Madsen Pirie

I went to Raindance Festival’s Saturday Film School at the Leicester Square Theatre in London. There were sessions on writing a screenplay, and dozens of tips on shooting movies and putting them together.  The principles of directing were explained, plus tips for those anxious to break into the movie industry.  The day was packed with good information.

I particularly liked Elliot Grove’s take on writing screenplay.  He explained the different settings in which movies take place (wilderness, village, town, city and oppressive city), and the different stock characters that inhabit movies.  What most beginners do not realize is that screenplays must be prepared and presented in the approved Hollywood style with the correct typeface, indentation, spacing, capitalization, etc.  Fortunately there is software that does this.  A page of screenplay corresponds to about a minute of movie time.

It was a great learning experience.  I didn’t come away determined to make a movie, but I did begin to consider turning one or more of my children’s stories into a screenplay…

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