"Crafting Short Screenplays that Connect" introduces the essential element of 'human connection' - the ability to 'touch' the reader or observer - to the screenwriting and story creation process for short films. Claudia Hunter Johnson teaches the craft of short screenplay writing by guiding you through carefully focused writing exercises of increasing length and complexity. You will learn how to think more deeply about the screenwriter's purposes, craft an effective pattern of human change, and hone your vision and process for your short screenplays. It is a groundbreaking book that stresses human connection as the basis of a good screenplay-not conflict. It includes a website with short films of the screenplays which are analyzed in the book & ample exercises for practice and inspiration. It is recommended by the American Film Institute.

About the Author

Florida State University Screenwriter in Residence Claudia Hunter Johnson, Ph.D. has written numerous screenplays for feature film and television productions, including two documentary specials commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her last screenplay, Obscenity (co-written with Matt Stevens), was a finalist for the 1997 Sundance Screenwriters Lab. She has written several award-winning full-length and one-act plays. Her many awards include the Lorraine Hansberry Award, American National Theatre West Award, and Academy Award. In 1993, she won the inaugural PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award for her campaign to restore banned literary classics to high school classrooms in Florida. Her widely acclaimed book, Stifled Laughter: One Woman's Story About Fighting Censorship, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.