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WGSA Online Session: Back to Basics
March 5 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
R75
Plot set-ups and pay-offs with Ben Johnson
How do set-ups and pay-offs shape a compelling story? What role does a character’s flaw play in narrative development? Join Ben Johnson as he unpacks binary development and the storytelling techniques that keep audiences engaged.
Session Details:
Date: Wednesday, 5 March 2025
Time: 19:00 – 20:00 SAST
Location: Online (The Zoom link will be distributed via email by 12pm on 5 March 2025. Please add communications@writersguildsa.org to your contact list)
Registration closes at 18:00 SAST on 4 March 2025.
NB: This session will not be recorded.
Meet your Facilitator
Ben Johnson is a versatile storyteller who crafts compelling cross-genre narratives that resonate across cultures, transforming profound human experiences into stories that illuminate the universal struggle between darkness and light.
He grew up in a previously disadvantaged community in South Africa during the apartheid years. His strict upbringing was peppered with loads of personal trauma, rebellion, and domestic violence. As a result, his stories explore the theme of fatherhood, and feature characters who either embrace or fight their inner darkness. Ben comfortably straddles a career in both film and television. He’s a seasoned feature writer with 14 commissioned scripts under his belt, including two novel-to-screen adaptations, an international martial arts co-production between South Africa and Thailand, and most recently a biopic for one of the directors of BBC’s DOCTOR WHO.
As a headwriter, storyliner and scriptwriter in the African television space, he’s amassed over 500 episode credits and worked on 16 shows, including FIFTY THE SERIES for Ebony Life TV, on Netflix. He’s been hired to lead series developments, worked as a story consultant, and served as headwriter on a number of shows, including the South African adaptation of UGLY BETTY. In 2022, he was hired to create and head write an original series for Netflix.
His script editing clients include the Kwazulu-Natal Film Commission(KZNFC), the National Film and Video Foundation(NFVF), and the Namibian Film Commission(NFC). He has served as a council member of the Writers Guild of South Africa(WGSA ) and a judge for both the WGSA Muse Awards and the South African Film and Television Awards(SAFTAS).
Ben is a NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY Fellowship Alumnus whose screenplays have placed highly in both local and international script competitions. His thriller script, CANAAN, won the feature diversity category of the 2019 Final Draft Big Break Contest. Ben was invited to Los Angeles to participate in the Final Draft Awards, and was consequently signed to a literary manager. In 2020, Ben was invited to pitch two of his scripts at the Berlin Film Festival’s Africa Finance Hub. His current feature, RIVER RUN, is being shopped in Hollywood with academy award winner, Troy Kotzur, attached as lead. His 13 part drama series DARK DAYS, goes into production in 2025.
WGSA members attend for free
Non-members pay R75. Details on the RSVP form