ScriptClass: Keep it real, but unusual.

If you're out there writing a screenplay, as Clinton might say, 'I feel your pain.'

'last night I finally started that screenplay class that I wrote about previously on here -- (this is the one that is part group workshop, part review of the basics of screenwriting) -- eight writers in total (including myself) -- gathered from different levels of writing experience -- (and different story genres); throw a teacher in there, to help guide all of us through this ever-learning process.

'We sit around a few tables exchanging our movie ideas, how-to tips (mainly from the instructor), and then critquing each others work.

The goal of this 10-week-class is to help each other to finish, or improve, on our respective script ideas.

Me, being the sharing type...'expect...

I'll be doing a post-wrap-up here every so often. 'Feel free to add your own thoughts -- (or any tips) on the topic, (by leaving me a comment).

'Like mom used to say when going to the party -- go late, and leave early,' said our group instructor Pete Jensen. On where to start a scene, meaning as much as possible, 'avoid the boring parts and cut right into the action.'

I think audiences today expect things to happen really really fast. It's all story, story, story.

In talking scripts, Twilight Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg (Premiere Magazine) says --
'with a script, you need to keep moving really fast and have conflict in every scene...'

'You need that ominous tension right off the bat. We needed to see them and that impending danger from the start...' Rosenberg adds. Talking up how little screen time you get to create 'back story' and 'what each character is up to.'

With so many films fighting for attention it's also about hooking in the viewer with a slice of the unusual.

In that same article Rosenberg sums it up this way -- on succeeding in films you have to take on an 'overused genre and then reinvent it.

'Think, from the little I know, on what makes a story successful you have to give up your own twisted view on the normal.

Also in class, we talked over the basic three act structure, and the 5-8 sequences that make up a typical movie.

Or in laymans terms, every good story has a beginning, middle and ending.

Act I: the first few pages show folks a normal world, and establish the tone or genre; sets up the main dramatic question. If it's a character driven flick then somebody wants something very badly and is having difficulty getting it.

Act II: Has the main dramatic question and / or problem. The point where normality begins to turn-into-chaos -- (most agree this happens around page 25-35 in a feature screenplay). Our protagonist tries to solve this problem, but usually there are obsticles in his / her way.

Act III: Heading into act three the stakes are at their highest, and we reach a climax; usually followed by some type of resolution. This is the place that most screenplays answer the major dramatic question.

Always interested in what's cooking on the Hollywood-burners: