Trey Wodele
twodele@emailmtcs.org
Office: ComArts High School, Minneaplis,
Office Hours: 8:30 am - 4:30 pm, Monday - Friday
Phone: 612-728-8915 Ext 27
Fax: 612-729-0536
AIM/iChat text or video: mtsvideoarts (AOL account)

My name is John Henry Wodele III, but everyone calls me Trey. I teach Video Arts and Screenwriting at the ComArts High School in Minneapolis ComArts High School, as a part of the Digital Media Academy. We are a public charter school specializing in media arts. In addition to my department, we have a full recording studio and a graphic design department.

I got my degree from Metropolitan State University in Minnesota, I majored in Screenwriting. I moved to Austin, Texas to write and make films. Texas was a lot of fun and I met a lot of filmmakers and screenwriters. Austin is is called the "third coast" (after New York and LA) and there is always something going on there.

After five years in Austin, my little girl and I got in my '63 Merc. and drove back to Minneapolis. I enrolled at Augsburg College and began pursuing my Masters of Education Arts. I figured if I became an English teacher and did a good enough job, someone may let me teach film someday. Obviously, I was pretty excited when I was offered my post here at MTS.

I am the founder and co producer of the .EDU Film Festival, Minnesota's first state-wide, school sponsored high school film festival (www.edufilmfest.org).

I watch a lot of movies. Some of my favorite filmmakers are Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing), Robert Rodriguez (Grindhouse/Planet Terror, Sin City, Spy Kids), Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling LImited, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore), and the Cohen Brothers (No Country for Old Men, Fargo, Blood Simple). I also like to watch the Sopranos, Prison Break, and The Office on DVD. I like to ride my bicycle, get tattooed, boat on the Mississippi, hang out with my wife and three kids, and read detective novels.

Course Description By the time you have completed this course, you will know so much about screenwriting and film that you will never watch movies in the same way again. You will learn about plot structure, professional screenplay format, images, character, and dialogue, and a lot about yourself.

The most important thing that you will achieve is the ability to take the movie you see in your head, and convey it to others. Perhaps, if it is good enough, it may even be made into a movie.

(to return to the course, click the "back" arrow on your browser, or click the square "SCR101" button below.