Dispatch From The Quest: Sandy Leviton

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers. I should also add they are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.

Today: Sandy Leviton talks about The Quest as going back to film school:

What a ride this past two weeks has been! Despite writing quite a bit growing up and through my adult life, the thought of being called a writer is fairly new to me. Miranda and I have only been writing a short time together and mostly have kept it to ourselves and significant others. I never even told my parents I was writing. Being accepted into The Quest, we abruptly realized we were about to be (publicly) outted as writers. It shouldn’t, nor does it carry any shame, it’s just a whole new concept to me as I’ve thought always thought of myself as a producer. It’s like a new pair of shoes and I’m just starting to break them in. Starting The Quest this week has been both exciting and terrifying — as the best things in life typically are. Excited to be diving into our next script, getting to know the other Questers, and seeing how supportive our families, friends, and even clients have been. Terrifying because I am suddenly finding myself a student again. Our writing exercises made me feel like I was in first day of film school. Terrifying because I have never been one to put myself on display for others to see and judge me. My work has always been behind other great executives, writers, shows, and people who publicly make the magic in this town. Now it’s my turn to step in front and show everyone what I know I can do.

The lectures exercises this week brought on some concepts that were both new and familiar. I went to film school, I already know the hero’s journey, but this takes it a step further and intellectualizes it more than — “a hero needs to grow and change.” It’s refreshing and it’s been a good challenge brushing off the academic cobwebs. The concept of Disunity, Deconstruction, Reconstruction, and Unity particularly lit my fire and after having a frustrating start, I had a great time with that exercise. I genuinely wanted to use our leading lady for it and once I started to dive in and discussing with Miranda (which we do on a daily basis already), we realized that she is nowhere near fully baked yet. We were dismayed for a minute and then became grateful in the realization that this is what The Quest is all about. Instead I chose to write about one of my favorite films; one that serendipitously was celebrating its 18th birthday. Looking forward to seeing what the next weeks bring…I sense there’s going to be quite a bit of self discovery as a writer — which is terrifying and exciting.

In a way, Sandy, you are right: The Quest is like a film school. There are lectures. Writing exercises. Deadlines. Discussions. Workshops. But you and your fellow Questers will discover it’s unique in several ways:

* The Quest comes from a specific philosophical perspective: Unlike most film schools where you get multiple takes from multiple professors, leaving you to cobble together — hopefully — some semblance of a viable approach, here you get a single point-of-view, so there is a built-in coherence to what you learn.

* That perspective is what I call character-based screenwriting: Everything starts and ends with characters. That’s where the Plotline and subplots emerge. That’s how the central theme and sub-themes arise. All of it, grounded in characters. This is a far cry from most approaches which start with structure.

* The Quest goes beyond the Hero’s Journey: By now almost everyone is familiar with Joseph Campbell. And while I am a longtime student of his work, for the last several years I have been digging into one of Campbell’s primary inspirations: Carl Jung. That has opened the door to all sorts of fascinating concepts applicable to screenwriting involving archetypes and narrative destiny.

* The Quest combines theory with proven professional experience: I’ve been working in the entertainment business for over a quarter century with dozens of writing gigs for every major Hollywood studio and TV broadcast network, so the principles and practices promoted in The Quest are grounded in the reality of a working writer.

* Dialed into Hollywood: The discussions we have in The Quest are tied to what’s happening now in the movie industry and that primarily arises from what I do with this blog on a day to day basis, the many industry connections I have.

* The online experience: I’ve taught in many on-site environments as well as online now since 2002, and in some major ways online is a superior learning and writing experience. From getting to do your work pretty much on your own schedule to receiving written feedback which is almost always well thought-out, online education is the wave of the future — that’s happening now.

So yes, Sandy, similar to film school… but different.

And oh yeah, you don’t have to go $100K into debt to do The Quest.

If you have any observations or questions for Sandy, please head to Comments and share them.

Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.

About Sandy: Bostonian that learned how to pronounce “R’s” upon moving to LA. A lefty that loves the unusual. Dreams of owning a taxidermy dodo bird. @scriptchix & @lil_sjl

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