Jasmine’s Screenwriting Lecture

Jasmine spoke about screenwriting as writing with an exterior focus, something that needs to be mindful of the visual quality necessitating characters to react outwardly. This is something that challenges me because I am quite an introspective person and the old adage “write what you know”, whether I like it or not, does come into play in my writing style. I am not a particularly visual writer nor reader. Meaning I don’t form vivid images of how characters look or the world of a story when I read, despite my ability to get lost in stories. I think I am more drawn to the interior world of the characters.

That being said as an audience member I can fully appreciate the necessity and value of the visual component of story telling film and television affords us. As I write this I realise one of my story ideas was completely interior and while I could visualise exactly what it would look like, I sensed the gap between what the interior world of the character is, the beautiful quality of the environment it would be filmed in and the divide in how the visuals could communicate the interior- I should have revisited the lecture before working on the story ideas!

Jasmine also talked about narrative; the three act structure and the protagonist/anti-protaganist, status quo interrupted etc. I have taken creative writing classes in the past which has alerted to me of the norms of scriptwriting and classic story telling so this wasn’t a particularly revelatory moment for me, I do continue to feel cheated that I can recognise these sign posts of creative writing in works that seem so original to me when lacking an analytical eye.