Course Details
Scriptwriting for Beginners
15 Mar 2014
Personal Interest
Writing
Victoria University Community Continuing Education
Victoria University Community Continuing Education
Level 2, Rutherford House, 23 Lambton Quay, Wellington City
More Than 1 Week
5 weeks, Sat 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
5 weeks, Sat 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
$395.00
Including GST
Including GST
Overview:
Script analysis – being able to read scripts for their strengths and weaknesses – is key to your development as a screenwriter. It helps you improve your work and to identify why you are having trouble with a script. This skill is an often overlooked but vital part of successful scriptwriting.
On this course, you will learn what makes an effective screenplay and how to engage an audience. Why do viewers connect with certain film or television characters and not others? How do you keep your story interesting and moving along?
The course covers scene construction and how to make scenes effective and gripping. You will learn how to write visually for film and about the importance of stories and what audiences want from them. You will also learn how to create a story that stands out from the crowd.
Target audience:
This course is for anyone interested in scriptwriting for the film and television industry.
Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, participants will have:
•gained a basic understanding of the theory of screenwriting including the ‘three act structure’ and ‘hero’s journey’
•learned techniques that will help with future scriptwriting – how to write effective, compelling characters and create scripts that will engage an audience
•learned how to examine a film, to study the writing behind it and how that is used to make an effective screenplay – what works and what doesn’t
•discussed and completed exercises that consider and develop aspects such as character, structure, action and conflict.
Course outline:
Day One: Stories, how they work and what we want from them
•Introductions
•Why do we have, need and enjoy stories?
•Back to the Future discussion and how that film works to engage us
•Us, the audience, what we want
•The three acts
•The ‘hero’s journey’
•Change – the key to storytelling
Day Two: The elements
•Character introduction
•Character
•Strengths and weaknesses
•Conflict – the fuel for great drama
•The various forms of conflict
•Toy Story discussion, how much conflict was there in that film?
•The antagonist
•Fawlty Towers examination
Day Three: Writing devices
•Beginnings – what does a good beginning need?
•Study the beginning of three films
•Tape examination (play script)
•Shawshank exercise
•Groundhog Day discussion
•Timelock
•The scene
•In late, out early
•Positives, negatives
•Exposition
•Changing states
Day Four: Being different and writing tools
•Environment
•A morty story
•Playing with audience knowledge
•Decision making
•How to treat the page
•Details, details
•Message preaching
•Being different
•Thinking outside the square with characters
Day Five: Finding your voice
•Writing visually
•First image, last image
•Monologues – the way in
•Reading a script
•What to look for
•How to understand where a script may be lacking and why
•How to apply your understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of a script to your own work
•Where to from here
Course format:
This hands-on workshop is held on consecutive Saturdays over five weeks. It includes ‘homework’ to be undertaken between sessions consisting of creative writing exercises, watching specific movies and reading sections of scripts. Movie and script titles will be advised during the course.
Morning and afternoon tea will be provided, but participants will need to bring their own lunch.
Pre-course activity:
Before the first session on Saturday 6 April, you are asked to watch the original Back to the Future movie at least twice. This film should be available to rent from most DVD rental companies.
Class limit:
This course is limited to a maximum of 15 participants, so please enrol early.
Relevant links:
www.victoria.ac.nz/modernletters/our-students/phd-profiles#gavin-mcgibbon
www.playmarket.org.nz/playwrights/gavin-mcgibbon
For further information:
Community Continuing Education Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington
Phone 04 463 6556, Email: conted@vuw.ac.nz
Script analysis – being able to read scripts for their strengths and weaknesses – is key to your development as a screenwriter. It helps you improve your work and to identify why you are having trouble with a script. This skill is an often overlooked but vital part of successful scriptwriting.
On this course, you will learn what makes an effective screenplay and how to engage an audience. Why do viewers connect with certain film or television characters and not others? How do you keep your story interesting and moving along?
The course covers scene construction and how to make scenes effective and gripping. You will learn how to write visually for film and about the importance of stories and what audiences want from them. You will also learn how to create a story that stands out from the crowd.
Target audience:
This course is for anyone interested in scriptwriting for the film and television industry.
Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, participants will have:
•gained a basic understanding of the theory of screenwriting including the ‘three act structure’ and ‘hero’s journey’
•learned techniques that will help with future scriptwriting – how to write effective, compelling characters and create scripts that will engage an audience
•learned how to examine a film, to study the writing behind it and how that is used to make an effective screenplay – what works and what doesn’t
•discussed and completed exercises that consider and develop aspects such as character, structure, action and conflict.
Course outline:
Day One: Stories, how they work and what we want from them
•Introductions
•Why do we have, need and enjoy stories?
•Back to the Future discussion and how that film works to engage us
•Us, the audience, what we want
•The three acts
•The ‘hero’s journey’
•Change – the key to storytelling
Day Two: The elements
•Character introduction
•Character
•Strengths and weaknesses
•Conflict – the fuel for great drama
•The various forms of conflict
•Toy Story discussion, how much conflict was there in that film?
•The antagonist
•Fawlty Towers examination
Day Three: Writing devices
•Beginnings – what does a good beginning need?
•Study the beginning of three films
•Tape examination (play script)
•Shawshank exercise
•Groundhog Day discussion
•Timelock
•The scene
•In late, out early
•Positives, negatives
•Exposition
•Changing states
Day Four: Being different and writing tools
•Environment
•A morty story
•Playing with audience knowledge
•Decision making
•How to treat the page
•Details, details
•Message preaching
•Being different
•Thinking outside the square with characters
Day Five: Finding your voice
•Writing visually
•First image, last image
•Monologues – the way in
•Reading a script
•What to look for
•How to understand where a script may be lacking and why
•How to apply your understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of a script to your own work
•Where to from here
Course format:
This hands-on workshop is held on consecutive Saturdays over five weeks. It includes ‘homework’ to be undertaken between sessions consisting of creative writing exercises, watching specific movies and reading sections of scripts. Movie and script titles will be advised during the course.
Morning and afternoon tea will be provided, but participants will need to bring their own lunch.
Pre-course activity:
Before the first session on Saturday 6 April, you are asked to watch the original Back to the Future movie at least twice. This film should be available to rent from most DVD rental companies.
Class limit:
This course is limited to a maximum of 15 participants, so please enrol early.
Relevant links:
www.victoria.ac.nz/modernletters/our-students/phd-profiles#gavin-mcgibbon
www.playmarket.org.nz/playwrights/gavin-mcgibbon
For further information:
Community Continuing Education Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington
Phone 04 463 6556, Email: conted@vuw.ac.nz
Teacher:
Gavin McGibbon has numerous writing credits in theatre and radio. He has worked as a script editor, an MA scriptwriting supervisor and is currently a PhD student at the Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University. He has taught at Victoria University and The New Zealand Film School. Gavin also runs the Emerging Artists Trust Writers Group and is an Emerging Artists Trust mentor in Scriptwriting.
Gavin McGibbon has numerous writing credits in theatre and radio. He has worked as a script editor, an MA scriptwriting supervisor and is currently a PhD student at the Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University. He has taught at Victoria University and The New Zealand Film School. Gavin also runs the Emerging Artists Trust Writers Group and is an Emerging Artists Trust mentor in Scriptwriting.