Film School Confidential: WRITING EXERCISES WITH NIKOLAJ SCHERFIG

Tuesday was a creative rush, getting back in shape after the holidays with a day of writing exercises.We've been taught by Nikolaj Sherfig before, so introductions were not necessary - we just jumped right in and started writing. He had three exercises for us (actually more, but feedback took longer than expected, so...).

1. Write an introduction scene with your protagonist where we see their strength and their weakness.
2. Write a scene with your antagonist, same deal.
3. Write a confrontation scene between you protagonist and antagonist.

I am continually impressed with how smart and talented my fellow master class students are, coming up with great scenes and amazing dialogue within a 30 minute writing exercise. While I felt my scenes were somewhat clich'ed - that's what happens when you have to invent a scene from scratch  in half an hour - they were both pretty well received. The third scene I just lifted out of the first draft I just finished a week ago. I had changed some things in the climax that I wanted to get feedback on, so I took advantage of the session, rather than write a new scene.

I studied at the School of Architecture many years ago, just across the street from where I now study screenwriting. It took me almost two years to finally understand how it worked. I guess all creative educations should be approached in the same fashion: Set your own agenda for what you want out of it, and make sure you get just that.

Now I just have to chase down my script consultant and make sure we schedule up a new meeting to make up for a couple of cancellations...