Teaching, Lectures And Classes

To learn the professional approach of writing relatable characters, in conflict driven scenes, with an authentic voice. In addition, students will learn the 3-act structure and how to create a compelling world. The culmination in this class will be the first act of a feature script.

An introduction to both cinema studies and film/video production, this course provides an overview of historical, analytical, and theoretical approaches to cinema and introduces a broad range of basic production skills, including the fundamentals of digital editing. Through hands-on work and the study of a diverse selection fo films rooted in different cultures, times, and ideologies, students will being to develop the critical means for engaging with cinema and culture in discussion, writing, and creative work.

For inexperienced (or no-experience) filmmakers, making a feature film first is a bad idea. The challenges are great, the expense is large, and the likelihood of disaster ever present. There’s a better way, though. Start with a short. Same challenges, smaller scale, more forgiving, more room to grow. Come and learn the why’s and the how’s of making a short over a feature — and when to know you are ready to move up.

There’s another kind of depression that isn’t as well known, understood, or common. It has a rather curious name —dysthymia — like a character out of a Greek fairy tale. Dysthymia is now referred to by a name that is far more apt, descriptive, and sound: Persistent Depressive Disorder. People don’t pop back from this one. It arrives and stays.

As you work on your feature outline, you will sharpen your knowledge of dramatic structure, creating a story with high stakes and strong dramatic tension. You will learn to test your main character by increasing the obstacles, both internal and external, and by employing such techniques as revelations and reversals. And you will develop a more complete understanding of three-act structure and sequences.

You’ve finished the first draft of the script, but you know more work needs to be done. You are on the fifth rewrite of your script, but does it need a sixth? There’s a plan and a point to rewriting a script, steps you can take to ensure you are doing exactly what needs to be done to make your script the best it can be.

The secret to great films — even just good ones — are great characters, heroes we can root for and villains we can root against (but secretly love.) What makes a compelling character? How do we ensure our characters are memorable? Come learn some secrets and shortcuts to making your characters vibrant and alive.

This course will use general logic emphasizing its applications to practical situations. This course will offer concepts basic to critical thinking such as clear communication, persuasion, argument, fact and opinion. This course will use real-world, problem-solving context geared toward working adults. The course covers both inductive and deductive techniques