People

Michele Adams

Preferences:   
Features or shorts; special interest in period pieces, adaptations, and stories with child protagonists.

Contact method:
madams@shaw.ca

Representative:
Anna Archer/ Doreen Homes at Lucas Talent
anna.archer@lucastalent.com, Doreen.Holmes@lucastalent.com

Bio:
Michele's approach to story is informed by Raymond Chandler's belief that "a good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled." A recent story editing project is the bittersweet romantic fantasy Ocean Blue for writer/director Guy Bennett; she's also a script analyst for Praxis, has served in various Praxis juries, and is on the Harold Greenberg and Telefilm lists of story editors.

Michele has completed three feature scripts: Lady S (adapted from Jane Austen's first novel Lady Susan), Sex Lives of the Saints, and The Kindest Thing, and is now working on a fourth. Lady S and Sex Lives... both won fellowships in the Praxis Screenplay Competition (1998,1999) and have been variously optioned and developed. Each has received Harold Greenberg funding, and Sex Lives... has also received support from Movie Central, Manitoba Film and Sound, and Telefilm. One of her shorts, The Flowering, won the first Praxis Out-of-the-Hat contest; another, Beachbound, was a winner in the CBC/BC Film 'Signature Shorts' .      

Background includes a Masters degree as well as professional development in story editing (e.g., Clare Downs 'Seeing Eye to Eye' Workshop in 2000, and the Praxis Story Editor program in 2002, working with mentor Sharon Riis) and screenwriting. Michele has received scholarships to the Banff Centre ( in radio drama, fiction, poetry) and to Booming Ground (UBC Creative Writing summer workshop in short fiction); her writing has been published (Geist, The Fiddlehead, Canadian Fiction, Event), dramatized (CBC Radio), and performed (Harrison Festival of the Arts, etc.); she won Fiddlehead’s fiction prize in 2005 and her short story collection Bright Objects of Desire (Biblioasis Press), was published in 2006.  She has also worked for CBC Radio as a writer/broadcaster and recently co-authored a commissioned radio drama, Year of the Crab, for the Mother Corp. Her current fiction project is the comic novel, Grim Sausages, recently shortlisted for the Metcalf-Rooke Award.

In addition to writing, Michele has an ongoing commitment to teaching and editing; she has taught Literature, Communications, Creative Writing and Screenwriting at UBC, VCC, OLA, VFS, and SFU, and also works as a freelance writer/editor.
 

Julia Chan

Preference:
Any genre, film or TV
 

Contact:
juliaschan AT yahoo.ca

Julia Chan has been a reader and analyst for a diverse clientele of funders, production companies and individual writers and producers for several years. She holds an MFA in Screenwriting from York University, is a graduate of the prestigious Canadian Film Centre’s Writers’ Lab and a past participant in Praxis’ story editing internship. As a writer, the short film she wrote (In Shadow, produced through the CFC’s Short Dramatic Film Program) was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, among others, and garnered an award for Best Short Screenplay at the International Cherokee Film Festival.  Julia is also a Toronto Arts Council writing grant recipient. In addition to her own creative work, Julia’s curiosity and love of the arts is expressed through her varied professional experience spanning film, television, publishing, literature and theatre.

Andrew Chung

Preferences:
Features and TV of all genres 

Contact Method:
andrew@jadedpublishing.com or 778-238-7227

Bio:
Andrew Chung is a Vancouver-based Story-Editor and Screenwriter for film and TV.  Passionate, hardworking and extremely drive, Andrew has worked extensively in development for numerous production companies, script reading, story editing, and working closely with a host of talented screenwriters.  He has served as Head of Development for Triton Films Inc. (The Condemned, Project Grey), and a Script Reader for Infinity Features (Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Capote).  As a freelance Story Editor he has most recently worked with Submission Films.  He has also acted as Story Intern for Stormworld, a TV program by Brightlight Pictures (The Guards, Saved).  A graduate of the screenwriting program at the Vancouver Film School and a 2008 Praxis Story Editor Intern, Andrew was screenwriter for the short film, Word, an official selection of the Philadelphia Asian American International Film Festival 2008 and Palm Beach International Film Festival 2008.  Word is currently under distribution with Ouat media, along with Goodbye Karrie, a short film in which Andrew was Story Editor.  He is also an experienced Magazine Editor and Journalist, as the Senior Editor for Jaded Expressions Magazine, an arts and culture Internet publication.  He contributes opinion pieces to Blink Magazine, an Asian lifestyle print magazine, as well.  In addition to his creative writing talents, he is a freelance Linear Editor and Graphic Designer and works as the Marketing & Distribution Coordinator for Horizon Motion Pictures, a Vancouver-based film distributor and international sales agent.  Andrew was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario.

