Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephanie Platter. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Stephanie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

Education too often looks like the college lecture model, the “sage on stage.” I’ve learned as an educator that so much opportunity is wasted when untapped creativity is forced to sit all day. Passion is contagious. Student buy-in must be earned in the same ways corporations encourage retention : autonomy, reward, and collaboration.

As a passionate film connoisseur I don’t just watch movies, I digest them. Always have. After about a week at my first teaching job (Freshman English), I pitched a new class idea to the administration: Film 101. They must have laughed a bit at the newbie, but a few years later they approved it. I jumped in with the help of some incredibly bright and inventive students, and built a Film program.

I had one class for film appreciation and an advanced for filmmakers. We had no equipment, no budget, and no lived experience in the business, but we were determined to create the next generation of filmmakers.

We wrote a proposal, took it to the school board, and a parent offered a 20k grant for equipment. I’ll never forget the joy of the day we unboxed all of that film equipment. We turned spaces into sets, daily interactions into stories, and the school into a lab for our adventures on screen.

As a teacher, I needed assessable structures, so I set the end goal first: a Film Festival showcasing student art at the end of the year. Planning backward, I made this project-based system work to support the end goal. Each project taught a portion of what they needed at the end. I didn’t teach the technology knowing that students were far more up-to-date that I was, so I simply said: here’s the problem, find your solutions. Work together. I’d spend a few days introducing the project – showing excellent examples of the desired end result with a rubric. They’d sign up for filming days. We’d brainstorm ideas and work together. Each one used different timing and strategies, but on filming days, we all worked together to help make the project go. Film is already a collaborative art, so this class trained us all to encourage and rely on each other’s skills.

The Film Festival was well-attended and highly regarded. We sent students to film schools around the nation. I got to witness student success with a new take on education. The formula: problem / solution meets collaboration. It’s not for everyone. It takes a level of controlled chaos. Sometimes it means letting 10th grade Gunnar lay on the back desks for multiple class times to ruminate on his film idea while Matt sets up camera gear and Julie runs to the counselors to ask if she can film in their offices on Tuesday.

Sure. And invite the counselors to your screening next week, while you’re at it.

Stephanie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Inspired by Judy Blume, I wrote my first book in the third grade. A memoir about friendship and grief. As crazy as that sounds, I think I was always watching the world for the stories it could bring me. I haven’t changed much. I have always wanted to tell stories that will help myself and others feel understood, make us think, and most of all – entertain.

I went to film school and trained in screenwriting under Stewart Stern and acting with Tom Skerritt. Stewart used to say, “You can’t write characters until you can write yourself.”

Now as a screenwriter and screenwriting teacher, I use my training to pass on the power of free writing (what many call a vomit draft) to find voice, personal narratives to dig up the gold in the soul, and creative exercises to delve into characters only found in the imagination. I am proud of those lightbulb moments as my students have made personal discoveries and translated them to the page. I am proud of creating safe places for expression and critique. I love encouraging peer feedback that builds people up while improving craft. I’m also grateful for the lessons I’ve learned along the way that have made me faster and more fearless as a writer.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I’d known in college that I was surrounded by my best networking opportunities and that finding my team would be harder to navigate post-college. The best resources I have today I’ve fought for or discovered by accident.

– Podcasts! Scriptnotes and The Screenwriting Life are incredible.

– Masterclass. Online classes with Ron Howard, Ava Duvernay, Natalie Portman, Helen Mirren, Neil Gaiman – just a few of my favorites – have shaped and challenged me in so many ways.

– Writing groups. Necessary. Painful at first, but life changing. If you want an audience / readership, it helps to practice being read, to hear your work aloud, and to receive critique.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Perhaps this is not what you want to know – a view from the inside – but I’m in the pivot now! After almost twenty years in the classroom, former students took me to breakfast and called me out, in the most loving way possible. They reminded me that I’m always telling them to be brave and go after their dreams. They didn’t even know that I’d amassed quite a stack of stories, books, and screenplays over my years writing in my spare time. So at their urging, I jumped. Strapped on a small parachute of a savings, and leaped… I’m in the midst of my writing year – the start of a new career, new life. I’m writing like a fiend. Without an alarm, I’m up before dawn most days with giddy excitement to write. I’m networking, seeking out representation, honing my pitching skills. Loving this. It’s daunting, a true challenge. I’ve scaled back, and the stakes are high, but there is such joy in the work and hope on the horizon.

Contact Info:

• Website: SplatterOnFilm.com
• Instagram: SplatterOnFilm
• Facebook: Stephanie Platter
• Linkedin: Stephanie Platter
• Twitter: @S_Platter

Image Credits
Stephanie Platter