Lecture 2: How do I get started? How do I keep going?

1. Lecture 2:How do I get started? How do I keep going? Professor Christopher Bradley The Third Man (1949), written by Graham Greene

2. Previous Lesson • What kind of distance learning course is this? • How can you succeed in this course? • What do we study in this course? • What are the assignments? • Why the short film? There will be Blood (2007) Written by Sinclair Lewis (novel) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Screenplay)

3. In This Lesson • How do I get started writing? • What is the writing process? • Proper screenplay format • Writing Exercise #1 Midnight Run (1988) Written by George Gallo

4. How do I get Started? Lesson 2: Part I Superbad (2007) Written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg

5. Writing is About Passion • Writers who write prolifically write because the need to write. • Writing will reveal something about your reader, but it will also reveal something about you. Unforgiven (1992) written by David Webb Peoples

6. The Limitations of Language • We may also fear that mere words will ruin our brilliant stories or noble ideas. Knowing in advance that words can never quite express our meaning, we must work instead with what words can do. • This is particularly true in screenwriting, since much of the story is conveyed through dialogue.

7. Strategies for Starting • All successful writers develop habits that get them writing on a regular basis. There is no hard and fast rule for what will work, other than to know your own habits and tendencies and then develop writing patterns and schedules based on them.

8. Examples of Strategies • Write at the same time each day. • Write at the same place each time. • Before you write, read or watch a film for ideas or inspiration. • Exercise before you write. • Whatever your strategy, you must come to write with adequate mental energy.

9. Journal Keeping • Trying to keep every observation and idea in your head is impossible, so many writers keep a journal. You can write down anything in your journal, but some things that might be useful for screenwriting include: • Lists of movies that you admire • Story ideas • Bits of overheard conversation that might work as dialogue

10. Freewriting • Freewriting is a technique that allows you to take literally the idea of getting something down on paper. • Even though a screenplay is in a specific format, that format can feel constricting or too formal for the process of simply brainstorming ideas. • First try writing down whatever comes to you and then sift through it for useful bits.

11. The Writing Process Lesson 2: Part II Thelma and Louise (1991) Written by Callie Khouri

12. Writing is a Process? • It might seem strange to think of writing, or any art, as resulting from a process, as opposed to unfettered inspiration, but writing is as much a nuts and bolts endeavor as building a machine. • There is so much involved in writing a story, so many aspects to layer, that only planning and a step-by-step process make it possible.

13. Steps in the Process • Discovering • Drafting • Revising • Editing Monster’s Ball (2001) Written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos

14. Step #1: Discovering • Now that you know you want to write, and have an idea of how to get started, you must ask yourself . . . what in the world do I want to write about? • Write what you know but also . . . • Write what you don’t know.

15. Discovering (continued) • In other words, bring your specific experience to bear, but don’t allow that experience to limit your imagination. • The trick in writing what you know is not just to reproduce your experience on the page, but to find in it what is interesting, unique and original and shape it into a narrative.

16. Choosing a Subject • Write about what is meaningful to you. • Questions that might lead you to a subject could include: • What makes you angry? • What are you afraid of? • What do you want? • What or who really changed you? • Freewriting and journaling can help with discovering what is meaningful to you.

17. Writing in a Genre • Not everything in your writing comes from your own life. Writing movies often involves writing genre stories such as the thriller, Western or romantic comedy. 50 First Dates (2004) written by George Wing

18. Being Original in Genre • Many writers make the mistake of simply copying elements from other movies they admire. Start with real life, not other movies. • While it is ok to borrow ideas from other movies and to take inspiration from them, ultimately you must add something original, something new, to make it interesting.

19. Step #2: Drafting • Drafting is putting ideas down in some rough form. A first draft is generally messy and repetitive and full of mistakes--and that's just fine. The purpose of a rough draft is to get the basic story and characters down, to get a general idea of beginning, middle and end, even though the direction or focus of the story may change.

20. First Draft Format • For this course—though it is probably a good idea in general—you will write your first draft in treatment form. A treatment is a mini-short story or summary that lays out basic plot and character elements in prose form. • Think of your treatment as a sort of road map that guides you once you begin writing the actual screenplay.

21. First Screenplay Draft • Once you have a completed treatment, you will write the first screenplay draft. • In this first draft, you will transfer the elements from your treatment into proper screenplay format. • Here you will begin your revising as well, making changes and telling the story through the specific art of screenwriting.

