We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mark Brown . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mark below.
Mark, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I’m a life-long writer. Reading good stories is how we learn to write. As a boy, I started writing episodes of “Star Trek” and issues of “Spider-Man.” I’ll never forget realizing that someone had to make up those stories I loved. Why couldn’t I?
Of course, I have been though formal training. I have a master’s degree in creative writing, and I have studied screenwriting and TV writing at the Sundance Collab and the Catalyst Story Institute. Formal education is invaluable. Find the schools and teachers that fit you, and then immerse yourself.
I’ve also been extremely lucky in finding mentors. The film and television industry is full of generous people that give of their time to help newcomers.
Finally, read scripts. Good scripts, bad scripts. Read them all. Then read some more. That’s the primary way to learn screenwriting.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
As a screenwriter, I like to tell the stories that the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t want you to hear. There are so many stories of the forgotten people in American history . . . so many voices waiting to be heard.
Currently, I’m marking a gritty serialized TV drama entitled “Redneck Army” about the largest armed insurrection in U.S. history and a neo-noir feature entitled “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” about white supremacy in the U.S. military. It might surprise you to know that both are based on real people and actual events. It’s not the sort of thing we get taught in history class.
I came to screenwriting after 25 in political communication. My time in politics gave me a unique perspective on American life, particularly in the Southeast, my home region.
Write the movies and TV shows you want to see. That maxim drives my work.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
The saying in the film and TV industry is “You go through a thousand NO’s to get to one YES.”
Absolutely, 100 percent correct.
You better be resilient if you want to do anything in this industry.
Every day, we slog through rejection after rejection. It’s not enough that your work is good. You have to get good work in front of the right person at the right time . . .
Once.
Get there, and your project is a go. Great. Get your project done. Then? Guess what?
You start the process all over again. That’s life in film and TV.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Whitni and I met in acting class. We’re both writers, and she approached me about her project “Redneck Army.” I signed up, and off we went.
Film and TV is all about networking. If you start production on a television show, for example, you launch a business that will employ at least 200 people. Shows typically take two years per season to produce, so if you run four seasons, that business will run for eight years.
You need an army of people to produce any film or tv show. You better know alot of them.
Also, you never know when someone else might get the funding for a production. Maybe they need you.
Network. Make friends. Be kind. Be the type of person with whom others want to work .
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/markbrown_nashville
- Facebook: facebook.com/gilgamark
- Twitter: twitter.com/gilgamark
Image Credits
TullFoto, Bennett Self, Miss Ernie,