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An English class had 15 students writing for the big screen this past fall. Taught by critically-acclaimed author Alix Ohlin, assistant professor of English, Screenwriting explores the basic elements of the writer’s craft and examines the Hollywood tradition.
Students filmed scenes in groups to understand how words translate to the screen and developed 30-page screenplays as final projects. They also viewed popular movies to study narrative structure, character development, imagery, genre expectations, and differences between the screenplay and finished film.
“I hope that students take away a practical understanding of the way that stories are told – visually and dramatically,” says Ohlin. “I try to raise their awareness of the conventions that govern American movies, which most of us absorb without analyzing, and to give them some knowledge of the role of screenwriting in the collaborative process of filmmaking.”
Kelly Barrows ’06 (Clarks Green, Pa.) chose a young girl masking drug addiction and a difficult family life with academic and social success as the protagonist of her final screenplay. The American studies major enjoyed having a group of fellow writers to share ideas with her and help improve her work.
“Professor Ohlin takes the time to make sure that everyone is being heard in class,” she says. “She also makes [all students] feel comfortable about reading their work out loud, something that I think is very difficult to do in front of your peers.”
A double major in art and English, Sara Nersesian ’06 (Sparta, N.J.) explored how young adults handle relationships and possibilities and communicate through technology. She is excited about Lafayette’s expansion of film classes.
“I don’t think students are aware of the wonderful resources we have, both materially such as cameras and editing programs, and academically such as professors willing to help,” she says.
Ryan Rodden ’06 (North Wales, Pa.), who plans to pursue a film degree in graduate school, learned how to organize a screenplay properly and to write specifically for the big screen.
“I often find that personal experiences can be a great way to come up with a film idea,” says the English major. “I worked in a grocery store for a year and a half, so my screenplay is a comedy about a kid’s first day in a supermarket, using many situations that I actually experienced.”
Sandra Welch ’06 (Philadelphia, Pa.), a double major in English and government & law, chronicled the life of a recent college graduate as she struggles with identity, domestic violence, and race issues. Welch plans to teach English and drama in secondary school.
“I learned that the subtext and images in a film are more important than the written text,” she says.
Ohlin also advised two English majors who took her screenwriting course the first time it was offered last spring in independent study projects. Benjamin Hauptfuhrer ’07 (Bronxville, N.Y.) and Ardin Marchetta ’06 (Califon, N.J.) both completed feature-length screenplays.
Ohlin’s debut novel, The Missing Person, received favorable reviews in TheNew York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Her next book, Babylon and Other Stories, is scheduled for publication in August.
Before joining the Lafayette faculty last fall, Ohlin was writer-in-residence at Portsmouth Abbey School and instructor at Inkberry Center for Writing in the Berkshires since 2002. Her fiction has appeared in the One Story series and Shenandoah, among other periodicals, and in Best New American Voices 2004. She has received awards and fellowships from The Atlantic Monthly, the MacDowell Colony, and The Kenyon Review’sWriters Workshop.
Acclaimed novelist Alix Ohlin, assistant professor of English, teaches the \nScreenwriting class, which culminates in the creation of a 30-page screenplay \nby each student.