Rodger Cove

Preference:
Any genre

Contact:
604-436-3545
rcove@telus.net

Rodger began writing in radio where he worked for seven years as a copywriter.  Since then he has published short fiction and has had radio and stage plays professionally produced.  As a screenwriter, he has written eight feature length scripts and is a two time Praxis Fellow; he has also been a semi-finalist in the prestigious Chesterfield and Nicholl screenwriting competitions.

In 2008, he wrote, co-produced and acted in Hair of the Sasquatch, a feature length mockumentary which had its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival.  Related work experience includes stints as a dramaturge, script reader, analyst, and story editor for Theatre Terrific, CBC Western Drama Development, British Columbia Film, Movie Central, and the Praxis Centre for Screenwriting.  He has taught film techniques and screenwriting at The Trebas Institute, Matsqui Medium Security Prison, Praxis, and Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and is now the senior instructor in the writing department at the Vancouver Film School. 

He has a B.A. in English from Simon Fraser University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
 

Neil Every

Preferences:
Horror/Sci-Fi, Drama, Romantic-Comedy (Features, TV episodic and Shorts)

Contact:
neiljevery@gmail.com

Bio:
Neil has been working in the Vancouver film industry for over a decade.  As a Story Consultant he brings a wide range of skills to the table having directed 12 short films, written numerous feature scripts and worked as a Story Consultant and Instructor at Vancouver Film School for 5+ years (workshopping over 450 short scripts plus numerous features, pilots and game scripts).  As a Director his short films include The Fare (NS.I. Drama Prize winner, 1998), Rapunzel’s Fairytale (Official Selection N.S.I. FilmExchange, 2003) and Say Yes (Winner DGC Kickstart Award, 2004 and Official Selection of the Montreal World Film Festival, 2005). In 2009 he was nominated for a Leo Award for directing the music video “Tonight” for The Tito Deville Band.  His feature scripts include the PRAXIS Fellowship winning The Ormering Tide (Spring and Summer 2002) and The Shell (Summer 2008). Produced feature screenplays include The Condemned (starring Luis Guzman and Liane Balaban), Bloodrayne II: Deliverance for Brightlight Pictures and the upcoming 3D CG animated The Legend of Silk Boy (with voice talent including Jackie Chan). He is currently developing The Death of Alec Gray which will mark his feature directorial debut. Neil’s story analysis skills have been called upon by writers, producers and production companies across Canada. He has also sat on the jury for PRAXIS, the ReelFast 48hr Film Festival, the 24hr Film Contest and BC Arts Council.  Neil is noted for his strengths in character and theme, comprehensive genre knowledge and for his (sometimes brutal but always constructive!) honest criticism.
 

Marc Fredette

Bio:
A Vancouver-based Story Editor, but Ontario boy at heart, Marc Fredette made the move to B.C. not long after completing his B.A. at the University of Guelph.  After graduating with honours from Vancouver Film School's Writing for Film and Television Program, he spent 2008-2010 at Brightlight Pictures working in both development and production.  These two years included coverage and analysis for the hundreds of scripts that came across his desk, as well as numerous script rewrite notes for projects in development, and creative story editing notes on documentary and feature film edits.  In 2009 he was awarded a Praxis Story Editor Internship.  

Carrie Gadsby

Preference:
Any genre

Contact:
gadsby1@shaw.ca

Bio:
Carrie Gadsby is a Vancouver-based Story Editor and Analyst for feature film.  Born and raised in Vancouver, Carrie began her career at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where she made the leap to working with local production companies and gained experience with international distribution.  She was a regular attendee of the Cannes, Toronto and Sundance film festivals, and sold international film rights at the film markets in Cannes, Milan and Los Angeles.  Carrie was appointed Director of Development and Acquisitions with North American Releasing and was involved with many international co-productions.  

