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We’re five weeks into our twelve week semester. We have lost some of our inmate/students, (to early release & transfers) but we still have 25 men, who have all been eager to learn. It’s interesting, but we have (2) inmate/students who actually asked the judge to extend their sentences so they can complete this semester at HOLLYWOOD IMPACT STUDIOS… That is amazing to me.

The men now have five weeks of basic Avid editing taught by our intructors Stan and Chandler who report that each week their skills get stronger and stronger. You have to realize that for many of these men, they didn’t even know how to use a computer much less a complicated editing system.

This last Wednesday, our instructor Chris and his wife Rachel came in and talked about how to become an “extra” on a TV show or movie. The men really enjoyed getting this information. This could help them earn some money when they get out.

We have some terrific news to share. Hollywood Impact Studios graduate, Alfio Corsaro and his wife, JoEllyn were Baptized last Wednesday at Grace Baptist Church. It was a great event. Many friends and loved ones showed up to celebrate with the Corsaros. We couldn’t be more proud of Alfio.

Pastor Mike Broyles presided over this exciting event.

We are in week three of Semester #5. This is our largest class to date, (34) students plus (5) teachers aids. It seems like a good mixture, all with varied interests. It’ll be interesting to watch as they grow in the knowledge of the television industry. So far during my classes, they’ve had a lot of great questions.

More later…

As promised, below are the last five “commandments” from the SCREENWRITING U (www.screenwriting.com), article “The New 10 Commandments of Writing Screenplays” by Hal Croasmun.

6. Put your characters through hell.
Great parents take care of their children and don’t let harm come to them. Great writers put their characters in the worst possible places to challenge their beliefs and physical limitations.
Don’t get the two jobs mixed up. Audiences don’t go to movies to see characters lead safe lives. They want to see your characters take risks, experience danger, and barely escape from challenging situations.
Writing screenplays will make you a tough task-master. By your final draft, your characters should hate you for all the terrible things you did to them.
7. Free up your dialogue so you can express more character.
Beginning writers often fill their dialogue with exposition and story details, thus reducing the amount of character and creativity that shows up in that dialogue. Don’t do it.
Instead, put the exposition, information, and story details into the action and situations.
For example, instead of a trainer telling a new boxer that a certain philosophy doesn’t work, have him put the character in the boxing ring and learn it by having his ass kicked. Now, the trainer doesn’t have to lecture. In fact, he is free to talk about anything – breakfast, politics, his favorite dog, etc. – because the real meaning is being delivered through the action.
It completely frees you up so you can be much more creative with your dialogue.
8. Turn cliches into fresh ideas.
In the film industry, a cliché is defined as “something we’ve seen before.” If you write a script with the same plot or the same lead characters or the same situations, people will balk at them.
Audiences want to see familiar stories told in different ways and familiar characters with something special about them. That means that your characters, situations, actions, and dialogue need to have something unique to them.
Your challenge: Hunt down every cliché in your script and brainstorm more unique ways to accomplish their purpose. Give them a twist or unique spin or different voice. It takes a bit of work, but it instantly improves your screenplay.
9. Give yourself permission to write shit in your first draft…
…and push yourself for perfection in your final draft. Not the other way around.
This is a better strategy for writing screenplays than trying to be perfect on the first draft and shoving yourself into writer’s block.
First drafts are the time for total freedom of expression, not criticizing your writing. You want to discover what you can about your story, characters, etc.
On the other side, writers often send drafts to producers that aren’t even close to ready. That’s the time to bring out your internal critic and make sure this is a perfect draft.
The more in sync you are with your creative process, the faster you’ll achieve perfection.
10. Rethink your script…until it is the most amazing it can be.
This is the ultimate challenge of a professional screenwriter – having to rethink the same script over and over until you discover the perfect way to tell this story.
Even if you think your story or character is perfect, you should have the skills to re-envision it in many different ways. Not only will this help you write a better story, it will also help you work with production companies and Studios when they request script changes.
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And if you want to dramatically improve your ability to write screenplays, check out ScreenwritingU’s screenwriting classes. Script Magazine rated our classes #1 in their “Top 9 Online Screenwriting Courses.”
Make those 10 Commandments part of your daily writing and someday, you’ll be soon be writing screenplays like the Hollywood writing Gods.

Hope you found this information helpful.

For our Alumni who completed the screenwriting class, I will be sharing some articles from the website, SCREENWRITING U (www.screenwriting.com). They’re excellent. Here’s the first one “The New 10 Commandments of Writing Screenplays” by Hal Croasmun.

(Note: For this blog entry, I’m covering the first five commandments; next week, we’ll post the last five

The New 10 Commandments of Writing Screenplays.

