C.C. Winn High School Student Writes 152 Page Screenplay
Career & Technology Student Profile, Maria V. Martinez
By: Jessie F. Fuentes
When you envision a young person attending a media class you never know what type of personality traits these young people will have. Being a teacher that is required to teach young students how to write a screenplay, and other arts within the skills of manipulating digital audio and video, it is rare that someone might write more then a professional might, (110-120 pages). I teach the students to measure their writing by using this particular concept. On the average, a screenplay writer will measure the length of their script based on a one page equals one minute scale. Throughout my
years of teaching students the fine art of writing a screenplay I have had students write up to 15 to 20 pages.
During the school year of 2014-15 I met a young lady by the name of Maria V. Martinez. This young lady really enjoyed learning in my Advanced Arts, AudioVideo Technology & Communication course. Her strongest attribute was that she had an act for writing. Throughout the school year she began to write a screenplay, at the end of our course she had written 58 pages. No other student had ever written so much. I can recall at the end of the introductory course that Maria said her goal was to write a screenplay for a full length feature film. As an educator you have to encourage students to do their best.
Fast forward to the school year of 2015-16, Maria is now in my Practicum class. The Practicum class is 90 minutes long, and Maria takes advantage of every minute. I provided Maria with an iPad and wireless keyboard so she may proceed with her goal of attempting to write a full length feature film script. I provided guidance and assistance where she needed it. All the characters and the storyline are products of this young lady’s imagination. I continually helped her by reading the story and giving her constructive criticism along the way. She continued to weave this delicate story of young
love, betrayal, murder, and double cross that I found myself enjoying each and every revision that I read.
I am glad to say, Maria has finished her amazing full length feature film screenplay. The name of the screenplay is: MY ONE & ONLY, MY LAST. As a final commentary about this amazing 152 page screenplay I can only say that I am extremely excited to try to produce this film for our student Frontera Film Festival.
Food for thought, when we think of Career & Technology courses we think of students learning how to use their hands and acquire skills required to learn a trade. Sometimes we forget that within the spectrum of Career & Technical Education we can also develop amazing literary minds. Maria has accomplished something that had never been done before in a CTE or English class, and for this I congratulate her.