Turning her attention and focus solely toward feature film script development, Carrie moved to Los Angeles and worked as a Story Editor with director and filmmaker Oliver Stone at his production company, Illusion Entertainment.  While in Los Angeles, Carrie had the privilege and opportunity to work very closely with emerging writers and talent, and was involved with many studio pitches.  After working with Oliver Stone, Carrie continued her career as Director of Development for Sapphire Entertainment which had offices based in both Los Angeles and Vancouver.

Working collaboratively and intimately with writers has remained her passion, and Carrie continues to work closely with developing writers here in Vancouver.
 

Tihemme Gagnon

Preference:
Comedies, Dramas, TV specs/pilots

Contact:
tihemme@gmail.com
604-202-5400
 

Tihemme Gagnon currently has two dramatic television series in development with APTN: Redlaw with Joe Media Productions (co-writer/producer); and The Carving Shed, with producer Raymond Massey (co-producer/writer).  She recently secured a third development deal with the CTF (Canadian Television Fund) for her children's Aboriginal language mxed-media program What the Elders Know.  Her documentary pilot Our Home & Native Land: Canada's First Nations Heroines, produced with Sweegrass and Sage Inc, premiered on APTN in February, 2010, and was recently selected tos creen before an international panel of distributors at the Canadian embassy in Berlin.  Tihemme's other credits include wrier for Anaid Productions' hit documentary series X-Weighted, and story editor and field producer for Paperny Films' Crash Test Mommy, both of which air on Slice Network.
 

Over the years, Tihemme has participated in the NSI's DiverseTV (2005) and StoryTellers Programs (2008), and the CFTPA/Telefilm Producer Mentorship Program (2009).  In 2006, she was awarded a Praxis Story Editor Internship, and was subsequently hired as an adjudicator for the Centre's 2006, 2007 and 2008 screenwriting competitions.  She continues to provide script analysis and story editing services to writers of both feature scripts and teleplays.  Her own scripts have been shortlisted at Praxis (Epaulettes) and Scriptapolooza.tv (The Last Gate).
 

Tihemme is also an instructor with Vancouver Film School's Writing for Film and Television Program, from which she graduated with honours in 2005.  She is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada.

Jennica Harper

Preference:
Any genre, Feature and TV
 

Contact:
jennica@telus.net

Bio:
Jennica Harper moved from Ontario to Vancouver in 1998 to study creative writing at UBC, where she earned her MFA.  Her TV work includes writing and story editing for the Canwest Global TV series Shattered (E1 Entertainment/Force Four Productions), and a 4-hour miniseries in development with Canwest for their Showcase channel.  She also has a number of original series in development, including Top Secretary (optioned by Omni Film), Mayor Jake (Howe Sound Films), and the supernatural teen drama Houdini & Doyle.  She is a recent winner of the Global TV Writers Apprenticeship Award.

Jennica's features in development are Or Best Offer (Ajani Entertainment; recipient of development funding from Harold Greenberg Fund, CHUM, and Movie Central) and The Clockwork Girl, an adaptation of the Arcana Kids comic book, with funding from Telefilm.  She has also been commissioned to write or rewrite features, including Year of the Carnivore, which premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival (Screen Siren/Sook Yin Lee), and the family feature Spymate (Keystone Pictures).

As a story editor, Jennica has worked on features and award-winning short films, including The Light of Family Burnam (winner of the MPPIA short film award at the Whistler Film Festival), The Good Tenant (Capital “C” Pictures), Adventures in Dying and The Sacrifice (Howe Sound Films), and Taming Tammy, produced in 2007.

Jennica is also an award-winning poet and comic book writer.  Her books of poetry are What It Feels Like for a Girl (Anvil Press, 2008) and The Octopus and Other Poems (Signature Editions, 2006), and in 2008 her comic Abigail's War was produced by Zeros 2 Heroes Media.  She has taught creative writing at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Film School.
 

Kurt Hoffman

Preference:
Science-Fiction, Thriller, Film Noir, and darker themes

Contact:
604-328-6235
wr25kurt@vfs.com

Bio:
Kurt Hoffman is a graduate of Vancouver Film School's Writing Department and participated in Praxis' Story Editing Internship Program in 2008. Primarily a Sci-fi and Film Noir Writer, Kurt's previous trades include Carpentry and Barbering. He currently resides in Vancouver (Kits).

