Speakers
Past Mentors
Wayne Carter
Past Mentors
Wayne Carter
Head Writer Extraordinaire for Sell Your TV Concept Now
He has worked as a professional scriptwriter for more than 25 years. He was a featured writer on the HBO comedy series, “The Investigators,” produced by Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson. He scripted the pilot episode and helped create the format for “Next Big Star,” the Ed McMahon-hosted talent show featuring audience voting which preceded “American Idol,” and ran as a successful series in syndication. He co-wrote the pilot for “The Late National Lampoon Show” on CBS, as well as co-wrote (with L.A. comedy scribe legend Bruce Vilanch) television comedy movies for CBS and Motown Productions.
Wayne worked in Hollywood for 16 years and sold more than 10 feature screenplays to the major studios, including Universal, Paramount Pictures, Fox, and National Lampoon. He was an A-list Writers Guild writer consulted by major studios seeking top talent to script star-driven feature projects. He worked with major directors on projects based on his own screenplays, including Richard Donner, and Academy Award-winning directors Tony Richardson and James Cameron.
Wayne currently writes out of Orlando, where he consults on feature and television projects, guest lectures, and has taught university courses on scriptwriting. He is a featured speaker at Sell Your TV Concept Now’s Hit Maker Summit, and works with their clients on developing series concepts into story and character-driven scripts with prime appeal to the entertainment industry. Scripts that he has either written or co-written for clients have won film festival contests all across the United States.
Kim Dawson
Kim Dawson is a 35+ year veteran of the film and television industry. He has served as a Production Executive & Line Producer for Showtime Networks, Trans World International, and “Making the Band” with Trans Continental Companies in a joint venture with ABC and MTV. Kim also produced “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I-II-III” for New Line Cinema.
He produced 65 episodes of “THE NEWZ” for Columbia Tri-Star Television at Universal Studios Florida. In 1996, he was Supervising Producer for “Tarzan the Epic Adventures” shot in Central Florida utilizing Disney MGM and Universal stages. He was the Coordinating Producer for 3 seasons of MTV/ABC’s “Making the Band” from 1999 to 2001 on behalf of series creator Trans Continental TV.
Previously, with Gary Propper Entertainment, he produced Carrot Top Live as a cable TV Special. He also produced a pilot for VH1 with the comedian Gallagher.
Kim supervised production of various series including “The Paper Chase”, “Steambath”, “Shelley Duval’s Fairy Tale Theater”, “Brothers”, “Comedy on Showtime”, and scores of music, comedy and variety specials.
Kim has been on both sides of the pitching desk, taking pitches as an executive at Showtime and giving pitches as the owner of SkyDog Productions.
Bill Suchy
BILL SUCHY is an Oscar-nominated and multiple Emmy-winning writer/ producer who has created, written and/or produced seven feature films, over forty documentaries, five television series and numerous short films and video projects.
Bill created, executive produced, wrote and directed the Emmy nominated children’s series, “Secrets of the Animal Kingdom”, syndicated domestically by Hearst Entertainment to ABC, FOX, and Warner Bros. and by Buena Vista International to all foreign markets. Bill was also head writer for Ed McMahon’s “NEXT BIG STAR” television series and wrote and produced the number one rated health series on cable television, “American Health and Fitness” (FOX Health Network) and was segment creator, writer, producer and director for the hit series “Rollerjam” (TNN). He also produced the highly acclaimed PBS series, “Writing in the Upward Years” (featuring poets Richard Eberhart, May Sarton, and Molly Harrower.
Bill has created, written and or produced some of the most popular documentary programs on broadcast television, including the WNET, PBS Nature Special “Cats”, the Academy Award nominated feature documentary, “Building Bombs” (narrated by Jane Alexander) and the acclaimed wildlife specials, “In Praise of Wild Florida” and “For the Love of Manatees.” On the National Geographic Special, “Realm of the Alligator” nominated for three Emmys (received two), Bill was creative and production consultant.
Bill also wrote and produced the feature film “Deadly Species”, presently in worldwide distribution by Worldwide Entertainment, as well as wrote, produced and directed several short films including “Fatal Flaw”, The Homecoming”, “Dead Wrong” and “Acts of Mercy.”
During his tenure as Managing Producer for Disney Attractions Television & Magic Kingdom Productions, Bill helped create and supervise numerous television projects.
Presently Bill is station manager of Orlando’s Orange TV where he has created numerous award-winning original series. He is also president of the Florida Media Arts Center, a 501c3 nonprofit organization promoting the film and video arts and is a consultant to the World Arts Center.
Rhett Banning
Rhett created and sold the hit Animal Planet Series Zig & Zag, The Ultimate Dog Adventure. He’ll share with us everything it took to sell and produce his series.
A former network anchor and national news correspondent, Rhett has created, produced, directed, written and hosted over three thousand program episodes during his broadcast career. His credits include productions on the Global Television Network and CTV Network in Canada, USA Network, Animal Planet, and syndicated networks, as well as Walt Disney. Rhett is a member of the Screen Actors Guild/AFTRA, and his work has won three Edward R. Murrow awards for excellence in broadcast journalism.
He is the founder of It Works! Productions, Inc., a media content development and production company based in Orlando, FL, which operates as three production units: It Works! is focused on television program development and production, Zebra Media produces TV and web commercials seen in more than 50 markets, and Digital Jump creates, builds and manages web based projects.