Pitch Practice Makes Perfect

Panel

The Writers Guild of America, East

Invites you to

Producers’ Panel & Pitch Practice with
M. Blair Breard, Ally Engelberg, Merideth Finn,
Jenny Halper and Rashidi Hendrix

Hone your pitch with the help of experienced producers. In front of a live audience of Writers Guild members, up to six writers will have the opportunity to pitch to producers Blair Breard, Ally Engelberg, Merideth Finn, Jenny Halper and Rashidi Hendrix. Each writer will be given constructive feedback and advice on moving their project forward.

M. Blair Breard was the Executive Producer on several award winning shows, including Better Things, Baskets, One Mississippi and Louie. Most recently she produced the feature film, The Half of It for Netflix and Likely Story. Ms. Breard also has a short form project in development at FX, and a feature film which will be filmed in the spring of 2020. She has many projects in various stages of development.

Ally Engelberg is currently the Director of Development and Production at Above Average, an NYC comedy production company born out of Broadway Video. At Above Average, she helps to oversee creative development and production of original programming, both maintaining the development slate and seeing projects through physical production. She serves as a co-producer on Liza On Demand, a YouTube Originals half hour comedy, and also spearheads Above Average’s short form development. She has sold and produced both scripted and nonscripted shows for WarnerMedia, Snapchat, NBCU Digital Labs, MTV Digital, Comedy Central Digital and E! International, amongst others.

Merideth Finn is a co-founder of Cue the Dog Productions, which specializes in adapting books for the screen. Finn, with her producing partner Michele Weiss, has over 15 years of experience developing and producing feature films, TV movies, and TV series.

They launched Cue the Dog by Executive Producing Flowers In The Attic, based on the V.C. Andrew’s novel, which premiered on Lifetime to 6.6 million viewers and garnered an Emmy nomination for Ellen Burstyn. Current film projects include Lies You Wanted to Hear, based on a novel by Jim Thomson, adapted and to be directed by Karen Moncrieff; and, in partnership with the Kerouac estate, Maggie Cassidy, based on the Jack Kerouac novel, adapted for the screen by Chris Sparling. Most recently, Finn Executive Produced Harry And Meghan: A Royal Romance, which debuted in May 2018 on Lifetime and has been the highest rated film for television on any network since January 2017 and Harry And Meghan: Becoming Royal, which debuted on Lifetime in May of 2019.

Jenny Halper is Maven Pictures’ Director of Production and Development, and has worked on films including The Kids Are All Right, The Whistleblower, Bernie, Still Alice, Freak Show and American Honey. Jenny is always on the lookout for distinctive stories with strong female characters. A graduate of Northwestern and Emerson, where she received a 2008 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Grant, she is an Athena List winner, an Our Stories Emerging Writer Award winner, a Pushcart Prize nominee, a Sloane Grantee, and her story collection was a finalist for the 2015 St. Lawrence Book Prize. Jenny lives in Brooklyn where she is the owner of a turtle, and is a devotee of kettle corn, used books, and VHS.

Rashidi Hendrix is CEO of Metallic Entertainment and also the co-Executive Producer and showrunner for the highly-acclaimed second season of series We Are The Jones (BET). Before working on the series, he was the co-founder & Chief Content Officer for Laugh Radio, an award-winning streaming standup comedy platform. Hendrix joined Metallic Entertainment in 2010 as a Producer/Manager at Metallic Management where his clients included music artists and TV talent that produce & direct series like Criminal Minds (CBS) and NCIS:LA (CBS). Before Metallic Entertainment, Hendrix was a successful writer/producer who has worked on series Kitchen Nightmares (FOX), According to Him + Her (Centric), Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood (Oxygen), Hot Properties (HGTV), The Encounter (SYFY), MTV Awards (MTV), The Apprentice (NBC), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC), Orange Is The New Black (Netlfix) and The Mo’nique Show (BET).

This invitation is nontransferable.

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RSVP Cancellation Policy
Three-Strike Rule

We understand that unplanned issues can come up and you may need to cancel your attendance at an event. If that happens, you must provide adequate notice of your cancellation or else you will incur a late-cancellation penalty.

For evening events, you must cancel your reservation by 9:00am on the day of the event to avoid a penalty.

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After missing three events without sending a cancellation notice to events@wgaeast.org within the defined window, you will be notified that you have been placed on a three-month hiatus from attending WGAE screenings.

Please note that is your responsibility to track your reservations and strikes. You will only be notified upon your third and final strike that you have been placed on hiatus.

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