Thursday, October 22, 1998
UCLA student honored with screenwriting award
FILM: UC-wide Samuel Goldwyn competition draws on talent,
potential
By Stacy Sare
Daily Bruin Contributor
UCLA graduate student Lisanne Sartor and her identical twin
sister, Colette, have always been fascinated with movies, writing
and storytelling. Sartor recalls a childhood experience in which
she and her sister got their entire fourth grade class into the
library to direct "The Sound of Music."
"I remember going to the teacher and saying, Å’This is what
we want to do. We want to put on a play. We want it to be "The
Sound of Music,"’" Sartor says. "We had no idea of what we were
doing, we didn’t have a clue, but we loved movies."
Now more than two decades later, Sartor anxiously stands in a
circle comprised of finalists, judges and entertainment
professionals waiting to hear her name announced as the the first
place winner of the 1998 Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards.
Screenwriting wasn’t always easy for Sartor; she admits she was
scared when she enrolled for her first screenwriting class.
"The same day I started my first good production job was the
same day I got into a screenwriting class, and I didn’t go," Sartor
says. "I didn’t start writing for another two or three years.
"I was very afraid of failing. It’s like sheer terror. You think
you’re going to walk in a room and everyone’s going to laugh at
your ideas, but nobody does. You just have to reassure yourself
that that’s not going to happen."
The writing award, which was open to all University of
California students and hosted at the James West Alumni Center on
Wednesday, follows a 43-year tradition started by Samuel Goldwyn
Sr. and Kenneth Macgowan, a former UCLA professor of the School of
Theater, Film and Television. The tradition of giving out the award
annually is continued by Goldwyn’s son, Samuel Goldwyn Jr.
"The two of them used to get together and talk about the writing
problem," Goldwyn Jr. says, "They cooked up an idea that would
encourage writers, not in the sense that the writer has arrived as
a totally seasoned screenplayer. That’s not what it’s intended to
do.
"The purpose of this was to say, look, there’s something there.
Everybody talks about producers and directors in this business, and
really when you look at it, give it a hard look, the real architect
of a film is the writer. Everything starts with the word."
Goldwyn Jr. says the criteria the judges look for in evaluating
the scripts are originality of voice and the ability to tell a
story.
"The importance of a screenplay is to tell a good story with
good characters. The system (movie industry) will help you batter
it into the shape of a screenplay. What the system can’t provide is
characters, and issues that really engage you. That’s what I really
try to hit home."
Eighty-two percent of the former winners of the writing award
currently earn their living as writers. Some former UCLA winners
include novelist Francis Ford Coppola, UCLA English professor
Carolyn See, novelist Jonathan Kellerman, and poet, teleplay and
screenwriter Pamela Gray.
Gray, one of this year’s judges, recently sold her screenplay,
"The Blouse Man," which won the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award in
1992.
"The Blouse Man" recently was purchased by Miramax and will be
made into a feature film produced by Dustin Hoffman and directed by
Tony Goldwyn.
Among other talented and innovative students at UCLA’s film
school are the 1998 Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award winners Kris Young
(second) and Danny Kaufman (fourth).
Other UC winners include Bobbie Boes (third) and Melanie Marnich
(fifth). This is not the first year UCLA has dominated the awards,
according to screenwriting professor Hal Ackerman.
"I think clearly that (UCLA has) one of the foremost programs in
the country," Ackerman says. "I love to bask in the reflected
glory. There’s nothing more fun than working with talented people
that are just crazy about doing the thing that they’re doing."
The winners were awarded prizes ranging from $1,000 to $6,000,
more than enough to convince Sartor to continue her writing career
at UCLA.
"More than anything else, I want to write more screenplays which
I know I can do while I’m here (at UCLA). I want to take advantage
of the writing power (opportunities) here because there’s so much
of it."
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]