SCREEN 705
Screenwriting
Please note: this is archived course information from 2019 for SCREEN 705.
Description
This course covers key principles of screenwriting via a consideration of the short film screenplay with a focus on dramatic writing. It is designed as a high-intensity immersion experience in the principles of scriptwriting with particular attention paid to visual language, narrative structure, characterisation and dialogue, script critiques and the process of script revision.
Apart from "exercise pieces" students will write two short screenplays beginning with a two-minute project with minimal dialogue and complete the course with a fully developed five-minute screenplay for a short film that they may produce in semester two. The majority of the student’s learning experience will come from their own practical efforts and the personal challenges each sets for themselves. (i.e., the more you work, the more you learn). The frustrations and difficulties you encounter are not obstacles to writing your script - they constitute the very act of writing.
Course objectives:
- Understand fundamentals and principles of dramatic writing in relation to short film
- Learn to progress from “idea” to “story” to “screenplay”
- Improve your writing by shooting what you write
- Exposure to various modes of address, narratives and structure
- Inculcate professional aspects of screenplay writing including making and keeping deadlines, consistency, presentation and standardisation of format
- Experience the various stages through which projects progress; rewrites and revisions
- Analyse and provide constructive critiques of peer-work
Class limits for 2019
Enrolment is limited to 18 students, based on eligibility for admission to the PG programme in Screen Production and the qualitative evaluation of the portfolio submitted.
Availability 2019
Semester 1
Lecturer(s)
Coordinator(s) Dr Shuchi Kothari
Assessment
Points
SCREEN 705: 15 points
Restrictions
FTVMS 758
