Hi, I’m Bren. In 2001, after completing my prequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I collaborated with an independent filmmaker on two movie projects: the thriller Rapid Eye Movement, and comic adventure The Dueling Accountant. Since then, I have written screenplays in various genres, and provided script consulting/story development to 100 screenwriters, and developed 2 screenwriting seminars available on Udemy.
That’s the short version.
The longer version is a tale of passion, craftsmanship, and eventual frustration with an industry that used to provide quality entertainment for the world, which we still call Hollywood.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
It begins with Wittenberg
I left teaching because I loved English more than the miscreants climbing the walls of the public school. While teaching MS Office to business professionals and falling into tech support, someone asked me why a Dane prince like Hamlet was ever in Wittenberg, Germany. That began a passion project that included a pilgrimage to Wittenberg, the Globe Theatre in London and Stratford-on-Avon, UK. Off and on for a few years, I cloistered myself in iambic pentameter until, in 2001, roughly 400 years to the day after Hamlet first prevaricated across the Elizabethan stage, my Wittenberg beheld the light of day.
There’s nothing like a staged reading (complete with stage combat) to gain meaningful feedback, so I went back to work on my “Hamlet meets Martin Luther” tale, adding more comedy, sharpening the verses, reducing the word-count for the modern audience (you’re welcome), and refining the ending.
But alas, the world was not ready. Quoth one Shakespeare festival: “We produce REAL Shakespeare. If we want variation, we do something else. Why would we produce FAKE Shakespeare?”
Adventures in Screenwriting for Hollywood
All was not lost. I was young and in the fellowship of creatives in NYC! Wittenberg brought me in contact with script consultant/filmmaker Peter Bishai, who told me that I was clearly crazy enough screenwriting. We co-wrote two scripts, the award-winning, comic adventure The Dueling Accountant, and our thriller, Rapid Eye Movement (notable as the longest film shoot in NYC Times Square history!).
Along the way, I savored McKee, Truby, and several other screenwriting gurus, developed my own opinions, attended Act One Program in Hollywood in 2006, and after getting married, moved to Hollywood in 2008 to seek my fortune. I arrived as the major studios laid off thousands, so my dream of a “bungalow on the lot” vanished as the insufferable elitists built walls around the industry.
My wife formed a creative arts community, Epiphany Space, and I began script doctoring. Over a few years, I gave story notes and brainstormed solutions for roughly 100 writers. One outfit even let me tackle their next draft, an “American Revolutionary War Zorro” story that became Beyond the Mask.
I ran a movie discussion series called FAN (Film Appreciation Night) where I hosted discussions on story, and supported my fellow creatives as a story developer, mentor, production crew member, and actor. I also learned Sales & Marketing Operations in IT, and turned my problem-solving skills into a consistent paycheck.
By 2020, I had grown fed up with Hollywood with its barrier to every entry, its cattle-call pitchfests where writers speed-date illiterate prodco interns, and its culture of normalizing homeless meth addicts and a 95%+ unemployment rate for creatives. So I left.
What’s Next?
I’m homesteading and homeschooling in a quiet community in real America.
Because some have asked: sometimes returning to my vast collection of unfinished projects feels like returning to a bad break-up. “Writer’s write!” they say. To that I retort: “And driver’s drive until they realize that oasis in the distance is just a mirage.” I have yet to shake this opinion.
Something needs to change in our culture if we’re to restore the entertainment industry to its intended purpose: recreation. That is, that sweet and useful break from our daily chores that “re-creates” what it means to be human, alive, passionate, vibrant, and heaven-bound.
Milestones
- First Staged Reading of Wittenberg (2001)
- Rapid Eye Movement (2002, co-written with Peter Bishai) (Released 2019)
- The Dueling Accountant (2004, co-written with Peter Bishai) (Released, 2008)
- Founded www.bren.us (2004) to celebrate film, and to justify all my movie watching
- Provided script analysis and/or mentoring for roughly 100 screenwriters through Act One Program in Hollywood (2009-2012)
- Wittenberg (published 2015), with the stories of Two Wittenbergs.
- Knight of the Temple (published 2017)
For more information, check out my IMDB page, and my projects, story resources and seminars on this site. You’ll be glad you did.