The Film Department welcomed Kevin Commins, writer and producer from the film industry, to lecture on the simple do’s and don’ts in this complicated career path.
Commins began his career as an actor, but also worked for a talent agent proofreading scripts. He honed his craft by becoming a story editor, and eventually wrote a script.
With film credits that include “UFO Hunters,” “Cybermutt,” and “The Santa Suit,” Commins now enjoys steady work writing scripts for The Hallmark Channel.
The lecture consisted of viewing clips of his many films and breaking down the structure of script writing. Commins’ candor attempted to demystify the business and its -isms that students should prepare to deal with in screenwriting’s challenging field.
“I feel I’ve given a lot of information about the nuts and bolts of being a writer… if you want to be a writer, this is what you’ve got to do. This is what you’ve got to learn. This is what people are buying,” Commins said.
Commins applied the bitter truth on what is expected and what is not tolerated by the power brokers in the industry. “The one thing that would irritate the hell out of me when I was accepting solicitations as a development executive was people who would tell me their life story on their cover letter. I don’t care about that.
“You’re not my friend, I don’t know you from Adam, I want a good script and that’s all I want. I don’t care that you spent your life hoping to be produced or that it’s your dream. If it is your dream, why are you telling me?”
Commins adds, “Be professional. This is a business. These people are buying scripts to produce and make money; that’s really what it’s about. It’s art, yes, but it’s art that has a financial basis, otherwise nobody would be doing it.”
Alex Aguayo, film major, felt inspired by the frankness of Commins’ lecture. “He installed a sense of realism in everybody in that room. He told us how he would have stocks of hundreds of scripts that are overlooked and he showed us how not to make our scripts one of those.”
Steven Hirohama, professor of the Film Department, scheduled this lecture for his class because he believes Commins has plenty of valuable information his students can take with them to be better prepared for their chosen careers.
“In my production classes, doing projects begins with writing as it does in the storyboarding/graphic novel illustration class I also teach.
“When you think about how I teach the editing class, I focus on telling a story. Kevin made it clear to the students that if they want to write scripts, they need to read scripts and not just watch movies.”
