Scriptwriting Class

K here.

M and I finally signed up for a true, bona-fied scriptwriting class, and, I have to say I'm disappointed with the way it's been going so far.

There's nothing wrong with our instructor. She's nice, liberal minded as long as it doesn't involve violence towards animals or Full Metal Jacket references, young and hasn't become jaded--yet.

The unfortunate thing about it, though, is that this is an introductory course in screenwriting being taught by a film grad student who has a lot of things going on--namely her responsibilities as a producer for another film.

We've been in class for three days. The classes run for 2 hours, but for all three days, we have been let go early. Last Thursday was the third class--we were let go with 45 minutes left over. I suspect this is because she's busy with her other responsibility. I'd estimate that for the 8 hours we're supposed to have of classtime each week, we only get 5 or 6. That means we're losing at least 2 hours a week. This class is 10 weeks long. By the end of the course, we'll have lost at least 20 hours of classtime which could be used for improving upon our craft in a workshop setting. There's nothing better than getting feedback from your peers. That 20 hours could provide a lot.

My other gripe is that she's a first time instructor. That in itself is not a reason to have a gripe, it's just that she seems a little unsure as to how to structure her class. We've watched excerpts from movies, but done little with actually getting down and reading a screenplay. Sure, we read a simple excerpt from "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", but it was only a page and a half of mostly dialogue.

We haven't even worked on creating a story, yet she wants us to write a "interior" monlogue for class on Thursday. That, of course, won't be a problem, but I'll be interested to see how the others will format their screenplays. (She told students they needed to buy a Final Draft, which, for college students not majoring in film, isn't work the price or the hassle). Most students have this idea of formatting it based on indents she provided for Microsoft Word. I'm not kidding. I have the mind to tell everyone on Thursday they can download already formulated Microsoft Templates for $45, or they can download freeware like Celtx.

The students haven't truly been tested on whether or not they know what a "slugline" is, or whether or not they know how to use INT./EXT., or whether they now they should not put "INT. HIS BEDROOM 8:00 PM THE THURSDAY BEFORE THE PROM -- NIGHT" or not. She hasn't even asked us the very first question you should ask kids in a screenwriting class: "What's a screenplay?"

In class on Tuesday we did a really neat exercise that is supposed to help writers find motiviations for their characters. I'll have a scan up of mine probably tomorrow, but the point is this--she knows of exercises that will help writers, but I don't think she's using them. Either she doesn't have the time to prepare, or she's nervous. Either way, we're missing out.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, whichever way you choose to look at it) M and I are just too advanced for the class. This isn't intended as some sort of weird stroke of our egos, it's just a fact. She started the class by saying "If you come out knowing more about writing screenplays than you did before, that's a bonus" I almost shat myself right there. I don't want to "know" more about writing screenplays, I want to make a screenplay--a really, really good one. It's almost as if she doesn't have high hopes for the class, so she shoots from the hip and hopes it hits something.

The other kids in the class seem a bit slow. Well, that's the nicest way I can put it without getting all ad-hominem...y. They don't seem to be interested in anything our instructor has to say. I just don't think they realize how hard it is to write a screenplay, or how passionate many of us are about the craft...And they'll probably never learn from this class, because, even thoug we're supposed to create a 20-30 page short, she said we can produce 5 seperate 6 pagers that we're supposed to be working on.

WHAT. THE. HELL.

But, enough of the complaining. I'm glad to be able to take this screenwriting class, if nothing for the fact that it's in a workshop setting, and we get to hear other people's opinions. It will be nice to see if my work is as good as M says it is--and vice versa. It will also be interesting to hear other voices read the work, how they interpret the words, how the scenes map out when it's played in real time.

For that, I am glad.