Coming Down From the Summit

Well I must say, that Screenwriter's Summit was definitely worth the price of admission! The most surprising part to me though was that the two biggest names (Linda Seger and Syd Field) ended up having the least to say, and I would say, had the least impact on the audience. Where as the other two speakers, John Truby and Michael Hauge, had plenty to say about story structure, story design, character design, genre, creating backstory and character webs, developing the initial story premise, as well as pitching a scripted work or story, Linda Seger started to talk about developing theme for a story, which ended up as a mainly being a lecture about psychology which I was hard pressed to find note-worth material in and later touching on the topic of symbols which could be summed up by saying, "Use symbolic images, objects and ideas to support your theme..." That's it, not much in the way of explanation or suggestions on HOW to choose said symbolism in relation to you script or in what ways to write them into your script... which in hindsight is a bit dissapointing. And Syd Field's lecture was basically comprised of "Types of Dialogue" as well as ways of introducing your main character and story. Nothing in the way on groundbreaking information, but more useful than Seger's lecture. Field's lecture seemed to be hindered by the number of movie clips he decided to show us, as well as the 30 minute or so introduction he gave, basically just saying who he was and what he's done. Both Seger and Field are obviously knowledgeable about what they are talking about, but it seems as if they've grown accustomed to having there own 2-day seminars and aren't used to condensing into the 4-hour format.

All-in-all it was excellent though! If you ever get the chance to see a lecture by Jon Truby or Michael Hauge, and you're interested in screenwriting, or writing in general for that matter, then hop on that opportunity like cat on a canary!

Links Below:
Michael Hauge: www.screenplaymastery.com
Jon Truby: www.truby.com
Syd Field: www.sydfield.com
Linda Seger: www.lindaseger.com


That will be all!