Web Links Being a Screenwriter: Generating Ideas for a Screenplay

Lesson 1

1. Between class periods, students can use their screenwriting journals to note genres and themes where they see them at home in movies and on television. They should pay extra attention to the genres and themes that get them most excited or they find themselves watching the most. The genres and themes they enjoy most will be the easiest to write about in their loglines, treatments and screenplays.   
2. For more examples of genre and theme visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_movie_genres or www.filmsite.org/genres
3. Students can also browse screenplays by genre www.simplyscripts.com/genre/

Lesson 2

1. Encourage students to take note of these elements in their screenwriting journal between class sessions when they see them on television, in movies and in their everyday lives. Encourage them to begin to think of antagonists, protagonists, settings, conflicts and resolutions that they may like to use in their stories. Television shows are a great way to dive into three-act structure because the action is condensed into a half-hour. If they can, encourage students to sit down with their journals as they watch television and jot down the elements of the three-act structure that they see on the screen.
2. For examples of how three-act structure works in full-length feature films, visit www.filmscriptwriting.com/thethreeactstructure.html

Lesson 3

1. Encourage the students to dig through their lives for screenplay ideas between class periods. Have them take notes in their journals on settings and characters that inspire them. Perhaps funny things always happen when they are at a certain friend’s house. Or maybe there’s a homeless man or woman they often see in town who makes them think. Or maybe they have a grandfather who has a great war story he tells. Have them record it all. If they don’t use the idea in this class, maybe they will in the future.
2. Encourage the students to turn their screenwriting journals into a scrapbook of inspiration. If they find a photo, a magazine article or a picture that inspires them, they should tape or glue it into their journals. They can draw, doodle, sketch, color, paint (if they really want)--anything to get their brains working.
3. A great resource for inspiring screenwriting ideas is Screenwriters Utopia at www.screenwritersutopia.com .  Their front page always has great prompts, advice and tips on making a good script idea great.

Lesson 4

1. Encourage students to open themselves up to possibilities between classes. Ask them to look for story ideas in everything—at school, in the grocery store, while they’re out with their friends. Maybe the waitress at the diner has a double life as a spy or the neighbor’s dog wins volleyball competitions. Have them look for screenwriting ideas everywhere and jot them down in their journal. 
2. Students can play “writer’s tennis” with a friend. One person starts a story by thinking of a time or a place, writing something like “Once upon a time in outer space…“ or “At the 2008 Olympics…” Then that person “tosses” the story to their partner, who continues the story, such as “…there was a little boy who loved hamburgers…” They can keep passing the paper back and forth and watch what develops.
3. Additionally, Creativewritingprompts.com offers literally hundreds of writing prompts the students could refer to in order to get inspired.

Lesson 5

1. Organizing ideas not only helps screenwriters keep track of the things they come up with, but it can also be useful when trying to assemble bits and pieces of a story. There are many different ways to organize ideas and different things work for different people. Have the students experiment with organizing their ideas. They can try writing separate ideas on slips of paper or 3 x 5 cards. This way they can create piles or files of like ideas or ideas that seem to fit together. Or they can try pinning ideas to a bulletin board or perhaps writing on a white board or a big sheet of paper at home--anything that will help them look at all of their ideas more clearly and find new ways to arrange them.
2. There's a great online organization tool at www.bubblr.us . Similar to the story stars, this application allows users to record an idea and connect it to other ideas in bubbles, or create entirely separate systems of bubbles once a train of thought has ended.

Lesson 6

1. Another way to learn more about what motivates a character is to find out what events have significantly impacted their lives. Have the students figure out the birth date and place of their main character and do some research into the events that occurred in that time period in that era. How might these events have shaped the way the character looks at the world?
2. For more examples of well-developed characters, check out the 100 greatest movie characters of all time at www.filmsite.org/100characters.html .

Lesson 7

1. In this lesson, students learned how to connect the elements of a screenplay using the central conflict, as well as subplots and complications. Have them find a book at home--any book, a novel, a dictionary, a telephone directory--and randomly choose three words. Then have them connect those three words using a central conflict. For instance, my three words are "Cinderella," "environment" and "education." A conflict connecting the three could be: Cinderella's school has bought a forest that it intends to turn into a parking lot, and she must take on the board of education in order to save the forest.  CINDERELLA must choose between protecting the ENVIRONMENT and having her life made miserable by the board of EDUCATION.
2. For more examples of how conflicts, subplots and complications come together effectively, check out the Greatest Film Plot Twists of All Time at www.filmsite.org/greattwists.html.

Lesson 8

1. In the late 1990s, author and studio executive Christopher Vogler reinvented the hero/heroine's journey for modern movie making.  His outline recognized several more steps to the journey, and has changed the way screenwriters write in Hollywood. His formula is not only helpful as we seek to understand how movies work, but it can also be a great tool to use in beginning to write a screenplay, as it is the formula studio executives want to see when they buy a screenplay. You can find more information on Vogler's hero/heroine's journey in his book The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, or on the web at:

   www.dramatica.com/theory/articles/vogler-plot.html · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Writer%27s_Journey:_Mythic_Structure_For_Writers

2. Students can also look up the hero/heroine's journeys for many of their favorite films here: http://www.clickok.co.uk/index4.htm  Although the journeys described here have many more steps to them than discussed in this class, all of the steps taught here are outlined on this site and students can take a look at the more specific, in-between steps, as well.

Lesson 9

1. Part of thinking visually is understanding the underlying themes that give a visual image its power. Have students practice visualizing events surrounding given themes by developing multiple movie scenes around one word. For instance, if given the word "cruelty," they may envision a scene featuring a young girl being bullied by her classmates, a businessman announcing he's going to tear down an apartment building to build an office complex, or a hungry puppy digging through her owner's leftovers looking for something to eat. See what scenes students can come up with for the following words: justice, hope, anger and forgiveness.
2. For a lesson in storyboarding, check out the short film-making school at wikiversity at en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Lesson:Thumbnail_Storyboard

Lesson 10

1. For tips on preparing pitches and what studio executives look for in an idea visit www.breakingin.net/marketing_faq2.htm