For our third Book-to-Film Panel we’ve decided to delve into the Book-to-Film world–how it works, best practices, and what you can do now to improve your chances of seeing your (book’s) name in lights.
Whether or not you hope your work will become a movie, this is a great way to position your work for film, television, and beyond.
OUR PANEL:
Jonathan Burkhart is the co-founder and president of the Nantucket Film Festival, launched in 1996, the festival is dedicated to honoring screenwriters and their craft. After working in the camera department on such feature films as Spike Lee’s, Do the Right Thing and Mo’ Better Blues, Mountain View for John Sayles, A Better Tomorrow for John Woo, Dazed and Confused for Richard Linklater and Reversal of Fortune for Barbet Schroeder, Jonathan went on to produce independent film, television, and theater. He produced Baby Steps starring Kathy Bates, Higher Ground, directed by Vera Farmiga, Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding, directed by Bruce Beresford, The Last Keepers, directed by Maggie Greenwald, and many others. Television projects include the scripted episodic series, Almost There, starring Steven Pasquale, Away We Go, by Jonathan Larson, and Tomorrow is Tonight Show, starring Ben Stiller for Comedy Central. Jonathan has also produced numerous theater productions, including the 10th anniversary production of RENT on Broadway with the original cast members. He has also produced numerous commercials.
Eric Mofford is a producer, line producer and budget consultant. He has been involved in over 150 film, television and web productions as well as numerous music videos and commercials. His credits include the Emmy-winning television series 24 and the iconic indie feature, Daughters of the Dust. Recently he served as Head of Production at Lone Wolf Media overseeing documentary projects for NOVA, Nat Geo, Animal Planet, Smithsonian Channel and PBS. Previously, he served as Head of Production at Lady of the Canyon where he produced projects such as the dramatic television pilot, Finding Hope, with Chris Mulkey, James Morrison, Darby Stanchfield and Molly Quinn; and the comedy documentary, We’ll Always Have Dingle, shot in Kerry County, Ireland. He also served as Head of Production at Unconventional Media, producing the Emmy-nominated award-winning documentary, Houston We Have A Problem, and the live action portions for the EA video game, Need For Speed: Undercover, with Maggie Q.
Mofford, a member of the DGA, has written and directed projects for Disney Interactive, Saban Entertainment, The Discovery Channel, Image America, United Way and TBS. He co-produced Senior Year, a 13-part PBS documentary series on high school. He has sold two feature film screenplays and has various projects in development. His dramatic blues film, Travelin’ Trains, won a dozen national and international film festival awards and continues to play in art museum showcases over 25 years later. He has done schedules and budgets for both large studio productions and small indies and has shared that knowledge teaching numerous media workshops, both in the United States and internationally.
Edwin Stepp is president of Django Productions, LLC based in Pasadena, CA. Edwin has more than 30 years experience in television, media and marketing. Believing the old adage, “Truth is stranger than fiction,” Django Productions specializes in documentaries, nonfiction series TV and feature films about true stories and historical events. The company co-produced, Vinylmania, a film on the resurgence of vinyl records and The Last Wild Race, a film about a grueling adventure race held each year in the Chilean Patagonia. Django Production’s latest documentary is about the world-renowned Malian musician Vieux Farka Touré and is now in post production on a documentary about the legendary blues singer, Howlin’ Wolf, and a feature documentary of Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451. Stepp is also currently in development on several feature films, including one on the life of Bill Monroe, the father of Bluegrass music. He is always in search of interesting factual stories.
Kim Williams is no stranger to the world of entertainment having worked for over 20 years in the television and film industry. After graduating from the University of North Texas with a degree in Radio-TV-Film, she began her career in Post Production working on several TV projects before transitioning to the creative side in TV Development for Viacom Productions and the WB Network. In 2003, she formed Butterfly Ink Publishing and published her first novel, 40 Hours and an Unwritten Rule: The Diary of a Nigger, Negro, Colored, Black, African-American Woman (2004), which was based on her personal experiences as being the only African-American in a workplace. In 2012, she formed inkSpot Entertainment and created the popular digital series, The Unwritten Rules, based on her first novel. In September 2017, five years after its release, the series went viral on Facebook, gaining over four million views within one week. Kim has become known as an independent Producer who focuses on giving authentic voices a platform to be heard and embraced while producing maximum quality in her projects. She has also released BET’s Centric series, Everything I Did Wrong in my 20’s and The New Shade of Black, a spinoff of The Unwritten Rules. inkspot’s three scripted series were released on a SVOD platforms in 18 African countries. Kim was invited by the 2017 Piton Independent Film Festival in St. Lucia to teach a three-day Master Class in Producing. From there, she developed a passion for teaching young Black filmmakers how to create and produce projects from beginning to end and formed the Create Spot Workshop. She has facilitated workshops in Botswana, Kenya, and Rwanda. Her classes cover writing, production, and post production. Kim is currently developing new series for inkSpot Entertainment and focusing on sharing her experience and knowledge in Production workshops across the world.