Writing for the Silver Screen

Beginning. Middle. End.

It’s that simple.

Now go write.

But it isn’t that simple. How do you get your hero from point A to point B? Where do you add romance, danger, intrigue, action to make the story interesting? What is a MacGuffin?

Whether you know it or not, screenplays are very formulaic. There is always the basic question-- what does our main character want, and why can’t he or she get it? When breaking down scripts you’ll find that just about every one of them starts the hero on his or her journey between pages fifteen and twenty. There will be a midpoint where the hero finds an escalation of commitment. A launch into the third act marks a point where our hero cannot turn back. And of course a resolution followed by a denouement. Again, simple, right? Not really.

As an example, take the classic film Jaws. What does Chief Brody want and why can’t he get it? Answer: he wants to protect the beach, but there is a shark threatening the safety of anyone who enters the water. We are launched into the commitment phase with the death of Alex Kitner, the little boy on the raft. In reaction, Brody raises the stakes and offers a reward for the capture of the shark. Sadly, the wrong shark is caught and killed. The next shark attack involves his son. The chief develops a new plan, and hires a boat to go out and hunt the shark. The shark attacks, kills the captain and disables the boat. Brody is all alone with little hope of success. There is literally no turning back. In desperation, he shoots a rifle at a scuba tank inside the shark's mouth. Voila! Resolution as the beast is killed and the beach is now safe. Denouement is Brody swimming back to shore in safe waters. Fortunately as you watch the film, you never think of these necessary plot points that move the story forward. That's the goal of great screenwriting: entertain the viewer in a world you create for them.

But even if you write the world’s greatest story, how do you get anyone to read it? Do you hide out in a bathroom stall in Hollywood hoping to slip it under when a big wig uses the restroom? Do you blindly mail hundreds of copies of your script to film producers? Or do you self produce your script and become the next Kevin Smith?

Award-winning writer John Hill offers a class that answers many of these questions and more. Specifically, he’ll cover format, dialogue, characters, and theme with special training on how to plot. Most importantly, he’ll cover both the independent film world as well as the Hollywood studio system. Click the link for more details - http://goo.gl/vKbWzn.

If screenwriting isn’t necessarily your thing, but you still want to tell your story, check out our other writing classes http://goo.gl/DLGy71.

Adobe Photoshop I: A Student Review

UNLV Continuing Education likes to share student reviews of its classes. This student discusses “the great experience of taking a class in Photoshop.”

“As a working student with a full-time schedule, it is challenging to continue with my own development and sharpening of my skills. The short schedule and weekly class meetings made it easy to fit into my busy work and personal schedule. Our instructor, Krystal Hosmer, offered the class years of real world experience in graphic design and specifically with this software. She is incredibly talented, creative and patient, and explains in detail the practical applications with this software.

My favorite part of the class was practicing in class and actually creating new projects immediately. The hands-on experience was much more helpful than trying to figure out the system on my own at home. Krystal kept the atmosphere light and FUN! She also taught us basic concepts in graphic design and how to apply what we learned for our individual needs and in why we wanted to learn this software. For me I wanted to learn how to use the software to help me on my job as a training manager as I use photos in my presentation and instructional design daily at work. Class size was small, which made the teacher-student ratio great where everyone could be involved in the discussions and she encouraged us to ask questions and experiment.

I look forward to taking another class in the future. I highly recommend this class to anyone who wants to further develop their knowledge of Photoshop, or someone like me who was a complete beginner and wanted to develop a new skill.”

Thanks for sharing! The next Adobe Photoshop CS6-Level I class starts June 11.

Pick Up Your Guitar and Your Six String!

When listening to them, it’s hard not to think that the greats in the guitar world weren’t born with one in their hands. You may notice it while listening to your favorites. Andres Segovia, Frank Zappa, Guthrie Govan, Paco de Lucia, and Jimmy Hendrix are some of the names that may elicit your envy. Regardless of how well someone plays currently, every single one of them had to start somewhere. Getting started can be difficult, but finding a good teacher will set you on the right path.

