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For the Screen

Screenwriting

Original works and literary adaptations — an undergraduate immersion in cinema meeting a novelist's precision on the page.

C.M. Dinsmore's undergraduate years were spent immersed in the world of cinema. His M.F.A. and Ph.D. redirected him into a more in-depth, detailed, and layered approach to storytelling but the filmmaker's eye remains.

The screenwriting spans original works and literary adaptations. The flagship project is Christabel — an original adaptation of Coleridge's famous unfinished poem meant to be paired with music by composer Albert Syeles.

The Approach
  • Economy of language as a primary formal value
  • Character revealed through a thoughtful and patient pace
  • Adaptation as representation of character's and story's essentialism
A page of the Christabel screenplay presented as a 35mm film frame: aged script pages on the left, and on the right Christabel before a moonlit castle, a white wolf at her side and a pale figure behind her.
Christabel — excerpt. PART I. The castle's bard, unseen, recites the opening verses of the original "Christabel" poem. MASTER BRACY (V.O.): 'Tis the middle of night by the castle clock, And the owls have awakened the crowing cock; Tu-whit! Tu-whoo! INT. CASTLE — NIGHT. The clock strikes midnight. EXT. FOREST — NIGHT. An owl, sitting on a branch, coos. EXT. CASTLE GROUNDS — NIGHT. The cock crows. MASTER BRACY (V.O.): And hark, again! The crowing cock, How drowsily it crew. Sir Leoline, the Baron rich;— INT. SIR LEOLINE'S CHAMBER — NIGHT. The shield of Sir Leoline hangs in a murky niche on the wall within shimmering light from fireplace.
Screenplay Adaptation

Christabel

Based on the unfinished poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, first published 1816

A whirlwind of a mystery revolving around the tragedies and mental anguish of one English noble family. Centered on Christabel, who experiences friendship and love in the midst of loss and loneliness, the story unfolds and twists until it culminates in one woman finding her source of strength.

Finalist — Cambridge Script Festival 2026
Accolade
Finalist · Cambridge Script Festival · 2026
Visit the Christabel Project Request Script
A page of the screenplay presented as a 35mm film frame: aged script pages on the left, and on the right the silhouetted profile of a bearded soldier, its interior a double exposure of a Philippine jungle at red sunset with a lone infantryman walking a jungle path.
The Melody That Binds — excerpt. EXT. PHILIPPINE JUNGLE — NIGHT. Dense canopy. No stars. The sounds of battle have stopped — which is worse than when they hadn't. KENJI (20s, Japanese infantry) kneels in the undergrowth. Rifle at his side. He has not moved in three hours. He hears something. Not gunfire. Music. KENJI (V.O.): My mother told me that music was the only language God spoke without an accent. I had not believed her until that night in the jungle. He lowers the rifle. He listens.

Also for the Screen

The Melody That Binds

An adapted screenplay developed in parallel with the novel — the same story of a Japanese soldier in the Philippine jungle, 1945, rendered in the visual language of cinema. Inspired by the dramatic grammar of Kurosawa.

Scripts available upon request to producers, development executives, and literary managers.

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