BONUS: Pen Densham (Part 1) — Oscar Nominated Filmmaker Shares His Views on Creativity, Anxiety and Storytelling

Pen Densham is an author, an art photographer, and an Oscar nominated filmmaker and screenwriter. He founded the Trilogy Entertainment Group with his partner John Watson, creating hit films like Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Blown Away, Larger Than Life, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys and Backdraft. Densham and Trilogy Entertainment have produced numerous television series and mini-series, including Syfy Channel’s The Outer Limits, the successful and long running anthology series following science fiction tales. They’ve also produced The Twilight Zone, The Magnificent Seven, Poltergeist: The Legacy, and The Creature. Additionally, Densham is author of the bestselling book “Riding The Alligator,” a creatively driven screenwriting guide. Part one is a visceral conversation about existing in this world as a creative person and what your responsibility is as a storyteller. Pen shares the difficulties he had growing up because he didn’t feel his creativity was nourished, and how he learned to thrive in his proces, making leaps and bounds towards his future, persuading The Rolling Stones to let him photograph them at just 15 years old, building an artist's community, working alongside renowned documentarians, to his coping mechanisms around self doubt and the sometimes overwhelming anxiety creative people are more likely to have. We talk about evolutionary habits, spirituality, the most effective way of framing and relating a potential story, the euphoria he feels when he’s learning and teaching, his fearful journey through the writing process, to becoming a published author of a besting selling book.