The Art of Storytelling: Your First Screenplay Adventure

Understanding how to format a screenplay involves more than just arranging words on a page. Although there is software that helps with this, there's more to it. It involves the essential elements of storytelling, such as introducing characters and organizing the structure of your script. ‘Screenplay formatting’ refers to how we arrange the words and details on a page. In this course, you'll learn everything from the title page to the end of your first screenplay on how to tell a story effectively. This course is designed to guide you through the entire process, starting from the title page and ending with the words "FADE OUT," teaching you how to create your very first screenplay.

• Introducing Characters and Writing Dialogue
• How much (or little) description of a character is a writer allowed (or expected) to give? Here you will learn how to introduce your characters effectively.
• Elements of Screenplay
• Here are the building blocks of formatting (and so of screenwriting).
• Intro to Screenplay Formatting
• In this session we will will learn why using Hollywood screenplay formatting style matters.
• Your First Screenwriting Assignment
• This is an adaptation assignment from fiction to script. You should end up with about four pages of script, but learn many of the tools you will need to write your own screenplays.
• Screenplay Software
• Screenwriting software is incredibly useful for writers like us. Pros and cons. Cost. Recommendations.
• Write Short Film Script
• Best to watch this session piece-by-piece over the course of about a week, as there are mini-assignments between each short lesson, leading to the final assignment, in which you will write and submit a short script, then read three of your classmates' short scripts.