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Buz Ecker, Ph.D. is a 2025 graduate of the PHD Program in Leadership and Change at Antioch University.

buz ecker committee

Buz Ecker at his Dissertation Defense.

From L-R: Dr. Carol Barrett, Committee Chair, Dr. Diane Allerdyce, Committee Member, Dr. Elden Golden, Committee Member

Dissertation Committee

  • Carole Barrett, PhD, Committee Chair
  • Diane Allerdyce, PhD, Committee Member
  • Elden Golden, PhD, Committee Member

Keywords

screenplay writing techniques, war movies, Vietnam, World War Two, Liberation of Paris, Office of Strategic Services, Naval Gunships, Chinook helicopters

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

Chinook is an original screenplay about a Vietnam vet with PTSD who meets a World War II vet in a VA Home, and the screenplay takes one afternoon to unfold. This dissertation explains how Chinook came to be, with all of the processes undertaken. It begins with an introduction about the characters in the screenplay and who these characters are based on. There are several books, movies, and articles contained in this section to make the characters, events, and flashbacks of what actually happened in World War II and Vietnam. The best resources were conversations with actual veterans from either war. While these veterans may not be quoted directly, and their specific wartime experience in combat is not used, a pattern of raw courage, being in horrific battles, killing the enemy, and reluctance to relive it all emerges. Lastly is a section on Screenplay Writing which contains information on the correct format a screenplay needs to be in for a director to consider it. The Methods of Working Creatively explains the roles of many people in the field of acting and how certain people were directly responsible in the process of writing and completing Chinook. It explores the success of networking as the only method which worked to get the screenplay in perfect format, theme, and focus. There are two sections on how Chinook is unique, and then what the plan is for the future of the screenplay. The next five sections come directly from the “Beat Sheet,” the term and definition arising from networking and finding the perfect person to assist with the writing and formatting of the play so that a director will consider it. The final section of the essay contains a comparison of Chinook with ten other war movies, with how Chinook uses some of the same techniques, and identifies other procedures which would help greatly if used in the filming of the screenplay. This section uses Cinéma Vérité as the basis for the comparisons of each war movie to Chinook and explores how a few of the movies do not use Cinéma Vérité. The final section of the dissertation is the original screenplay, Chinook. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

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buz ecker

Buz Ecker

ORCID: #0009-0008-7572-566X

I am Buz Ecker from Cincinnati and a recent graduate from Antioch University with a Ph.D. I have taught at various Universities in Cincinnati, including the University of Cincinnati, and Xavier University. I teach Composition, Intermediate Composition, and Creative Writing. Several of my students have published creative works from my classes in literary magazines. I received my Bachelor’s Degree from Denison University and my Master’s Degree from Xavier University. I have been on thirty-three wilderness canoe trips in Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. I have also umpired 40 baseball and softball games each spring for the last twenty-six years. I have been married to Kits for forty years, and we have three children and five grandchildren.

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