Mistakes Beginning Screenwriters Should Avoid by Occidental College Professor Aleem Hossain
Film Courage: What were some of the biggest mistakes you made in the beginning of your screenplay writing? How did you realize they were mistakes?
Aleem Hossain, filmmaker and AR/VR creator, assistant professor in media arts and culture at Occidental College: That’s a good question. What are the mistakes? I made all sorts of mistakes when I was starting to write
But I don’t necessarily think of them as mistakes and more I think it’s just the process of learning. I’m happy that I was able to at the time just keep writing and writing.
Things that jump to mind when I think of my particular mistakes, I think 1) I was a little scared of trusting my own point of view. I think I was relying too much on the models of screenwriting, looking at books on The Hero’s Journey and three-act structure and others. I was just obsessed with those things. I was trying to find an answer in them.
At the end of the day I do think they have some…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
