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The Course: The Inside Track Screenwriting Workshops

Filmmaking is the ultimate creative endeavor. It involves the collaborative effort of hundreds of people, moving together to achieve the vision of a Director,. The process begins when the Screenwriter first puts pen to paper to describe the images in his or her mind, in the form of a screenplay.Deceptively difficult, screenwriting is the toughest of all forms of writing. Unlike writing for the stage, or novels, it requires a set a literary muscles not routinely used by novelists, playwrites, and so on.

This course is aimed at familiarizing the writer with Cinematic Structure. Not formulaic, the principles are maleable, but absolute. The rules of the novel and stage play differ from screenplay structure. In twenty hours of lecture over the course of an evening follwed by two whole days, you will learn how to approach the process of writing for the screen trade in a sensible way, in an atmosphere built on nurturing and trust, not intimidation and fear.

EVENING ONE:

Welcome and introduction. Course overview and description.The Log Line, and its critical importance to the screenplay. What separates a screenplay from other forms of writing and what makes it so difficult in comparison to other forms of prose.Overview of suggested reading and films, and their relevance to the course.

DAY ONE:

• "Wow, your life is a movie!" Really? Many writers have heard this phrase, but it is not necessarily true.
• The Context and Content of the screenplay.
• Characters: who they are, how they evolve, or devolve. How they function in the context of cinematic structure.
• Character Archetypes and their functions inthe live and universe of the screenplay.
• The Who, What, When, Where and Why Now?
• Obstacles, and the characters' internal and external need.
• Conflict; the single most necessary element of structure and character. How to illuminate:1.Internal conflict; how the character;s perception of self effects his or her actions. 2. External conflict;how the character reacts to opposing forces and is changed by the surrounding characters.
• Writing scene descriptions: Standard Screenplay Formatting.What is and is not acceptable on the page. How to avoid traps which will get your screenplay instantly thrown into the trash by a development exec. "Paper Babies" that will sink your screenplay.
• Getting in and out of a scene. How to ident ify the dramatic core of a scene.

DAY TWO

• Writing effective transitions that do not take the reader out of the story. How to juxtapose images in a manner to tell your story in cinematic terms.
• Classic Screenplay Structure: The Hero's Journey and it's place in cinematic structure. Plot points, the introduction of characters.
• Set Up, Confrontation and Resolution of your character's internal and external conflicts.
• Navigating your character thorough conflicts, (plot points)
• Preparing to write your screenplay. The process of constructing your screenplay.
• Execution: the process writing your screenplay.
• Meeting the Gatekeepers:The Business of Getting Your Work Read by a Decision Maker. How to do this by yourself and for yourself. Avoiding fee based "pitch" or "letter writing" services.
• The Screening: A film, selected by the group, will be screened and broken down, beat by beat, illustrating examples of classic cinematic structure.

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