I began script analysis after I’d been a professional writer for many years, consulting for businesses and individuals trying to understand how to connect with people better. One day, a producer-friend gave me a script and asked me to give notes. The result was sitting at a table next to the director, who said that, although I didn’t know it, that story was about his life and my notes taught him something he’d never realized about his life. It was a profound moment for both of us and was when I knew it was time to move into film. A few years later, I was a full-time professional screenwriter and script analyst, writing films for directors and producers, while providing consultation and coverage to people looking to strengthen the beauty of their story.

About

Backstory

Current

Today, I’m on a feature drama set in London for a director/producer tandem. I just finished a western set in the 70s that a production house will shoot next year. I also helped a producing team zone in on their desired direction for a sci-fi feature and just finished a comedy pilot for a producer.

My background is in writing and psychology and I’ve worked in the latter before moving to writing. I love encouraging people to be their best and living the adventure I feel we’re created to live—loving well and tending well the things we’ve been entrusted with.

Bonus

Walnut trees are symbols of wisdom, prosperity, protection, and strength. Plus “walnut tree” is what my last name means in Belarusian.

FAQs

  • Not at all. Wherever it is—early days or soon to film—I’ll read and assess what some good next steps are for the script to grow and mature

  • My comments aren’t designed to tell you what to do, per se. Certainly some of them are related to style or standards for how screenwriting works and should be strongly considered, but you can always choose to take heed of whatever you want. In the moments where I offer suggestions, feel free to take all, nothing, or (most likely best) some. After all, you’re the one who knows your story intimately.

  • The time is relative to the service you choose and length of your script. In general it should be a couple weeks.

  • If your script is knocking on the doorway to being ready, then you should be able to make your fixes—however long they take—and go for it. More likely, it’ll be appropriate for you to take a day or two and come back to your notes so your mind is fresh. From there, if you’re early on in the process, you may need to re-outline then redraft the film. If you’re further along, then it might be appropriate to make large edits and have another read before seeing what direction it should take from there. Either way, there is nothing lost ever. The way out is through and the more you do things the more you learn. And that is moving you closer to being finished.

  • Time and patience. If you are writing something—no matter how good or how complex—you are a writer. And if you can be diligent and keep going, you can become better. It takes time, but I believe in you. You just need to believe in yourself and keep going.

  • I’m happy to help you refine the script, we’d just need to have a conversation about what that would look like. Often, I find edits are not as simple as people think they may be and, hence, they take longer than people might expect. But I’d love to help if you’ve need and it aligns with our schedules.

  • If it’s not completed, then you’re not ready to assess. You have to finish it so you can evaluate. Otherwise you’re trying to evaluate while you’re trying to create and those two things aren’t possible to do well simultaneously. Create it, let it be bad, then assess. If you’re struggling and want to schedule an hour to chat story, I’d love to listen and help. Go to the services page and scroll down to the other options to learn more.

  • If there are issues with your attachment, send over an NDA, which I’ll of course sign. It’s common to need to refine something long into the process of writing it, even pre-production. If that stems into you wanting help refining it, that’s another conversation, go ahead and book a call and we can chat if that’s the case.

  • Sure. Hook it up.

  • Allegedly. I believe my great-great-grandfather is his grandfather, but it’s so distant, there hasn’t been contact for a couple generations. Plus, my great-grandfather had his name changed from a ‘z’ to an ‘s’ upon immigrating to the US. And yes, I played hockey growing up.