SCREENWRITING SCOOP…(Part 1, Creating)… (“Flash! Ain’t nothing changed. Act I still Act I; Act II still Act II & Act III, still Act III”)...(September 9, 2013) STORY EXPO: Flash! Flash! This past weekend I lectured at Story Expo in Los Angeles. It was at the Westin Hotel by the LAX airport with 30-40 of the top Hollywood Screenwriting lecturers (Truby, Hauge, Sandler, Grisanti, Allesandro, Vogler, etc.) presenting over 100 1.5 hour workshops. I was close to the only speaker on Filmmaking, Budgeting, Scheduling, Directing, Shooting, Marketing, Distributing & Financing screenplays…and shied away from speaking about either “Writing the Great Script” or “Selling the Great Script” In between my 5 lectures on Friday, Saturday & Sunday, and manning my booth explain to attendees the merits of Movie Cloud, autographing my book and selling 67 “DVD Film School” sets, I meandered into the other 29-39 speakers lectures on Screenwriting & Story Telling, for 5-20 minutes each, in hopes that I could learn something more to improve my screenwriting teaching and communicating skills. Now here’s what I took away. Act I is still Act I. Act II is still Act II. Act III is still Act III. Screenwriting is still a 3-Act Structure. You must (ACT I) introduce and set everything up and dictate the tone. Then (ACT III) is still tough for people to understand how to resolve everything…not just the A-Story, but the 3 B-Stories and all the actors Backstories and finalize the primary actor’s dramatic-arc. With (ACT II), still being called “the story” and being the most difficult thing for first-time screenwriters to maintain. Oh yeah, and “Yes, you still should have an agent”. But, “yes, it is near impossible to obtain an agent when you are not a known writing commodity. Also, every instructor emphasized how important Dialogue & a Lot of White Space is in your screenplay but they never went into depth about how to create “Great Dialogue” and what do they “Truly Mean” by “White Space”. The Expo also had an ongoing room with 20-25 Production Executives that each manned a table and had first-timers pitch their Ideas, Concepts, Projects and Scripts to… and boy was that room busy. It still seems like every first-timer, with no track record and no credibility believes that they can come up with a “thought” and “Pitch It” (practice you “Elevator Pitch” where there was even a class on how to create an “Elevator Pitch”), yet most of the “pitchers” only had an idea but did not have their finished (registered and copyrighted) screenplay… I believe there were several Option Offers, which is the proper phrase for a “Script Sales”…. But the truly beneficial part of the “Pitchathons” at a tradeshow like Story Expo is that you get to start to network, with (A) the executives you pitch to and the other (B) first-timers you pitch with. I did learn a couple of good tidbits about the important of (A) Screenwriting Labs like Sundance and (B) Screenwriting Fellowships like Nicholl and ABC… IMPORTANT POINT: “Google” Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Nicholls Fellowship & ABC Writers Fellowship…garner the details and apply… Plus, I was reinforced by what I call (A) the ACT II’s 5-UH-OHS, 5 OH-SHOTS & 1 OH-MY-GOD is still super-super valid listening to 7 professional writing instructors explain what they call Paradigms, Plot Points, Structure, Heroic Myths, 22-Tools, Script Outlines & Story Development combined with fleshing out your thought/idea with a Treatment, that you now own, into a 40-50 Step “Beat Sheet” is still the only way to write. Anyway, in my own cynical manner I was extremely happy that I participated in the STORY EXPO-2013 and will be attending again next year and I super-super recommend STORY EXPO-2014 to everyone who either (A) hasn’t written and sold a screenplay that has been made or (B) has written and sold a screenplay but desires to improve their (1) Writing skills, (2) Network with pros & amateurs and (3) learn more about Filmmaking, Screenwriting & Hollywood. In the interim I hope to see you in either of my next 2 upcoming LOS ANGELES (Sep 28-29, 2013) and/or NEW YORK (Oct 5-6, 2013) sessions of the “2-DAY FILM SCHOOL, where my 2-hour segment on “Writing & Selling Your First Script” will be even better. Enroll. Graduate. “www .WebFilmSchool ” “www .DovSimensFilmSchool ” Happy Filmmaking, Dov S-S Simens/Dean/Hollywood film Institute ************************************* DovSimensFilmSchool INDEPENDENTS UNITE…..JOIN MOVIE CLOUD’S REVOLUTION *Produce *Finance *Write *Direct *Distribute *Profit --------- Click “LIKE” & “SHARE” ------------- facebook/#!/pages/Movie-Cloud/ 388775021155092
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 16:10:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015