WORKSHOP
Cast Yourself: Using Independent Filmmaking to Accelerate Your Acting Career
Instructor: Corrie Legge
Location: Easthampton Public Library Annex, 52 Main Street
Cost: FREE - no registration required!
Schedule: Saturday, April 25th @ 12:00 - 1:30pm
Workshop snapshot:
Format: Interactive workshop
Primary audience: Actors (early to mid-career)
Secondary audience: Writers, directors, and producers interested in collaboration
What participants leave with:
A clear idea for a short film or project they could realistically make
A basic understanding of the filmmaking process at an accessible scale
Clarity around collaborators needed to move a project forward
Increased confidence initiating creative conversations
INSTRUCTOR
Corrie Legge
Actor & Filmmaker
Corrie Legge is an award-winning actor and filmmaker who has used self-produced work to create direct-booking opportunities through festival reach and collaboration, and now teaches fellow actors how to do the same.
On IMDb.com: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6683652/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
WORKSHOP
Pitch Workshop at Smith College
Instructor: Alex Manugian, Christian Banda & Kt Baldassaro
Location: Graham Hall, Hillyer at Smith College
Cost: FREE - register to be one of 8 participants
Schedule: Saturday, April 25 @ 2:00 - 3:30pm
What to expect:
This is NOT a competition! This is a true workshop that requires little preparation. You bring your ideas, and we’ll all work together to hone a professional pitch. We’ll offer positive, constructive feedback for everyone. Our goal is to make sure you leave the workshop feeling more prepared, more confident, and more inspired to tell your story. We’ll explore the key elements of any pitch:
Character: Really get to know your characters. Spend time with them, find out what makes them unique. Discover their contradictions. Most characters we love are riddled with contradictions. Eventually, they’ll reveal not just who they are, but what they represent to you. We’ll do some simple exercises to help illuminate those characters.
Structure: No one is required to tell a story in the traditional 3-act structure or Western monomyth. But boy, are those good places to start. For this exercise, we’ll work together to clarify your beginning, middle, and end, and find the key moments in the story.
Theme: What is your story about? Some people know this before they start. Others wait to discover the meaning once they’ve mapped it out. The theme can be as general as “Love is all that matters” or as specific as “This is how it feels to be abandoned by the person you trust most.” Trust that your story is about something. And once you identify it, make sure to let it supply guideposts throughout your creative process.
We’ll also review the standard steps of most pitches:
Introducing yourself: How do you make the best possible impression on the people to whom you’re pitching? We’ll talk through how best to present an authentic, engaging version of yourself.
Logline: A Logline is a one or two-sentence description of your story. Example (Parasite, courtesy of Netflix): One by one, the crafty members of a destitute family insinuate themselves into the household staff of a wealthy couple living in oblivious privilege.
Plot summary: The length of a summary can be as short as a few minutes for a music video or short film, or as long as 25+ minutes for a feature or pilot.
Visuals: Many pitches nowadays can include a “deck” or other artwork. If the movie is more complexly plotted, visuals that help the audience follow along can be invaluable. For this workshop, we’ll focus on words more than visual aids. But we’ll discuss the wide array of approaches you can take to enhance your pitch with visual – and even aural – aids.
INSTRUCTORS
Alex Manugian, Christian Banda, & Kt Baldassaro
Screenwriters, Actors & Filmmakers
Alex Manugian has years of experience both pitching and listening to pitches. He has worked as a writer, actor, voiceover artist, development executive, and PA for over 25 years in the film & television industry. He co-wrote and performed in the cult sci-fi movie Coherence and the TV series Grey’s Anatomy. Alex reviewed over 1000 pitches as a development executive for Cartoon Network. You can hear him as Spoons the prospector mouse in the Oscar-winning film Rango. He is also a much sought-after house painter across Massachusetts.
Christian Banda is a Western Mass native who spent 13 years in New York honing his filmmaking skills and fortifying his passion for all things TV & Film related. His credits include MTV, Comedy Central, Netflix, WNYC, iHeartRadio, and Billboard Magazine, among others. He was most notably a Segment Producer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, which won the Emmy for 2023's Best Variety Talk Show. In 2024, Christian made his directorial debut with the multi-festival award-winning short film ‘98 Honda. His latest project, ’The Decalogue’: an anthology series based on The Ten Commandments, is currently in production.
