May 20, 2020
Bob Sáenz is an actor and screenwriter known for Extracurricular Activities (2019)(now streaming on Amazon Prime), The Right Girl (2015), and Help for the Holidays (2012). He is also the author of the 2019 book That’s Not The Way It Works: A no-nonsense guide to the craft and business of screenwriting.
What you will learn:
- How Bob broke into television and screenwriting at the age of 40.
- What he learned as an extra and actor on Nash Bridges that helped him as a screenwriter.
- How he navigated his way through a creative dry spell.
- What it was like seeing his screenplay Extracurricular Activities finally get made into a film 18 years after he wrote it.
- How to endure an industry of “complete rejection.”
- Why the idea of “Hollywood” is a myth.
- How there are no hard and fast rules or formulas when writing a screenplay, as long as the story is great.
- The importance of writing to budget and being flexible with screenplay changes.
- What it’s like writing for television and how American television has transformed in recent years.
- The necessity of taking assigned writing jobs, and the rarity of a successful original spec script.
- How accessible writing for television is now that streaming services are producing more content than ever.
- Why Bob considers it a miracle that any film gets made, and the reason he would never want to be a director.
- Advice he would give young people aspiring to work in the film industry.
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