From leigh@quixotic.org Thu Sep 24 04:59:25 1998 Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 04:51:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Leigh S Gaffney Reply-To: seaquest-ff@quixotic.org To: seaquest-ff@quixotic.org, jag-ff@quixotic.org, trek-ff@quixotic.org, writers-l@quixotic.org Subject: [sQ-ff] INFO: Scriptwriting and Storytelling I've got two of these installments finally into the computer and edited (scanning files in is nice but doesn't always give 100% of what you want). I should have more this weekend. I know the emails say seaQuest, that was before I found out the jag list and writers list and trek list for fan fiction wanted the information as well. So for those on the seaQuest fan fiction list, don't worry about it, everyone else, just pretend it says the name of the list yer on instead ;P. I wasn't going to go through all the materials and send each list a separate one, that seemed silly. This is much easier and less time consuming. Enjoy. ------ I spoke with my professor for my writing for tv/multimedia class about reprinting his lessons here. He was delighted and I really wanted to share this man's infinite wisdom with everyone here. I know some folks write stories and scripts just as a hobby; but I also know that some are using it as practice for a career as well. I've been extremely impressed with the education I've been obtaining at the Art Institute of Houston and this class I took last quarter complimented early classes on the same subject and it's really amazing how much this man knows. BTW, his name is Claude Ridgeway. Not a famous man but he has years of experience under his belt and I really wanted to pass that along to everyone here who is looking at the stories and scripts they write and share here as a possible career. If you really don't care, no worries I don't care either whether you read this and learn from it or not. This is really for those who want to learn more about the art of writing stories and scripts to use in the professional world. I know in the past I've not been a fan of scripts because I've seen many mistakes made on them that are pet peeves of mine but I hope folks will get a lot of information from the files I'll be sending this weekend. There's a lot of information there and I'm hoping it'll help steer some towards understanding how storytelling and scriptwriting is handled in Hollywood and similar arena's. There are two famous stories I'll be referring too a lot in the files - one a play and now a movie, "Romeo and Juliet" and the other a movie, James Cameron's "Titanic". Now before I go further lemme clarify my feelings about "Titanic". The writing was fantastic. The post production sucked. (Post Production = Special Effects and Editing). That pretty much wraps that up :). So now that you understand that let's not get into a debate about it, just understand that's my feelings so deal with it :). Now, I'll start with the information Claude (that's my professor remember, at my school all the professors work in the field's they teach and nearly all go by their first names. It's really cyewl ;P), gave us about Storytelling and then things will move into Scriptwriting. It'll end with the "Screenwriter's master Chart", in which we (the class) re-scripted the movie "Titanic" to fit the paramater's - but you'll see what I'm talking about when I get to that part. Oh, I'll include a vocabulary list too. That's really helpfull when it comes to writing a script ;P. Here's sorta a content index of what's going to be sent: - Foundation Principles of Storytelling by Bill Johnson - Screenwriting Terms - Tip Sheet for Low Budget Film Scripts - Personal notes from Lecture Materials - Screenwriter's Master Chart (based on a 120 page script) (I've got more now and I'll post it as I get it into the computer) I've got a bunch of sample scripts for Videotape formats from the typical script everyone here is accustomed to seeing on the list to the shooting scripts and two column formatted scripts. I wish I could get these into this but I need to find another way to do it. It's just not possible for me to format it correctly over email so everyone get's the material properly. Plus it's not all that seaQuest related - it's more to see examples of those formats so I might just scan them in and put em on a website for folks to see if they want. I know most of these materials aren't all that seaQuest related either, it's more geared towards learning proper lingo and understanding how storytelling and scriptwriting evolves into finished products we pay 7 bucks to see at the movie theatre, or tune in to watch on Friday evenings. I encourage anyone running across information that would only help writer's on this list to grow and learn to get permission if possible and share it on the lists here. That's one of the reasons the list for fan fiction exists - not just to share fan written fiction, but also to learn how to better ourselves as writer's. The only thing that can come of posts like these are better and better stories :). Which I'm sure no one here would mind. After all, like a website, there never really are final draft's of any script or story that cannot be improved upon. But the great place about an informal setting like this mailing list is that as writer's - you aren't bound by deadlines and the need for declaring a product as final so that production can go on. :) Cheers! - Leigh Gaffney President - Student Council Editor in Chief - Literary Club and Student Magazine Multimedia/Computer Animation Major The Art Institute of Houston http://www.quixotic.org "You've managed to kill just about everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target!" - Admiral James T. Kirk Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ---------------------------------------------------- normal: seaquest-ff-unsubscribe@quixotic.org digest: seaquest-ff-digest-unsubscribe@quixotic.org