SETTING AS CHARACTER: WRITING SCRIPTS WITH A SENSE OF PLACE
Ages 16-29
Summer 2022, Online
How does our experience of “place” inform our identity and how can we put that down on the page? How might place be more than setting? How might it be culture, language, codes of behavior? In this distance learning workshop, student fellows will explore these questions as they write short scripts with distinct, developed worlds. They’ll immerse themselves in the worlds they know, from family to neighborhood to city, closely observing, locating characters and stories that are functions of those realms. And they’ll consider textured settings in both film and fiction, with attention to stories that foreground marginalized cultures and practices: Frozen River, centering single mothers, one of them Mohawk, in upstate New York; CODA, centering a culturally Deaf family in a Massachusetts fishing town; Moonlight, centering a Black gay protagonist in Miami; the short films of Lizette Barrera, centering Chicano experience in Dallas; and the prose of Marco Verdoni, set in the Michigan Department of Corrections. Each fellow will pitch, outline, and draft a short screenplay, learning about characterization, story arc, conflict, and dialogue. They’ll also learn about competition opportunities that emphasize specificity of place, such as the Baltimore Screenwriters Competition, as well as opportunities such as grants and tax credits available to filmmakers who produce work in a given state. Their scripts will be shared through a public exhibition and on the program website. Limited to 8 student fellows.
Alessandra Bautze is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, where she majored in writing and in film and media studies. She also holds an M.F.A. in Screenwriting from The University of Texas at Austin. She believes in the power of language to connect communities.
Irene Chen is a graduate student studying marketing in Johns Hopkins University. She is passionate about capturing moments through her lens. She wants to be the eye to the world.
