Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern (Flashpoint) on The Writers Room, and Encouraging Short and Web Content Creators
(Photo by Derek Langer)
I asked Mark and Stephanie how they felt about being honoured for Flashpoint after its final season.
SM: “Very proud tonight. It was amazing. So many good shows being recognized. It’s moving to watch clips from your show at the end, when it’s been five years, compiled in sixty seconds that can take your breath away. It’s like having a rewind-flashback of everything we felt over the five years working on Flashpoint. I found it very emotional myself.”
Of course, I had to ask about the writers room and Aubrey Nealon who took home a writing award for his Flashpoint episode “Day Game”.
ME: “We are so proud of the writers room on Flashpoint. Going into the last season with a group of writers who know the show intensely, who you’ve worked with before, who fought in the trenches and know how hard the show is has been a tremendous gift. We all worked together to explore what a gift it is to know how you’re going to end a series. Every one of them has been meticulous and held us to our high standard to make sure we ended it right. We’re incredibly proud of all of them, and especially Aubrey Nealon for winning his award for “Day Gameâ€. He’s an excellent writer and he’s going to be a huge force in the industry.”
Interestingly enough, we had recently watched a short film called The Rememberer from an earlier year of the Crazy8’s Film Festival in which Stephanie played the lead, a woman whose lover devolved through various stages of life. Â I asked her if she had any encouraging words for short film and web series creators who are starting out.
SM: “Gather courage from any source you can. We are short film makers as well. It’s our short film Rememberance that we made 10 years ago that really opened the doors to where we are now. You get to learn while you’re doing it, but at the same time prove yourself on many levels that give you credibility on your way out. We are very lucky that the short became our sort of calling card and it is in fact what made Flashpoint possible because through that we got an agent. Through the producers having seen the short film they could have some faith in our writing.”
ME: “Find stories that you’re burning to tell, and tell only those stories. If you tell them well, everything will come to you like a moth to a flame.”
