After my first year at film school I have spent a lot of time with short screenplays. I’ve written around 20 or so at this point, and have dealt with almost all of these difficulties in my own writing. In the last few years I’ve seen a lot of short films, and these are the [...][...]
Archive for the ‘Screenwriting’ Category
May 1st, 2010 - 10:07 pm § in Filmmaking, Screenwriting
The Art of The Pitch
A pitch is somewhere between a joke and a campfire story. We recently had two pitching experts come in to speak to our class. They gave sage and candid advice about pitching screenplays. I also had the opportunity to get a pitch critiqued by them for my upcoming screenplay. I bombed and it was an [.[...]
April 16th, 2010 - 10:25 am § in Filmmaking, Screenwriting
Is It a Story or a Situation?
I received this from a professor the other day, it articulated something I have been thinking about for years: A situation is not a story. A story is a beginning middle and end about someone who wants something and goes after getting it. They can’t just want anything, though, they have to [...]
March 28th, 2010 - 8:11 pm § in Screenwriting, UCLA Film School
Spring Schedule
Spring quarter is upon us. As a 410, or first year MFA Directing Student, this is the first quarter where I have the opportunity to choose some electives. There are many opportunities within the directing, producing, and screenwriting programs. Our pre-selected courses for the spring are as follows:[...]
January 15th, 2010 - 1:45 pm § in Off Topic, Screenwriting
Salem and Jamestown
While watching There Will Be Blood this week I was reminded of the introduction to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which I read in December. Miller discusses two conflicting impulses in early colonial America, represented by the cities of Jamestown and Salem. He describes this difference in one [...]
January 2nd, 2010 - 4:32 pm § in Filmmaking, Screenwriting
Matching Acts
I saw Avatar in 3D over break, which was a really interesting experience. My favorite comment about the film came from my little brother, who said he loved everything but the movie. While watching it I noticed a few major incongruities between the three acts. The first was in tone. The beginning of [...]
December 17th, 2009 - 1:36 pm § in Screenwriting
Writing My Second Feature
While in Michigan I have a 5 page a day writing schedule. I work from 10-2, or whenever I finish my 5 pages. It’s a little easier this time than the first feature, I think the first time you do something it’s always more intimidating. We started a feature writing group with some fellow s[...]
November 30th, 2009 - 10:30 pm § in Screenwriting
Forward and Backward in Writing
Sometimes when what I write feels like it’s not my own, it’s because I decided to go forward when I should have gone backward. On my six-minute film draft, I suddenly found myself writing a completely different movie. I had gone forward, inventing new situations, instead of going backwar[...]
September 16th, 2009 - 1:35 am § in Screenwriting, UCLA Film School
UCLA Boot Camp: Pitch Day
Today we pitched our two minute films. All day. 19 people pitched two ideas and received feedback on them. It was invigorating and exhausting and offered an opportunity to see all sorts of approaches to storytelling, from experimental to narrative. Two minutes is not a lot of time to tell a story, s[...]
August 22nd, 2009 - 8:39 am § in Filmmaking, Screenwriting
More John August on Writing
I have to say that I am consistently impressed by the quality of advice he has to give. His website, Johnaugust.com, is a gift to all aspiring screenwriters and filmmakers.[...]