Screenwriting: The Art & Practice of Cinematic Storytelling (Fall 2020)

Screenwriting: The Art & Practice of Cinematic Storytelling

Nov 01 - Dec 13
1:00pm - 4:00pm Central Time

Instructor: Sue Pak

This course is designed to supply students with tools to expand and enrich their appreciation of all aspects of filmmaking and screenwriting in particular.  Students will prepare for eventual entry into the professional world, learning how outside forces can influence the decisions a screenwriter makes.  Through the practice of screenwriting, students will do the following:  (1) Learn how to represent in words not only story, but also sound design, editing, visual design, and other parameters of mediamaking, (2) Discover how core concepts of character, structure, plot, theme and tone interact within existing and emerging media and (3) Explore a variety of films, topics and exercises towards the inspiration and development of a piece of original work of personal significance.

Susan H. Pak is a Program Director and Associate Professor at Habib University, the first Liberal Arts and Sciences College in Pakistan. Susan is also a Chicago Dramatists Resident Playwright who has taught playwriting, screenwriting, television writing and webseries writing for a decade at Habib University and Northwestern University in Qatar.

Susan received an MFA in writing for the screen and stage at Northwestern University; she received both a BA in English and a JD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Susan's work centers on the myriad ways in which Asian Americans, and in particular Korean American women, resist the seduction of protection through assimilation. Her works have been produced in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and include: Election at the Goodman Theater, The Fixer at the Steppenwolf Theater, Marabar at Chicago Dramatists, Ghost Girl at the Workshop Theater, T.A.B. at New York’s Downtown Urban Theater Festival, and the Manhattan Repertory Theater Festival; Haters at New York’s Midtown International Theater Festival; Baby Shower at New York’s Network One Act Festival; Incredible Invisible at Chicago’s Bailiwick Director’s Fest; Ladies’ Man at Chicago Dramatists; and The Writers at Theater Unleashed in Los Angeles.

Classes will be held via Zoom. Instructors will send out Zoom invites one day before class begins. We encourage students to setup a Zoom account for themselves before class if they have not already to ensure when class begins you are able to jump straight into the art!