapon in a writer's arsenal.

I had a ChatGPT convo regarding public speaking best practices, sales psychology, the science of cognitive load, and job interview strategery. The LLM used our observations to design a structured methodology for pitching that is compelling, persuasive, and memorable.

My ADHD brain sees writing like Cooper in Interstellar's tesseract - infinite threads of narrative possibility surrounding me, every moment and choice visible at once. But after decades of adapting my style for different showrunners and mediums, I lost sight of my own timeline, my own voice.

Engaging in hobbies isn’t just a fun distraction; research shows it actively improves mental health.

When I worked on serialized TV shows like Alias, Lost, Heroes, and Hannibal, we often started with significant storytelling tentpoles. Still, much of the richness emerged organically through collaboration and discovery. Storytelling, especially in television, isn't solitary. It evolves from the collective creativity of writers, directors, actors, and the audience.

Something shifts when you turn your passion into a paycheck.

Let me walk you through what a modern story universe could look like when you combine AI tools with a passionate fan creator.

What if we could create story universes where fans and indie creators don't just consume content - they help build it? Not in some Wild West free-for-all, but in a structured space where AI tools help maintain quality and consistency.

Many of history's greatest discoveries and successes—across science, technology, and entertainment—were accidental. More importantly, those accidents weren’t always championed by corporate leadership. In my world, I saw this firsthand.

In a TLDR world, selling for scribblers is harder than ever. Pre-Covid it was all about navigating the LA freeways on a tight schedule to go from studio to network and so on. Now it’s all about pitching your show or flick online to a landscape of global buyers.

Ever click on a YouTube documentary that seems real, with grainy archival footage, expert interviews, and eerie music underscoring every revelation. But as the video unfolds, a creeping suspicion grows: is any of this actually true?

Screen life films are some of the most profitable movies in modern cinema. Why? Because they take the golden rule of indie filmmaking—keep it cheap, make it engaging—and crank it up to eleven.

SolForge Fusion's player-driven storytelling, personalized narratives, and cross-platform design highlight some critical elements for anyone curious about the future of transmedia narratives.

Screen life storytelling mirrors how we live our digital lives. Once seen as a budget-friendly gimmick, the format has become a genre of its own, using technology to amplify tension, intimacy, and reality in ways traditional filmmaking can’t.

The best scribblers aren't just great at putting words on the page - they're great at helping others improve, elevate, and survive the forever war of crafting commercial art.

Great video game storytelling doesn’t always come from a script-first approach. Sometimes, the story is embedded in the art, the animation, and the smallest design choices. By treating visuals as the first draft of the narrative, we allow characters to speak before they ever say a word.

When I guested on Justin Gary’s Think Like a Game Designer podcast, we chatted about Transmedia Storytelling. A cross-platform approach to narrative I hadn't thought about in a while. I’ve seen how it can transform a TV show from a passive viewing experience into an immersive, participatory story-verse for those inclined to engage.