22. Step #3: Revision • Revision is changing and rewriting a draft to make it better. In this step, we add, rearrange, or eliminate story elements. • Revision is crucial. Without revision, we aren’t really writing, only brainstorming. The screenplay for every good movie you have ever seen has been revised countless times.

23. Revision and the Workshop • Revision is facilitated partially through the workshop process. Since you are writing for other readers and, ultimately, viewers, it is important to listen to the constructive criticism of others. • Though we must trust our own instincts, we must also have the wisdom to look beyond our pride and take the advice of others—particularly other writers.

24. Step #4: Editing • In this step, we carefully examine our script to see that it contains no errors of grammar, spelling, or punctuation. This is college-level work! • Producers don’t finish scripts that are filled with errors. • Errors stop to climb to a devastating climax. Don’t make them have to start all over!

25. Final Point on Process • Know what to expect from a first draft. Set your thinking to help you succeed. • Writing is like sculpture. • No one produces a brilliant screenplay in a first draft. That’s not what they’re for! • The “messiness” and the “mistakes” are gold! • “Writing is re-writing.”

26. Proper Screenplay Format Lesson 2: Part III Spartacus (1960) written by Howard Fast (novel) and Dalton Trumbo (screenplay)

27. Practicing the Form • Becoming adept at writing in screenplay form is largely a matter of practice. • A software program can help, but it also helps to have examples on hand. • Make sure to read pages 199-209 in Writing Short Films by Cowgill to begin to familiarize yourself with writing in the format.

28. Screenplay as Blueprint • A screenplay is a blueprint for a film. Screenplay form reflects this, having evolved over the year into a particular arrangement of styles that easily communicates necessary information needed to produce a film. • Production managers, set designers, actors, etc., all must have easy access to the information they need to do their job. 28

29. Master Scenes • Most screenplays are written in master scenes. • A master scene presents the action in the clearest form, without camera angles and few stage directions. It communicates simply what happens in the scene, letting the action be the focus and not stage directions.

30. Example

31. Scene Headings • Scene headings are specific, allowing the reader to quickly orient herself to the scene. It also makes essential information easily accessible for production. • Scene headings include INT. or EXT. (interior or exterior), LOCATION, and whether it is DAY or NIGHT. 31

32. Examples of Scene Headings • EXT. PLANTATION HOUSE - DAY • INT. DEATH STAR TORTURE CHAMBER - NIGHT • EXT. HAWAIIAN BEACH – DUSK • INT. GRAND BALLROOM – NIGHT • EXT. MARS CRATER - DAY 32

33. Scene Headings 33

34. The Action • Description of the action should be clear and to the point. Overly flowery passages can obscure what is important for the reader to understand. Still, the writer must choose his or her words carefully. Make it clear and concise. • Description of action is always in present tense and not indented.

35. Example INT. '74 CHEVY (MOVING) - MORNING An old gas guzzling, dirty, white 1974 Chevy Nova BARRELS down a homeless-ridden street in Hollywood. In the front seat are two young fellas -- one white, one black -- both wearing cheap black suits with thin black ties under long green dusters. Their names are VINCENT VEGA (white) and JULES WINNFIELD (black). Jules is behind the wheel.

36. Other Aspects of Format • There are also specific rules for when characters are speaking off-camera, phone conversations and etc. • Make sure that you familiarize yourself with these rules before you write. • Guidelines for these rules can be found in your textbook as well as on many different websites.

37. Character Names, Dialog and Parentheticals

38. Software • For this course, you will need to write your screenplay in the proper format. • You can download the free program Celtx, which will provide you with templates to write in the proper screenplay format. • The website for download is: http://www.celtx.com/

39. Lesson 2 Assignments Harold and Kumar go to White Castle (2004), Written by Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg Lesson 2: Part IV

40. E-Board Post #1 Read the linked essay “Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lamott. How does Lamott describe the experience of writing first drafts? What is positive in her estimation and what is negative? How does her experience compare to your own? 40

41. E-Board Post #2 Watch the short film from the lesson, George Lucas in Love. How does the film dramatize the writing experience? What are some of its insights about how writers find inspiration? 41

42. Writing Exercise Write one page of screenplay in which you include as many elements of format as possible, including at least one each of the following: a scene heading, description of action, character names, dialogue and stage direction. 42

43. Writing Exercise (Continued) It doesn’t matter what the page is about. The idea here is to practice writing in the format. Post your completed exercise under “Exercise #1.” 43

44. End of Lecture 2 Next Lecture: What is Story? Barton Fink (1991) Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen