![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/42\/2012\/07\/IMGP1514-300x225.jpg\" "\\"PENTAX")
<\/a>I then stood in line for a glass of lemonade, and strolled around the room, trying to look as if I fit in. I asked a woman with a friendly face if I could sit at her table.\u00a0 She said \u201cOf course!\u201d and we began talking.<\/p>\nAll it takes is one friendly face in a roomful of strangers to make you glad you didn\u2019t stay in your room. I soon met the other members of our screenwriting class, a group of 8 women from a variety of backgrounds. Each had a story to tell and was seeking a compelling way to tell it. During our sessions on Saturday and Sunday, Michael Amundsen proved to be a gifted, engaging leader, using his experiences in screenwriting, editing and producing to guide us in a basic course on the craft of screenwriting.<\/p>\n
He led us through the basics of plot, character and scene, using film clips from movies past and present: Pandora\u2019 s Box, His Girl Friday, Requiem for a Heavyweight,\u00a0 Man from Atlanta, Days of Heaven, The Killer of Sheep, Tender Mercies, Network, and The UnTouchables. I learned some new information \u00a0and had some existing insights confirmed.<\/p>\n
Here are some nuggets I\u2019ll remember and pass on to students because they have application for crafting sermons as well as screenplays.<\/p>\n
The key to generating ideas for novels and screenplays is to notice everything around you. Keep a notebook. Let no observation of life around you go un noticed and recorded.<\/p>\n
Show the audience your characters\u2019 emotions. Don\u2019t tell them. \u00a0\u201cGeorge was thinking about how he would rather be at home.\u201d\u00a0 How do we know that?<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t get along with her roommate.\u201d Really? Show us that in a scene. That is too general.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a crazy, funny family.\u201d OK, so show us the family being funny and crazy together in a scene.<\/p>\n
The screenwriters\u2019 job is to get people involved in the characters and the story.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t start slow. Jump into the middle of the action and fill in as you go. You are under no obligation to have your audience know everything from the beginning. String them along!<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t hesitate to cut- scenes and dialogue that don\u2019t work, as painful as that may be for you.<\/p>\n
Film editors always cut the scenes in which extras try to hog the shots- smiling too broadly, trying to get close to the stars. \u00a0Ask yourself- is there extraneous stuff in this scene that is distracting from the story?<\/p>\n
Bad dialogue is dialogue that is too detailed, that isn\u2019t the way people really talk and that, as a result, is unintentionally humorous.<\/p>\n
For example, a young man talking to his younger brother Bob:<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you know, Bob, we recently moved to Cincinnati and have been struggling to make ends meet for the past few months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Your screenplay must have a theme. Your theme is a tool you use to help you focus. It helps you decide what scenes stay in and which ones get cut.<\/p>\n
A good ending should seem inevitable but not be predictable. The audience should say \u201cOf course!\u00a0 But why didn\u2019t we see this coming?\u201d<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t ever underestimate the intelligence of your audience. Let them figure things out.<\/p>\n
I had to leave right at 4 pm Sunday, at the close of our final session, to get to the Albuquerque airport in time for my evening flight to Dallas. But on the drive I had plenty to think about, mainly how I can\u2019t wait to attend another workshop next summer!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I spent the weekend at a screenwriter\u2019s workshop at the Taos Summer Writers Conference in Taos, New Mexico. I am not a screenwriter. And I don\u2019t think I plan to be one, at least not in the near future. I wanted to take the workshop because I\u2019m planning a course next spring on Preaching as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-screen-writing-taos-sermons"],"yoast_head":"\n
Screenwriters Heaven! Learning How to Tell the Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I spent the weekend at a screenwriter\u2019s workshop at the Taos Summer Writers Conference in Taos, New Mexico. I am not a screenwriter. And I don\u2019t think I\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/knackfornoticing\/2012\/07\/screenwriters-heaven\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Screenwriters Heaven! Learning How to Tell the Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I spent the weekend at a screenwriter\u2019s workshop at the Taos Summer Writers Conference in Taos, New Mexico. I am not a screenwriter. 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<\/a>I then stood in line for a glass of lemonade, and strolled around the room, trying to look as if I fit in. I asked a woman with a friendly face if I could sit at her table.\u00a0 She said \u201cOf course!\u201d and we began talking.<\/p>\n