In this Miniclip, students are introduced to practical strategies to help form an effective creative workflow for a tackling a project of their own. Students will learn how to develop an idea through brainstorming, how to create an appropriate title and write a logline, as well as plan and draw a storyboard. From creating a short animation to shooting their own music video or film, students can apply these strategies to any project during the pre-production...

If you've learned the three-act structure, you may be ready to try variations on the basics and simply create scripts that are more focused and with more momentum. What are other ways that the three-act structure can be used? How does a writer learn to juggle the difficult elements in non-traditional structures? In this program, script consultant and screenwriting coach Dr. Linda Seger discusses the three-act structure in scenes and scene sequences....

Actors, directors, and producers want to see dimensional characters, capable of winning Academy Awards. They want breadth, depth, focus, and direction to their characters, but they also want dimensionality - characters that are original and act-able. In this program, script consultant and screenwriting coach Dr. Linda Seger shows how to deepen characters through layering, create subtext, transform characters, and use dialogue to add further breadth...

This program looks at theme from the authors' perspective as Australian authors Amra Pajalic, Angela Savage, Gabrielle Wang and Tony Wilson share how they work with theme during the writing process. When and how do they determine and develop theme? How does it shape their stories? We also take a closer look at the theme of Australian identity.

This introduction to William Shakespeare's life and works from the Famous Authors series begins at the author's childhood home in Stratford and tours the institutions of the town and country that would have been part of Shakespeare's life. The film follows the 23-year-old writer to London, providing a picture of the city in Elizabethan and Jacobean England when Shakespeare went to make his success in the theater. Tension between the Catholics and...

On this episode of Camera Three, Harold Pinter and Joseph Losey discuss collaborating, approaches to filmmaking, and the differences between working in theater and film. Watch scenes from The Servant and Accident.

When we study texts, character analysis is a key component. Characterization - the way in which characters are described in a text - creates an image of the character for the reader. Join Australian authors Amra Pajalic, Angela Savage, Gabrielle Wang and Tony Wilson as they talk about the techniques of characterization, narrative point of view and character function.

How Hollywood Does It is a look at the history, techniques, movements and people who create the magic of motion pictures. This program discuss three big jobs in motion picture making; screenwriting, producing and directing. The director is responsible for the overall feel and look of the film and decides on the use all of the other process of movie making - lighting, editing, mise en scene, cinematography and sound which ultimately reflect the director's...

This program from the Famous Authors series provides an overview of Mark Twain's life and work, starting with life in nineteenth century Hannibal, Missouri, Twain's childhood home and a major influence on his writing, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain started writing as a newspaper employee in Hannibal, and he joined a militia group there early during the Civil War. He soon lost interest in the Southern...

This overview of the biography and writing of Ernest Hemingway from the Famous Authors series follows the young Hemingway from his boyhood home in Illinois to his start as a reporter in Kansas, which quickly led him to jobs as a reporter and an ambulance driver in WWI. Known for his minimalist style and the depiction of the 'lost generation' in The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's experiences in WWI, his time as an expatriate in intellectual Paris and...