Saturday, January 17, 2015

Screenplay Writing

During the last few weeks at my job for the LDS Church, I have been writing and writing. My boss (a producer) left to Brazil to direct a ten episode T.V. series for BYU-TV. He asked me to take over for him while he was gone. He was in the middle of pre-production, so that what I've been doing.

I've spent time coming up with concepts for youth curriculum videos. Lucas had three major general conference talks to create videos for. My process has been the following:

  1. Read and listen to the talk.
  2. Put everything on paper that I can possible think of.
  3. Listen to the talk again.
  4. Come up with a proposal.
  5. Present it to a couple of other producers to get their feedback.
  6. Revise.
  7. Review and revise.
  8. Finalize.
  9. Pitch the idea in the meeting.
For one particular video, I have come up with four or five proposals (each having multiple variations). Writing is harder than you think! I have pitched or sent my proposals to the leaders in charge of approving them.

Finally, I have started to write screenplays for them. I use a software called Celtx, which I love and started using at Davis High School back when the software was free. I'm so glad Mrs. Greenwood suggested it for her students. Luckily, I have retained my free subscription. I do not believe it is free any longer.

Anyway, to make a long story short, writing is harder than I thought. I have found when I put all my thinking power into something and then take a break, that's when the good ideas come. I have also discovered that making writing a collaborative effort and getting feedback only improves your story! I am thinking of more creative ways to tell the story. Think about showing your audience, not telling them!

The End.