Jason Margolis

Preferences:
Comedy

Contact Method:
Tel: 604 839-0811

Bio:
Jason Margolis works as a freelance writer, story editor, director, and motion picture editor.  His writing credits include the Global Television documentary Inside Boystown, the Directors Guild Of Canada KickStart short film After Shock, and three award winning shorts for Vancouver's Reel Fast 48 Hour Film Festival. He won a 2005/2006 Praxis Centre for Screenwriters fellowship for the screenplay The Great One (formerly known as 99), his second collaboration with novelist Todd Babiak.  Their previous collaboration, an adaption of Babiak's novel Choke Hold, received development support from BC Film, Citytv, and Telefilm.  Jason was a 2005 Praxis Story Editor Intern and his script Beside Herself was developed through a fellowship from Praxis and IATSE 891.  As a screenwriting instructor at Vancouver Film School, Jason has story edited over 450 scripts, resulting in over 100 completed films.  Jason has also taught at the Art Institute of Vancouver, Cineworks Independent Filmmakers' Society, and the National Screen Institute. He has story edited and read scripts for Vancouver companies Screen Siren Pictures, Monkey Ink Media and Praxis.  His debut feature Lucky Stars premiered at the Calgary International Film Festival in 2004 and has gone on to screen at festivals across North America. He is currently directing several music videos and documentaries, including the historical documentary Ayaa for producer Marilyn Thomas.  Jason's experience as a motion picture editor on several television series - including shows for Jim Henson Productions, Omni Film Productions and Citytv - offers him a rather unique experience as a story editor.  His own writing encompasses a variety of genres, but he has a preference for commercial genres such as comedy and science fiction.

Andrew McEvoy

Genre Preference:
Science Fiction, Comedy, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

Contact:
jamming@shaw.ca

Andrew McEvoy has been a two-time Praxis Fellow as well as a Praxis Story Editor Intern. To date he has written fourteen feature films, three complete series bibles, and holds produced credits in both film and television. His sci-fi script The Pixelated Man was the unanimous winner of the Slamdance Screenplay Competition and was subsequently developed through James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment. At present he is story editor/consultant on a 19 million dollar animated sci-fi epic and also has three features in development. He has worked as a script reader, has story edited everything from screenplays to books of poetry, and currently works as a screenwriting instructor at Vancouver Film School. He also prides himself as being a walking, talking encyclopedia of obscure punk rock.

Katharine Montagu

Preferences:

Features, TV Pilots, web series or shorts

Contact Method:

katmontagu@shaw.ca

Bio:

Katharine has British, Australian and Canadian citizenship. She backpacked around the world before moving to Vancouver, Canada to earn a first class Creative Writing degree at UBC and settling there.

Praxis Centre for Screenwriters trained Kat as a feature film story editor and later awarded her a screenwriting fellowship for her own feature script The Emperor of China. She also won funding from BC Film for a sci fi thriller and a quarter-finalist spot at Austin for a rom-com.

Kat’s first TV pilot Control Freak, written with the guidance of Maria Jacquemetton (Mad Men), was a semi-finalist in the 2008 Page Awards and her second, detective-mystery series False Creek, was optioned and pitched at Banff. She recently finished a dramedy pilot Heart of Glass and is writing a novel about a ghost and his pirate treasure.

Kat story edits two or three feature film screenplays a year, but works on many more as a script analyst and a popular screenwriting instructor at Vancouver Film School. She’s won the Excellent in Teaching Award for the Writing Department twice. Kat has also produced six short films and a short TV pilot for CBC. She has story edited for Crazy 8s for four years. She sometimes story edits web series, TV pilots and occasionally even novels. She mostly works in Vancouver, but has worked with writers in Winnipeg, Toronto and recently in the UK (a political thriller with Emma Thompson attached). She is a Telefilm-approved story editor.

Roslyn Muir

Preferences:
Feature film, any genre, but has also worked with documentary and shorts.

Contact method:
(604) 812-1960

Bio:
Roslyn Muir is an award winning screenwriter, story editor and producer. Her new feature comedy, Unravelled, is a winner of the Praxis Screenplay Competition, Fall 2009. Roslyn has earned other accolades for her writing: her children’s series, Kyra the Last Murch, was a finalist in the 2007 NSI Totally Television program; she received the BC Film Screenwriter Fellowship for screenplay, The Karaoke Queen; and her feature screenplay Hold the Sky won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2008 Female Eye Festival in Toronto and was a finalist in the Praxis Screenplay competition 2008. This year, she was an invited participant the Banff Television’s Telefilm TV360 new media program.