Kt Baldassaro is an actress, filmmaker, writer, and director based in Western Massachusetts. At the Easthampton Film Festival, she helps select horror films, leads post-screening discussions, and connects audiences with the festival through local outreach. She also hosts the podcast What If I Don’t Like It?, where she explores how bias and expectation shape the way viewers experience movies, and shares her insights with audiences through her social media platform @MovieRuntime.
WORKSHOP
Screenwriting: Writing and Rewriting to Make Your Movie
“Wally is an incredible teacher whose passion for screenwriting and filmmaking is truly inspiring. He provides thoughtful and insightful feedback and supports his students every step of the way. I can’t recommend this workshop enough for anyone that wants to make a short film!” - Kristen Flanagan
“Wally's screenwriting workshop gave me the encouragement and support I needed to write and produce my first short film. The connections and experience I gained from the class were invaluable!” - Joel Rosen
Instructor: Wally Marzano-Lesnevich
Location: E-Media
Cost: $350
Schedule: 8 weeks Wednesday evenings 7-9pm
Next workshop dates: TBD
In this course, participants will:
Write and hone their screenplays in a workshop environment
Rewrite drafts with a focus on character, plot and tone
Learn how to iterate and create new drafts so as to continually improve their script
Read and test their scenes aloud for rewriting purposes
Rewrite their final draft as a production draft with an eye towards making their project
Work towards creating an actionable plan to film their screenplay, as previous workshop participants have
This class requires a minimum of five participants in order to take place and will be capped at eight participants. To register, please email workshops@EasthamptonFilmFestival.com
INSTRUCTOR
Wally Marzano-Lesnevich
Screenwriter, Actor & Director
Wally Marzano-Lesnevich co-wrote the feature “The Problem With People” with actor/comedian Paul Reiser. Available from Quiver on numerous platforms, the film premiered at the Austin Film Festival and co-stars Reiser opposite Irish actor Colm Meaney. His debut feature “Almost Paris" premiered at Tribeca, received the Audience Choice Award at the Beaufort International Film Festival and Best Screenplay at the Golden Door International Film Feature, and was distributed by Freestyle Digital Media. He has also written numerous short films.
As an actor he has appeared in the features “Annabelle Hooper and the Ghosts of Nantucket,” “Almost Paris” and “The Depths,” and has made numerous short films, several of which have screened at EHFF, including his directorial debut “Thunderclap." Onstage he has acted for numerous theatre companies. Locally he’s the co-director of The LAVA Film Festival, and has taught screenwriting for the Smith Precollege Summer Creative Writing Workshop.
See more about Wally and his work on the IMDb and www.wallyml.com.Mass Appeal March 3, 2025
Chris and Wally join Patrick Berry on WWLP’s Mass Appeal to discuss the screenwriting workshop
WORKSHOP
Animation Playshop
Instructor: Melissa McClung
Location: Northampton Open Media
Cost: FREE
Schedule: Every third Thursday of every month
We will learn:
Basic principles of animation/stop motion
Prepping your stop motion sequence
How to make your own DIY animation set up
Working with Dragonframe software & cameras
Tips and tricks to reduce flicker, work efficiently, and have fun!
Animation too involved? Ideas for how to make magic without the tedium
Stop-motion lovers rejoice! Join Melissa McClung and a crew of creatives at Northampton Open Media every third Thursday for hands-on animation fun. Whether you're a regular or a first-timer, you're welcome.
INSTRUCTOR
Melissa McClung
Filmmaker & Animator
Melissa McClung is a filmmaker and animator based in Western Massachusetts. Melissa was nominated for 2024 Cinema Eye Honors in Visual Design for her work on the science documentary, The Arc of Oblivion, directed by Ian Cheney and produced by Wicked Delicate & Sandbox Films with Executive Producer Werner Herzog. The film premiered at SXSW 2023 and CPH:DOX 2023. As a writer/director, Melissa has screened short films all over the world, including at Ann Arbor Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, and Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. In addition to her creative work, Melissa co-owns Ghost Hit Recording Studio with her husband, audio engineer Andrew Oedel. Melissa earned her MFA in Film from Vermont College of Fine Arts and her BA from Vassar College.
Melissa’s animations are:
“casually magical” - Screen Daily
“delightful” - Reel News Daily
See more about Melissa and her work at www.melissamcclung.com and @melissasmarbles on instagram.