BY CJ GIBSON<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Brett Weaver, an FHSU English professor, spent a week this fall in Texas at the annual Austin Writer\u2019s Conference.
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The Austin Writer\u2019s Conference took place Oct. 21-24 as a part of the annual Austin Film Festival (AFF).
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Among the panels by notable figures in the field that the AFF features, Weaver attended one about improving dialogue writing and one by Lethal Weapon<\/em>\u2019s screenwriter, Shane Black<\/a>. Another benefit of the conference is networking. Weaver used this opportunity to pitch his work to potential producing companies, such as Zero Gravity Management<\/a>, which was present at the 2021 conference. \u201c[Zero Gravity Management] is more interested in psychological thrillers,\u201d Weaver said. \u201cThis is very important to know that certain managers and agents are looking for certain types. Most people fail at that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Weaver knew that pitching his comedy to ill-fitting companies like Zero Gravity Management would not work, but those opportunities exist nonetheless. Weaver submitted his screenplay Hits of the \u201870s<\/em> in the Comedy Feature Screenplay competition. His work was a \u201cSecond Rounder,\u201d meaning that it made the top 10% of roughly 1,300 submissions. Weaver provided a short synopsis of his screenplay: \u201cThree retired actors go to visit their dear friend in the nursing home. But they\u2019ve missed a month. And when they get there, he\u2019s gone ga-ga. He\u2019s lost it, dementia has taken him. So they leave the facility, go to the nearest bar, and get roaring drunk, and decide that they\u2019re not going to end up like their friend. They decide they\u2019re going to die with dignity, on their own terms. So they decide to hire a hitman to take them out in their own way, and it will all be perfect and everything\u2019s wonderful. But of course, they meet the hitman, and it all goes completely wrong.\u201d Weaver encouraged students interested in someday attending the Austin Film Festival to take ENG675: Playwriting\/Screenwriting this spring. This class is available only once every three years and can be taken by students of any major. In the course, students will write roughly 30 pages of a screenplay. This script can be for either the first act of a feature film, the first half of an hour-long TV pilot, or a sitcom pilot. \u201cI would love to have them write a 110-page screenplay, that would be lovely, but there\u2019s no time,\u201d Weaver said. The class takes place Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. For the first few weeks, Weaver will lecture. Students will then begin working on plot outlining and character development. Then the class will focus on workshops, where students will do peer critiques, allowing their classmates to help improve their work. \u201cMore than even [Intro to Creative Writing], this is the one class where students can actually see how they improve. It\u2019s very difficult to do that,\u201d Weaver said. The class requires no textbooks, but students are required to purchase either Movie Magic Screenwriter<\/a> or Final Draft<\/a>, software that allows them to more easily format their writing like a screenplay. Weaver\u2019s reputation as the charismatic Hawaiian-shirt-wearing British professor precedes him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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