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<\/a>Dramatic Arts graduate Caitlin English (BA \u201909) was honoured earlier this year by the Academy of Canadian Film and Television.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cThe skills I gained at Brock have made all the difference working in the entertainment industry,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
Her job is to write and shape scripts that will grip an audience, including script doctoring to make existing scripts more compelling \u2013 all skills she says she was introduced to and practiced at Brock.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to creative exploration and script analysis, looking at the shape of the script and what makes a good scene, I developed my love for writing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
As well as learning how to understand story structure through DART play and scene study courses, English\u2019s time at Brock introduced her to concepts like collaborative devising, or collectively creating a script. She first encountered the process during a fourth-year Collaborative Play Development (DART 4D56) course taught by retired DART Associate Professor Gyllian Raby.<\/p>\n
\u201cUndertaking collective theatre creation allowed me to access storytelling in a way I never had, and it truly inspired me. Collective creation involves improvisation, creative exercises, writing and rewriting to find the scenes that land.\u201d Looking back, she says it set her up for her future.<\/p>\n
English says her career as an independent writer, who is now regularly contracted by big production houses, involves lots of pitching and requires clear, effective communications skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cI developed these skill sets at Brock, and they have been hugely beneficial to my career. To be successful at getting your work noticed, you must be able to tell a memorable personal story about what kind of creator you are and persuade people to your side to listen to your ideas,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Film and TV are so visual and auditory, English says, and she credits studying acting, directing, set design and aesthetics in DART with helping her navigate all sides of the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI work with a lot of industry professionals, including agents, casting directors, people who work in development or on the business side of entertainment. They all have an ear for a good story \u2014 and many of them came through theatre programs,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The accredited screenwriter has used her skills and creative force to forge her path, including doing improv, stand-up and sketch comedy over the years while building her writing portfolio.<\/p>\n
Her first big break was working on the CBC comedy Cavendish.<\/em> Since then, she has written multiple TV movies for channels such as Lifetime and Hallmark, turning heads in the industry for her ability to create surprises for viewers while working within the story formula.<\/p>\nEnglish has a new Hallmark movie coming out this holiday season. While she can\u2019t \u00a0share the details about it just yet, she\u2019s already excited to share the story with audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the challenge of creating the building blocks for strong scenes and pivot points in these feel-good stories,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s all about finding ways to keep audiences hooked and invested in the characters while delivering on the expectations viewers have for these films \u2014 we want to make people feel happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Caitlin English (BA \u201909) accepted her Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing for a TV movie, the Brock Dramatic Arts (DART) graduate couldn\u2019t help but reflect on the start of her own career story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":110870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,7484,37,1],"tags":[656,109,30,2518],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110866"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110872,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110866\/revisions\/110872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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