What do your characters want? How do they get it? Remember, action is character.


*This is part of the Truly Feminist Filmmaking series, in which writer/director Bonnie Stinson subverts the patriarchal requirements of "expertise" in filmmaking by reading aloud from texts written by men.* 

Basics Filmmaking 02: Screenwriting, by Robert Edgar-Hunt, John Marland, James Richards. (9782940373895)

Practical Tips for Writing Characters: Excerpted from "Basics Filmmaking: Screenwriting"

"In an astute casting decision, the many women in his life are distilled into a single character, Jane, an aspiring actress, played by Carmen Ejogo (Coretta Scott King from “Selma”), who brings remarkable vitality to this invented composite."

The NYT's Review of Born to Be Blue

"Kodar's characters for Welles are elusive, secretive, and idolized by the men in their orbit. It was as if the filmmaker could only work with spirit when he was studying her, undressing her, gloating over her.

When Kodar is off the screen, the frustration is apparent; in her scenes, the footage falls into a rhythm around her. Welles alternately inspires and ogles Kodar, but the movie's visual language depends on her every move."

Max Nelson's review of Orson Welles's THE DEEP in FilmComment Magazine

Ukelele cover of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock."

Life Is for Learning -

No Diggity ukelele cover

BONNIE STINSON is a filmmaker // editor // poet.

Bonnie is part of a network of creative women working outside the binary, at the nexus of queerness, radical education, and creative resistance.

Bonnie's work is published in STACKEDD Magazine, SHIFT and the Hedgebrook blog. She is currently working on a short film, UNACCOMPANIED.

bonniejstinson