Screenwriting
Screenwriting Online High School Course
COURSE LENGTH:
Trimester
Course Overview
Screenwriting presents the foundational principles of screenwriting and will encourage students to develop their writing skills, learn how to draft well-structured stories, create compelling characters, and become familiar with other important concepts to succeed in this field. They will learn, first, by reviewing and evaluating strengths and weaknesses of existing works. Then, they will begin applying what they’ve learned to their own scripts.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
To identify the structural anatomy of existing scripts, i.e. protagonist, antecedent action, genre, author’s themes, etc.
To be able to proof-read an existing script to identify the correct format format elements – identify its strengths and find errors which may exist.
To identify the archetypal plot-lines of a story.
To write characters, perform character studies, and to tease out the implicit details of a character’s life based upon an initial sketch.
To write dialog which seems spontaneous and reflects human conversation, and which achieves theme and philosophy.
To write an original comedy sketch.
To write a 10-minute proof of concept of a television series.
To create stage direction which makes the script professional and reader-facing.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:
To develop an appreciation of the components of effective film story-telling.
To be able to create a script which tells a complete story, driven by dialog and action; not overly-reliant on narrative
To develop an enriched reading ability which enables the student to more fully enjoy their reading and viewing of film and television, and to assess authorial intent.