CERRITOS COLLEGE ENGLISH 241: SCREENWRITING FALL 2019 (SECTION 20692) IF I TAKE THIS SCREENWRITING CLASS, HOW CAN YOU HELP ME? Can I help you get an agent? Can I help you sell a script? Can I help you find financing for a film? No, no, and no – at least, not directly. So how can I help you? As someone who has studied screenwriting at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, I can help you to craft screenplays with dramatic structures that create conflicts, with actions that reveal characters, with characters that drive stories – the sorts of stories that, with a lot of work and a lot of luck, could conceivably help you get an agent, sell a script, or find financing for a film. Also, as Syd Field points out in our textbook for this semester, there are two activities that anyone who wants to become a screenwriter should do: watch motion pictures and read screenplays. As a former professional film critic, I can help you to analyze produced pictures and published scripts – to see them as a source of not only entertainment, but also education. WAIT: WHO ARE YOU? ARE YOU REALLY A FORMER PROFESSIONAL FILM CRITIC? My name is Chad Greene, and – yes – I am really a former professional film critic. (For you fact-checkers out there, about one hundred of my movie reviews are archived on Rotten Tomatoes.) It was while majoring in English and minoring in Film at the University of Minnesota that I first started to study screenwriting with Thomas Pope (Hammett) and to write movie reviews for the Minnesota Daily. After I submitted my first finished screenplay as my honors thesis, I did what millions of Midwesterners had done before me: drove straight out to Hollywood. There, I eventually served as the editor of Boxoffice Magazine, where I not only reviewed movies, but also interviewed filmmakers and covered film festivals and awards shows. While I was working at Boxoffice, I was simultaneously studying in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. There, I further refined my movie reviewing as a student of Kenneth Turan (The Los Angeles Times) and my screenwriting as a student of Irvin Kershner (Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back), Stephen Mazur (Liar Liar), and Marc Norman (Shakespeare in Love). After earning my MPW at USC, I transitioned into teaching in the English Department at Cerritos College. WHY ARE YOU TEACHING THIS SCREENWRITING CLASS AS A WRITERS’ WORKSHOP? Whether we craft screenplays, stories, essays, or poems, writers want readers – people who are passionate enough about our art not only to read it, but also to understand it. And who better fits that description than … other writers? Within a writers’ workshop, aspiring artists support each other’s development as craftspeople by sharing their services as expert readers. While the teacher who facilitates the workshop is assumed to be the most expert reader and writer in the class – otherwise, he or she 1 would not have been selected to lead it – his or her opinion is not the only one that matters. As the name implies, the workshop is a space where all the writers – whether students or teachers – work side-by-side, providing you with feedback from twenty expert readers, not only one. What does matter, however, is the tone that the teacher sets for the workshop. A paraphrase of the legendary “Golden Rule” serves as a summary of mine: “Criticize others as you would want them to criticize you.” That does not mean that you should dispense empty compliments; it means that you should offer only constructive criticisms. Your role isn’t to tell your fellow writers their work is bad; it is to tell them how to make it good. WHY IS ATTENDANCE ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT TO A WRITERS’ WORKSHOP? Because English 241 is structured as a writers’ workshop, the course’s success is dependent upon your attendance and participation. If you do not come to class, prepared to either present your own writing to your classmates or to critique theirs, you will be letting them down. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class session. Students arriving after attendance has been taken will be considered tardy, which will lead to a decrease in their respective participation points. If you miss more than three class sessions of this section of English 241, you will likely be dropped from the course. Although you should make the effort to attend every class session, from time to time, an absence may be unavoidable. In that case, you should email me as soon as possible to inform me that you will be absent. However, absences will only be excused when they are due to documented circumstances beyond the control of the student. SPEAKING OF ATTENDANCE, WHERE AND WHEN WILL WE MEET FOR ENGLISH 241? This semester, we will meet in LA 204 on the second floor of the Liberal Arts/Disabled Student Programs and Services Building from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR ENGLISH 241? As a student in English 241, you are required to submit a portfolio containing revised drafts of a trio of development documents – a logline, a synopsis, and a treatment – as well as an approximately thirty-page screenplay. (Although I will allow you to write the first act of a feature to satisfy this requirement, I encourage you to instead craft a script for a short.) The first drafts of your screenplay and at least two of these three development documents – the logline and the synopsis – will be workshopped during specific class sessions that you will sign up for in advance. After incorporating changes suggested during your respective writers’ workshop sessions, you must submit your portfolio of revised drafts no later than 4 p.m. on Tuesday, December 17. In addition to your portfolio, you will compose an analysis of a produced screenplay this semester. You will also take multiple quizzes and complete multiple screenwriting exercises. Those exercises will not be given letter grades, but failure to complete them will impact your final grade. WHAT WILL THE GRADES BE BASED ON, EXACTLY? Revised drafts of your logline, your synopsis, your treatment, and your screenplay that are completed on time and are crafted according to motion picture industry standards will receive As. Any of the submissions that fail to meet these essential criteria, however, will receive Fs. Collectively, these assignments are worth fifty-five percent of your final grade for English 241. 2 (Individually, the logline is worth up to 50 points; the synopsis, up to 75 points; the treatment, up to 125 points; and the screenplay, up to 300 points.) Satisfactorily completing your analysis of a produced screenplay and your screenwriting exercises as well as earning passing scores on your quizzes secures another twenty-five percent of your grade. (Specifically, the analysis of a produced screenplay is worth up to 100 points; the exercises, up to 100 points; and the quizzes, up to 50 points.) Your participation in the writers’ workshop – which will be evidenced primarily by your attendance and your active contribution of constructive criticisms – represents the remaining twenty percent (that is, up to 200 points). A word of warning: While this system makes it easy to earn an A if you attend class, participate in writers’ workshop, critique your classmates’ work, and turn in your own writing, it simultaneously makes it easy to earn an F if you do not do satisfy those requirements. The policy on late papers in this class section is simple: Written works submitted for instructor review will be accepted no later than one week after their respective due dates. When attempting to determine the last date when you may still submit late written work, please be aware that an absence from a class session on your part does not constitute an extension of a deadline. All written work will be penalized with the deduction of ten percent of the total points available for that assignment – the equivalent of one full letter for a graded assignment. WHAT IS THE GRADING SCALE? Your initial target for this semester is to complete assignments worth a total of 1,000 points. However, if I ultimately make adjustments to the class schedule necessary to meet the particular learning needs of you and your classmates, it is possible the final point total may turn out to be either higher or lower than that. At the end of the semester, your final grade for the class will be determined by the percentage of the total points actually available that you earn. A 90-100 percent (for example, 900-1,000 out of 1,000 points) B 80-89 percent (for example, 800-899 out of 1,000 points) C 70-79 percent (for example, 700-799 out of 1,000 points) D 60-69 percent (for example, 600-699 out of 1,000 points) F 0-59 percent (for example, 0-599 out of points) WHAT ARE THE STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR ENGLISH 241? According to the student learning outcomes specified by the Cerritos College English Department, by the end of the semester you should be able to: • Analyze the attributes of screenwriting structure – in terms of structure, plot, character, and mise-en-scène – that create and sustain suspense. • Identify screenwriting styles, referencing principal cinematic periods and cultures. • Analyze genres of screenwriting – similarities and differences. • Create development documents – such as a synopsis, a treatment, a step outline, and/or a set of scene cards – according to motion picture industry standards. • Write scenes that reveal character through action and dialogue.