For years my family, friends and students said I should hold classes online. And I refrained. Mostly, because one of the great joys to me of teaching is the exchange of energy and ideas in the classroom. The give or take. The repartee. The mojo, if you will. Well, thanks to social distancing protocol, the universe has caught up with me. I should know better. It always does.
When I returned home to Atlanta from Los Angeles, everyone said I should teach. But I didn’t. Until finally I slipped and fell into doing workshops. Then folks said I should write a book. But I didn’t. Until the opportunity dropped from the sky and landed at my feet. Everyone said I should teach at a university. But I didn’t. Until a call came one day inviting me to give it a try. And so here I am. A screenwriter. An author. A college professor. Doing what I love. Sharing what I’ve learned. Happy as a clam. Who knew? Well, everyone but me actually.
Thanks to the geniuses at Zoom, I now find the ability and opportunity to teach screenwriting much the same way I do in the classroom. Interacting in real time with students. Talking (and typing) back and forth. Sharing visual aids on-screen. And laughing uncontrollably with my students. All from the privacy of my own home.
The beauty of this, of course, is now my students can do the same, learning everything I have to offer in the privacy of their own homes too. From anywhere in the world.
For convenience, I have broken the 12 hours of my Screenwriter School weekend workshop into six sessions. They will take place Saturdays from 12pm – 2pm EST. The first online course will be May 16 – June 20. Enjoy lunch during it, if you wish. Interact if you want. Take notes however you like. Just join us.
Make the most of this damn quarantine. Learn something. Writing something.
Take a step in the direction of your dreams.
Just because I was slow to pick up on my cue from the universe, doesn’t mean you have to.
No More Excuses
If only I had the time. That is what many writers... or wannabe writers... say.
If only I had the time to write, then I would write. But alas, too often life gets in the way.
Well, this week and next week, and for the foreseeable weeks after that, thanks to COVID-19, we all have a little extra time on our hands. Sequestered in our respective alcoves free from the threat of disease, we stare at the walls, our phones, and each other, wondering what to do with our time.
Why not write now?
You have no more excuses. The whole world has been put on hold. You have been told to stay inside. For your own good, and the good of mankind.
The good news is if you are writing, you are not locked in quarantine, you are wherever your imagination takes you. Racing through the streets of France, hiking the mountains of the Himalayas, or cruising the coast of the Keys.
Turn off the TV. Put down the phone. Kill the internet. Do you really want all that in you anyway?
Instead, create something. So when all this nonsense is said and done, you have something to show for it. A story. A screenplay. A start to a career you have always wanted.
So quit complaining. About the circumstance. And start embracing it.
This is what you have been waiting for.
Don’t know where to start? We’re here to help. Offering one on one consulting via skype anytime you need it. As often as you need it. At half price during Coronarama. For more info, email us at info@screenwriterschool.com. Now you have the time and the support you need.
Who You Talking To?
You can’t please all the people all the time. And anyone with an ounce of sense will tell you that trying to do so will put you on the fast track to pleasing no one. But that begs the question. Who are you talking to? With your stories.
Knowing your audience is Writing 101. Young or old? Black or white? City mouse or country mouse? And that’s just for starters. You should craft your characters, your stories, your themes specific to the audience you’re trying to reach. Too often writers try to reach everybody. And that’s where many fall short. Spreading their message too thin. Granted, some time-tested themes can transcend boundaries. But often they do not. No one said it was easy. Studios and networks spend millions of dollars each year analyzing personality traits and viewing habits of audiences to program content specific to demographics aligned with advertisers needs. But you’re just you. Trying to write a story. At home. In your kitchen. What do you do? Be thoughtful about the marketplace. What works. What doesn’t. What’s out there. What isn’t. I’m not suggesting you cater your creativity entirely to the whims of the world, but in an industry that requires millions of dollars of investment for development, production and distribution in order to succeed, it seems remiss not to at least consider it.
