Atlanta Film Festival 365

Screenwriting 101: Screenplay Basics
Instructor: Stephen Berger 

5 Sessions
Mondays, January 11 - February 8, 2010
7:00-10:00 PM

Price: $195 General, $175 ATL365 Members (Member Number Required)

Limit 15 students

The screenplay is the foundation of any film, the stronger the foundation, the better the movie. In this workshop students will learn the basics of screenwriting including what makes a compelling story, how to develop a story outline and flesh out characters and what comprises basic screenplay structure.

Location: Atlanta Film Festival 365 533 Means St. Atlanta, Ga, 30318

Registration Links:

General Registration - $195

ATL365 Member Registration - $175

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

We will conduct the class (mostly) as a workshop. Through class exercises and group participation, each student will develop and hone their stories, build those stories through to the beat-sheet stage  and finally begin work on the actual writing of the screenplay manuscript.

In addition to story-building and writing homework, each week as a class we we’ll choose one movie, either from film history or a film currently in theatrical release, to view and analyze in the next class meeting.           

COURSE MATERIALS:

There are no required materials (except for your creative imaginations) – optional reading materials include Aristotle’s Poetics, The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egre, and any other text you feel is helpful.

BUT I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING:

WATCH MOVIES!!! As many of them as you can: good, bad and in-between. For some of you this will not be a problem. But many of you will have gaps in your cinematic educations. Professional screenwriters use movies as their technical language. It is their jargon, their argot, their lingua franca. If your aim is to be a good screenwriter (or just to write a good screenplay), then you can never see too many movies. An abundant knowledge of cinema (American and foreign) is essential to a well-developed, robust set of story chops – the fewer films you’ve seen in your life, the weaker your story-telling abilities will be.

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WEEK  1:

A)   WHAT’S THE STORY?

The beginning of any worthwhile screenplay is The Story. The story is the first cause, the ur, the essence of your script. Without a compelling story, you can have the most colorful characters, the most explosive action, the most serpentine plots, but it won’t add up to a true film narrative. With input from workshop members, we will pitch story ideas.

In-class exercise: Write/ptich a brief, one-sentence summary of your story that begins: “This is the story of…” Try not to exceed one sentence. DO NOT go over two sentences.

B)    IS IT A MOVIE? (What makes a compelling screen story, as opposed to a novel, a stage play, or a teleplay?)

Now that you’ve had your first crack at creating a one-sentence version of your story, we ‘ll work on improving it – which may mean trashing it altogether. With input from our members, we ‘ll determine if our story, in its best form, is in its best format, and try to avoid the following: Too-personal stories, stories with agendas, new chapters in established franchises, and others.

At-home exercise: Revise your story, expanding it into one, AND ONLY ONE, paragraph.

WEEK 2:

A)   THE  PLAYERS (Drawing compelling, dimensional characters, as opposed to “types,” wise-cracking wonders, or “Irving the Explainer.”)

As  you’ve  now codified your story into one sentence and one-paragraph summaries, it’s time to start thinking about characters. We’ll avoid common pitfalls, such as Xeroxing characters from other films, “wise-ass” syndrome, and the so-called “everyman.” We’ll learn the value of being specific, drawing from people in your own life, and the cognitive character-building exercise called “The Interview.”

In-class exercise: Pitch brief character bios for your leading characters.

B)   IN THE BEGINNING (Getting the story going in your first act, as

 opposed to twenty pages of “atmosphere.”)

In this part of workshop we’ll launch into the second phase of The Process, the fleshing-out of your story, where we begin to seriously deal with Plot. We’ll devote one paragraph to the first act of your script. You’ll learn, through discussion of actual films, to locate the basic movements, flows and currents as the story begins to reveal itself to you, and in so doing we’ll figure out what to put in and, more importantly, what to leave out.

At home exercise: Do “The Interview” exercise as explained in workshop, and write down some of your results. Write a one paragraph summary (and no more than one, standard-length paragraph) of your First Act.

WEEK 3:

A)   NOW WHAT? (The Second Act, otherwise known as The Worst Part of Screenwriting.  This is where even the pros get shaky, which is why it’s essential to get the story right.)

