Wednesday's Class: Scriptwriting

Hi everyone. Sorry about not sending a tilkynning/email yesterday...I forgot!

Yesterday's assignment was to begin researching filmmaking. You were asked to begin the research on your own and journal what you found on your blog. Thank you to those of you who did the assignment. There were quite a few good links and, as a matter of fact, no two people linked to the same sites! This means we are gathering a very good database of information.

Yesterday, I talked a bit about screenplays and how a writer begins with a story in mind, then writes it down, either as  a novel, a short story, a play, a poem or as a screenplay. In all cases (except maybe for poems) the story can then be put into a visual format: a film or video for the big screen, for tv, or for youtube/vimeo, etc. In the case of novels and short stories, they are turned into screenplays (and usually storyboarded) before being made into film/video.
Today I began by explaining a bit what rhetoric is, and how this ancient Greek concept plays into how the Stanford Study of Writing is being interpreted. The study coordinator, Andrea Lumsford, feels that we are better writers today in many ways, especially because we have a sense of kairos, or context-appropriate emotional content. We write these days to make something happen, to make people feel in some way, and not just to make them think. We want people to do something, to (inter)act, and not just to be passive readers of our words. This, in my opinion, is exactly what a scriptwriter needs to be able to do: make the audience feel. This is done by choosing exactly the right words for their characters' dialogues. In addition, the scriptwriter needs to give the filmmaker just enough descriptive detail to be able to visualize all the physical details (locations, settings, costumes, etc) as well as any audio cues (sound effects, music) in as simple a manner as possible. 

• Today I asked you all to go to this site http://www.kokos.cz/bradkoun/movies/ and find three movie scripts that interested you.
• You are to then try to find the movies on youtube (or google video, etc) and compare scenes from the scripts with scenes in the films.
• If you can't find the movie on youtube, then pick a new movie!
• Please do not just compare the beginnings of the films/scripts...try to find a scene with good set directions and good dialogue.
• Please also see if you can find a storyboard for the movie online. If not, then just google "storyboard" and pick "images" and do a bit of research into one that looks interesting to you.  
• Finally, write up your research process in your blogs. Be sure to:
• Link to the scripts you use
• Link to the videos you wach
• Link to any storyboard sites, and even post a storyboard as an image (identify the source site.)
• Write up a detailed Compare/Contrast review for each of the script/video pairs. How are they the same? How are they different? Which one do you like more? Why?
• This project will need to be completed by Friday, October 1, 2010 at Midnight.

See you all next week!