John Updike's A&P

Fiddle-dee-do...

http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/

Film Pitch Assignment

I'd like to hear your movie pitch on the 29th and 31st. There are not too many sites on the web with sample pitches, but a few. Your pitch should tell the whole story of your movie, dramatically, so as to entice interest. You are JUST TELLING THE STORY. However, be prepared to answer questions about budgeting, locations, etc.

The written part of the assignment should include:

• your pitch (or the notes you used in your pitch)
• a synopsis (no more than 2.5 pages)
• a tagline (a single sentence that tells us the story)
• a single scene of roughly 5 - 7 pages of dialogue/action
• the breakdown of the movie into its three acts, including plot points
• anything else you decide to include that gives me a better idea of what the movie is about

The written part is due on Friday, the 2nd. We MIGHT have a short vocabulary test that day, but most likely we will review Syd Field, then act out some of the scenes.

Film Terms

Movie Terms Glossary
http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Greenlight/Movie_Terms//index.shtml

Glossary of Film Terms
http://cepa.newschool.edu/~schlemoj/film_courses/glossary_of_film_terms/glossary.html

Terms from Film and Fiction
http://writing2.richmond.edu/jessid/eng216/216terms.html

Wikipedia: Cinematic Techniques
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_techniques

Online Screenplays

I've put the three screenplays that are available online at my site. They are for the Fight Club (two versions), Bladerunner and The Ice Storm. I've reformatted them a bit to clean them up.

http://www.arras.net/screenplays_stockton/

Syllabus (PDF)

Here is a link to the print version of the syllabus.

Schedule

January
Wed., 17: Introduction
Fri., 19: Create “production groups” / review screenplay format / short assignment

Mon., 22: Screenplay, pp. 1-142
Wed., 24: Screenplay, pp. 143-256
Fri., 26: Screenplay, pp. 257-end / assign The Nose

Mon., 29: review the screenplay outlines for the short story
Wed., 31: review the screenplay outlines for the short story

February
Fri., 2: test on terms and understanding of screenplay concepts

Mon., 5: Fight Club, first half
Wed., 7: Fight Club, second half
Fri., 9: Fight Club, discussion of film

Mon., 12: Fight Club screenplay, first third / writing assignment 1 due
Wed., 14: Fight Club screenplay, middle section
Fri., 16: Fight Club screenplay, final third

Mon., 19: President’s Day
Wed., 21: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Fri., 23: Blade Runner, discussion of film

Mon., 26: Blade Runner screenplay, first third / writing assignment 2 due
Wed., 28: Blade Runner screenplay, middle section

March
Fri., 2: Blade Runner screenplay, final third

Mon., 5: The Hours, first half
Wed., 7: The Hours, second half
Fri., 9: The Hours, discussion of film

Mon., 12: Spring Break
Wed., 14: Spring Break
Fri., 16: Spring Break

Mon., 19: The Hours, screenplay, first third / writing assignment 3 due
Wed., 21: The Hours, screenplay, middle section
Fri., 23: The Hours, screenplay, final third

Mon., 26: The Ice Storm, first half
Wed., 28: The Ice Storm, second half
Fri., 30: The Ice Storm, discussion of film

April
Mon., 2: The Ice Storm screenplay, first third / writing assignment 4 due
Wed., 4: Preceptorial Advising
Fri., 6: The Ice Storm screenplay, middle section

Mon., 9: The Ice Storm screenplay, final section
Wed., 11: The Orchid Thief, first half
Fri., 13: The Orchid Thief, second half

Mon., 16: Adaptation, discussion of film
Wed., 18: Adaptation, first third / writing assignment 5 due
Fri., 20: Adaptation, middle section

Mon., 23: Adaptation, final section
Wed., 25: Class presentations
Fri., 27: Class presentations

Mon., 30: Class presentations

Required Books

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, by Syd Field
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Delta
ISBN: 0385339038

