Top-Rated Industry Workshops
Free for registered Filmmakers with VIP All Access Pass
All workshops will be finalized and posted by the end of August!
Optional for the public at a cost, if space is available! Please purchase under “Tickets”
Maximizing your Art Department Budget
with Industry Expert Christina Brown
How and where to think outside the box for set design, set dressing, and props. Get tips and tricks for seeing a "big budget" set on film with the limitations of an "Independent film" budget.
Christina C. Brown has been working in film for 5 years, but has been involved in the performing arts in one way or another since grade school. She has worked on both short films and features and even has a web series in production. She has worked the Show Low Film Festival since year one and is the Art Director for the Amberlight Valley series of films written by Dalea Faulkner.
Learn How To Pitch
with Industry Expert Dawn Fields
This popular workshop is back! Join Pitch Coach and filmmaker Dawn Fields for an exciting workshop on pitching your project. From features to television, shorts, and documentaries, learn how to pitch your project with ease and clarity. Practice your pitch and get valuable feedback in this fun, interactive workshop. Hope to see you there!
Script to Screen & All Things In Between
with Industry Expert Marilyn Swick
Script to Screen & All Things In Between is a film workshop designed to take participants through the complete filmmaking journey—from the first spark of an idea and the development of a screenplay through pre-production, casting, contracts, music, post-production, festivals, pitch, and distribution.
Whether participants are aspiring screenwriters, directors, producers, actors, or emerging filmmakers, this workshop provides a practical overview of the entire filmmaking process, key decisions, collaborations, and creative challenges that connect a script to a finished film and ultimately to its audience.
Marilyn Swick is a Cave Creek based multiple award-winning Director, screenwriter, ASCAP Music Publisher & writer, SAG-AFTRA actor, acting coach, and producer under her company, Sleep On It Productions. Marilyn attended the New York Film Academy, received her Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts from Georgetown University, and was accepted into the Juilliard School of Drama Extension Division, NYC in 2025. When not on a film set, you may find her showing her horse in Hunter Under Saddle or Pleasure Driving classes.
Follow her at: https://www.instagram.com/marilynswick/
Follow her films and awards at: http://www.imdb.me/marilynswick
Beyond the Premiere: Social Media Marketing
with Industry Expert Melissa Farley
Your film deserves an audience. Let’s help you find it. 🎬
Social media doesn’t have to mean chasing trends, becoming an influencer, or shouting “WATCH MY MOVIE!” into the void. In this energetic, practical workshop, media and marketing strategist Melissa Farley shows filmmakers and performers how to turn the creative process itself into compelling content that builds genuine connections and gets people invested before the premiere. Learn what’s working on social media right now, what to post when you think you have “nothing to post,” how to make festivals work harder for your visibility, and how to transform followers into a community that’s actually excited to see what you create next. Come with a project. Leave with a plan.
Melissa Farley is an award-winning filmmaker, actor, media producer, and marketing strategist with more than two decades of experience helping stories find—and move—their audiences. After building social and digital teams within the USA TODAY NETWORK, she founded Stronger Today, a boutique agency serving filmmakers, creatives, entrepreneurs, and purpose-driven organizations, while continuing a performance career spanning more than 35 IMDb credits and major network roles. Drawing on her experience both in front of the camera and behind the scenes at film festivals throughout Arizona, she currently serves on the board of the Worldwide Women’s Film Festival, is the host and producer of Arizona’s The Morning Show, and is a Disney Teaching Artist.
Follow her at:
@TheMelissaFarley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themelissafarley/?hl=en
@OnTheMorningShow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onthemorningshow/?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-farley-b8097531/
The Four P’s of Screenwriting, but wait, there’s a fifth!
with Industry Expert Beverly Nault
Whether you’re writing for spec or to produce your own film, discover the four P’s that turn promising ideas into compelling screenplays: how to meet audience expectations, build an engaging story world, create a satisfying journey, and deliver an ending that works.
Beverly Nault is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, and published author specializing in uplifting, character-driven stories with engaging humor and meaningful emotional stakes. She creates stories that entertain while taking audiences on journeys they’ll remember long after the story ends. She believes memorable storytelling depends on understanding audiences as deeply as we understand our characters: what they expect, what they need and want, and what keeps them invested in the journey.
Her feature screenplay, Better Angels (formerly Perfect Misfits, Show Low Top 3, 2023), is now with multiple Emmy Award-winning director Paul A. Kaufman moving toward production. She is a producer of the feature documentary My Life Between the Reins and serves on the crew of Life Interrupted: The Cancer Series. She is currently on the production staff of Running on Faith, a feature documentary and music video about rising barrel-racing star Faith Hudson.
Bev has written, co-written, or consulted on dozens of screenplays. She worked as a first reader for a literary agency and as an acquisitions editor for an acclaimed literary journal. Today, she works as a development editor on screenplays and with select clients writing fiction and nonfiction. Bev lives in Mesa, Arizona, with her husband, Gary. A Texas native who grew up riding horses, she also enjoys photography, tennis, and travel—and majors in spoiling her four granddaughters.
Insta: @bevnault