Success Story: Heather Hale
From as far back as she can remember, Heather Hale knew she wanted to be a writer. When she was four years old, someone asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Not even knowing what a writer was, she answered: “I wanna do somethin’ with words.”
Winning a poetry contest at twelve got her first published in The San Jose Mercury News.
She then went on to write a regular column for SDSU’s Daily Aztec (circ.: 36,000) and feature articles for the Orange County Register and The Daily Californian before ending up literally on the other side of the world: teaching ESL in Kobe, Japan, where she also wrote features for the foreign language magazine, Kansai Time Out.
Upon repatriation, her life somehow turned completely left-brain as she came home and launched a multi-branch start-up mortgage-banking Corporation with her DRE Broker/CFP father.
After about a decade in the volatile world of real estate finance and sick of having so little control over the economics of her life, she turned to the much more predictable and secure world of Hollywood.
To successfully make this major career transition, Heather decided to take screenwriting as seriously as she had the mortgage business: to work it 40, 50, 60-hours a week as her primary focus, to get certified in any necessary continuing education and to network tirelessly through any and all trade organizations she found mutually-beneficial.
Thus, to begin to learn her new craft, Heather topped off her BA in Creative Writing with a screenwriting certificate from UCLA (helped by a Stafford loan).
She took advantage of all the student discounts offered by the major industry organizations and became an active volunteer, most notably with The Scriptwriters Network, where she attended meetings regularly until she worked her way up the ladder to speaker and finally, to honorary member, of which she’s quite proud.
Heather immersed herself into the Scriptwriters Network, stating, “I really enjoyed my indoctrination to the business through the Scriptwriters Network meetings.”
She credits the organization with helping her in many ways on many levels, remarking, “In the beginning, I was surprised at how much pleasure I derived from just driving on to the Universal Studio lot.
I loved that security actually had my name on the access list, would ID me and wave me on through. Like I belonged there. In Hollywood. It was a relief to step into a SNW meetings and get caught up in the sincere excitement and energy of people who actually “got” you, readying for some presentation by an industry pro who had gone up the ropes before you.
At the podium or on the panels and even in the seats around you were people who knew how (and why) you had written ‘til three in the morning the night before and were still excited to wake up and get right back to it.
People who shared your ability, nay obsession, with twisting random insights into great screenplay ideas. People who, like you, had a habit of eavesdropping and jotting down interesting bits of strangers’ dialogue or saw “theme” revealed around us in ever day ironies.
I loved having people who “got” me (and my jokes) - who supported me – who I had so very much to learn from.”
Volunteering for the Scriptwriters Network, participating in its programs and connecting with other emerging writers also helped Heather’s writing and career.
“I loved reading everyone else’s scripts because it simultaneously inspired and humbled me. The constructive criticism I received from the contests and triads helped build me as a writer and just finding a networking hub of writers close to you, to carpool with, to go to events with, to swap notes with – it was (and is) a terrific community.
Many of the friends I have to this day were strangers that I simply sat down next to at some SNW event. I still e-mail and swap scripts and share insider information with many of them. They continue to be a resource of insights, camaraderie and fun.”
Heather’s industry career has been a thrilling ride from the get-go. Warned repeatedly that she shouldn’t waste her time writing period pieces, female-driven dramas or projects with African American leads, Heather did all three in one project.
And in her very first class at UCLA, the very first treatment she ever wrote, she managed to get Vanessa Williams to attach to and ultimately produce her first spec screenplay into the $5.5 million dollar 2000 Lifetime Original Movie, The Courage to Love. Now available on DVD, this film also stars Diahann Carroll, Gil Bellows and Stacy Keach.
Christened with fire, seemingly always, Heather had to go through Writers Guild Arbitration on her very first deal. Some people write and write for decades and never have to go through that experience – much less ever get produced – she experienced both straight out of the gate.
