Writing Through Filmmaking Practice

NOTE additional seats will be available for this
course at course advising day.

Where do film ideas come from? How can we write
and make short films that are not simply didactic,
explanatory, or formulaic and instead start these
projects from sensory experience, and
observational based practices? This course takes
a highly flexible, frequently collaborative
approach, to the generative processes of writing
and developing films. Through a cascade of short
self-reflective experiential processes, we will
engage in short-form "screenwriting" that includes
micro-exercises in video making and sound
recording with a focus on perceptual/cognitive
phenomena rather than on formulaic style or
techniques. Through this process oriented class,
we will learn that film ideas are everywhere and
that writer's block is an unproductive myth.

The title of the course includes the word
"practice." By this I mean regular and consistent
work, similar to how one learns a musical
instrument or an athletic skill. This is also a
team-based class meaning that much of the work we
do in class is "circumstantially" collaborative in
that we will freely work from and with other
students' work. There will be in-class and
out-of-class exercises that regularly require
using other students' work as catalysts for your
own. This is another strategy that diversifies
our modes of engagement. To that end, students
must complete weekly writing exercises, and/or
visual or audio exercises, and/or researching
material for ideas, and/or drawing/graphing --all
as starting places, or what I call "disruptive
nodes" for any kind of film.

This is a class in writing and development for the
writer/director--the personal filmmaker. As such,
we will include cinematic concerns such as
cinematography, sound, blocking, and art design --
aspects typically not included in screenwriting.
Video sketches may be used to test out various
aesthetic and conceptual ideas. In addition to
half a dozen short weekly exercises, by course
end, each student will have completed a final 7-10
page written document that includes a visual
pre-production packet that may serve as the
blueprint for a future project. This course is
useful for anyone from any discipline with an
interest in concept development related to the
moving image and sound.