Part 1.

I knew I wanted to be screenwriter........

when I took a short film production class. I wrote the short for our group project and directed it. I knew immediately that I was born to do this.
 

B. I'll know I've succeeded.

C. I was inspired to write Sir Guinevere

 

I know I've succeeded........ 

when I sit in the theater and listen to the audience discuss what they got out of a film I wrote. To have them see something in a new way or find inspiration in something I helped create is my goal. when I sit in the theater and listen to the audience discuss what they got out of a film I wrote. To have them see something in a new way or find inspiration in something I helped create is my goal.
 

My inspiration to write Sir Guinevere.....

I've always loved the Camelot tales, but I felt there was a missed opportunity to mine the gold in the character of Guinevere beyond just a love triangle. My hope was to add to the story and bring a strong female character out in Guinevere.

Part 2.

FilmMakers Magazine: What inspired you to write?

Dana Cowden: As a child I loved to write stories but it never occurred to me that I could choose it as a profession. I went into the military to pay for college and ended up a surgical nurse. I always felt I was not doing what I was meant to do even though I enjoyed my work. Eventually I went back to college thinking I was going to write and direct plays, until I fell madly in love with film.

FilmMakers Magazine: How did you prepare yourself to write your first script?

Dana Cowden: I started by reading every book on screenwriting I could lay my hands on. My first screenplay came from my experience growing up with a mother that was a child of the sixties. I worked on it for a year and it did well in some contests, but I knew I needed to write more.

FilmMakers Magazine: Is this your first script and how long did it take you to complete?

Dana Cowden: The first draft of Sir Guin was my second screenplay, but in the three years I have been writing I’ve written four screenplays and two pilots. I’ve also written and directed a couple of short films.

FilmMakers Magazine: Do you have a set routine, place and time management for writing?

Dana Cowden: I write almost every day. On the rare day I’m not physically writing, my mind is working out story lines or full of characters. Each morning I write from 6am until noon. If I’m working on a story and the ideas are flowing, I may stay at it until I go to bed happily exhausted.

FilmMakers Magazine: Do you believe screenplay contests are important for aspiring screenwriters and why?

Dana Cowden: I feel contests are helpful in many ways to writers. If you enter several and don’t even make the quarterfinals, you know you have to take a serious look at your story. If you make it to the finals, you know you have something and you need to keep working on it until it is golden. It also gives you an objective look. Friends and family tire of reading your same story!

FilmMakers Magazine: What influenced you to enter the FilmMakers International Screenwriting Awards / Screenplay Contest?

Dana Cowden: The biggest draw was the opportunity to be read by a management company. I feel my work is consistently getting to a level of professionalism and I am ready to have it reviewed through the eyes of a manager in the industry.

FilmMakers Magazine: What script would you urge aspiring writers to read and why?

Dana Cowden: Silence of the Lambs is a masterpiece in screenwriting. That work shows how to bring amazing characters to life quickly. The dialogue is perfection, and the pacing is a model for how it should be done.

FilmMakers Magazine: Beside screenwriting what are you passionate about and why?

Dana Cowden: I’m passionate about learning. You can never know enough. I seek out what I don’t know and what is new to me.

FilmMakers Magazine: Who is your favorite Screenwriter and Why?

Dana Cowden: Terry Rossio. I love that he can take a commercial concept and make it fresh and fun. I met him briefly at the Austin Film Festival and I was amazed at his willingness to give advice and speak with those of us that were just beginning.

FilmMakers Magazine: Name the director you would love to work with and why?

Dana Cowden: Similar to Terry, J. J. Abrams has the talent and work ethic to take a new story or a franchise and make it commercial, fresh, and exciting. I would love to work with him to bring female protagonist (like he did in Alias) to the big screen with as much life as his male leads.

FilmMakers Magazine: Name the actor you would love to work with and why?

Dana Cowden: I would love to work with Emma Watson. I feel she has the strength to play a heroic female protagonist and still retains the vulnerability that would make her dimensional and relatable.

FilmMakers Magazine: Any tips and things learned along the way to pass on to others?

Dana Cowden: I am just beginning to truly understand the meaning of write what you know. I think it really means, bring what you know to whatever you are writing. It is that emotional honesty that the audience will connect with even in the most fantastic of stories.

FilmMakers Magazine: What's next for you?

Dana Cowden:  I have screenplay number five in the works, I'm writing a web series with another producer/director, and I have another pilot outlined I want to write.

FilmMakers Magazine: Where will you be five years from now?

Dana Cowden: I will be directing a film I wrote that is being produced by J.J. Abrams of course. J