Writing Screenplays By Commandment

1. Entertain us…or it’s over!
Entertainment is the number one reason that people go to movies. Every producer and agent knows that. So it should be the #1 focus of your screenwriting. Become a master at making any character or situation entertaining and you’ll be a writer in demand.
To be blunt, if there is anything in your script that doesn’t entertain, fix it.
2. Make EVERYTHING more interesting.
The industry is filled with readers who are fed a gourmet diet of professional screenplays. If you want yours to stand out, it has to captivate their attention and cause them to forget that they are doing a job.
This should be an ongoing campaign of yours. Make your scenes more interesting. Make your characters more interesting. Make your dialogue more interesting. Make everything more interesting.
3. Give us a lead character we can’t stop following.
Professional screenwriters intentionally create characters we want to follow. They are unique, yet familiar. We can relate to them and want to go on the journey with that character.
In general, your protagonist should be the perfect person to lead us deep into this story and the conflict that is about to occur. Don’t settle for a good lead. Go for great.
4. Promise us something special…and deliver on it.
Somehow, you have to keep people reading until the last page. Here’s a solution.
About 15 years ago, I read a book called “A Story Is A Promise” by Bill Johnson. Since then, I’ve always looked at a script from the perspective of “What is the promise you’re making to the reader/audience and how do you keep it in a unique way?”
Essentially, you are promising some major achievement by the protagonist or some big confrontation that will happen in the 3rd Act between protag and antag. If the promise is strong enough, we’ll read every page to see what happens.
5. Show us deeper meaning.
Deeper meaning can be built into the plot, character, situations, actions, and dialogue of a script. It doesn’t have to be profound, just beneath the surface…and perceived by the audience.
Audiences and readers just don’t appreciate on-the-nose writing. Subtext gives them a chance to interact with the film. They have an internal experience of the story because they are interpreting what the dialogue and actions really mean.
Because of that, it is just as important to take care of the subtext of a story as it is to create the surface story.

Check next week for the remaining 5 Commandments of Writing Screenplays…

Although this entry really has nothing to do with the Ministry, I wanted to add it anyway. As I said in the last entry, we’re off for a month before starting next semester. Cyndi and I decided to take a little vacation to the Illinois and Michigan area with our son, daughter-in-law and grandson. We went Apple Picking and rented a cabin along the Lake Michigan waterfront. Great time!

Proud grandparents! It was fun and a time of much needed relaxation. The next semester will start soon…

Wow, this last semester seemed to fly by. We just celebrated our 4th Graduation last week. We started with 27 student/inmates but only had 9 graduates. They all successfully completed basic editing, basic camera, basic lighting, basic Pro Tools, wrote scripts and hopefully learned a great deal about the many different careers in the television industry.

This class did experience one thing that none of our other classes have; the jail riot that happened on August 22nd. We’re very proud of this class and the many others in the MERIT Program. Because of the faith-based component in both our program and the MERIT Program, none of our inmate/students participated in the riot. They all held firm and even with the threat of personal harm to themselves they still refused to be part of it. The were all amazing men of faith! Thank God.

We are now down for a month before we start the next semester.

Last weekend HOLLYWOOD IMPACT STUDIOS student/inmates, with the one on one guidance of our instructors, shot the third episode of ABOVE THE LINE. They constructed the set, put up the lights and ran the cameras.

This episodes special guest was Emmy Award winning composer Walter Murphy. (FAMILY GUY, AMERICAN DAD, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and many others). Our host was Carolyn Fallin, who brought a lot of energy to show. Crew call was at 7:30AM and by 10:00AM, the set and lights were up. All the departments ran very smoothly. By 10:30, our director, Josh Weigel was saying “Action”. The photos below tell more of the story.

The Grip and Electric Department are in full swing.

Camera check out.

Every shoot has to have craft service. Can’t work on an empty stomach!

Putting the finishing touches on everything before the cameras rolled.


Thanks to everyone for a great show! Our student/inmates have now turned their attention to editing. Can’t wait to see the completed episode of this semesters ABOVE THE LINE.

Last week at Grace Baptist Church one of the pastors read the verse below. It really hit me, nearly brought me to tears. I want to share this with everyone who works with and supports HOLLYWOOD IMPACT STUDIOS. Cyndi and I really want to thank you for “doing it for Him.”

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, You did it to me.’ – – Matthew 25:35-40

During our classes we’ve discussed that for the most part, visual effects are produced in post production but that is not always the case. Sometimes, as in an episode of BONES, the planning started in pre-production, then involved production for a large portion of it and then finally post production put it all together. Click on the link below and see how a “sink hole” was created for this episode of BONES.

Watch Bones Episodes – Bones Online Videos