Course Outline Pencils fly and learners make story magic in the hotly anticipated sequel to the smash hit “Being a Screenwriter”
Lesson 1: Screenwriting 101: The Building Blocks of a Great Script
A quick review of the screenwriting basics—genre, theme, setting, protagonist and antagonist—reinvigorates classroom excitement about the screenwriting enterprise. Students use a “Three-Act Structure” poster to launch their writing progress.
Lesson 2: Understanding Scenes: The Building Blocks of a Screenplay
Using a logline, learners begin the process of sketching the fundamental scenes of a hypothetical movie. Next, students apply scene structure diagramming to their own exciting movie ideas.
Lesson 3: The Scene Outline: Planning Your Screenplay
Students create their movie “blueprints” in Lesson 3, sketching up to fifteen different scenes for their upcoming blockbusters. Working with a partner, learners exchange ideas and get their frameworks for success down on paper.
Lesson 4: How Screenwriters Write: Screenplay Formatting
Form and function of the parts of a screenplay become abundantly clear to learners as they participate in a “table reading.” Students have fun as they channel Pitt and Jolie in an exercise that helps them differentiate the unique purpose of individual script elements.
Lesson 5: Writing Slug Lines and Transitions
Getting from one scene to the next is one of the most challenging tasks for screenwriters. In this lesson, learners get acquainted with the “fade,” “cut,” and “dissolve” techniques and begin to see the shape of their storylines.
Lesson 6: What Your Characters Do: Writing Action
From a raised eyebrow to a high-speed chase, all action in a screenplay can be scripted, and its relationship to character is critical. Learners develop “action points” in two activities in this lesson.
Lesson 7: How Characters Talk: The Importance of Dialogue
Dramatic language—the language moves both stories and audiences—gets its due in this intriguing experiment with dialogue. Learners also test their knowledge of hallmark movie moments in a game of “Name That Quote.”
Lesson 8: Writing Dialogue: Deciding What Their Characters Will Say
Before diving in to their own dialogue, learners practice dialogue formatting. Then they egin to reveal their quirky, evil or brainy characters for each scene developed earlier in Lesson 3’s “blueprint.”
Lesson 9: Bringing It All Together: Finishing Your Screenplay
Great writers, and even screenwriters, know that sharing their work with others helps them identify their script’s greatest strengths and weaknesses. Feedback from fellow screenwriters in this peer review helps students put their best foot forward—before the cameras roll!
Lesson 10: Your Script Comes to Life: The Table Reading
Scripts at the ready, learners take on the roles of actors and hear the results of their hard work in this culminating activity. Even a “director” gets to participate. Ready? Lights, camera, action! |
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