Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Pilder Olson

Hi Heather, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.

I am a writer and producer working on independent film and TV projects in Seattle. I started writing as a kid, and used to invent funny commercials and sketches with my brother when we were growing up. We’d record them on a tape recorder and play them for friends and family. After many years in other kinds of jobs like marketing, event planning and social work, I came back to doing what I truly loved: creating things for an audience. And especially making people laugh! Most recently I wrote and produced a TV comedy pilot called A Broad Abroad. It’s a show about the making of a travel show. It’s Rick Steves’ Europe meets Waiting for Guffman, and it will definitely make you laugh. We filmed it in Italy in 2023, and have spent a lot of 2024 traveling to film festivals where it’s screened and won awards! We won two Best Pilot Awards this year: in the Studio City Film Festival in LA, and in the Seattle Film Summit here at home. Our goal is to turn it into an episodic series.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

There are a ton of challenges in the film and TV industry; especially as a creator of independent projects. Our budgets are small and a lot of our projects are crowd-funded and self-funded. While we aren’t operating with big studio budgets, this method of creating projects gives us a lot of independence and freedom to do things the way we want to. Sometimes things don’t turn out the way we expect, or we lose a cast or crew member to another project. Sometimes our dreams are bigger than our realities and we have to learn to scale things back. But each project is a learning experience and even the ones that don’t work can give us valuable tools to use the next time.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

I consider myself a writer first, and a producer second, and eventually I might like to do more directing. I like organizing teams of people and working collaboratively. I was one of the co-leaders of a screenwriting program here in Seattle called The Green Room, and that was a great experience in working with other local writers. I’m most proud of my current project, A Broad Abroad, and the amazing cast and crew that I got to work with on that pilot. I’m also very proud of the documentary The River that I produced, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. It’s a film about homelessness in the Pacific Northwest, and was the most challenging film project I’ve worked on so far. I think what sets me apart from others is my ability to stay calm under pressure. I like to keep things positive, and keep projects moving forward, and I’ve been able to work through some very challenging situations and finish projects.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?

Books I’ve loved recently include The Idea of You by Robinne Lee, which was turned into a great movie starring Anne Hathaway, as well as Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which became an episodic series starring Riley Keough. I love seeing books become good movies and learning from that development process. I read a lot of screenplays and have benefitted from writing classes and workshops that help me hone my skills. The Film School, a screenwriting workshop here in Seattle, was very helpful to me back in 2010, and kickstarted my professional writing and filmmaking career. And I love the books and movies that Nora Ephron wrote and directed. I had the privilege of meeting her back in 2011, and she gave me some great advice. “Live your life first, then write about it. Most people don’t have a lot of interesting things to write about until they are at least 40.”

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.heatherpilderolson.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hpowriteon/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Feelcat