Movie Corner: Coffee Talk - Actors and Screenwriters Panels at LA Film Festival

Date: Sunday June 19, 2011 at 1:00pm PST

Location: LA Film Festival, LA Live Regal Cinema 12 – Los Angeles, CA

Movie Corner: Coffee Talk - Actors and Screenwriters Panels at LA Film Festival 1

Photo Courtesy of LA Film Festival - Los Angeles Times www.lafilmfest.com

Movie Corner: Coffee Talk - Actors and Screenwriters Panels at LA Film Festival 2

L-R: Rachael Harris and Judy Manning (me) at LAFF 2011 Sun 6/19/2011

On a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon, I attended two of the LA Film Festival’s Coffee Talk Panels – Actors and Screenwriters. The Actors panel was moderated by actress Rachael E. Harris (The Hangover) who’s in a new indie film titled Natural Selection. The panel guests were actors Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher; Captain America: The First Avenger); Jason Ritter (The Event, Good Dick); and actress Loretta Devine (Madea’s Big Happy Family, Jumping The Broom).

It was a great panel discussion especially since a fellow actor was the one who asked the questions. Loretta Devine provided some hilarious yet honest answers about some of the pitfalls that besiege actors and actresses of color.

After the panel, I got to meet Rachael Harris out in the corridor where we chatted briefly, mostly me telling her how much I admired her comedy and have been a fan since she was on the short-lived series Fat Actress with Kirstie Alley. She asked if I was going to see her new film Natural Selection and if I didn’t like it, she’d buy me a drink and if I did like it, she’d still buy me a drink – either way we were drinking. I unfortunately did not get to see the film Sunday night, but I’m hoping to check it out before the film festival is over. I think I may have missed a chance to have drinks with her but I at least got a picture with her.

I do have video; however, it is over 60 minutes long and You Tube was being fickle about loading so much at once. (Even though I have in the past.) Here is a 13 minute snippet of video. I did not transcribe – it’s way too much dialogue.

Now over to the Coffee Talk panel with Screenwriters with moderator Josh Olson (A History of Violence). The panel with guests Oscar® winner Diablo Cody (Juno, United States of Tara), Oscar® winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk, Big Love), and Emmy® winners Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Captain America: The First Avenger).

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Meeting Diablo Cody was amazing!

Being a writer, this was one panel I didn’t want to miss, especially since Diablo Cody was going to be there. Many have criticized her start in the business (she used to be a stripper, big whoop) and her quirky dialogue, but I love her sense of humor. I loved Juno and I absolutely LOVE United States of Tara. I was fortunate to be able to ask her a few questions about the show and how Toni Collette contributed to the characters. The discussion leading up to my questions was about how the actors, especially is a television series, begin to know and understand their characters better than the writers do. She was obliging and very friendly. I was thrilled to chat with her and beside myself with giddy delight to meet her face to face AND get a picture with her!

The other screenwriters offered up valuable tidbits for wanna-be screenwriters and were quite animated and entertaining. Here I have two video clips. Since there were taken on my iPhone, my Windows Movie Maker doesn’t import these files so I couldn’t combine them as I had hoped.

Regardless, the first clip is 13 minutes of the panel discussion with some questions from the audience;

the second clip is about 2 minutes with my questions posed to Diablo Cody.

LA Film Festival logos ©™ courtesy of Los Angeles Times.
Photos and video by Judy Manning for ©YourEntertainmentCorner.com.

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Judy Manning

Dream chaser extraordinaire! Judy tends to be a tad sarcastic and kind of goofy! She is an avid admirer of all things supernatural, paranormal, celestial and mystical. She loves to read, write, and watches way too much TV. She enjoys many genres of film and music (and let's be honest, most music from the 80s). She also has a wicked sweet tooth. Cupcakes beware.