Cinematic Screenwriting: Professional Pagecraft

Have you ever had a brilliant, compelling, emotional vision for a scene and found yourself struggling to get that vision onto the page? It’s incredibly frustrating, because you know — you know — that if you could just get the words to do what you wanted, the scene would be riveting. Award-worthy. Immortal. The kind of scene we all dream of writing…

But so often, and more so in the early stages of your journey, the words just don’t match up to what’s in your head. The translation is off somehow. What you need are ways to get what you’re feeling to bleed onto the page so that your reader, and someday, your viewer, can feel it, too. There’s good news: other writers have cracked this nut, and so can you. Come for a morning of examples and practicum to learn how to put cinematic emotion into your screenwriting.

By the end of this class, you’ll know:

  • How to use action/description to create a cinematic feeling on the page;
  • How to use line breaks and text formatting to edit with the mind’s eye;
  • How to decide which details to give the reader, and which ones to leave out; and
  • How to direct emotion within a scene without going overboard.

Instructor: Ethan Ransom is a screenwriter and screenwriting coach who’s been living and working in LA for nearly 15 years. He studied at UCLA (Professional Program for Screenwriting) and earned his MFA in Screenwriting from The American Film Institute (2009). As the writing mentor for The Greenhouse Creative Lab, and a private screenwriting mentor, Ethan loves encouraging other screenwriters and helping them elevate their material. He believes that everyone has a story that only they can tell, and is driven to enable them to tell it by sharing his knowledge of cinematic screenwriting. Ethan and his stunning wife, Suzanne, live in Pasadena with their three glorious, rowdy, story-loving children. He is repped by Bohemia Group (mgr) and Samuel Curphey, Esq (atty).

There’s a limited number of seats available, and they’re sure to be snatched up quickly, so register today! The link for the Zoom conference will be sent to your email address shortly before the event starts. If you have any questions, email us at info@greenhouseproductions.com.

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