How to transition from screenwriter to director

Topics to be discussed:

• How to read, analyze, and prepare your screenplay for shooting
• How to cast, rehearse, and direct actors
• How to collaborate with a crew that knows more about what they do than you do
• How to raise the money you need to make your movie.

Jim Pasternak is a master teacher of film directing.   Studios and producers hire him to prepare and coach their new directors.   He has taught at and designed film directing programs at some of the best film schools in the US, and he travels the world conducting workshops to empower people to direct movies. Jim’s directing credits include three features, five shorts, and twelve television shows.

His most recent film is the mockumentary feature, CERTIFIABLY JONATHAN, with Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams, now on Netflix.   He directed ONE HELL OF A GUY with Rob Lowe and Michael York, and for Paramount he wrote the final draft of COUSINS, the Joel Schumacher feature with Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini.    A directing fellow at the Sundance Institute, he began his career as assistant to Otto Preminger and as a producer on the Emmy-Award winning ABC documentary series, “The Saga Of Western Man.”

He holds a Masters Degree in Film from UCLA, and is currently the Course Director of Directing at the Los Angeles Film School.