Studying the Wizarding World (And Other Super Cool Screenwriting Electives)
By Alexis M Peters ‘20
Yes, I am taking that class about Harry Potter.
Every time I walk into the Norris Cinema auditorium, it feels like the first day of Hogwarts. The professor has the movie soundtrack playing in the background, and one of the house flags and colors projected on the big screen. Sometimes people come with various Harry Potter paraphernalia, repping their Hogwarts House. (GO Hufflepuff!)
(Even JK Rowling agrees that Hufflepuffs are the best!)
When I first registered for this class, I figured it would be filled with Harry Potter fanatics. The kind of people who had read the books multiple times over, and while they were disappointed with the movies because of how much they deviated from the original story, they still went to see Deathly Hallows Part 2 at two in the morning on opening night. And the class is indeed filled with people like this. Everyone in that class is passionate about the world of Harry Potter, and they are eager to dissect the series through an academic and analytical lense.
I am not one of those Harry Potter fanatics. I actually never finished the books (gasp!). I only read up to book five, but I really enjoyed the movies! So, I did feel a bit like an imposter at first, hiding in plain sight among the true fans. But I do consider myself a true fan. I decided to take the class because I was interested to learn about how a book about a young boy discovering that he was a wizard became a worldwide bestselling hit, franchise, and phenomenon. I wanted to learn about how JK rowling managed to captivate children and adults alike with these books.
Class discussions focus on the structure of the story, how JK Rowling originally wrote it, and how that structure had to be adapted for the screen. While we don’t watch the movies in their entirety, we watch chronological clips of each movie, pausing in between for discussion and analysis. Admittedly, when you get a room full of Harry Potter fanatics together, you encounter some pretty specific and nit-picky comments about the differences between the books and the movies. You couldn’t just be a casual Harry Potter fan in that class. You had to have at least read the books. (My knowledge of the first five books worked for me just fine, thank you very much.)
The Harry Potter class is actually one of a series of screenwriting classes that the department offers every semester, called: Screenwriters and their Work. So, the main focus of the class is about the adaptation of the Harry Potter movies and how writers go about creating movie scripts especially when they are based off of an existing work.
While this class is not being offered next semester, I would suggest that USC students look into other screenwriting elective courses. Most of them are only 2 credits, and they explore some of your favorite movies and TV shows. Coming up this Spring, they are offering: CTWR 431: Born this Way– Writing the LGBTQ Story for Film and TV; CTWR 431: True Crime Documentaries; and CTWR 411: TV Script Analysis. I would highly recommend taking a 2 credit screenwriting class if you’re looking for something extra to fill out your schedule!
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