Screenplay College Modules

I wish I could be a mosquito and skulk around lecture halls where students learn how to write screenplays. No. No.  The intention is not to bite anybody, but to find out how lectures are different from what everybody knows about screenplays.
Delete that.  I should say what everybody knows about movies.  We say we are going to the movies, not to screenplays.

You and I love movies so we are patient with credits, because they tell us who designed the costumes, who did the props, who staged the car chase and computer graphics.

As for the actual Hollywood movie, we know that the opening scene will be people brushing their teeth; somebody will be late for work; the elevator will be packed; the move will have a best friend, worse still, the movie will be centred around four friends; there will be a nightclub scene etc. 

O.K.  You fill in the rest of the blanks including the ending.  What can I say?  Lights! Camera!  Action!

Nonqaba waka Msimang is the author of Sweetness, a South African novel.