Lesson 1

[Kristina Zill]

KZ’s FIRST SCENE

What I learned from doing this assignment is… having added an interest technique in the outline made writing this scene easy.

In Lesson 9, I had opened the movie with a passive scene. Then for Lesson 10, I brainstormed a “more interesting setting” which led me to shift the timeframe to a period 5 years ago, when my main characters were just out of college and attending intensive training for negotiators. The resulting drama that seems to be a bank robbery (but turns out to be a training exercise) was so dynamic that the first scene was very easy to write.

When I first started writing screenplays, the common wisdom was “grab them by page 10.” Then it became page 3, then page 1, and finally by the 1st line. I believe I may have accomplished that with the new scene.

[Danielle Dillard]

Vision: To write touching family stories that educate and entertain.

What I learned from doing this assignment is trying to make my scene better.

The process of writing my first draft went okay. I’m in the process of making the opening scene stronger by creating a stronger hook. I’m going to rewrite the scene to where it further defines the protagonist and establishes her voice.

[Madeleind Gentinetta]

Madeleine about writing the first scene

Vision: I am going to do whatever it takes for me to be a writer of amazing stories with meaning who can move the audience and change the world resulting in financial, critical and audience success.

What I learned from doing this assignment is, it was a pleasure to sit down and start to write. It felt very good after I finished the first scene. I wrote quickly without worrying about many things… that comes later. I fell confident to continue like this.

[Paul McGregor]

Paul’s First Scene

4. Vision: My vision is to write scripts that become movies that change people’s lives.

5. What I learned from doing this assignment is that, as Hal says, I should not allow myself to stall. I was spending days looking at the gaps in my Outline and trying to come up with solutions. But doing this assignment re-connected me with my characters and I think this will help me fill the gaps in later parts of the Outline.

3. How the process went for me: Although there are still significant gaps in my outline in Acts 3 and 4, I decided not to spend any more time trying to fill those gaps and try to write scenes from Act One which is complete in my Outline. My thinking was that, as I sit down to write some scenes, maybe ideas will come to me to fill the gaps.

My first scene is short but full of sub-text.

END

[Raquel Solomon]

Raquel’s First Scene:

Vision: I want to go deeper into my writing to create screenplays where characters of depth are placed in compelling journeys with a fresh voice that Hollywood producers as well as independent film companies know they must make!

I learned from doing this assignment that keeping the first draft in line with the outline makes is a much easier task and gaps in the progression of the story can be filled in as they come to mind.