A week or so ago, I attended a Learning Annex workshop on Writing The Great American Screenplay taught by the legendary, Lew Hunter. He is the author of the instructional tome, Lew Hunter, Screenwriting 434, which is one of the bibles of screenwriting.
He was casual, irreverent, funny and humble about his 30 years of experience in television, television movies and feature films. In addition to quoting the late, great mythologist Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces and The Hero's Journey, he referenced Aristole's Poetics (you may have this book lying around from college philosophy - especially, if you as I, attended a Jesuit university) and Lajos Egri (Who? I had the same question - See below.)
What endeared him to me further was that he said he was not impressed with the pyrotechnics that resulted when writers string together a bunch of expletives ... he did not reference as "great" (a term thrown around way too casually these days anyway) any of the filmmakers and/or screenwriters famous for passing this stuff off as dialogue.
It was very interesting that he cited as one of his favorite current movies The Girl With The Pearl Earring. I guess I have to see it now.
I would love love love to attend his Indian Summer Screenwriting Colony in Nebraska...for me it would be akin to being E.T. A Brooklyn girl in Nebraska. (There's a screenplay in there, ya think) We'll see.....
He left me with increased hope and confidence in my abilities. Most importantly, he encouraged the class to FINISH our work!!!!
RECOMMENDED!In his words "The journey is all the end is nothing."
Here is Lew's site... http://lewhunter.com/
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