From Storyboarding to the Writers Room
Kari Stringham-Drake
Kari knew from an early age she had a creative voice. Starting in The USC filmmaking program, directing took a turn to animation. That lead to a career in storyboarding. Now she's working in the writers room on a hit TV show.
Storyboarding led Kari to create some memorable storyboards for commercials, and notably, such shows as HBO's Deadwood. Although Deadwood was an amazing experience, Kari felt the urge to begin telling the stories, not just draw them. That lead to a sea change leading her into the writers room of episodic TV as a writers assistant.
A writers assistant is basically as stenographer taking notes of everything that is said in the room. "I would even write room highlights" Kari reflects. "I earned the right over time to push my own ideas, but the shows I was on were not promoting from within. Many shows weren't either so it was hard to become more than an assistant, and I thought about quitting."
Luckily Kari persevered and began to find more opportunities to write and not just take notes. When she read the pilot for Lost In Space, it was immediately clear that she was the right one for the job. "It was the best pilot I ever read. It ticked all of the boxes. I ended up turning down a real job on network tv for Lost In Space, which was just a pilot, it hadn't even been picked up by Netflix."
"It was a gamble. And it was the first time I ever took a job out of love and not out of fear."
Being a freelance writer, when one job ends, you may never work again. But Kari went with her gut and it was the best decision she ever made.
"Lost In Space S1: 5 is my favorite episodic I've written. A lot of times your work is changed but that script went almost through unchanged. I'm very proud of that episode."
In Addition to Lost In Space seasons 1 and 2 (currently streaming on Netflix), Kari also has written for the upcoming reboot of The Dark Crystal for Netflix and a currently unnamed project for Apple. We can't wait to see what's next for this amazing female writer!
