A Conversation With Christina Hamlett Author of Screenwriting For Teens
Norm Goldman
August 25, 2008
Christina is the author of Screenwriting For Teens as well as the author of 25 books, 126 plays and musicals, 5 optioned films and hundreds of screenwriting columns that have been published throughout the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She is also a ghostwriter with The Penn Group in Manhattan and a professional script consultant.
Good day Christina and thanks for participating in our interview.
Norm:
Wow, you certainly have been active as a writer and actress! How did you get started as a writer and what keeps you going?
Christina:
From the time I first learned to read and write, I always knew that writing was exactly what I wanted to do when I grew up. In the absence of siblings - I was an only child in a wealthy family – I entertained myself by being a voracious reader, developing a vivid imagination, and writing plays for my puppets and Barbie dolls.
The fact I also supplied all the voices made the neighbours often inquire how many children were visiting, especially since they never saw any arrive or depart. My first job out of high school was writing movie and theatre reviews for a weekly newspaper. A few months after I started, a quirky twist of fate landed me in the cast of the melodrama theatre which was located just down the street. Ever since, those two career paths have been pretty much inseparable.
As for what keeps me going, I´m fortunate to have a wonderful husband who encourages everything I do, who loves to brainstorm new ideas with me, and who can always be recruited to read lines with me at the dining room table. The fact that he can do voices, too, makes our neighbors wonder how many people are visiting, especially since they never see any arrive or depart. It´s the circle of life.
Norm:
I understand from reading your bio that you are a Professional Script Consultant. What is a script consultant and how do you become one?
Christina:
A script consultant´s job is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a screenplay prior to its being shopped to agents and producers or entered in screenplay competitions.
Among the elements I analyze in my review are the project´s originality, character development, dialogue, pacing, structure, setting, budget and marketability.
If a script embraces a fresh idea and has potential to move forward to the next level, it merits a "Recommend" or a "Consider". If it still needs substantive work or is an idea that´s simply not going to fly, it rates a "Pass".
Becoming a professional consultant and rendering constructive criticism is challenging because you not only need to demonstrate you have a thorough understanding of screenplay structure and dynamics but that you are also familiar with current movies, with classics, with multiple genres, and with film history in general to know what has already been produced. (Roughly 60% of the scripts I review are imitative of existing movies or – on a year-to-year basis – attempt to jump on the popularity train of whatever theme has just won an Academy Award.)
While most script consultants only address whether an idea is suitable for the medium of film, my own unique approach is to also advise whether a writer´s style/topic might be better suited to a novel, stage play, short story or documentary.
Norm:
I also noticed that you developed your own touring theatre repertory company. What is this all about?
Christina:
After eight years of acting in community theatre productions in Northern California, I began teaching audition and acting techniques in 1978. Two of my young students had gone to tryouts one Saturday afternoon but were devastated that the director hadn´t even allowed them to read.
Her justification? "My shows are much too important to risk on unknowns." As a result of this woman´s comments, I realized that getting your first role is very much like trying to get your first credit card; everyone would love to give you one as long as someone else has first proven that you´re a good risk.
I decided then and there to start my own touring theatre company and give these promising actors their first break. Not only was it a wonderful showcase for the plays I started writing, but the actors of all ages who began their careers with The Hamlett Players were shortly thereafter getting cast left and right in productions throughout the city.
After eight years I disbanded the company in order to focus more on my writing but, to this day, many of the men and women I trained are still acting and some have even gone on to direct full-scale productions of their own.
Norm:
How did you decide you were ready to write the book Screenwriting For Teens? What did you want the book to do? How and why did you decide on its particular structure, which incidentally I found to be quite effective in presenting your topics?
Christina:
Screenwriting for Teens is the second book to come on the market that is specifically targeted to aspiring young filmmakers.
The first one, ScreenTeenWriters, was written by yours truly and published in 2002. In a funny bit of irony, the concept of the latter was initially pitched to Michael Wiese Productions but was rejected on the basis that "teens aren´t a viable enough market".
A month later, it was sold to one of my longstanding play publishers, Contemporary Drama Service, and quickly found its way into high school classrooms around the country. Two years after it debuted, Michael Wiese Productions asked me whether I could recommend someone who was qualified to write what they wanted to be the first screenwriting text targeted to teens "because they´re such a viable market".
I couldn´t resist pointing out that (1) I was qualified to write it myself and (2) it would actually be the second such book in circulation.
The structure of Screenwriting for Teens breaks down every concept into bite-size pieces and allows students to completely master and apply each principle to a related assignment before moving on to progressively harder lessons.
What´s exciting to me about both of these books is that students today have access to such fabulous technology that didn´t exist when I was a teen myself. Having all that high-tech equipment, however, doesn´t mean anything if you don´t have an idea in your head about what you want the camera to say to your audience. Screenwriting for Teens contains over 300 brainstormer exercises that not only have relevance to film classes but also to classes in theater, journalism, English, debate, history and sociology. Instructors who use it will certainly never be at a loss again for creative lesson plans to ignite eager imaginations.
Norm:
Could you briefly outline for our readers the steps one must take in order to have someone consider his or her completed screenplay once it has been completed?
Christina:
The first step is to make sure your script has been properly formatted per industry standards and that the content is absolutely as bulletproof as possible. This means recruiting extra pairs of eyes to catch those mistakes that Spell-check often misses. While you´re at it, invite your proofreaders to read your dialogue out loud for you.
