The IB film class and non-IB students had a chance to interview a famous Hollywood screenwriter, Carl Gottlieb, the creator of JAWS. 

   Recently, students in class had the chance to interview JAWS screenwriter, Carl Gottlieb. “In our film class recently, we were learning about the process of scriptwriting and the thought process/intent behind the story ideas we come up with. Mr. Gottlieb made some very interesting points on how to approach this, including the use of humor which was not found in the previous drafts of the films. He really helped us change our view of the scriptwriting process after the first draft of the script my class was working on for an assessment,” said senior Pari Asthana.

   Before interviewing Carl Gottlieb, the students had to create unique and interesting questions so they could get a better understanding of how screenplay writing is done. “To prepare for the interview, I came up with some interesting questions to ask him for the interview. For example, ‘what got you interested in the film industry’, and what his thought processes were behind the JAWS script.” said senior Harris Justin.

The class, which is in its third year, is gaining popularity with students in the IB program and out. “Our class does film analysis, film edit, and how film communicates to us at a different level. It is a college level course so there are people who have a diploma already and are taking the class. Another thing we do is film production. The IB students have standards that we use higher level production skills to create our three minute films and senior films. Students have to understand that the class is also a collaboration; they have to work as a team. The purpose is for the students to study Jaws, experiences on the film, make their own productions, how to work with dialog and create believable characters,” said Thomas Moore.

   Later in the school year, students will have a chance to interview additional famous writers so they can get different perspectives on how each writes, giving these students the opportunity to learn from their own interviews of industry professionals. “I am super excited and definitely interested in these upcoming interviews because we will get to see and learn the different ways of writing,” said Justin.