Film Courage:  Jeff, regarding screenwriting, can you talk about the Power of Intention and how a writer needs to check their own intention, either during the writing of the script, before the writing of the script or afterward?

Jeff Leisawitz:  Sure.  So we’re all a bunch of humans running around and (on some level) we’re all pretty much the same.  Right? Biologically, whatever.  However, what really separates us is our experiences and our perspectives because everyone (although similar) you know.  American culture is similar, let’s say.  We’re growing up in a city or growing up in the suburbs or these kind of things.  What you’ve experienced through your life and what you’re interested in and what you’re educated in, that is what really gives you your voice, right?  So if you can tap in to what matters to you  and understand why it matters to you, then you can write with power, not only from your head and imagination, but from your heart.  If what you’re writing doesn’t matter to you, it’s going to be flat.  It’s never really going to emote.  But if you can tap in and understand what your gifts are and what your perspective is, what you believe, then you can create characters and stories based around that, fictionalize it, embellish it or whatever, (however you do it), dramatize it.  And then create within a narrative structure as a screenplay.  And that is where great screenplays come from.

 

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