Helenna Santos, Author at WeScreenplay

5 Career Success Strategies from ‘Queen Sugar’ Showrunner Monica Macer

To highlight WeScreenplay's TV Pilot Screenwriting Lab, showrunner Monica Macer lit up Cocktails & Conversations this past week with a blast of incredible information. With a wide range of experience as a screenwriter, executive producer, and showrunner, Macer has written for some of…

Helenna SantosSeptember 13, 2021

Screenwriting Shorts

5 Steps for Turning Your Short Film into a Feature

A popular question that filmmakers are often asked when screening a short film is “will this be made into a feature?” It’s flattering to know people enjoy the project so much that they want to see more, but it can…

Helenna SantosAugust 26, 2021

Screenwriting TV

6 Helpful Career Tips from ‘Hawkeye’ TV Writer Katie Mathewson

At our most recent Cocktails & Conversation event, we sat down with HAWKEYE TV Writer and WGA LGBTQ+ Committee Co-Chair Katie Mathewson to talk about her experiences writing for television. The Pacific Northwest native shared so much valuable career advice…

Helenna SantosAugust 10, 2021

Feature Filmmaking Screenwriting

3 Things the ‘Sound of Metal’ Screenplay Does to Bring Us into Ruben’s World

The Oscar-winning film 2021 film SOUND OF METAL, written by Darius Marder and Abraham Marder, and also directed by Darius Marder, is a powerful and unflinching look at the journey of a drummer grappling with addiction and hearing loss. The…

Helenna SantosJuly 16, 2021

4 LGBTQIA+ TV Shows You Should Check Out this Pride Month

As someone who doesn’t personally identify as LGBTQIA+, I think it’s vitally important to actively seek out content by and about people who have different life experiences than I do. This not only includes sexuality and gender, but also race,…

Helenna SantosJune 24, 2021

Industry Events Screenwriting

5 Empowering Screenwriting Tips from Charlie Swinbourne

On Tuesday, April 13th WeScreenplay hosted a “Cocktails and Conversations” talk with Charlie Swinbourne. Charlie is a screenwriter and journalist who is deaf and grew up in a deaf family. The event included a live ASL interpreter which for me,…

Helenna SantosApril 15, 2021

Feature Industry Events Screenwriting

5 Empowering Lessons from “Writers In Their Prime: Navigating a Screenwriting Career At Any Age”

On March 24th, WeScreenplay, in partnership with the Meryl Streep-backed The Writers Lab, held a great panel as part of Actions for Positive Change, an ongoing virtual series where we explore specific ways to amplify diversity and inclusion in screenwriting.…

Helenna SantosMarch 26, 2021

Screenwriting Shorts

What Makes Short Films So Special? An Interview with Oscar Nominated Filmmaker Vincent Lambe

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Oscar-nominated director and producer Vincent Lambe, a double winner of the Cannes Young Director Award and has received numerous accolades at a variety of international film festivals. He sits on the jury…

Helenna SantosMarch 9, 2021

Contests Diverse Voices Screenwriting TV

10 Screenwriting Programs for Diverse Writers

While the latest Hollywood Diversity Report revealed that “women and people of color have enjoyed notable gains relative to their male and White counterparts among the writers credited for broadcast, cable and digital television shows…both groups remain underrepresented among the…

Helenna SantosFebruary 26, 2021

Screenwriting TV

Top 5 Screenwriting Tips from black-ish Creator Kenya Barris

February is Black History Month, and while it's an opportunity to showcase Black creators, it's not the only time we should be celebrating them. We should always be honoring and recognizing the Black community and amplifying their work. I recently…

Helenna SantosFebruary 4, 2021