When creating a story, a woman can either enter a room or a blonde in a polka-dotted red dress and six-inch stilettos, swinging a chain can sashay through the open door, stop once and assess the layout of the bistro, before advancing toward the Naval officer mindlessly stirring his coffee at the far end of the room.
For workshop participants at the Prescott Film Festival, instructors like Philip Sedgwick, a Tucson screenwriter who has received acclaim from film festivals, fellowships and competitions for 30 of his screenplays, helped prospective writers understand how a successful film intrigues, compels and hooks its audience.
“The opening scene should grab everybody’s guts, squeeze them and hold them. How will you do that?” he asked listeners in the Yavapai College classroom. “How is your story different, evocative?”
Regardless of whether the story is a tragedy or comedy, he advised prospective writers to be very certain about the “arc” of the main character. “You need to know the hero’s journey. Get clear on that. Everybody in the film has to make a journey. They pursue their wants, but in a successful story, they meet their needs.”
The Prescott Film Festival alumnus also discussed the role of the messenger in a story. “This person comes along and inflicts a little pain at first, but is ultimately healing. It’s usually the best friend who is guiding, cautioning, encouraging.” A classic example of the messenger, he says, is Obi-Wan Kenobi of Star Wars fame.
Flagstaff filmmaker Bob Reynolds entered two films in the festival, but also came to learn. “Philip Sedgwick, once again, gave a couple of great presentations on screenwriting. These are the kind of things that Prescott has been expanding on each year.”
Reynolds also attended 2018 film festivals in Sundance, Telluride and Sedona. “There’s a lot of trust local communities place in the curators of film festivals. Sedona and Prescott are regional examples of film festivals that really know their crowd and what will work for them,” he said. “It’s important to have an eclectic mix of films to educate and entertain the community and expand their horizons. By bringing in films from around the world, a festival like this helps take locals on strange storytelling journeys to exotic lands with a mix of human beings. It’s a form of geographic and emotional education for one and all.”
Sedgwick says film festivals bring together people in a place where they can see the fruits of creative labor. “They offer inspiration, hope, the sense of possibility and allow you to shed a tear at someone else’s expense to clear your own decks. You also meet amazing people at film festivals. Filmmakers are experts in holding visions and making things happen. Their enthusiasm and positivism is contagious.”
Beyond the educational, cultural and entertainment benefits provided by such events, Prescott Film Festival Founder Helen Stephenson says businesses and communities can bank on festivals. “Film festivals attract filmmakers, their friends and family, and cinema tourists who generate ticket sales and naturally will have lodging and restaurant needs, in turn bolstering business revenues. Some of the most popular and longest-running festivals generate revenues in the millions of dollars. Film festivals also introduce filmmakers to an area and when they come back to shoot their next films, they bring economic development to a town.”
This year’s event, the ninth consecutive Prescott Film Festival, attracted hundreds of participants through film screenings, workshops and after-parties. “It was the best year ever,” said Stephenson. “Word-of-mouth is the most powerful marketing tool there is and it felt like people talked about the festival and shared it with their friends and neighbors. The filmmakers left enthused about the festival, which means they will tell their friends about it and perhaps submit their films next year.”
One of the highlights was a two-day, hands-on, filmmaking workshop that resulted in the creation of a short film. Reynolds attended with his 16-year-old nephew, Wyatt Hershey. “We were working with state-of-the art camera equipment from the college. We brainstormed an idea, made a shot list, treatment, mini-script and had actors learn lines. Then we shot a three-minute film using lights, boom-mics for sound and great locations around the Yavapai campus. I can’t wait to see what they do next summer for their big 10th anniversary!”
The Film and Media Arts Program at Yavapai College presented the workshops as a marketing tool for the film school. FMA instructor Lindsay Bane oversaw the workshops and kept track of the gear.
Stephenson also is the director of the Film and Media Arts Program at the college and sees the advantages of small businesses learning how to shoot and edit their own content for marketing purposes and telling the stories of their businesses. She has scheduled a Production 1 class on the Verde Valley Campus in Clarkdale to meet one day a week, 12:30-4 p.m., Mondays. The Screenwriting course is online, which she believes also helps small businesses. “No matter what the end use of a message, we are all storytellers.”
Stephenson praised El Gato Azul in Prescott for hosting the opening and closing night parties and Allan’s Flowers & More of Prescott Valley for designing and donating floral arrangements that matched the festival’s theme. “When we rent the Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, we are always confident of a professional, beautiful, pristine atmosphere,” she added.
Unlike a good film with twists, adversity and surprises, Stephenson was happy to leave the drama on the screen and enjoy a predictable, happy ending for the 2018 Prescott Film Festival. FBN
By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN
Photo Caption:
The Prescott Film Festival featured screenings, discussions, workshop and after-parties.
Courtesy photo
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