Author to teach film class

by Staff Aroostook Republican
16 years ago

    PRESQUE ISLE – Award-winning novelist and screenwriter Cathie Pelletier is coming home to the County and, among many of the film-related projects she expects to develop and promote, she will help to launch the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s new Film Studies program.
  The courses within the Film Studies program were developed by English and Art faculty members to provide students the opportunity to study film as an aesthetic art form as well as its commercial, educational and political implications. Professors Richard Zuras and Clifton Boudman will be directing the Film Studies program under the English and art degrees.
    Pelletier will teach the very first class as part of that new program – a screenwriting class that will be offered during the fall 2008 semester.
    “Cathie’s other film projects dovetailed perfectly with our efforts to expand our English Program and create Film Studies offerings for our students,” President Don Zillman said. “We are thrilled Cathie is coming home to Maine and that she can help us to present the first of some exciting new courses here at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.”
    Pelletier, who served last spring as the University’s Writer-in-Residence and taught two eight-week courses on writing and novels, will offer her new course “Screenwriting: From Concept to Realization,” on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:25-4:55 p.m. during the fall 2008 semester. Students will study the basic fundamentals of screenwriting: character and plot development, dialogue and conflict. Emphasis will be upon learning the three-act structure of screenplays: the setup, the main conflict and the resolution.
    Students will  write their own screenplays and get the chance to speak with well known actors, directors and producers over the phone. They will finish out the semester by focusing the last two weeks on creating a short film based on one of the scripts developed during the class.
    For more information about Pelletier, visit her website at www.kcmkinnon.com. To register for the class, contact the Office of Student Records at 764-9607.