Page One Writers' Conference: Writing The Hollywood Blockbuster I DePaul VAS

WRITING THE HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER with Jeff Nathanson & Steve Conrad
Moderated by CIM Director, Matthew Irvine
JEFF NATHANSON
Jeff Nathanson has been a professional screenwriter for over 19 years. His credits include Catch Me If You Can, Rush Hour 2, The Terminal, Rush Hour 3, Tower Heist, and The Last Shot, which he also directed. He earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for Catch Me If You Can, and he teamed up with Steven Spielberg for a third time in 2008 when he wrote the story for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull with George Lucas. He is currently at work on the latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise for Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. Combined, his films have grossed over a billion dollars internationally. Nathanson is a graduate of UCLA and The American Film Institute. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and three children.
STEVE CONRAD
Steve Conrad sold his first screenplay, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, at the age of 19 shortly after attending Northwestern University. Since then, he has written such films as The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith, The Weather Man starring Nicolas Cage, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty starring Ben Stiller. In 2008, he wrote and directed The Promotion, which premiered at South by Southwest and
was released by Dimension later that year. His latest films include The Business Trip starring Vince Vaughn (currently in post-production) and the biopic of the legendary comedian John Belushi starring Emile Hirsch (currently in preproduction), which he will be both writing and directing. Steve lives in Chicago.
MATT IRVINE
Founder of the cinema program at DePaul University and currently the Director of the School of Cinema and Interactive Media, Matt has been teaching directing, screenwriting and editing for almost fifteen years now. Matt is also an award winning writer and director of feature films, television commercials and music videos, with over twenty years of experience in the industry. He has written over
ten feature-length screenplays, including The Hazing, winner of the Producer's Access Program. His most recent film, Scott's Dead, starred Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead). Recently, Matt has been collaborating with fellow faculty member Dan Klein, as the editor of Dan's award-winning short, AB-. They are currently putting the final polishes on the feature-length screenplay for AB-, with plans to
produce the film later this year.
Recorded on May 3rd, 2014
Production Crew
Producer, Visiting Artists Series - Wendy Roderweiss
Producer, Page One - Kristyn Jo Benedyk
Production Coordinators - Alma Pichardo and Seda Calbay
Production Stage Manager - Theo Jamal
Page One Producer's Assistants - Miguel Castillo, Charles Hickey and David Olsen
Assistant Stage Manager - Ann Marie Carrothers
Theatre Manager - Chris Vinopal
House Manager Supervisor - Gina Konstas
House Managers - Amanda Lederer and Brooke Kravitz
Assistant House Managers - Jessie Molloy and Meghan Freeman
Floor Manager - Kelsey Tierney
Assistant Floor Managers - Seda Calbay, Alma Pichardo and Jessie Molloy
Publicity - Kelsey Tierney
Sound Utility - Matt Baran
TV Director / Switch Operators - Frank Hickey and Meghan Freeman
Lead Camera Operator - Doug Davenport
Camera Operators - Morgan Williams, Frank Hickey and Patrick Bourne
Booth Operator / Projectionist - Rinel Lara
DIT - Matt Baran
Still Photographer - Peilin Tan
Volunteers - Xenon Zeigler and Savannah Larsen
Editor - Nick Schmidt