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Intensive Introduction to Screenwriting

Dates: 14th and 21st January 2006, 4th and 11th February 2006 (all Saturdays), from 10am to 5pm.

Fees: £225 (£175 concessions)

Venue: Lighthouse, 9-12 Middle Street, Brighton.

The syllabus for this course was commissioned by the UK Film Council to provide writers with foundation skills in screenwriting. It forms part of an integrated approach to the provision of skills for the audio-visual industries.

The course tutor is Julie Everton. Julie is a writer and a freelance script editor on feature films and has worked with screenwriters in Europe as well as in the UK. She is currently script editor on a feature funded by the UK Film Council's Development Fund.

As a writer Julie has written for stage and television as well as for film. She is an award winning playwright, produced at the Royal Court Theatre, Soho Theatre and others. For television she has written for the BBC's Down to Earth, as well as for Carlton and for BBC School's Hotch Potch House.

Course Aims:

To help you develop an understanding of the basics of the craft and art of screenwriting
To develop a framework of screenwriting practice
To encourage you to write a short screenplay
To provide you with an ability to participate in critical workshops on both your own and other writers' work
To encourage you to develop a critical self-awareness and an enquiring, analytical and creative approach to your work
To further your learning and creative abilities by participating in exercises and course assessment

The course develops from an initial lecture and screening format to workshops, with group discussions and practical exercises being used throughout the programme.

You will be expected to participate in the general discussions and the presentation of work, as well as in providing feedback on other students' work.

By the end of the course you should have developed a range of skills and critical facilities in screenwriting. In addition, you will have been offered the opportunity to develop and write a short screenplay with peer feedback.

You should also be able to think critically and independently about what you have seen and read.

The course makes extensive use of screenplay screenings of shorts and features extracts, handouts including first and second draft short screenplays, as well as extracts from key books.

The course combines lecturing, group discussion, individual writing exercises, and small group workshops.

Outline of Course

Day One:

Introduction - Aims and expectations, introduction to short films.
Developing Ideas - Stories, Plots and Narrative - Where to get ideas from. What is a screen idea? Shaping your idea into a premise for a film.
Premise Workshop - Principles of workshopping, using workshops as a development tool, workshopping your premise.

Day Two:

Characters and Characterisation - creating characters, developing characters, the character arc.
Visual Style - The writer?s style and the director?s style - expressing them on the page.
The Short Screenplay - Key elements present in short film forms, review shorts to identify engaging structures and narratives.
The Feature Length Screenplay - Different approaches made when writing a feature, workshop a series of screenplays.

Day Three:

Outline Workshop - Workshop a series of outlines, articulate why an outline is not working, provide solutions to identified problems, identify key problems with the project and discuss further development.
Dialogue - Identify the purpose dialogue serves in a scene, review your dialogue with a view to editing it, writing a monologue.
Rewriting - things to consider in the rewriting process.
Scene Writing - looking at the basic functions and elements of a great scene, and how to write key scenes in a feature.

Day Four:

Draft Screenplay workshop - Workshop a series of draft screenplays, articulate why a draft screenplay is not working, provide solutions to identified problems and identify key problems with your project and how to develop it.
Selling Your Screenplay - Place your project within the structure of the industry and understand the role of pitching and your ability to do it.
Next steps - Where to go from here - Understand the basic parameters of any career choice you make. What do you still need to learn and how has this course helped.

To download application forms please click here.
If you have any further questions or have any difficulty downloading the forms please contact Emma Basset on: Tel: (01273) 384 222 / Textphone: (01273) 386680 / Email: info@lighthouse.org.uk