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Watch live panels featuring screenwriters as they break down their techniques for crafting compelling scripts and navigating the entertainment industry.

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May 21, 2025

Fundamentals of the TV Series Bible

Learn how to define and execute the different pieces of narrative engine for a television series. And while that may sound academic and kinda daunting, after this class, you’ll walk away with simple, practical, and effective tools to use to break down existing shows, and to write the Bible script for your own.

Book Pipeline

Book Pipeline connects writers to publishers, agents, and the film industry through competitions and workshops, providing hands-on support to bridge the gap between emerging authors and the industry since 2014.

Script Pipeline

Script Pipeline connects writers with producers, agents, and managers, facilitating over $8 million in sales through competitions and ongoing industry support, helping launch major films and secure high-profile representation since 1999.

Film Pipeline

Film Pipeline connects filmmakers and writers with agencies and executives, focusing on diverse storytelling and playing an active role in developing and promoting projects, reviewing thousands of submissions annually since its launch in 2018.

Writing to Budget

Recorded

August 5, 2024

Duration

1.5 Hours

Cost

$35

Topics

Business, Craft

If you want to be a professional screenwriter you need to realize a couple of things.

  1. 95% of a screenwriter’s income come from works for hire. Rewrites, adaptations, writing for hire.
  2. Each one of those jobs comes with a budget to write to.

Every time you get a writing assignment of any kind it comes with what the budget for the film is, and you are expected to write to that budget. Every writer at some point gets these same limitations.

You either learn to write to them or they hire someone else who can.

There are a lot of ways to write to budget while still being as creative as you can be. You just need to learn them.

Bob Saenz will share the tips he personally uses to write to budget.

What Attendees Have Said ...

 "Great insight from a business professional! A well presented webinar that stuck to the topic plus Q&A at the end."

"Bob gave detailed examples of what is important to know about budgets when writing a script. His book, That's Not the Way It's Done, summarized some things I had not learned in my multitude of writing classes. This webinar on budgets taught even more things I would not have thought of, such as the cost of moving trucks from location to location. I always look for his Sunday posts on Facebook. He's definitely a working expert."

"Loved the detailed explanations and honesty."

Host

Bob Saenz
Bob Saenz is a screenwriter living in Nashville, with 21 credited produced films. Works include the comedy, Extracurricular Activities, Help for the Holidays, Rescuing Madison, A Christmas Star, The Right Girl, Sound of Christmas, Church People, The Christmas Yule Blog and The Farmer and the Belle. He regularly does rewrites and polishes on film and TV projects for Producers […]

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Upcoming Events

May 21, 2025

Fundamentals of the TV Series Bible

Learn how to define and execute the different pieces of narrative engine for a television series. And while that may sound academic and kinda daunting, after this class, you’ll walk away with simple, practical, and effective tools to use to break down existing shows, and to write the Bible script for your own.
June 4, 2025

One-on-One with Literary Agent Kate McKean

Kate McKean is a literary agent at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency in Brooklyn, but she's also an author and the creator of the popular Agents & Books newsletter. Get ready for the ultimate agent AMA. Pipeline exec Jeanne Veillette Bowerman conducts an intimate one-on-one dialogue with Kate, diving into the life of an agent, and also her new book, Write Through It: An Insider’s Guide to Publishing and the Creative Life, coming out in June.
June 17, 2025

Submitting to Small Presses and Literary Journals

Dennis James Sweeney, author of How to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published with Literary Magazines and Small Presses, will discuss the landscape of literary magazines and small presses, strategies for achieving your publication goals, and how to navigate the meaningful but difficult act of sending out the writing you’ve worked so hard on.

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May 7, 2025

How to Determine the Best Medium for Your Story

Author, comic writer and screenwriter Joshua Corin will help you determine what medium is the best fit for your story. Is it a play? A screenplay? A TV show? If it’s best told using narrative prose, should it be a short story? A novel? Somewhere in between? We'll go over the specific strengths and weaknesses of each medium, as well as the additions and sacrifices required for adapting a story from one medium to another.
April 30, 2025

The Book Skeleton Workshop: How to Structure Your Story Before Writing a Single Word

In The Book Skeleton, bestselling author and book coach Rea Frey will guide you through building the invisible structure that every strong book needs. Before you write a single word, you’ll design the "bones" of your story—giving you a clear, flexible blueprint to move forward with confidence, momentum, and creative flow.

Symposium, presented by Pipeline Artists, is a year-round virtual conference empowering creatives with honest, no-nonsense guidance across the arts. Through seminars, industry panels, and Town Hall discussions on screenwriting, filmmaking, publishing, and career-building, Symposium offers grounded advice from working professionals to help you forge your own unique path.

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