Previous Courses
Walter Murch Master Class for Editors & Sound Designers
Editor, sound designer, director and author Walter Murch will be in Vancouver February 15 - 17 for a series of events. Murch invented the term 'sound design' to describe his ground-breaking work on American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973). A classmate of Lucas at USC and an early collaborator with Francis Coppola, Murch quickly became the most respected sound editor in Hollywood, developing a revolutionary multi-track recording style that is now used everywhere. He is also highly regarded as a picture editor. Along with his work on The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather Trilogy, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, Apocalypse Redux, and most recently Jarhead, Murch has worked on innovative low-budget films like Crumb and The Apostle, and reconstructed Orson Welles' 1958 film Touch of Evil to conform more closely to Welles's own revolutionary ideas on sound.
Murch is an articulate and thoughtful writer on many subjects and has a special interest in perception. He has written an influential book on editing, In the Blink of an Eye, and collaborated with Michael Ondaatje on The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film.
The morning session is limited to 40 participants; the afternoon session will require knowledge of Final Cut Pro and is restricted to 25.
Admission by application. To apply, send a letter of intent outlining your experience and your expectations, and your resume to Praxis.
Application deadline is Tuesday 31 January.
Event Date: Friday, 17 February, 9:30 -12:30 and 1:30-4:30.
Cost: Morning session: $50/Full Day $165 (lunch included in full day session)
Write the First Time
A WORKSHOP IN FOUNDATION, FORM, AND THE LANGUAGE OF FILM
with Scott Fitzgerald Gray
Scott Gray's technique for developing a screenplay works for writers at any stage from concept to first draft. Instead of getting bogged down in the mechanics of inciting incidents and plot points, you'll learn a simple, organic method of screenwriting based on the natural principles of storytelling. This top-down approach starts with the big idea, then refines it in more and more detail until you end up with a complete blueprint for your script -- with each scene essential to the overall theme and structure of the story you want to tell.
Using film clips and writing exercises in a workshop setting that provides guidance and constructive feedback throughout the process, you'll:
Discuss the general art and craft of writing, learning how to develop plot from the top down, theme from the inside out, and conflict at every level of your story.
Discover how to translate your ideas into effective outlines and treatments.
Trade in the concept of outlining as an aesthetic straitjacket, and learn how the outline stage can and should be as creatively rewarding as any other part of the writing process.
Develop an outline for your own script that frees you to write the story you want to write.
Explore the tools of visual storytelling, learning how to turn limitations into assets in translating from image to word and back again.
You don't need a completed script, but you should be familiar with the basic tools of screenwriting and have a story you are compelled to tell. Whatever your level of experience, be prepared to explore your story to its fullest potential -- and that includes a commitment to work on your project in the week between classes.
Event Date: October 29 & 30, and November 5 & 6, 2005
Time: 9:30 am - 5:30 pm
Location: Saturdays - SFU Downtown, Sundays - Vancouver International Film Centre
Cost: $225/$195 Praxis Members
CityTV will sponsor bursaries for two aboriginal and/or visible minority participants.
For consideration in the course, mail or email a 5-page writing sample (screenwriting or fiction) including at least one paragraph about your current project, and a letter describing your background and commitment to the process. Also, please indicate if you're applying for the CityTV Cultural Diversity Bursary.
Application deadline: October 19th.
Scott Fitzgerald Gray is a writer, story editor, and former core instructor at the Vancouver Film School's Writing for Film and Television program. He's written film, episodic television, and documentary in Canada and England (including the feature Innuendo), was a finalist for the Writers Guild of Canada's Jim Burt Screenwriting Prize in 2002, and has several feature projects in development with support from the Harold Greenberg Fund, Telefilm Canada, and BC Film. He's been a script reader for BC Film and Praxis, has written reviews for the Georgia Straight and the Vancouver Sun, and has recently completed his second novel. For further information about Scott Gray and this course, visit Scott's website
www.museWorks.net/Learning.html
For information and registration, please contact us at 604.268.7880, by e-mail
praxis@sfu.ca, or by ground mail to Praxis/SFU, 3120 - 515 West Hastings, Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3.
Printable PDF of the information for this course.
Writing Features - An Introduction - Fall 2007
Instructor: Michele Adams
10 Weeks – Intro to Intermediate Level
Cost: $400+GST (includes one year $50 Praxis membership) $325 +GST for Renewed '07/'08 Members
Dates: September 22 - November 24, 2007
Time: Saturdays 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: SFU Downtown Harbour Centre Campus, Room 3120 - 515 W. Hastings, Vancouver, BC
Phone interview required for admission. Course enrolment: 20
Inquiries - Michael Boucher 604 268-7880, praxis@sfu.ca
Writing Features - An Introduction
Want to write for the movies? A feature script is an exciting creative achievement - it’s also a lot more than a great idea. Screenwriters have to develop special skills to connect the images, emotions and words that will bring their unique visions to life on the page.
In this ten week workshop, we will explore the basics of screenwriting as you work ahead on your own feature project. The course will begin with examinations of idea development, research, genres, creation of character, arcs, outlining and treatments, scene structure, evocative writing, and the importance of visual style in your screenplay. Exemplary film excerpts will be screened to support and illustrate, and participants will be encouraged to pitch their story ideas and begin work towards completion of a first draft. Opening sequences (15 pp) of participants‚ screenplays will be workshopped in class with special focus on the creation of an engaging protagonist and the delineation of dramatic conflict. By the end of the course, participants will have achieved a deeper understanding of screenwriting practice and be on their way to completing a feature script.
Course Aims
To help you develop an understanding of screenwriting basics
To support your creation of a feature screenplay
To develop your ability to participate in critical workshopping of your own and other writers' work
To encourage critical self-awareness and an inquiring, analytical, creative approach to your work
To kick-start your development as a screenwriter
Week 1
Introductions: Writing for a visual, dramatic & reality-based medium / Project Intros / Finding your story-treatment-scenario writing
Week 2
Story Structure Basics: Conflict & Resolution / Formatting basics / Workshop reading and critiquing etiquette review
Week 3
Story structure - the elements: Acts, Sequences, Scenes
Opening Sequence Readings
Week 4
What’s your story? / Loglining
Opening Sequence Readings
Week 5
Logline Review - Developing a sense of audience
Opening Sequence Readings
Week 6
Character - Protagonist, Antagonist, Major, Secondary
Opening Sequence Readings
Week 7
Dialogue - Creating varied, lifelike, individual voices
Opening Sequence Readings
Week 8
Formatting for Feature Screenplays Revisited - Q & A
Opening Sequence Readings
Week 9
Obstacles and Subplots
Opening Sequence Readings
Week 10
Rewriting - Strategies for Second Drafts
Opening Sequence Readings
Please note this is a PROPOSED SCHEDULE dependent on variables including class experience level, size, interests, potential guest speakers, etc. Some aspects of organization and content may be modified as we move forward.