Roslyn works as a story editor and script consultant with many Vancouver production companies, broadcasters and independent writers. Most recently she has been a story editor on Smart Cookies, an Omni Life/W Network production, and a feature story editor for Rave Film (Better Than Chocolate). Roslyn wrote, directed and produced two short digital films and associate produced the CHUM documentary, The Oldest Basketball Team in the World, directed by Sharon McGowan. Roslyn also consults on and produces educational media.

Annie Reid

Preferences:
Features, MOW, any genre

Contact method:

annierrr@gmail.com

Bio:
Annie Reid is a Vancouver-based writer and story editor. Recent story editing projects include Anagram Picture’s Fido, as well as several other short and long form scripts currently in development. Annie has worked as a reader for Praxis as well as local independent production companies, and is currently writing an MOW for an independent Canadian film producer. In the United States, she worked as the personal assistant to screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. (Jarhead, Cast Away, Apollo 13, Polar Express).  She received the prestigious Nicholl fellowship in 2003, and has also been a Praxis Screenwriting Fellow (2005) and Praxis Story Editor Intern (2004).  She is also a published short story writer, and has taught writing at the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, the University of Texas, and the Texas League of Writers.

Marlene Rodgers

Preference:
All genres; feature film and TV

Contact:
mprodgers@telus.net

Marlene Rodgers is a writer, producer and story editor based out of Vancouver, Canada, who loves to help other filmmakers bring their stories to fruition.   As a story editor, she has worked extensively with feature filmmakers on character-based drama, but has also brought her talents to comedy, documentary and lifestyle programming for the Food Network and the W Network.  

Marlene began her career in film in Toronto in the late 80s, working as an executive at Telefilm, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the CBC Movies and Mini-series unit. Since returning to Vancouver, Marlene has focused on story editing and teaching screenwriting at organizations such as the Canadian Film Centre, the National Screen Institute and Praxis.

Marlene wrote and produced the short film, FOXY LADY, WILD CHERRY, which played in several festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival and Clermont-Ferrand, and was sold to broadcasters internationally.  She also produced the short CLEVELAND WOOD’S LAST DAY ON EARTH, which was exhibited and broadcast internationally.  Currently, Marlene is co-writing and producing a feature film, SKIN TO SKIN, with support from Movie Central, BC Film, NSI Features First, and Praxis.
 

Colin Thomas

Preferences:
Any genre

Contact:
colinthomas@telus.net
604-734-1648 

Bio:
Colin brings 25 years of narrative analysis to his work. Besides being the theatre critic for the Georgia Straight, Colin story edits both novels and screenplays. He is currently working on dramatic screenplays for producers across the country. In a thank-you note, screenwriter Guy Bennett write, “Genius. Just received and read your notes. What a gift. They give me things to be proud of and protect, and the challenge a bunch of things that are second-rate. Your take is crystal-clear.” Colin story edited Nettie Wild’s Juno Award-winning documentary A Place Called Chiapas and is working with her on her first dramatic feature. She recently wrote: “Thanks to you, my characters are running towards the script, instead of scattering in all sorts of unmotivated directions. I am thrilled to write today instead of terrified. Thanks for helping me find my story…and my sanity.”

Ki Wight

Preferences:
Any genre

Contact:
ki.serious@shaw.ca
778-327-9470

Bio:

Ki was the Director of Development at Anagram Pictures from 2003-2005, the Associate Producer on "Fido" – a feature horror comedy by director Andrew Currie (TVA Films/Lionsgate Films), and Co-producer of the CTV movie "Elijah" with Anagram Pictures (writer/producer Blake Corbet). In the fall of 2006 she formed Serious Filmed Entertainment, an independent production company of innovative and socially conscious film and television products. In addition to building this company, Ki worked as the Director of Development and Business Affairs at Brightlight Pictures from July 2007 until October 2008. In this position, her responsibilities spanned creative and business affairs including managing a development slate of fifteen feature film and television projects, the company’s numerous domestic financing contracts, a team of creative executives, maintaining relationships with broadcasters, distributors, sales agents and other partners, and providing packaging and business affairs support for productions. Ki has also held the position of Vice President, Sales and Business Development in the convergent media company SoMedia Networks, and is currently a faculty member at Capilano University teaching courses in producing, financing, and budgeting.