The Art and Craft of Visual Writing.
When it comes to writing for film there is a logic to screenwriting that is all its own. Think about the last movie you saw. Good or bad, the movie was about two hours long, took place in a whole bunch of places, where hundreds of things happened to a whole bunch of people, who were affected by them in a whole bunch of ways, resulting in an end that was satsisfying and made sense (sometimes not). To earn the creative reward of having written a screenplay takes doing, and the doing takes time. You have to learn the basics and then build, build, build, developing what I call, your, writing muscle. I’ve always loved movies and by now I have seen thousands but I learned everything I know about actually writing a movie from attending classes given by master teachers. Here’s the catch, and not just by attending the classes, and listening, and reading, but by actually putting pen to paper…writing, doing the exercises. I can’t stress that enough.
(Above photos of some former students)
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. ”
So for now put your idea of a masterpiece aside. Writing a screenplay is a skill, and like any skill, you have to work at it step-by-step and the best and logical way to do that is with the short form because you take all the same steps, the same process, the same principles when you move in to a full feature length film, except you have much more material to wrestle with. Most beginning writers only have an idea, or a background to a story and consider that to be “the story.” They also typically do not have a firm grip on the progression and visual and emotional logic of their story. In the ten session one-to-one basic course, you will learn the difference between plot and story. How to flesh out your characters. How to write authentic dialogue. You will learn what the basic skeleton of your story should be comprised of. And much more. It is important to complete the ten sessions within a maximum of three months, working once a week. It is important that there is a consistency to how you work and that you stay engaged with your material.
To give you an idea of the kind of subjects writers work on, I recently had a writer come up with an idea for a short film about guard dogs in the Bronx, NY. The building blocks of the craft involved developing the owner’s and the trainer’s characters, even two key dog’s characters had to be developed and of course the outline and progression of the story had to be developed and seen to its conclusion. It is a process.
You are your best teacher I am just your guide…
Learning is fun and most important for you to remember is that learning involves making mistakes, which is good, because you learn from mistakes. I will be the first to say that no amount of years or practice is ever enough but I can give you the tools you need to build a solid foundation.
The ten sessions is broken up into two parts, $150 for the first five sessions and $150 for the second five sessions. (contact me below for more information). All our work is done online and in conversation by phone. Please note I work with students from anywhere in the world.
Many of you might already have the book I co-wrote with Irv Bauer, Screenwriting Fundamentals - The art and craft of visual writing. After doing the ten sessions with me you will find the book is a valuable resource and reminder for whenever you feel stuck. In those moments you will be glad you have it on your shelf.
Be sure to read my blog for more insights into the world of screenwriting.
Let’s Get Started.
Tell me a bit about yourself, your interest in writing and how I can help you.
As with anything worth doing, knowing how to do it combined with hard work, is the path to success.