Visual Storytelling, Clark Kohanek, February 5th, PDX

Writers employ story structures, plot designs and character arcs to explore, examine and reveal their creations. Directors, Art Directors and Cinematographers use similar tools that parallel these structures, designs and arcs, to express their vision. We’ll examine aspects of their craft as it pertains to writing and explore the psychological dimensions of symbol, analogy and metaphor in relation to visual subtext, in context, to content.

Clark Kohanek is a freelance illustrator, storyboard artist, writer and director. Clark has worked for a variety of advertising agencies, production companies and studios over the last 22 years. (i.e. Weiden&Kennedy, Universal Studios, Anonymous Content, Dark Horse, Disney, Jerry Bruckheimer, Tim Robbins, Bryan Singer to name a few.) Clark’s 2012 micro-budget sci-fi film called CONTAINED opened a door to 20th Century Fox – Bad Hat Harry, which paved the way for action sci-fi THE 37TH PARALLEL, an elevator pitch that turned into a 2015 studio pitch tour to SONY, DREAMWORKS, UNIVERSAL, LEGENDARY, LIONSGATE, MGM, to name a few. Clark recently completed - JUNKIES - an animated horror-comedy being pitched to Sony later this month. Clark currently works and lives in Portland, Oregon though travels teaching visual storytelling and screenwriting workshops at various writing conferences throughout the year.

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This meeting is Tuesday, February 5th at the new Willamette Writers PDX chapter location: The First Congregational United Church of Christ in downtown Portland (1126 SW Park Ave, Portland, OR 97205).

This meeting is free to members of Willamette Writers and full time students under 25, and $5 for guests, including MeetUp guests.

For more information about Willamette Writers, visit
willamettewriters.org

For more information about Clark, visit
https://clarkkohanek.wordpress.com/https://clarkkohanek.wordpress.com/

Acting as a Lens into Character

I recently saw the French film Bicycling With Moliere. It's about a successful actor on a popular drama; he's recognized and pretty much adored wherever he goes. He's decided to prove his chops as an actor by performing Moliere's The Misanthrope with an actor leading a reclusive life on an island. That actor agrees to consider doing the play, but only if they switch doing the lead role during the performance, and if the successful actor will rehearse the play with him for a week.

What I found intriguing in the movie is how, as the actors switch roles in the play, the choices they make for delivering lines speaks to something deeper that animates each man. By the time the popular actor appears in the play and loses his way, it's clear from his rehearsals that he lost his way years before. The busyness of his successful life allowed him to maintain a cheerful, in control facade.

The realization for the reclusive actor is that he can't go back to living among the feral wolves, which is how he sees the people who revolve around the successful actor.

The acting in the movie is subtle and playful, but the story does take each actor to a deeper place.

Actors like Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson became successful, in part, because they choose roles (Lethal Weapon, Die Hard) that took their characters to a place where a facade was replaced by a deeper state of human feeling. When you come across a hugely successful film or story, you'll generally find that transformation of character. It's a journey audiences love to experience.

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To read some of my longer reviews of popular movies, check out my writing workbook, A Story is a Promise, available on Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Noble's Nook.