Intermediate Screenwriting

This is a course for fiction film, television, and documentary scripts in which students complete or add significantly to a work-in-progress or start a new script if they wish. In addition to producing a work portfolio and increasing their writers' skills, the course focus is exploring and developing and students' writing process and unique voice. The course is designed to enable participants to work on fundamental elements crucial to excellence in dramatic writing such as theme, script voice and tone, character drive and character arc, script structure and designing principle, and scene structure. Students who wish to start a new script or work in an experimental form may do so with the instructor's permission. Students produce 30-40 new script pages in format and a 1-4 page treatment for a completed or new script, as well as the script's log line and tag line. Students are encouraged to write a complete script over the semester, if they wish, but students who wish to do so must arrange a special writing schedule with the instructor.