UNLV Continuing Education can provide you with the teacher and atmosphere you need. As a previous guitar student at UNLV, Marlow Valentin provides excellent instruction to beginning students. He will help you learn to read music, tune your instrument, and play basic patterns and chords. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you find yourself recognizing melodies on the radio and thinking, “Hey, I can play this!” It’s amazing how many songs you’ll learn to play just by knowing four simple chords.

Learning and studying takes place in a group setting where you can collaborate with fellow beginners to have fun and help each other out. You’ll also have a selection of duets to play from the required text, Beginning Guitar Superbook by Hal Leonard. I started with the same book as a beginner when I was 16. The next thing I knew, it had become a passion that I decided to study seriously in college. I started off learning jazz, but switched and ended up playing classical guitar for four years. 

While you may not master the craft in the six weeks, UNLV Continuing Education can help you take the first steps towards playing the guitar. Not only will you learn the basics of guitar, but you might just find a new passion. Whether you learn to play so you can entertain friends around a campfire, mess around with and learn new songs during your free time, or further educate yourself and possibly get a degree in music performance, this course is an ideal starting point for those interested in picking up the guitar.  

To learn more about the guitar course offered by UNLV’s Continuing Education, check out our catalog:

  - http://continuingeducation.unlv.edu/catalog

We Were Preparing for Our Retirement, Not for Hers

During my first performance review at my first “real” job, my boss gave me advice that stuck with me. “Set aside your raise for retirement,” he suggested. So in my early 20s, on a very limited income, I started saving for my post-career years.

Over the years my spouse and I absorbed and applied many other nuggets of retirement advice:

·         Fund retirement before the kids’ college because you can’t get loans for retirement.

·         Be aware of management fees that eat into your fund growth.

·         Take full advantage of employer matches.

With 20 years of retirement preparation under our belts and probably 20 more years of saving ahead of us until we can call it quits, we felt like we knew most of what we reasonably should.

Recent family events, however, opened our eyes to a big gap in our understanding of retirement. The death of my spouse’s father has put him in the position of helping his mom, who is already retired, think through retirement savings, ongoing expenses, required distributions, and the tax implications of her decisions. She is an educated, intelligent woman, but for nearly 50 years she deferred major financial decisions to her spouse. What she wants is a competent sounding board against which she can bounce ideas; at this point, though, my husband and I are a bit in the dark about how she should wisely spend the money it took a lifetime to save.

We can’t apply our approach for retirement to this new situation. His mom needs steady income, as she is nearing the age of required minimum distribution. And if genetics have anything to say about it, she’ll live until she’s 100. After seeing first-hand the bills that come with a major illness, she’s concerned about the costs of health care and long-term care down the line.

At this point, we really aren’t knowledgeable enough to help her make decisions; we need to get up to speed on all the issues pertaining to post-retirement life.

When I first read the course description for Rejuvenate Your Retirement, I figured it was a course that I probably wouldn’t need for many years. The logistics of actually using retirement funds was just a footnote to the process of acquiring the funds. Now I’m eyeing up the course from a new perspective. With his mom looking to us for intelligent counsel, it seems there is quite a bit of practical knowledge we could use from this class even now.

Rejuvenate Your Retirement is offered twice this May at the CSN Summerlin High Tech Center (next to Palo Verde High School). A Thursday class meets 1-3 p.m. on May 8 and 15. A Tuesday class meets 9:30-11:30 a.m. on May 13 and 20. A $49 registration fees covers both you and your spouse. Register by phone at 702-895-3394 or online at http://ced.unlv.edu/cat2014.

Public Relations: Then & Now

I graduated from the Public Relations Skills certificate program in 2006. In eight years the basic fundamentals haven’t changed. You still need to know different writing styles -- from writing a news release to a flyer. Relationships and communication with the media remain critical and beneficial. The same basic principles still apply in ethics and crisis communications. However, the Internet and social media have changed how you do your work.

In the past when I distributed a news release it had to be faxed multiple times to different contacts. Now everything is emailed in one shot. Email and text messages are daily occurrences and part of the way of life at work. Plus, I don’t know how I ever worked with only one monitor!

