Screenwriter's Corner

It’s been more than four years since I’d given a public lecture/course/or seminar in Los Angeles. Even though I’m a native – my grandfather arrived in LA in 1907 braving the wilds of the frontier, renegade Indians, and a memorable train ride across country – I grew up here, went to school here, and developed all my material here, in LA. Hollywood.

So, when I conducted my first four evening Course at the Writer’s Store at the end of September, Mastering the Craft of Screenwriting, I wasn’t sure what my reception would be. After all, I had been gone for more than four years, and I was slightly nervous. There are so many screenwriting courses out there would people still come to the course? Would they remember who I was? I’ve had more than a few people tell me that they knew my work, but when I talked with them I realized they didn’t know my books at all. All they were basing their opinion on what they had heard about Syd Field. And, not all of it was positive. So, I was double thinking everything. Especially, what I was going to be talking about.

I had developed these evening courses a few years ago during a trip to Brazil where I had been invited to conduct an evening on the art and craft of screenwriting.

At first, I didn’t know exactly what to do – answer questions about Hollywood and the peculiar trials of being a free-lance screenwriter? Talk about what it takes to write an effective screenplay? Or focus on the craft – necessary tools to create  better character, or what to  do so you can build a more effective story line, or writing sharper, more efficient dialogue. The more I thought about it, the more I began to see that if I focused on a subject/content line, like Setting Up Character & Story , then I could integrate the craft of screenwriting with visual clips of the material.

Did I do it? Check it out….