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The Short Short

Seattle native hailing from nearby Kirkland; media/marketing, Macintosh and Internet consultant/trainer; professional Webmaster; non-practicing attorney; AOL chat co-moderator & software beta tester; film-TV creative development producer wanna-be. (Circa 10-99)

The Backstory

This now non-practicing lawyer ended up in marketing/public relations after being happily side-tracked by things media during the three-month wait for my Bar exam results in 1987. I was working as political campaign scheduler for Washington State's then-Attorney General Ken Eikenberry re: his re-election bid, and I fell hook, line and sinker in love with media, etc., when a Washington, DC-based consultant's production crew came out to shoot Ken's TV spots. (P.S. Ken won:)

One month before the general election (the height of craziness!), I found out that I'd passed the Bar and decided I really wanted to 'do' anything/everything having to do with media/marketing. So I started teaching myself everything I could about my new career, and in 1988, hung out my Ann Garretson Advertising shingle. The rest, as they say, is history.

Knowing the law comes in handy on a near-daily basis, from copywriting to copyrighting. And when it comes to statutory technicalities re: non-profit fund-raising and political contribution reporting, my clients appreciate the fact I can translate the requisite legalese. (On occasion, being able to translate medical terminology comes in handy, too... I learned enough acronyms to last a lifetime while working 10-plus years at CPC Fairfax Hospital, first as a Mental Health Specialist and, later, as a Unit Clerk while attending law school.)

In Production

Currently (09-99), I'm the Webmaster for pro screenwriter Terry Rossio's WORDPLAY pro screenwriting site and his three personal sites, The Treehouse, TOP TEN Song Lists and Janay's WOOFERS. My work involves (in Geek-speak, and no particular order): Net skills (e-mail, FTP, WWW, news); HTML and Web page design; Unix file system index methodology and maintenance; search engine registration and online promotion; message board/community moderating and tending-to; every manner of file conversion imaginable; graphic design; server log analysis; a smattering of CGI programming and JavaScripting...

(Whew! That's enough geek-speak! Suffice it to say I'm Terry's online Chief Cook and Bottle-washer.)

Speaking of cybervocations... I also co-moderated (with Max and Robin) the Screenwriter's Chat in AOL's "Writer's Club" Forum for many years.

Last but not least...

In Aug., 1995, I worked (albeit comp-deferred, alas) on CANDOR, a local, independently-produced, boy-meets-girl-etc., 120-minute feature film directed by Brad Cook (who's also the male lead and co-screenwriter). After paying my dues as a Production Assistant, I graduated to sometime Script Supervisor, and then tended to administrative details as Associate Producer.

Roll Credits...

So just what in the heck is this Media/Marketer née Attorney née Mental Health Specialist doing (ad)venturing in the screen trade?

Well, in a nutshell -- I love it! Plus, I've: wanted to be involved in film/TV generally for eons; hung around with local and Net-connected screenwriters for years; and focused on creative development/producing in particular for the last four years or so.

After becoming familiar with so many terms and techniques via booklearning and peppering my showbiz-connected pals with Qs (thank you Greg Beal, Steven Blacher, David Steven Cohen, Joseph Francis, Mark Handley, Patrick Read Johnson, Kevin Jones, Bill Marsilii, Doug Mayfield, Derek Raser, Terry Rossio, Steven L. Sears, Mike Snyder... AND Tim August, William Azaroff, Charles Deemer, Jim Eaton, Tracy Hines, Maurine 'mo' Jeude, Kitty McKoon-Hennick and Al Reed), it's a delight to see, let alone have the opportunity to participate in, the making of a movie.

Thank you, all.