My son tells me that the # 1 video game right now is Grand Theft Auto which shows the way to success is murdering others. Now, I am not saying that everyone who views such will become murderers. It is said “we are what we eat.” And, if as C.G. Jung said, “The world hangs on a slender thread, that is, the psyche of man” then we might consider feeding our psyches well. I’d like to think that my President gazed in silent wonder at Monet’s Waterlillies, listened in rapture to Bach’s Concertos, and read with delight the Sonnets of William Shakespeare.
However, “times they are a changing.” There’s been a shift, and though it’s only the beginning, there is a new pulse in Hollywood, an opening for consciousness raising films. Last week I was guest speaker for ISLEE, a group of filmmakers in LA committed to such films. There are new production companies such as the one that Agape Church has created which produce only such films. (For readers intereseted in submitting scripts or film proposals, they currently are accepting completed scripts only.)
Parallel with writing films and television, I was invited to teach graduate screenwriting at USC Graduate Film School in LA, #1 film school in America. As a teacher and writing consultant, I believe it is important to support your vision, not mine. However, more and more, the students would be writing derivative spin-offs of the latest blockbuster thrillers. If you’re not going to write original stories in your twenties and thirties, then when? For the low-budget filmmakers who read MFM, this is an especially important issue ton consider. In fact, it could be argued that a low-budget filmmaker has a distinct advantage in this regard to their Hollywood counterparts. In Hollywood, there is a lot of pressure to make movies that are monetarily profitable in short order, utilizing trends, pop-culture, and sensationalism ad nauseum. Because the microfilmmaker can make movies at his or her own pace and without studio oversight, the potential for them to make better films cannot be argued. However, in order to do so, much time and patience must be expended on making films thematically excellent and carefully crafting the story which gives them their unique voice.
With this mentality in mind, after seven years, I quit teaching graduate school and later launched The Way of Story: the craft & soul of writing workshops first at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur then elsewhere in the states, Europe and Asia. The idea is to teach an integrative approach to writing, where you brought all of yourself to the table – not just the left brain. After a few years, I wrote The Way of Story book – which ironically is now required for several schools such as NYU writing programs. I guess the moral is ‘follow your own star’.
“The events of world history are, at bottom, insignificant. In the last analysis, what matters is the life of the individual.”
– Dr. C. G. Jung
The Way of Story: the craft & soul of writing is for all forms of narrative writing with a special focus on dramatic writing. Craft alone is vital but not enough.
It is the integration of solid storytelling technique with experiential inner discovery that delivers a great story. The book is also a memoir where I make use of my personal and professional journey to illustrate story.
“Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases, think for yourself.”
– Doris Lessing, Nobel-winning novelist
Words like these encourage us to reach deep into the creative psyche and offer something of true value to our world. If we could infuse filmmaking with even a portion of the vision and value that lives among us, that lives in this room right now, then movies would indeed rise to what they could be.
Story has been the foundation of rituals that empower both individual and collective values since society began. Story provides both identity and standards to live by and is thus essential to our well being. It serves as a mirror reflecting who we are and what we believe in. What story would you choose to live by? The answer offers a clue to your soul, your deepest self. I’m sure you’ll agree that it is soul which gives meaning to both life and art. If not now then when?
“Become the change you want to happen.”
- Gandhi
Catherine Ann Jones is an award-winning writer whose films include The Christmas Wife (Jason Robards), Unlikely Angel (Dolly Parton), Angel Passing (Hume Cronyn, Calista Flockhart) which screened at Sundance and went on to win fifteen awards, and the TV series, Touched by an Angel. Her latest feature, Convergence, is due out end of 2009. Ten of her plays, including Calamity Jane and On the Edge, have been produced both in and outside of New York City. Winner of the National Endowment for the Arts Award among others, Ms. Jones, a Fulbright Scholar to India, has served on the writing faculties of The New School University (NYC), University of Southern California (L.A.), Pacifica Graduate Institute, and the Esalen Institute. Ms. Jones lives in Ojai, teaches internationally, works as a script & book consultant. Her book, The Way of Story, is required for NYU writing programs.
microfilmmaker can make movies at his or her own pace and without studio oversight, the potential for them to make better films cannot be argued. However, in order to do so, much time and patience must be expended on making films thematically excellent and carefully crafting the story which gives them their unique voice.