What can look perfectly fine on paper may sound doofy, stilted, or long-winded and boring when it´s coming out of the mouths of actors.
Secondly, you need to register your material with Writers Guild of America or the U.S. Copyright Office before you start sending it out; this will establish its date of completion and is for your own protection.
The next step is to get an agent or an entertainment law attorney to pitch your work through appropriate channels. While fledgling production companies are often open to dealing directly with writers, none of the major players are going to look at unsolicited scripts or queries unless they come from a legitimate rep. (By the way, you should never send anyone a script unless it has been requested.)
Since getting an agent in your corner may take longer than you think, the best way to fill your time (besides writing your next script!) is to enter screenplay competitions (www.moviebytes.com), submit your work to reputable review entities such as HollywoodLitSales (www.hollywoodlitsales.com) for detailed notes on how your material can be improved, and/or register with a secure website such as InkTip (www.InkTip.com) and post your loglines and synopses to be browsed by prospective producers looking for new projects to develop.
Norm:
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
Christina:
I´ve always known I was young at heart but working on Screenwriting for Teens affirmed that there´s really no such thing as a generation gap. My long-distance apprentice on this project, Nick Morgan, was one of my screenwriting students from Lyndon Institute in Vermont and – over the course of one summer – diligently critiqued every chapter in progress and teen-tested all of the writing exercises.
Nick divulged that he really liked the humor and all the spots where I included my personal anecdotes as a teenager instead of "talking like an adult in lecture mode". I obviously enjoyed the euphoria whenever he praised a particular chapter as the best one he had ever read but also learned how to try harder when he´d occasionally remark with unabashed candor, "You know, Christina, I thought the most recent set of exercises you wrote were kinda lame. I think you can do better on this."
Norm:
What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good screenwriting? What tools do you feel are must-haves for screenwriters?
Christina:
First and foremost are characters whose fates we truly care about and who have plausible motivations for their actions. (That goes for villains as much as heroes, by the way.) Even in a comedy, the stakes need to escalate at each turn, requiring the characters to take bigger risks in order to get what they want.
A great script should also have a satisfying resolution (though not necessarily a "happily ever after"), and there should be just enough surprises thrown in to keep us guessing.
As for tools, I encourage aspiring screenwriters to take the guesswork out of proper formatting and invest in software programs such as Final Draft. Their home libraries should contain screenwriting books written by industry experts. A monthly subscription to NetFlix is an inexpensive way to study what has already been produced. Writers who are seriously about studying this craft should also avail themselves of all the free downloads of screenplays they can get from websites such as www.SimplyScripts.com, www.script-o-rama.com and www.ScriptCrawler.net.
Norm:
What will you be doing for promotion of Screenwriting For Teens and how much of it is your doing?
Christina:
What many people don´t realize is that today´s book publishers put a lot of the burden of marketing and promotion on the authors themselves. Accordingly, it´s not uncommon for them to ask a writer how "visible" they plan to be before they will even negotiate a contract. Fortunately, a lot of my own visibility was already in place well before Screenwriting for Teens in terms of feature articles for trade magazines such as Writer´s Digest, The Writer, and Writer´s Journal, online publications, writing workshops, speaking engagements, and script consulting.
I give lots of talks at local schools, write plenty of reviews for Amazon, participate in chat rooms, and always include my website as part of my email signature. I also love online printing services such as www.VistaPrint.com that allow me to upload my book covers into a postcard format; these can be mailed out to friends/associates as well as included as handouts in workshops.
Norm:
How can readers find out more about you and your endeavors?
Christina:
My website is www.authorhamlett.com and is regularly updated to reflect information about new releases, upcoming projects, online screenwriting classes and consulting services. Is your script ready for its close-up? Readers who want to request a comprehensive review of their screenplays and who mention "Book Pleasures" in the subject line of their email will receive 50% off the regular fee between now and the end of 2008.
Norm:
Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?
Christina:
Just two cents of advice for anyone who has ever aspired to see their name scroll up the credits someday: If you want to be a writer, you need to make the time to write.
Sounds pretty simple, doesn´t it? And yet at writers´ conferences, I meet lots of people who keep putting off even getting started on their screenplay, their novel, their whatever. The excuse is that they want to wait until (1) they graduate from college, (2) they retire from their job, (3) their children move out, (4) they pay off their mortgage, etc. These are the people who are likely to never write anything because they will always find excuses not to. They seem to have an expectation, I think, that the heavens will open up one day and grant them 9 unobstructed years to only work on their dream project.
Sorry, guys, but it doesn´t work that way. You have to have the discipline to create a writing schedule and firmly stick to it...even after it becomes your full-time occupation.
During the early years I was working for other people, being a published author was such a consuming passion that I routinely got up earlier, went to bed later and carried a notebook and a tape recorder everywhere I went just to make time for what I really wanted to do. Like any other skill you want to master, you need to practice it diligently and consistently.
For example, I´ve been teaching myself how to play the piano and have made the commitment to practice for an uninterrupted 20 minutes a day. Although this often stretches into 20-40 minutes beyond that, this doesn´t give me the excuse to skip the next few days. The very next afternoon, I´m right back at the keyboard and practicing whatever suits my mood. (Our downstairs neighbors are getting to know the music from Wicked really well. Between that and all those voices they hear, they tend to give us a wide berth…)
Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.
To Read Norm's Review of Screenwriting For TeensCLICK HERE
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