ONGOING
Private coaching for actor-creators: FROM IDEA → TO SCRIPT
Start to get your inspiring project ideas outta your head! Focus on sifting through project ideas and articulating them to others, whether that’s through a script or pitch deck. This is not a writing class—this is an opportunity to work with a professional script doctor and writer-producer who understands the internal mechanisms that make stories work as films.
Johnny is a coach and an accountability partner for creating your ideas, making them real, moving ideas from mind to paper, and starting to manifest your project.
You will come away feeling encouraged and confident, with a clearer idea of what your “why” is so that you can attract collaborators. You’ll want your story to be tight so that the rest of your process can flow smoothly.
Some people feel they need either regular or sporadic coaching sessions to get their project into motion or across the finish line. Through virtual one-on-one sessions, Johnny shares personalized guidance drawn from his experience producing and writing films. Coaching saves you time and gets you straight to the punch sooner!
Actors will get:
Private coaching is open to anyone at any phase of the creative process. Coaching sessions do not include script analysis. Instead, we focus on your next steps to move towards production.
For script analysis, please see below for script development tips!
Make sure your script is tight before heading to production.
So many creators make one simple mistake: working really hard to produce a script that is not finished yet. You don’t want to be in the production phases and realize that you have holes in your script that you now have to fix. I strongly encourage every creator to thoroughly take the time to find the holes in your ship before you set sail!
The best way to do this is to get objective readers on your scripts. I recommend submitting to any of the screenplay/webseries script festivals or groups, and paying the extra dollars to receive coverage from the readers. Coverage will give you major insights about what is working and not working.
Some of the reputable groups that offer coverage (aka analysis) are:
If you still need to strengthen your script, you can also take screenwriting classes for more inspiration and guidance on strengthening the script. In NYC, I recommend Jacob Krueger Screenwriting Studio, Ela Thier’s screenwriting classes at Independent Film School, and Save The Cat books and weekend workshops.
The studio also has a wonderful Resident Writing Coach, Pages D. Matam, who offers detailed script consulting and full script notes. Pages is great! More details here.
Johnny Sánchez is an actor/writer/producer. His acting career spans 36 films and 14 TV episodes. Acting highlights include OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE (Bette Midler), THE HARD WAY (Michael J. Fox), ER (George Clooney), THE LIMEY (Steven Soderbergh), BOWFINGER (Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy), TRANSFORMERS (Michael Bay), SIDE EFFECTS (Soderbergh), SAINT X (Dee Rees), THE EQUALIZER (Queen Latifah), Showtime’s RAY DONOVAN, HBO’s AND JUST LIKE THAT… (Michael Patrick King) and THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL (director Daniel Palladino). Directors have included Frank Oz, John Badham, Sidney Lumet, Steven Soderbergh, Dee Rees and Michael Bay.
As a producer, he co-produced FIND ME GUILTY, directed by Sydney Lumet, starring Vin Diesel and Peter Dinklage. He also co-produced EVEN MONEY, starring Academy Award winners Kim Basinger and Forest Whitaker. Johnny also produced SPIC, MUSCLE, and A THROUGH M — all directed by Heidi Miami Marshall. Johnny also produced the short NOISE.
As a writer, Johnny wrote A Through M – winner of Best Short Script at Intl. Horror & Sci-Fi Film Fest. Johnny also wrote the short SPIC. During SPIC’s development process, the script won Semifinalist at ScreenCraft Film Fund Script Competition 2017, Second Rounder at Austin Film Festival Script Competition 2018, Finalist at Blue Cat Screenplay Competition 2019, Third Place at Vail Film Festival Screenplay Contest 2020, First Place at Diverse Voices, We Screenplay Competition 2020, and Quarter-Finalist at PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Competition 2021.
SPIC was completed in 2022 and is currently making its rounds in film festivals. So far SPIC garnered the LOLA AWARD NOMINATION at Philadelphia Latino Film Festival and BEST FILMMAKER WINNER at Bare Bones International Film Festival 2023, with Entertainment Oxygen.
Johnny’s feature screenplay (AMERICAN BUBBLE) received many evaluations of the highly coveted “8” on the prestigious Black List. The script was also semi-finalist at Austin Film Festival and Vail Film Festival.
For someone who has never written their own series before, the Creator’s Circle was super helpful. I’ve LOVED that you gave us deadlines, and that you always pushed against taking on more than you can chew. I felt like I learned something from every single person in our circle. I often found that the challenges that they were facing were similar to the ones I was facing. You give ample time to each creator to hash out their project and figure out what will work best to get to the next level with our projects.
Without a doubt, I gained the confidence to call myself a creator. The Creators Circle began to be something I looked forward, to share my progress, my failures, and be in solidarity with my fellow creators as we stumbled and grew. Most importantly, I have a project in motion as opposed to a concept dormant in my mind.
Opening up and sharing my story, and really my self and experience, would have stayed stuck in the land of unrealized ideas without the Creators Circle. I was so afraid and paralyzed by perfection. But your encouragement, and the support of the group, were paramount in allowing me to start exploring… the things you were able to see in what I was doing/dreaming about allowed me the confidence to keep going!!
Creators Circle has given me more confidence in my own work, community, foundation(and whenever I feel lost I can always go back to it). It was a great place to have my ideas get out of my own head. It also helped me to stay on schedule and not let it get lost.
Johnny, you’ve been really helping me keep the ball in the air, pushing myself forward. You got my back, man. I so appreciate the time you take to think about [my project] and join me in the world of the film.
Thank you so much for your help and support. It really means the world to me and helps me keep going when I’m feeling discouraged.
Full disclosure — please note that we do not guarantee that actors in these classes or workshops will be hired for any project that we might direct, produce, or cast. We teach and coach because we enjoy supporting and nurturing actors as you develop your personal process for auditioning, working and creating your own work.