Summer 2019 Film Workshops in Tacoma

The following information was passed along by Cassandra via e-mail:

This summer, The Grand Cinema will be hosting their first ever Screenwriting Workshop, and their second annual Production Intensive for Short Narrative Films.

The classes are:

Screenwriting 101 led by Coral Untalan
Meets weekly on Thursdays July 11, 18, 25 and August 1, 6:30 - 8:30 PM with a final reading and potluck August 10, 12 PM.  Cost to register: $125

"Meeting once a week for five weeks, participants will develop and finalize a film script.  Each class consists of learning and practicing new skills to be applied to your scripts and an assignment, due the following class.  Students will work on the same script or scripts throughout the class, using their new skills to add to and edit their work.

Class concludes with a potluck and script reading for each student.  Students and instructor will provide constructive feedback, and finally, the instructor will provide written feedback to students one week after the final gathering."

Production Intensive: Narrative Film led by Jason Ganwich
August 12 - 16, August 19 - 23, 4 - 8 PM,  with a Friends & Family screening August 24, 10 AM.  Cost to register: $400 (payment plans available)

"This two week program focuses on the full production of short narrative films: working in film crews, you will develop a story, shoot, then complete post production and editing.  The intensive provides introductory instruction in digital filming, story development, writing, editing, lighting, audio, and sound.  Filmmakers of all levels of experience are invited to learn, collaborate, create, and share their stories.

The daily schedule for this is 4 - 8 PM Monday through Friday for both weeks, with a Friends and Family Screening Saturday at 10 AM."

For more information or to register, please visit The Grand Cinema's Film Education For Adults page.

This is not sponsored or hosted by the Sockmonkey Writers group, but the information is posted for any members of the group who might be interested.  If you attend, we'd love to hear about your experience and a bit about what you learned!

Dusting off the cobwebs

Those of you who are fairly recent members of the SockMonkey Writer's Group probably had no idea we had a blog.  Heck, most of our somewhat longer term members probably never even saw it when it was active - back in the spring, summer and early fall of 2013.  This inaugural post from April 19th, 2013, explains what the original hope for this blog was, back when it was started by the then current Admins of the Facebook group (and NaNo Municipal Liaisons) Cassandra and Shelly.  [Thank you to both of you for the work you did within the group and getting this blog going!]

As stated in that post, there were many reasons (and hopes) behind its creation.  While Facebook can be a handy place to share a quick link or update or create a group event, not every writer in the area uses it and this leaves them out of much of the group's discussions. Plus, the algorithm being what it is, only about 6% of group members even see new posts, unless they've chosen to always see them or interact with the group a lot.  This, and the way posts quickly scroll out of view, means lots of information and conversation gets missed.  This blog was being used to catalog the links that were shared in the group at the time, to allow people to see what they might have missed - and to be able to discuss it outside of the group by making it easier to find.  Cassandra and Shelly hoped this blog could become a central place to collect information on members' blogs or websites, to share book recommendations, writerly events in the area and so forth.

Unfortunately, they stepped down from their roles and those who stepped in after them didn't end up continuing to update the posts and information on this blog, so it has been dormant for nearly 6 years.  After my first November as a Municipal Liaison and Group Admin, I realized it would be really nice to have a central, non-social media oriented, place to point members so they could learn more about the group, each other and writing, etc.  I didn't have time during NaNo to work on it, but I felt that this blog could end up being that central place.

It has taken me a bit of tweaking, but I have made a number of changes to both the look and function of the blog.  There are links to all of our (currently used) social media platforms, plus a few widgets so you can see what's been posted and shared on them, even if you're not a user of that platform.  There is also now an "About" page with some of the history of our group and our mascot and a "Writerly Resources" page where some of the links that are shared in the Facebook group or on various other sites will be centrally located - so you don't have to scroll through a bunch of old posts! There's also a questions/comments box and a way you can react to posts even if you don't want to leave a longer comment, plus, if you'd like to just get an email when something new is posted, you can sign up for that.

I do hope that this blog will become a place where we can share conversation and ideas with any in our group who choose to join in.  I know it may take some time for people to decide to migrate over and take a look.  That's okay.  I'm just hoping this is the start of something that writers in the Tacoma/Pierce County area will participate in and enjoy.

Please start by letting me know what sort of things you'd like to see on this blog or what you think of the layout.  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you!