#screenwiritng

Event Date: Saturday, October 20, 2018 || Speaker: Ruth Atkinson || Check-in: 12:30 pm ||

Write what you know, is the kind of advice that writers love to hate. And rightfully so, well, sort of. With recent surprise hits such as Get Out, Lady Bird and The Big Sick it’s clear that successful films often explore topics and themes that are closest to the writer’s heart. With Hollywood always searching for THE NEXT BIG THING, it’s vital that writers write what they know… in their hearts.

Easier said than done. It can be hard to know exactly what themes and ideas you want to write about and writers end up writing to the marketplace or about what they think they should. This leads to scripts that don’t resonate with the reader and feel formulaic, derivative, inauthentic or worse, boring!

Clearly not what you want!

So we’ll do a deep dive into writing exercises that uncover the core themes and ideas that are closest to your heart. By exploring what you think and care about we’ll uncover the stories you’re most interested in telling. Every writer has their own personal “vein of gold” and by tapping into it you’ll begin to write from an authentic place that speaks to the ideas that are most important to you.

But we won’t stop there. We’ll take these core themes and look at how they can be used as the building blocks for a cinematic narrative (the all important second act turning point!). Then we’ll look at how to test your ideas before you start writing pages so you embark on a script that not only expresses your core themes and ideas but captures the reader and ultimately an audience.

We’re taking “write what you know” to the next level. Know yourself and you’re on your way to being THE NEXT BIG THING.

Ruth Atkinson is a Los Angeles-based script consultant and story editor with over 25 years of experience in the film/television business. Ruth has story edited and consulted on many features and short films that have won awards and been distributed internationally including Sundance and SXSW special jury award winner Emergency (short), Egypt’s Oscar submission Sheikh Jackson, TIFF premiere Saf, Jonas Chernick’s My Awkward Sexual Adventure, The Perfect Family starring Kathleen Turner, celebrated indie The People I’ve Slept With and Genie-nominated Who Loves the Sun starring Molly Parker and Adam Scott.

In addition to individual project consulting Ruth is a story analyst for the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Screenwriting and Directing Labs. She is also a screenwriting advisor for Project Involve, Film Independent’s signature diversity program, where she helps develop short film scripts, which are produced and showcased at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Many have gone on to win awards and play at festivals around the world. In addition Ruth is a story advisor for Film Independent’s Screenwriter and Director Labs as well as the Global Media Makers program, a joint venture with the US State Department involving filmmakers from the Middle East.

Ruth is also an advisor and mentor for the Whistler Film Festival Praxis Screenwriters Lab held annually in British Columbia and screenwriting mentor for the prestigious RBC Michelle Jackson Emerging Filmmaker Award in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Ruth is an experienced instructor and presenter and has given seminars at The Great American Pitchfest, Screenwriters World Conference West, Scriptwriters Network, The Writer’s Store (workshops and webinars), On the Page Podcast, International Screenwriters Association, and at the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival including Scene & Heard and Framed West as well as DIGICOM a digital storytelling program for teens in Palm Springs, CA.

Ruth is available for story editing, script consulting and screenwriting workshops and can be reached at [email protected]. Ruth’s website and blog is at www.ruthatkinson.com and she can be found tweeting regularly at @ruth_atkinson.

Please REGISTER before 10:00 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2018.

The High Concept Screenplay Program welcomes all genres and aims to discover, honor and reward different approaches, eclectic points of view and unique voices in screenwriting. A high concept screenplay:

has a great premise – the idea is king (e.g. “Big”)

has a memorable title – it conveys what the movie is about (e.g. “Wedding Crashers”)

has a visual logline – you can see the movie (e.g. “40 Year Old Virgin”)

has universal appeal – all demographics “get it” (e.g. “Star Trek”)

has clear conflicts, high stakes, a hook, a ticking clock and/ or a twist (e.g. “Liar Liar”)

has a succinct, descriptive “pitch” of 25 words or less (e.g. “Seven, Home Alone”)

PROCESS:

Phase One: Two readers will evaluate your screenplays and provide written feedback analyzing structure, story development, characterization, dialogue, format, as well as overall impressions. If recommended by two readers, the script will advance to Phase Two.

Phase Two: Loglines of feature and/or screenplays that receive a double recommend from Phase One will be forwarded to our list of agents, managers and producers.

**The Scriptwriters Network reserves the right to publicize the writer’s name and selected screenplays.

**As an educational organization, SWN’s High Concept Screenplay Program’s objective is to better assist you in achieving your goals of becoming a better writer by providing positive, constructive detailed feedback/evaluations.

To get a clearer idea for my presentation, I thought and researched the true feasibility of my proposed project.

I feel its true strength is in its focus on one long scene at one major location: the street.  The only other locations required would be the interior of a standard terraced house, for which we’d have a good range of options, and wouldn’t necessarily have to be shot in a house on the same street as the exteriors.  This would, however, be preferable.

It also benefits from having only two central lead characters - Michael and the Ice Cream man, with all others being minor characters who have no longer than 2 minutes of screen time.  In total the film would require no more than 6 cast members and a crew of 4 or 5.

Major limitations of the project come in it requiring night shoots in its entirety.  This could be an issue for getting child actors, and would mean having to apply for a Local Authority license specific for night shooting, which could prove quite a drawn out and difficult process.

The night shoot also creates the need for low-light specific kit.  We would need to ensure the cameras being used will pick up clear and sharp enough detail in the absence of all natural light.

Van hire also proves a potentially difficult issue.  However, as Ice Cream vans are naturally seasonal, and certainly not nocturnal, it should therefore be quite likely that we could find a van available for use at this time.  It would just depend on the cost of hire.