Melody Jackson

Originally from Rising Sun, Indiana, Melody attended Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and earned her Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science. Upon graduation she worked for one year for the U.S. Department of Defense. Dying a slow death with the tedium of government work, after one year, she took a job selling computers for a small retail store, which gave her the opportunity to both express her geeky side as well as to interact with people. Melody fell madly in love with the difference that personal computers made in people's productivity and creativity. She went on to sell both hardware and software for a number of years before starting Smart Girls Productions in 1992. Prior to starting Smart Girls Productions, Melody pursued both an acting and screenwriting career. She worked on many small productions as an actress and appeared in a few commercials. She went on to write, produce, and star in a featurette titled "High Hopes," with director Todd Braley. After appearing in almost every scene in that movie, Melody realized that acting was not what she wanted to do, she was far more interested in the creation and coordination of projects. Meanwhile, she was hired to write several scripts, including a couple of features and smaller projects. Also during this time, she had begun establishing a name for herself as a script consultant. Creative Screenwriting Magazine named her a Top 5 Script Consultant in their "Analyzing the Analysts" issue and also Highly Recommends her work. Ever expanding her interests, Melody returned to graduate school after learning of the program with another script analyst. Melody went on to earn her doctorate in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2003. While there she also produced a documentary titled "From Mother Earth to Father Heaven: What Happened?," which uses artwork to document the change over the last 4000 years from a matriarchally centered culture to a patriarchal one, and how that is reflected in the current status of our environment. For her dissertation, Melody wrote a 200-page book titled "The Mythic Power of Film," which is available through the online academic library. This book distinguishes four major dimensions of the movie experience that makes film the most powerful medium in the world. Melody presently continues to run Smart Girls Productions and HowToHollywood.com, mostly working with Actors and Screenwriters in the capacity of Public Relations and Marketing. She is also involved in developing several other businesses. Melody is single and lives in Sherman Oaks, California.