Screenplay Writing Course Syllabus

Students will learn to:

• Understand plot and narrative structure.
• Analyze the key components of classical dramatic narrative.
• Develop dramatic situations and scenes.
• Write engaging and entertaining dialogue, between well-realized characters.
• Find their personal style and voice.
• Write log-lines, synopses, and treatments.
• Create series bibles and pitch decks.

Introduction to Screenwriting:

• The visual nature of movies.
• Screenplay as a blueprint.
• Where to find ideas.
• Forming a premise.
• The high and low concept.
• Log-line; synopsis; outline; treatment; series bible; and the pitch deck.

Plot I: 

• Finding a major dramatic question. 
• The three-act structure. 
• The difference between classic plots and subplots. 
• Making a story map. 

Character: 

• Finding a strong protagonist. 
• Handling other characters. 
• Making characters three-dimensional through desire and contrasts. 
• Creating character profiles. 
• Showing characters through their actions. 

Scene: 

• Scene defined. 
• Tenets of a good scene—importance, desire/conflict, structure, compression, visual storytelling. Sequences. 
• Making a step outline. 
• Writing effective screenplay narratives. 

Dialogue: 

• Dialogue's illusion of reality. 
• Compression. 
• Characterization through dialogue. 
• Subtext. 
• Exposition. 
• Stage directions. 
• Voice over. 

Subplot: 

• The value of subplots. 
• Romantic subplots. 
• Other kinds of subplots for the protagonist. 
• Non-protagonist subplots. 
• Subplot structure. 
• Finding subplots in your story. 

Plot II: 

• Creating an effective opening section. 
• Techniques for sustaining Act II. 
• Creating an effective climax. 
• Flashbacks. 

Tone/Theme: 

• Developing tone through genre, world, and lightness/darkness. 
• Consistency of tone. 
• Types of themes. 
• Weaving theme into a story.

Presentation: 

• Log-lines, synopses, pitches. 
• Character Arcs.
• Dialogue – the cinematic language.
• Dramaturgy - Cinematic Syntax.
• Theme & subtext.
• Conflict – plots and subplots.
• Pace, Style, and Tone.
• Visualization.