In this workshop we’ll delve more deeply into the D.A. (Dramatic Action), which should appear roughly three times (one for each act) in  your screenplay. If the first D.A. is the one that sets up the basic problem of the story, and third D.A. resolves the story, then what does the second D.A. do? Some will tell you that the second D.A. must be a “reversal.”  We’ll discuss why this is true… sometimes. But just as often, the second D.A. can take a variety of forms. Once again, through discussion of real films, we’ll learn what some of these D.A.’s might be.

In-class exercise: Pitch a brief summary of your Second Act.

B)   LOOSE ENDS (Writing a satisfying conclusion to your story (as opposed to the Pat Ending, the Bloody Mess, or the Giant Fireball of Death.))

Now we’ll deal with resolving all the issues we’ve set up in our previous acts (and their attendant D.A.’s) and try to figure out how to resolve them and find a satisfying conclusion (and by that I don’t mean a happy conclusion, I mean one that honestly and harmoniously resolves everything that’s gone before, be it happy, un-happy, or jarringly, glaringly neither.) Once again, through the discussion of actual films we’ll see what works, try to avoid the treacherous terrain of the Act 3 D.A., and thread that very fine needle: the narrative conclusion of a feature film.

At-home exercise: Write a one-paragraph summary of your Second and Third Acts.

WEEK 4:

A)   THE SOUL OF  STRUCTURE: THE BEAT SHEET (Learning to outline, the process that every – yes, every – screenwriter must master. The outline is the most crucial step in The Process, but once mastered, it’s an amazingly flexible tool.)

After completing our three paragraph summaries, we should have a good feel for what the broad-stroke movements of our story are, the three D.A.’s which comprise the set-up, the, complication(s), and the resolution. Now it’s time to get detailed, to connect the important yet still-abstract elements together and begin to map out exactly how our screenplay will look, starting to plan every scene and sequence we’ll eventually write.

In-class exercise: Write/pitch the first three beats of your screenplay (each beat should be no longer than three lines.)

B)   FINE-TUNING YOUR OUTLINE (Now that you have your beat-sheet, it’s possible to see which beats are important, which need to be moved, which need to be reworked, and which need to be axed altogether.)

Re-working your beats is a process which, if done correctly, will yield two important results: The first is to provide you with a miniature version of development, the process you will go through (and through and through) once you go pro. It’s the way you develop your story chops, your ability to craft a narrative that’s original and compelling, which leads us to the second result: The re-working (or development) of your story is the only way to actually see your story before you write it, much like you would see the moon through an out-of-focus telescope. The more you develop your story, the more in-focus the image of your story becomes. With input from the workshop, we’ll do just that with your story.

At-home exercise: Based on the feedback you get in workshop, complete your beat-sheet.

WEEK 5:

A)    DEVILISH DETAILS: (Format, writing choices, and getting into the habit of writing every day.)

In addition to discussing the proper format (and the typical mistakes that novices make), we’ll discuss the process of actually writing, that is, getting out the pages, and continuing to get out the pages, whether you feel like it or not. Many new writers make the mistake of thinking that they have to set aside a special time, place, and mental space for their writing. In truth, this can be a blueprint for disaster. Rather, you have to make writing a habit, something you do every day, without having to think too much about the actual sitting down and doing of it (thereby saving that energy for the writing itself). We’ll discuss a strategy called Momentum Writing, which will allow you to write more pages than you probably thought possible.

In-class exercise: Pitch in detail the first five to ten pages of your script.

B)    SCREEN ZEN, or HOW TO SURVIVE WRITING YOUR SCRIPT (Getting started is easy, but at some point you will, guaranteed, want to give up before you finish. Here’s how to get through it.)

The process you’ve begun is even more difficult that the rigorous job of getting your story in shape, creating a workable outline, and launching into the actual writing of your first draft. And the hurdles you’re facing are not only those of creativity. The process of writing a feature-length script is, at bottom, a mental challenge, and in this workshop we’ll discuss the tools that can help you meet that challenge.

Final exercise: Using the techniques we’ve discussed in workshop, continue writing your script until you have a feature-length first draft.