film and writing, given at tesol 2011

Inspired by Hollywood: Writing &

Film

Susan KellyExcelLearn

Context

• Universities in Korea & China

• Elective course: English through Film

• English 2: film unit in a general English course

Learned the Hard Way

• No film reviews

• Too many sources for plagiarism

Instead . . .

• Compare National & International Actors

Small Group Blogs

• Genre blogs

• Decide on groups, editors

• Story meetings

• Viewing and Commenting

• Sitemeter.com and reporting on audience

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SiteMeter.com

QuickTime and aﾪBMP decompressor

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QuickTime and aﾪBMP decompressor

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Pitching

• In Hollywood, many stories are developed based on pitches

• Students develop a story that they pitch to the class

• Vote on best pitch

How it works

• Studios choose films based on scripts and pitches.

• Established writers are called into pitch stories to executives.

• Then if they’re lucky, they’re commissioned to write the script

Pitching Example

• Romeo & Juliet

• Practice together

• Pair Practice - for a produced movie

• DIY - and pitch to the class

• Compete

Example

In Pairs

Competition

• 5 - 6 students pitch and the remaining students vote for which film to make

• Once the winner is determined class gives feedback on whom to cast, what changes to make, what director

Scene Writing

• Make groups of 4-5

• Provide beats i.e. plot points

• Tip: Dialogue – Differently, Say It

• Act out scenes

• Background: Jerry is friends with married couple, Horace and Madge. Jerry works with Horace and is in New York with him at a hotel.

• Madge invites Jerry to spend the weekend in Italy so he can meet her single friend Dale. She has hopes to do some match making.

• Dale happens to be in New York and meets Jerry. At first she likes him, but then through a mistake confuses him with Horace. She thinks Horace was the man who flirted with her.

1. Jerry doesn't want to go to Italy. Then he tells Horace he really likes Dale and hopes to win her heart. Then Horace gets a message that Dale is Madge's friend who will be in Italy so now Jerry agrees to go there.

2. Madge and Dale sit by the pool in Italy talking. Madge asks Dale if she met Horace in New York. She does and she nervously mentions that Horace was very flirtatious with her. She explains that Horace sent her flowers and danced with her. To Dale's surprise, Madge thinks that's fine.

1. Horace tells Jerry that he met a young woman at the park and almost kissed her. He wants Jerry to keep this a secret.

2. At a restaurant Dale walks in and sees Jerry and tries to avoid him. He sees her and goes to her before she can leave. He tells her that Madge knows exactly the right woman for her. This shocks Dale, who says she admires Madge and Jerry agrees. Dale says, “I know who you are.” Jerry says why should that matter. After a bit of talk, though Dale is still shocked by Jerry. Then he asks her to marry him. She ends the scene saying, “How could I fall in love with anyone so low!”

Title?

Choosing a film

• Choose one they won’t recognize

• Change characters’ names

Write & Present

• History of Film

• Each group took a decade

• What were the great developments

• Who were the big stars? Directors?

• Which films were the most famous?

• Provide handouts for exam questions

Writing • Don’t just copy from wikipedia and

read it to us.

• Submit your source material and outline.

• Summarize.

• Compose a handout explaining the main points for peers to study from.

• Some exam questions will come from the handouts.