Tag Archive for Bill Johnson

Author, Producer Bill Johnson on Short Scripts

(This blog is being reposted courtesy of the author. Originally titled, Revelation, Story, and Plot in a Script for a Film Short, it appeared in a June 2013 FiLMLaB column. It is worth reviewing, along with Bill’s short video discussing short scripts, common errors inexperienced screenwriters make, and the benefits for writers in going through a…

Happy Holidays From WW FiLMLaB

Willamette Writers is a diverse community of writers. Screenwriters, poets, novelists, playwrights, memoirists  . . . all genres, all writers are welcome. We have different levels of accomplishment, expertise and success, but we all share one thing in common: the celebration of the written word. During these final days of Chanukah and Christmas, our hope…

The ‘Guests’ of FiLMLaB’s “Unwelcome Guests”

This is it. The final few days before the FiLMLaB premier of 2014’s winning short, Unwelcome Guests, at the Willamette Writers Conference. If you weren’t aware, the conference has moved this year, from our long time post at the Airport Sheraton, to the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel. WW President, Jenny Schrader gave me the grand…

FiLMLaB Reunion At OIFF

Saturday night found a reunion of the 2012 FiLMLaB cast and crew at The Press Club, a cool little bistro across the street from the Clinton Street Theater where Alis Volat Propriis (written by Haley Isleib) was due to premier that night. For some of us, it had only been a few weeks since we…

Revelation, Story, and Plot in a Script for a Film Short

by Bill Johnson I teach that a story creates movement and the movement transports an audience. This dynamic holds whether the story is a novel, screenplay, play, short story, or short script. The language used to talk about stories often conveys movement: story arc, hero’s journey, plot points. Stories that fail to establish they are moving…