By Mike McCarthy
Erman Baradi and Emily Guglielmo are two aspiring screenwriters that decided to take their fate into their own hands and made networking with industry executives a party style experience. Their event Rel/Event series is having it’s second part on April 8th in Los Angeles where they will have speakers from some of the biggest movie and television series that we all know and love. Some of Rel/Event’s part 2 panelists are: Tommy Harper (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), casting director Kerry Barden (Spotlight, Jessica Jones), co-executive producer and screenwriter Alan Wenkus (Straight Outta Compton), and Casting Director Gohar Gazazyan (The Walking Dead), to name a few.
Wingman Magazine: How did you come up with the idea for Rel/Event?
Erman: We are both aspiring screenwriters on the east coast, so I started doing events to get connected to other industry professionals. I have done a few in the past couple of years, and Emily is someone that I had worked with at a different conference, so we have known each other for a while. I was doing an event last May in LA and she was there, and I realized that it was super hard to do by myself. So I contacted Emily and said let’s team up on this next event. What’s really cool about Rel/Event is that at other events there will be panels where people speak and then they just leave. With us it really appeals to people that there is an accessibility with the speakers. So people in the industry come speak at the events then there is interaction with the guest attendees. It was an idea that Emily and I came up, because we felt what really pushes people is to have a one on one with filmmakers and producers. At other events where there are speakers and no interaction with the attendees then it is off putting and really no point in it so we came up with Rel/Event and it’s all about what is RELEVANT in the industry. We came up with it back in October, where Lauren Shuler Donner, the producer of Deadpool and the other X-Men films was the headliner.
Emily: Each event is it’s own series ( part 1, part 2, part 3) So everyone in the future can remember which part they attended. Just to feed off that a little bit, the Rel/Event series is not just a Q/A forum, it almost like a party. People can interact, network, mingle, it’s not just about Q/A.
Wingman Magazine: Even though you are putting on the event…do you get star struck and nerd out over some of the attendees?
Erman: I’ve actually gotten over that in the past few years. Recently I was mind blown because we have had guest attendees that wanted to attend that weren’t on the panel. I don’t want to give away any names, but an Executive producer of Batman vs. Superman that just called and asked if they could attend. I was just like, “WHAT?!?” Having stuff like that happen and you have screenwriters and directors that want to come and attend our event is just awesome.
Emily: Some big A-List executive producers are coming just to attend. It’s a Friday night and they just want to come and have fun. So that’s really admirable that they just want come and be there.
Wingman Magazine: You have some of the biggest talents behind the camera speaking at panels at Rel/Event…How have you gone about reaching out and attracting the talent to the events?
Erman: My method has always been IMDBPro, which has been a lifesaver for me. We use our past events to really leverage our future events. What’s always great about this series is that it builds upon another. We have a fantastic lineup and I can’t even imagine who will be on our next one. We have been very fortunate to have this lineup for part 2.
Wingman Magazine: Who are your dream top three speakers, if you haven’t had them yet and why them?
Erman: These particular filmmakers are just too busy to attend this time around but I am hoping they can make the next one: Blye Pagon Faust, who just spoke at the Oscars was one of the producers on the film Spotlight. We have been in contact, and they just won the Oscar for Best Picture, so we really want her at our next event, if she’s available. She said she would, so I am gonna hold her to it. Victoria Alonso, who produces the Marvel films. She is doing Captain America: Civil War, which comes out next month. Her assistant told us just to let her know when the next event was and she would totally be there. Finally I would go with Angela Kang, who is a friend of ours is one of the co-executive producers of The Walking Dead. She has been very communicative with us and hopefully she will be around for the next one. They are all female filmmakers which is awesome.
Emily: If I had to pick a specific three I couldn’t name them right off the bat, because there are so many phenomenal people in the industry. We could be doing this for seven lifetimes and still not have all the amazing people out there attend our events. It’s an exciting journey and the sky’s the limit and as a team we can really get whoever we want.
Wingman Magazine: How frequently will you be having the events?
Erman: I think Emily and I can attest to that we really didn’t have a set plan on when to have the event. We just asked each other when do you wanna do the next one? We agreed on spring and it just so happen to be six months from the last one. We are looking to do two or three a year, probably more like two but one at the beginning of the year and one at the end of year.
Emily: We don’t just want to do them in LA either. We just did one in New York and we want to broaden our horizons. We would love to go to Atlanta, Chicago and eventually international.
Erman: I just had a friend of mine look into venues up in Toronto since it’s such a huge city for film and TV. So they are going to send me a list of venues to check out for a future event.
For more information about The Rel/event Series Part II and how to purchase tickets please visit http://thereleventseries.com/. Find The Rel/event Series Part II on social media: Twitter @therelevent_la, Instagram @the_relevent.