Page 34 - Spring 2022 Catalog

WRITING ELECTIVES
Documentary Writing: Biography
It is not an interview, but it is. It is not history, but it is. It is not a story, but it is. It is a life’s history--how personality and time intersect. And we can recount the life history of strangers or family, family pets or wild parrots, the living or the long-since passed. But what makes for an evocative biography?
Certainly, a daily diary is not interesting: it is a list. But making those daily details reveal the importance of the individual to
an audience can be very interesting. Students will examine and discuss selected short biographic documentaries to generate a working definition of a relevant and engaging life history. Students will use that definition to script a short life history of a person.
Instructor: Teresa Steppe
224JFLM471 | 6 Sessions | $239
Monday | 4/18-5/23 | 6:30-9:30pm CSU Lucy Huie Hall, Jonesboro
Documentary Writing: Situation
This course addresses how writers translate everyday situations, whether amusing or annoying, into a compelling film experience. Through voiceover and action, students will examine PSAs, news stories, and short documentaries to determine what makes for a dynamic analysis of a situation that motivates its audienceto act. Students then craft a series a series of PSAs or a short documen- tary on a situation personally relevant that calls its audience to action.
Instructor: Teresa Steppe
224JFLM472 | 6 Sessions | $239
Thursday | 4/21- 5/26 | 6:30-9:30pm CSU Lucy Huie Hall, Jonesboro
Screenwriting
With a working knowledge of the screenwriter’s craft, students focus on the three dynamics of a good screenplay or teleplay: Character, dialog, and action. Classroom discussions focus on ex- amples of plot development, character creation, voice and point of view. In addition, students participate in practical in-class exercises that focus on these story creation elements in the con- text of proper formatting and grammar. A completed script for a short film or a substantive excerpt for a feature will be produced by the end of this course.
Instructor: Teresa Steppe
223JFLM470 | 8 Sessions | $259
Wednesday | 2/9-3/30 | 6:30-9:30pm CSU Lucy Huie Hall, Jonesboro
Imaginary worlds
Ask avid readers what they enjoy so much about their favorite genres, and they will inevitably cite their emersion in a world unlike their own and yet very like their own. Writers create these worlds—their physical descriptions, properties, and attributes— and their inhabitants—their abilities, their potential story arcs and adventures, and yes, even their occasional conversations. All this description becomes a writer’s bible. In this course, students will create a writer’s bible in preparation for world building of their own.
Instructor: TBA
223OLFM405 | 6 Sessions | $239
Tuesday | 3/8-4/12 | 6:30- 9:30pm CSU Lucy Huie Hall, Jonesboro
32 | www.clayton.edu/ce | 678 466-5118 | email: ce@clayton.edu