Scott Foley. Mindy Kaling. Robin Lord Taylor.
Yes, the Savannah College of Art in Design drew in quite the list panelist at this low-key event. Atlanta's only television conference is hosted by SCAD every winter with only those in the know knowing what an epic treat aTV Fest can be for television fans and aspiring television professionals alike.
This year marks my second year of participating in the wildly informative conference that is the perfect combination of education and entertainment. This year Shondaland had the run of show at the four-day event, which suited me perfectly!
I love Shondaland content from Grey's Anatomy to Scandal.
Meeting Scott Foley was heavenly. He is one of the sweetest human beings on the planet.
Meeting Tom Verica was magical and he even gave me some advice on ways to make it in California.
Meeting and interviewing three cast members and an executive producer of the Walking Dead caused me to nearly crap my pants. But I made through, pants unscathed with few sound bites and images picked up by Getty no less. I dusted off my microphone and was a guest interviewer at the event for the likes of Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Alanna Masterson and fellow GSU alum Tom Luse. I enjoyed picking their brains be it only for 5 minutes due to super slim time constraints during the press junket, but nonetheless had an amazing experience.
Robin Lord Taylor and I bonded over our mutual love for Wendy Williams and went on a random tangent love fest. How you doin?
These festival moments are definitely ones that I will treasure, but the pinnacle for me was Saturday's Shondaland Writer's Panel. As a budding screenwriter there was no experience that gave me more pleasure than hearing their stories of breaking in, writer's room etiquette and how they ended up working for the the Goddess of the Golden Age, Shonda Rhimes herself.
Mark Wilding, head writer of Scandal had a particularly interesting journey that started right here in Atlanta!
Mark worked at the local Rich's downtown by day and wrote plays by night. One of his plays got seen by someone at Disney all the way in Vancouver. Disney flew him out to California to see if he'd want a job writing. He's been out there since the mid-80's and has been in Shondaland for the last 11 years.
Believe it or not one of the other panelist had ties to Atlanta. Zoanna Clark, writer on Grey's Anatomy and medical doctor went to medical school at Emory before becoming a medical consultant on ER. She made sure all of those potentially life saving surgeries on the small screen were accurate before becoming a writer on Grey's Anatomy where she has been for the last 12 years.
Both of their stories had round about journeys to writer's room and that resonated with me since I've worked in some alternate careers myself while discovering my love for screenwriting.
Their stories as well as the other panelist really helped to give me extra motivation to keep striving towards my goals.
#KeepWriting
-DW
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