Deconstructing the Script: Ex Machina

Hosted by Patrick Raymond

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Patrick Raymond

Webinar hosted by: Patrick Raymond

Development Executive at Mandalay Pictures

Patrick Raymond is a Creative Executive at Mandalay Pictures where he gets to work on his passion every day: cultivating amazing stories and working with great writers. Prior to joining Mandalay, Patrick studied business and film production at the University of Southern California. He worked in the financial services industry for four years before transitioning to entertainment, where he worked as a production assistant in television for four years.After that he transitioned to working at Gersh in the production department but he also gained exposure to the literary world, working with writers and story. He then moved over to LD Entertainment for three years, where he was a Creative Executive, working with writers and helping build scripts and acquire ideas for new projects. Here he had the opportunity to work for Tate Taylor on a James Brown biopic entitled, Get On Up, and learned about assembling large studio films. He has since transitioned to the Creative Executive position at Mandalay Pictures. Patrick was born in Alaska and raised in Seattle prior to moving to LA. Full Bio »

Webinar Summary

Learn directly from leading creative executive at Mandalay Pictures, Patrick Raymond!

Every screenwriter has a goal they set out to accomplish. The mark of a great screenplay usually depends on whether or not this goal was achieved. Aside from being a visually arresting film, 'Ex Machina' stands apart as one of the great recent screenplays and finds its success in bringing forth engaging ideas, strong characterization and lofty goals.

 

What is it about this intriguing and unsettling piece that resonates with audiences across the globe? What makes this ambitious screenplay cinematic as opposed to something we can watch on television or other formats? We are going to dig deep into the pages to identify the mechanisms and components that are utilized by Writer/Director Alex Garland the really bring the pages to life. I'm excited to take this journey with you and look forward to our discussion.


What You'll Learn

  • Background and history of the writing of Ex Machina
  • Introduction techniques that worked and why
  • Importance of characterization
  • Breaking down the setup and its effectiveness
  • How structure was incorporated and makes you relate to the characters
  • Ways to set goals as a writer in your own scripts
  • Payoffs and ways to get the most out of them
  • Recorded Q&A with Patrick

About Your Instructor

Patrick Raymond is a Creative Executive at Mandalay Pictures where he gets to work on his passion every day: cultivating amazing stories and working with great writers.

Prior to joining Mandalay, Patrick studied business and film production at the University of Southern California. He worked in the financial services industry for four years before transitioning to entertainment, where he worked as a production assistant in television for four years.After that he transitioned to working at Gersh in the production department but he also gained exposure to the literary world, working with writers and story.

He then moved over to LD Entertainment for three years, where he was a Creative Executive, working with writers and helping build scripts and acquire ideas for new projects. Here he had the opportunity to work for Tate Taylor on a James Brown biopic entitled, Get On Up, and learned about assembling large studio films. He has since transitioned to the Creative Executive position at Mandalay Pictures. Patrick was born in Alaska and raised in Seattle prior to moving to LA.

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Reviews Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5

  • Well, I also love the movie :-)
  • I enjoyed the webinar, but was disappointed that the executive had nothing to do with the film. I expected this from the way the webinar was presented. Granted there is still some value in having someone else in the business break a script down, but it would have been infinitely more valuable to hear the "WHY" decisions from the actual writer or production company that bought and produced it. Still enjoyed confronting ideas with the presenter and forced me to read the script which I was very thankful for.
  • Good, clear content. Well done!
  • Yes it was good and insightful. The only thing I would say is a few more visuals are nice. But maybe that's a pain to do. Anyway, all in all I learned a lot. thanks

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