Under the pretense of “Just Great Screenwriting,” Kurt Voelker’s presentation succeeded in both captivating his audience and creating something special at the school’s annual LitFest. Voelker has done past workshops at LitFest and seems to have gotten down the rhythm of introducing and teaching screenwriting to his audience.

From the beginning, the environment around Voelker and his presentation were calm and friendly. He talked a little bit before the start about school and movies and tried to engage in a more informal conversation.

Voelker led with a short introduction about himself, his career in screenwriting, and what he was working on now. After attending Harvard and USC, he started to make blockbusters with stars like William Baldwin and J.K. Simmons. For high school students to be able to do a workshop with someone of his experience, was a big opportunity.

Rather than going to talk about what it takes to be successful in the filmmaking industry, Voelker instead focused on what makes a good movie using Rocky. He briefly summarized the exposition for those who hadn’t seen it and showed an early scene of Rocky and Adrian talking for a second time in the Pet Shop.

Using the scene, he applied it to how filmmaking is more about a story through visuals rather than communication and how, under the surface, this can lead to deeper and underlying meaning. Voelker wasn’t afraid to analyze how he saw the scene and euphemized naught.

Afterwards, Voelker dove into two more scenes across the film, going on to talk about the characterization and setting going on within the movie. Like how Rocky is developing over time and his relationships with other characters strengthen, as well how the setting complements the storytelling and it’s used in the characterization as well.

Finally, as both a final act and a good conclusion to his presentation, Voelker showed the classic training montage and how the clip itself was a revolutionary thing to the industry, where, surprisingly, never before had something like it been made.

Throughout the entire session, Voelker kept the audience engaged in how film is made and gives something to think about. He continued to ask questions to involve the audience and drew them in with what only was a movie a few moments ago, to the experience of a lifetime. With hope and regards to Voelker, I hope he will continue to be a speaker in the future.