Writing for the Screen

This yearlong course, for the beginning to intermediate screenwriter, is a rigorous, yet intimate, setting in which to explore screenwriting work-in-progress. The course, structured as an intensive workshop, will investigate the nature of screenwriting. Students may work on either short-form or feature-length screenplays. They will read peer work, with the entire process supported by in-class analysis and critiques thereof. We will migrate from an initial idea through research techniques, character development, story generation, outlining, the rough draft, and rewrites to a series of finished, short-form screenplays or a feature-length script. Fundamentals of character, story, universe and setting, dramatic action, tension, conflict, structure, and style will be explored. In conference, students may research and develop other long-form screenplays or teleplays, craft a series of additional short screenplays for production courses or independent production, rewrite a previously written script, or adapt original material from another creative form.