Teach Yourself Screenwriting: FREE Film School Week Five

If you’ve been following my FREE Film School posts (every Saturday) you’ll have completed 4 weeks already. Already FOUR weeks has passed?! Time flies when you’re having fun doesn’t it?

The purpose of FREE Film School is to show how it’s possible to teach yourself how to make films without paying a lot of money to go to film school. It might not just be about the money. Maybe your circumstances prevent it or maybe the school you want to go to rejected you.

Whatever the reason, you might be feeling pretty down about it. Especially the rejection part. But don’t, I was rejected from film school twice and… and… yeah it sucks.

My experience of art school

When I first arrived at art school, I already had a little reputation. See, my dad was an art lecturer back in the 1960s and the head of this art foundation course knew him. Did that help me get in to what was quite a high profile course?

No idea. Certainly didn’t hurt.

So I arrived and we were given our first tasks. In my mind, I had all these images my dad had shown me from his days at art college. So I just kind of used those memories as the basis for my work.

And it worked very well. One tutor called the class round to look at my sculpture made of straws and told everyone this was what she had meant us to do when she set the task. Yay. I was Top Student.

Briefly.

The problem was, the success of this strategy caused me to have some kind of existential crisis. Who was I? Me or my dad?

As you can imagine, that’s a crisis with an awful lot of layers in it.

But I kind of lost respect for the tutors. Perhaps because I was just regurgitating stuff without (I thought) understanding it. And the tutors loved it. Couldn’t they tell the difference between genuine art and someone faking it?

If they couldn’t, then what was I doing there? What was I going to learn?

As it turns out, humans in general find it hard to know a fake from the real thing. One estimate suggests that up to 20% of art in top museums might be forged.

But how do you teach yourself screenwriting, Simon?

Well, bear with me. There’s a point to all this (or is there?).

After such high hopes, I became one of the biggest disappointments that foundation course had experienced to that date. They told me I was the only student ever to fail their written assignment.

Hey, but at least I retained my notoriety for the duration of the year!

Anyway, that was the end of my college days. After that, I was rejected by a fine art film degree in London and an animation degree in Farnham. About 10 years later, I was also rejected by the NFTS (National Film & Television School) screenwriting degree course.

What the hell has all this got to do with teaching yourself screenwriting?

My first screenplay – a short – was picked up by Anglia TV. I got down to the last 8 scripts – 6 of which were to be picked for production.

I got rejected at the last selection round.

Coincedently, one of my interviewers for the NFTS was also the script development guy I had worked with at Anglia TV. I remember saying, “Hey, it’s you!” And he said, “Yeah, I have a feeling I’m destined to be a part of your career.”

I never saw that guy again.

Plot twists

I had talent as a writer, but I went through torture learning the craft. Probably, I was very impatient. Luckily, I kept going through that nightmare period and discovered that with time you learn so many things.

Now, when I started writing this post I wasn’t intending to ramble on about my failed college days. But once I started thinking about it, and writing about it, I realised I had all these interesting experiences (this is decades ago).

How many short screenplays can you see in the experiences I have just related to you? I mean, there’s got to be about 5. Maybe 10 or even more.

There’s plot twists (top student ends up as bottom student) that pose questions. Why did that happen? What does it reveal about character?

There’s huge and powerful themes of family, coming of age, identity, success and failure, being true and being fake. What’s interesting is that when I went from being fake to being truth to myself, I failed.

And this is a common element of many main character arcs in films: when the main character first attempts to put right his character flaw, all the stuff he feared would happen, happens. That’s because it’s only the beginning of his journey to enlightenment.

Any other themes you can see in my story? As a screenwriter, you need to be on the lookout for those themes. The themes you spot probably tell you something about the themes you’re interested in.

But what do we look for in a story so we know it’s a good idea?

Something relatable

Most of us have been to college, or rejected by college, or believed we weren’t good enough, had to deal with rejection, or had some “coming of age” existential crisis. So in this story, which is about me and how I experienced the world, it turns out I went through what millions (possibly billions) of other people have gone through.

However, my story is unique to me. That’s what makes it interesting (ie: not a series of generalised clichés about going to university or being rejected).

My point here is that a good screenplay is basically a good story. And a good story is one which is unique yet addresses themes millions of people can connect with – because they went through (or are going through) their own version.

Let’s make that a checklist:

is your story relatable to millions of people? is your story unique and original?

If you answer yes to both those stories, then you’re off to a great start.

With practice, you will learn how to start with point 2 and develop that into point 1 as well.

Why are relatable themes so important?

This is one thing I struggled with at the start of learning how to write screenplays. My story was unique and relatable – that’s why it got selected for Anglia TV. But I didn’t know how to improve it past the first draft.

Over years, I learned how to understand and develop theme. I even use it in a lot of these blog posts I’m now writing. That’s how I managed to tie in the theme of writing screenplays with the random life experiences which popped into my head this morning.

Put directly, it’s about connecting your unique-to-you experiences and emotions with the experiences and emotions of the rest of the world.

Therefore, one way of writing a great screenplay is to share your personal worldview but in a way everyone can relate to.

What themes touch you?

Wow that’s huge isn’t it? What a question. And you were expecting me to just list some some simple “how to” tips.

As someone who has read a number of screenplays and watched a number of films by aspiring filmmakers and screenwriters, you can really tell when someone is emotionally connected to the theme of their story. No matter how inexperienced those filmmakers are or how accomplished the filmmaking is, those stories always pack a punch.

Writing a good screenplay is not about being clever. Feel free to research the works of Aristotle and refer to them in your story to show how clever you are. But if you’re not emotionally connected to your story, nobody else will be either.

So I believe it’s absolutely essential that you discover the themes which move you. Then writing about these themes will ignite your emotions and allow you to create more powerful narratives.

FREE Film School: Week Five Task

So far we’ve been practicing thinking about film differently. We’ve also had a go at telling stories visually. If you’ve been following the tasks each week, you are definitely starting to think like a filmmaker now.

But it’s one thing to be a smart filmmaker and another thing to be an emotional one. So this week we are going to turn away from learning about film and look inwards: you need to learn about yourself. What makes you tick?

This week’s task is to write 1000 words on a period of your life. It can be now, your childhood or some other time. Don’t try to force it – just let it be the first thing that comes into your mind.

Maybe while you were reading my story, it provoked your own related memory. That’s as good a place to start as any. Use that and just start writing.

Don’t worry about writing a great story. This is pure rambling, outpouring. And you might find you go past that 1000 word mark.

Be emotional

Write about how you felt at every twist and turn of the story. Try to understand what happened and why it happened. Be as honest with yourself as possible – try not to judge any of the characters in your story (including you).

Remember also that the human memory is very unreliable. Wait, I need to remember something using my unreliable memory?

Like I said, life is complicated and often contradictory. Which is why there isn’t just One Story To Rule Them All.

No, and because life is strange and confusing, we can keep coming up with new stories and new ways of looking at things. That’s why every experience is equal. And by writing about a theme personal to you, and giving it your unique perspective – nobody can be better than you at that.

But if we’re all just trying to write the best version of the Hero’s Journey, then it becomes the Screenwriter Olympics where the fittest, most highly trained, most privileged writer wins the Screenplay Gold Medal. And the rest of us are failures.

However, if you dig into your own unique experiences and connect to your emotions, nobody can compete with you. That gold medal is yours as soon as you finished the first draft.

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