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Del Rey; Reissue edition
ISBN: 0345404475

Fight Club, a novel by Chuck Palanhiuk
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Owl Books; Reissue edition
ISBN: 0805076476

The Ice Storm, a novel by Rick Moody
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Back Bay Books
ISBN: 0316706000

The Hours, a novel by Michael Cunningham
Paperback: 229 pages
Publisher: Picador USA
ISBN: 0312243022

The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Miramax Books
ISBN: 0786888075

The Orchid Thief, a memoir by Susan Orlean
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 044900371X

Adaptation, directed by Spike Jonze
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Nick Hern Books
ISBN: 1854597086

Class Policies

Grading
Grading will primarily be based on your tests and writing.
• 50% five short assignments during the course of the semester
• 30% final paper
• 20% tests/classroom participation/presentations/in-class assignments etc.

Attendance
If you are more than ten minutes late, you will be considered late. Two lates equal an absence. Four absences result in a full letter reduction in your grade. More than that and you could be considered for a failing grade. For excused absences, I would like print documentation that I can keep (xerox of doctor report, etc).

You are expected to be quiet and attentive in class. If you are sleeping, typing on your cell phone, giggling and chatting, etc. this will count against you in the final grade.

Plagiarism
You will fail if caught plagiarizing.

Late papers and assignments
For every week a paper is late, it is worth a full grade less.

Format style
All papers should be in 12 point type (in Times Roman or similar font with serifs) with 1.5 spacing and 1 inch margins. They will be marked down if not in this format.

Writing Assignments
For each screenplay, you will be required to write a 4-5 page analysis including the following points:
• how does the screenplay breakdown according to page count?
• what are the plot points?
• what adjustments did the screenplay writer make to the original story, including additional characters, location, time, etc.?
• how effective were central characters created, including especially the protagonists and antagonists, but also the minor characters
• how did the dialogue change from the original to the screenplay?
• how did the filmed production differ from the written screenplay?
• was the screenplay adaptation successful? was the film successful?
• were there possibilities you saw in the original that were not fulfilled in the screenplay?

These assignments should not only demonstrate the above analysis, but also show me your writing level at its best. Please don’t hand me something you wrote at the last second. Of course, you can hardly cover every point above in 5 pages, so please organize your paper effectively and write efficiently.

Final Paper
Your final paper can either be written alone or with a “production group” of no more than 3 people. Everyone in the production group will receive the same grade, but the production groups must also include a two-page analysis of the collaborative process.

Your final paper will be based on a book of your choice, whether novel, play, non-fiction, even poem. Your final paper will include many of the analytical points where applicable from the assignments during the semester but it only needs to be 3-4 pages since many of the elements cannot be covered. Also included in the final paper will be material related to your selling of the film, including:
• a sales pitch (why make this movie? who will watch it?) presented to the class
• a two page summary of the story of the film
• your own 5-page adaptation of several pages of the original piece in proper screenplay format

This involves roughly 10 pages of writing and a presentation. Any missing elements will automatically count as a detraction from the final grade of the paper.

Introduction

There is no set way to adapt a novel to film: what makes a novel successful does not often succeed in movies. Feature-length screenplays have their own rules but also have several unique freedoms, such as the close-up, rapid changes of location, and digital effects. In this class we will read closely several novels and one memoir and the screenplays that were based on them. The screenplay will be treated as a literary form in its own right, and though viewing of the films is mandatory, this class will focus on the screenplay as a genre of writing. Some brief readings in the theory of genre and the development of the modern novel, as well as “how to” material on screenplay writing by Syd Field and Robert McKee, will also be assigned.

By the end of this class, students should be able to:
• isolate moments in movies and screenplays that highlight the structure of the film
• be able to identify plot points, the use of props and mise-en-scene, and other tropes of screenplay writing and film
• have a grounded sense of literary genre and how it is transformed in the adaptation
• have rudimentary mastery of the format of screenplay writing