[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: How often will those big beats change when you’re writing out a story?
Ron Mita, Professor of Advanced Screenwriting at College of the Canyons/Screenwriter: As I start to write the story, and again, I’ve outlined it in detail and my big magnificent seven are there and I’m starting to write.
This is actually one of my favorite parts of writing. It’s kind of the journey of discovery because now I’m into the screenplay itself, action and dialogue and all that.
This is where discovery happens, just because I wrote the plot points and the outlines down again, it’s not locked in.
I will tell everyone that it’s not a hard and fast road map.
It is suggested. You created that road map but you might find interesting side routes to go visit you know.
I find along the way a lot of cool discovery.
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Very often I will change some big beats because now I realize down the line this guy needs to be betrayed.
I didn’t see it.
I didn’t see it in the outline but I see it in the dialogue.
I see it in the scene that we just wrote.
If he needs to be betrayed, well, that means I got to change plot point three.
I got to set it up.
I always tell my students when you’re writing the screenplay and you make a change, go…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
After beginning his career as a graphic artist, Ron quickly realized his true passion was storytelling. That realization led him to Loyola Marymount University, where he pursued a graduate degree in screenwriting and before graduating, sold his first screenplay to Columbia Pictures in 1993, launching a career that now spans more than three decades.
That early success opened the door to work with many of Hollywood’s major studios, including Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, HBO, TNT, Screen Gems, and CBS.
Ron’s produced credits include the animated hit Robots for 20th Century Fox, S.W.A.T., starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell, Sniper II, starring Tom Berenger, and 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke.
Since 2002, Ron has helped shape the next generation of filmmakers as a screenwriting professor at College of the Canyons and as a filmmaking instructor at Antelope Valley College.
Early in his career, Ron developed the Magnificent 7–24 Method, a screenwriting architecture that helps writers move from idea to page with clarity and confidence. Built as a flexible framework rather than a rigid formula, it removes the fear that often keeps aspiring screenwriters from beginning. The method remains the foundation of both his professional work and his teaching.
A working screenwriter and dedicated educator, Ron continues to move between the classroom and the industry, where story always comes first.
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