Some say write for yourself. Well, that’s fine if you want to be the only one to read it. Or watch it. But that’s not why we tell stories, is it? We want to entertain, educate, engage, enlighten, inspire and enrapture... others. I like to think there is common ground somewhere between the two approaches: The Personal and The Public. And therein often lie the seeds of our next story to devote six weeks, six months or six years of our lives to.
Strangely, some of the most successful filmmakers of all time lose sight of that. Recently, Martin Scorsese condemned Marvel Studios and its parent company for creating content less cerebral than, I guess, his. But the fact is Marvel dominated the global box office in 2019 and shows no sign of slowing down. Which means they, for better or for worse, have their finger on the pulse of what America, and perhaps the world, wants to see. Whereas, as I mentioned in a recent interview on GPB, Mr. Scorsese recently delivered a three-and-a-half-hour marathon of a film in "The Irishman" few moviegoers have the patience to sit through in a theater. It seems the studio knew this since they released it simultaneously on Netflix. But doesn’t that defeat the point? Of creating big screen stories that big audiences can enjoy en masse in movie theaters? What’s more is the film seemed highly derivative of Mr. Scorsese’s masterful past works. Why not try something new? And challenge yourself creatively.
Which brings me to my point. Write for the market. Write for yourself. Write something new.
Do these three things and you will be well on your way to writing something rewarding.
Procrastination Station
It’s been a while since I wrote one of these blogs. And that’s the point. Something always comes up. For all of us with our writing. Work. Family. Bills. Pets. If we’re not careful, we’ll let the excuses run wild: Got to clean the oven. Got to sweep the roof. Got to stock up on tornado supplies. There’s really no end to the number of options we creatives can come up with to procrastinate from being creative. After all, that’s our forte. The problem is they get in the way of us getting what we want. To be writers. To be writing.
Why can’t we be creative coming up with ways to write? Stir up a tasty writing snack. Sneak away to a cozy writing spot. Pull over to type in a pub to avoid five o’clock traffic. Of course, these are not the things that keep us from writing: The food, the place, the time. Then what is? Don’t we like writing? Of course, we do. Don’t we want to tell our story? Of course, we do. Wouldn’t we like to get paid to write so we don’t have to do the job currently paying us? Hell to the yeah.
Far too often it’s the back end that keeps us stuck on the front end. It’s the sharing our writing with others that keeps us stuck. The fear of rejection. The fear of failure. The fear of success. But those are just bumps in the road. Right? We write proactive heroes who overcome insurmountable odds to achieve what they want. That’s what makes them grow. That’s what makes them transform. That’s what makes them heroes.
So why can’t we apply this to ourselves? Want to write a screenplay? What’s stopping you? Who knows? It might just change you.
Do You Need to Go to Film School?
Of course, you do. What kind of question is that?
Do you want someone fixing your car that hasn’t learned how?
Do you want someone flying your plane that hasn’t learned how?
Do you want someone performing your surgery that hasn’t learned how?
Sure, there are those that have skirted school, i.e. Quentin Tarantino.
1. Are you Quentin Tarantino?
2. Have you watched 351,456,789,432,490 hours of films?
School is where we can learn anything. Why not film? History, theory, writing, camera, lighting, direction, production, editing, coloring, composing, funding, marketing, distribution. You’ll be taught by those who have learned to do these things and learned to teach them in ways that will prove invaluable. You will be surrounded by other likeminded souls who are driven to tell stories too. Your peers = Your crew. You will have cameras, lights, lenses, microphones, cables, dollies at your disposable for making your own movies. Lastly, great schools will not only teach you how to make great films, but they’ll teach you how to break into them. And that’s not easy.
I speak not from theory, but experience. Having taught college film students for a decade now, I see first-hand how they grow, not only as storytellers and filmmakers, but as humans. And at the end of the day, that’s what matters most, for we all want our stories to mean something.
Since returning home to Atlanta, I have had the good fortune of teaching at Emory University, University of North Georgia, Reinhardt University and the Georgia Film Academy. Given the growing interest in screenwriting worldwide, I am now taking my workshops on the road. If you, or someone you know, would like Screenwriter School to come to your college in your town, please email me at : michael@screenwriterschool.com. Who knows. You might learn something.