by Ruth Witteried It was with great excitement I received my Call Sheet from Ampersand Productions Assistant Director, Anthony Forsyth last week, sent to all cast and crew involved in the FiLMLaB shoot . As an Executive Producer, I would undoubtedly be one of the least useful people on the set, but I was going to try my…
Tag Archive for FilmLab
In Case of Flood: Climb Platform(s)
by Ruth Witteried I met with Luke Ryan in February of this year at his Disruption Entertainment office on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles. A stalwart supporter of Willamette Writers since his days as an MGM executive, Luke has been a consistent presence at our conference teaching classes, guiding nervous writers through the…
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…
Hollywood Drive & Talk or: Seth Jaret Gets Real
by Ruth Witteried Some days it’s hard to know which way is forward. In this changing landscape of film and publishing, there is no single road to success. Instead, there are several; usually slow and tedious like the I-5 bridge at rush hour. If you’re lucky enough to survive the slog with your dreams intact and…
A Lesson In Production
by Ruth Witteried Last week, Conference Chair and executive producer Stefan Feuerherdt and I “took a meeting” with director Chris Alley and his assistant director, Anthony Forsyth. We met at Palio’s over coffee and pie to discuss pre-production and story elements. Our winning writer, Barbara Thomas, many states away, was unable to join us as…
Pre-Production Begins on “Inspiration”
By Ruth Witteried FiLMLaB has begun pre-production on Barbara Thomas’s winning short, INSPIRATION. Director Christopher Alley is working out the final script details with the writer and executive producers; scouting locations for the shoot, casting the roles and lining up a professional crew. To give you a sense of scope, let’s take a look at…
What Matters Most in a Short Script
Find out what matters most in a short script with Erik Bork I recently judged five short scripts for the Willamette Writers Conference’s FiLMLaB contest. It took me back to my own challenges in writing a compelling short script years ago in film school. And I was reminded of the specific elements that some say tend…
FiLMLaB: And the Winner Is……
By Ruth Witteried It is a beautiful May Monday, following a stunning weekend where many of us salmon bellied Portlanders stepped away from our writing to get outside and soak up some free vitamin D. Whether you found yourself fishing on the Columbia, biking along the Willamette or tending your garden . . . .…
Belated FiLMLaB Opportunities
by Ruth Witteried Sometimes opportunity comes knocking exactly when you expect it; other times it just shows up, unexpectedly late, waiting for you to open the door. Such is the case with FiLMLaB. Last week we received an email from a Northwest production company that features short film in many of its projects. They had…
Script-to-Screen Has Another Finalist
OK, so, here’s the thing: during our initial judging this past month, we had an email with some script submissions that did the electronic equivalent of falling behind a file cabinet and getting lost. We moved on while we were trying to sort it out, but then finally found the scripts this past week. We…