The film, "Telling an Old Story" (part of the series "Writers Writing" that was coproduced by WNET and Learning Designs and televised by WNET in 1985), was integrated into college developmental writing classes and proved to be an effective strategy for the improvement of students' writing skills. The film was presented with the emphasis on the problem/solution sequence--as a kind of mystery story rather than as an "educational film." The students saw the film twice, the first time with strategic stops for discussion and comparison free writing. Then, for greater student involvement, only the audio portion was run with the discussions about writing edited into a single sequence. The students drew parallels between writing and filmmaking, agreeing not only that the cinematic approach to writing a story is sometimes more effective or striking, but also that writing is much like film editing. The film has motivated the students to be more thorough, more patient; they are now more convinced that writing is indeed a process and they are more willing to be guided by it and better able to exert control over it. In short, their exposure to the film helped them to write with both greater freedom and more discipline. They wrote better, but more importantly, they became more fully and creatively engaged with writing. (NKA)