001.5 - Dan Steele [WGA Mini-season]

The Process / Dispatch

This is the first episode of our WGA themed mini-season. Born out of an early pandemic writer's group, these conversations were part of a months long writer's group for directors who were writing their own features during the lockdown. Each week, I brought on a different guest to speak about writing and scripts from their perspective. While these conversations weren't intended for public release, given the current WGA strike and the broader conversation about the significance writers have in the filmmaking process, I wanted to release these conversations as a small act of solidarity. First up: Dan Steele. Dan is one of the co-writers of STAGES, my debut feature that is currently in pre-production. But STAGES is not even close to the most interesting thing that he's working on. Dan is an LA-based screenwriter and producer, an alumnus of the Warner Bros. Television Writers’ Workshop, and an Austin Film Festival Award winner. He currently has feature projects set up at Warner Bros., Netflix, and Lionsgate with prestigious production companies like John Legend’s Get Lifted and Charles D. King’s MACRO. But Dan first got his start in television, writing on staff for over 100 episodes on series such as Gossip Girl and Hart of Dixie. He was a co-producer on MTV’s Faking It and The Donors for executive producer Kevin Hart. In this episode we dive into the specifics of his writing process, how to navigate second act malaise, the importance of endings, and ways to create prisms out of your characters that reveal theme when action "shines" through them.