In spite of piranhas to the left and the right trying to pick every last dollar or credit off her public domain story: she won: first position “Written By.” Apparently, they hadn’t anticipated this Rookie bringing such transferable paper-trailing skills from her mortgage banking days.
Nose to the grindstone, Heather worked her way through her second collegiate piece of paper, parlaying her financial expertise with her writing talents by pitching herself to write the PBS series, Dollar$ & Sense: Personal Finance for the 21st Century, which won an Emmy Award for Best Instructional Series and an Aegis Award of Excellence.
That led to a second PBS edutainment series: Psychology: The Human Experience, which won an Emmy Award for Best Instructional Series, a Bronze Telly Award, The Videographer Awards, International Film & Video and an Aegis Award of Excellence.
These two series were quickly followed with writing and producing The Evidence, a news magazine docudrama series (along the lines of What the Bleep Do We Know?) that won "Best New Series Pilot” at the 2001 WorldFest Houston International Film Festival and Lifestyle Magazine, a holistic health talk show that won two Tellys and a Gold Award from the 2001 WorldFest Houston.
For awhile there, everything she had ever written had won an award and/or been produced but her prolific work ethic has generated about 40+ screenplays, teleplays and treatments on assignment and outpaced that record.
Heather has written, directed and/or produced a couple of short films (The Perfect Husband and A-Date), In-Flight Programming for Delta Airlines (Local Flavor: Las Vegas), several infomercials, industrials (one for the State of California Small Claims, two for Yale University on obesity stigma, hosted by Emme, the first plus-sized supermodel) and commercials (Gravity Defyer shoes).
She’s raised $30M – only to have it heartbreakingly slip through her fingers when the A-list attachments wouldn’t ink to the project.
Heather’s learned a great many lessons on this journey and shares her “in the trenches” views in her classes and workshops at film festivals and writers conferences around the world, including being a STAR SPEAKER for several years running at The Screenwriters’ Expo, the Austin Film Festival, the Vancouver Film and Television Expo, The Willamette Writers Conference, Selling to Hollywood, Slamdance, Moondance, The Great American Pitch Fest, the Vail Film Festival, the Northwest Screenwriters Guild and the Temecula Film Festival, among many, many others.
She is one of the most popular guest lecturers for The Los Angeles Film and Recording Schools, Champman University, UCLA, The Learning Annex, Learning Tree University and online with www.TheIndustry.LA ("The Craig's List of Hollywood").
Additionally, Heather is a popular corporate and collegiate speaker and has led workshops at the annual convention of Meeting Professionals International as well as colleges and universities around the globe including being a showcased speaker at several NACA and APCA National Conventions, internationally for University of Dreams College Internship Program, the University of Barcelona, University College London, NYU, Yale University, UCLA, University of Chicago, USF, UNLV, CSUN, CSU Riverside and many others.
Heather also served as the Director of Event Programming for the National Association of Television Program Executives which included producing NATPE '05 and NATPE' 2004 TV Producers' Boot Camp (now The LA TV Fest) and now does a great deal of marketing, networking and script consulting.
What’s more, Heather’s eclectic credits have recently secured her membership into the Television Academy. She is the Official Reader for the American Screenwriters Association as well as a Reader for the ABC/Disney Fellowship and a Jury Judge for RKO Picture's Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Competition.
She has been a Judge or Judge’s Coordinator for The Scriptwriters’ Network’s Carl Sautter and Producers’ Outreach Programs, The Writer's Digest International Screenwriting Competition and the Independent Feature Project, among others.
She’s been interviewed or quoted in over a dozen entertainment industry books and websites, including as a contributing Expert on Movie Bytes’ Industry IQ columns.
Feeling nowhere near her peak or even at full throttle yet, if she’s proof of anything, it’s that hard work and perseverance can at least get you momentum.
Pay attention to your instincts, trust your gut, know who your real friends are - and keep writing, writing, writing – that’s the one place you can keep generating possibilities.
And she tries to remember that fear is nothing but the flip side of hope: change tack your sails’ll fill for you to come about.
Again, if need be.