Social media hardly merited a mention when I was in school; MySpace, Skype, YouTube, and Twitter were not mainstream mechanisms for getting your message out. Social media touches everything I do now, from event planning and eFlyers to writing/publishing a document. I also have accounts with all the major social media channels. At home I video chat at least twice a week, if not more.

In today’s public relations world, I find that most promotional materials, such as brochures, flyers, posters etc., are made with Adobe products. I have started taking InDesign and Photoshop classes as well. These classes are engaging public relations tools, enabling communicators to get their message across with a creative blend of content and design.

As I have followed the PR path, it’s been rewarding to see the field’s evolution and be involved with its integration with marketing and social media. If you’re interested in public relations, you may find it not only enhances your skills but also provides new creative energy.

Health & Fitness: Taking that Big First Step

For years, weight training, indoor cycling, and cardio were the main components of my fitness plan. Personal trainers advise you to mix up your routine to “shock” your muscles and energize your workouts. I often thought about adding yoga to the plan, but only knew it as a stress reducer and flexibility increaser. How would yoga complement the strength and muscle tone gained from weight training? Which type of yoga would be best for me? With so many yoga classes, where should I go?

The first place I went, of course, was the Internet. The online search helped me find out which yoga style was best for my experience level and fitness goals. With that question answered, I needed to find the right class. Living in Las Vegas, you will find a multitude of options, but it’s always best to pick a studio convenient to home or work. I decided to stick with who I know and trust best.

UNLV Continuing Education has a wide range of wellness classes – from golf to meditation. I selected a yoga class that met immediately after work. The class included other beginners as well as those who moved effortlessly from the downward facing dog to the plank pose. It provided me with a good introduction to yoga at a reasonable fee. The class also gave me enough confidence to practice another yoga style.

UNLV Continuing Education offers classes to meet your needs, whether personal or professional. Whenever you are looking to learn something new or different, I encourage you to make Continuing Education your first stop in an online search.

Yoga: Mixed Level begins April 30. There are only a few spots remaining.

Video Blogging Tips

I have a phone with a camera. That’s all I need to start a video blog, right? Technically, yes. But the answer goes deeper. Hopefully this simple overview can help you get started.

Before you star in your own online videos, first ask yourself, "Why am I blogging?" Is this a hobby or a job? What message do you hope to get across to an audience? Is it something that a large population would watch? Will it garner audience partnership and feedback?

You want to make sure you have a plan before simply hitting record on your phone. At the very least, you’ll want to find a topic about which you are passionate and one that will garner a large audience. It’s not easy to produce a regularly updated video blog ,if you are not passionate about the topic and/or you don’t receive validation from a growing audience.

A bit of forethought will ensure you record a crisp quality of video with really good audio. Professional equipment on a soundstage would be the best case scenario, but it is very true that most smartphones can record HD quality video that easily suits the needs of a video blog. Many video bloggers forget to account for audio though. Again, the camera phone is quite adept at recording clean audio, but you must take into account the environment and noise. If there is background noise where you are recording, it will be heard in the video. This can be extremely distracting and takes away from your message.

For editing, professional equipment like Apple’s Final Cut Studio or Adobe’s Creative Cloud are fantastic, but once again there are many options that can be much cheaper or even free. You can take a closer look at your smartphone; it can save the day as there are many app options for editing. If you have no other options, YouTube has updated its hosting services to offer simple trim tools for editing, slow motion effects, color correcting and even filters for image effects. They also offer a nice library of music to complement your video.

Now that you have your video uploaded and ready to go, you must market it to the max! Hosting on a website is always nice, but not necessary. Actively recruiting friends and family to promote your videos is key. Utilizing social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is a must. And of course, remember to keep your topics and delivery entertaining. As you grow your audience, be sure to interact with your viewers. Ask questions to elicit answers. Remember to keep track of all comments posted to your video and make sure you answer as many as you can. Find networks with similarly-themed blogs and get involved by interacting with other videos as well as sharing your own.


To learn more about video blogging, social media and graphic design, check out our continuing education catalog - http://continuingeducation.unlv.edu/catalog