Short Film: Life Lessons

Directed by Martin Scorsese

This film was a part of the feature film New York Stories and is referred to a lot in books about short filmmaking.

Short Film: Peel

Directed by Jane Campion

Won the Palme D'Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival 

Short Film: The Lunch Date

Click for the IMDB Page (Credits and Information)

Click for the Script

Due Class 2-10-2012

The 3 scene script

1. Take your voice from your personal essay and create a character

2. Write a scene to go before your rewritten eavesdropped scene using your character

3. Write a scene to go after your rewritten eavesdropped scene using your character

Due Class 2-3-2012

Before class next week, please answer the following questionnaire (click on the link):

Additional Writing Project

Assignment #1

Purpose: Taking notes and reworking them into an essay.

Work: Take your notes and incorporate them into a second draft of your personal essay. Make sure that your character's viewpoint has changed over the course of the essay and is slightly different at the end.

Due: A copy of Draft #2

Assignment #2

Purpose: Sharpen dialgoue skills and find the story in material

Work:

1. Eavesdrop on a conversation between two people that you do not know

2. Take notes of their dialogue, unqiue vocabulary and mannerisms

3. Type  overhead dialogue into script format (use either double space left alinged or screenplay writing software)

4. Rewrite the dialogue into a scene with a set-up, rising action, conflict and resolution.

5. Add a Scene Heading: INT. or EXT. (interior or exterior) PLACE - TIME

6. Under the scene heading, add a description of the two characters withn their names in capitols.

Here's an example from When Harry Met Sally:

EXT. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO - DAY

A couple in a clinch.

The young man involved is named HARRY BURNS. He's 26 years old, just graduated from law school. Wearing jeans and a sweatshirt.

He's kissing a young woman named AMANDA. She has long straight hair that she irons. She's about 20. The embrace is fairly melodramatic. They pull back to look at one another.

Amanda: I love you.

Harry: I love you. 

[and so it continues]

7. You can write action sentences in between the dialogue. Conclude the scene with either dialoguue or description.

8. Write 1-5 pages (double-spaced).

DUE: One copy of the EAVESDROP TRANSCRIPT and and two copies of the REWRITTEN SCENE to class. You will be reading the REWRITTEN SCENE outloud with a partner.