
COURIER
t w e l v e
F i l m & T V D r a m a D e v e l o p m e n t
Scriptwriting
Develop your creative and technical screenwriting skills and create a Film or TV Drama script that audiences will love.
COURSE CONTENT
MODULE 1 | CONCEPT & PLOT
• Establishing the Concept
• Expanding the Concept and Developing the Plot
• The Brain Dump
• Elements to The Story
• The Main Challenge
• The Story's Key Points
• Knowing the Story's Theme
• Identifying the Hero and The Villain
• Identifying the Other Heroic and Villainous Characters and How They Contribute
• Establishing the Hero’s Goals
• The Hero's and Villain's Actions and Their Consequences
• Establishing a satisfying and appropriate story climax
MODULE 2 | STRUCTURE
• Page-Per-Minute structuring
• The purpose of each act
• Three-Act Structure.
• The 5- key-points structure
• Optimising the act transitions
• Applying the Inciting Incident, Point of no Return and other plot points / reveals
• Maintaining the structure while protecting the drama
MODULE 3 | PACING
• Knowing the Importance of Pacing
• Making Sure That Our Story Is Effectively Paced
• The Manipulation of Time
• Establishing How the Series Is Broken Down
• Calculating How Long Each Scene Is
• Deciding What Needs to Be Portrayed with Each Scene
• Determining the Number of Episodes aLength of The Episode
• Establishing Our Key Scenes
• Knowing the Purpose of a Scene
• ‘Active’ And ‘Inactive’ Scenes
• The Tone of a Scene
• What A Scene Must Have to Have Purpose
• Introducing the Step Outline
• Elements of The Step Outline climax
MODULE 4 | CHARACTER
• Creating Characters for a Show
• What Is A Character
• Thinking of Our Character as A Real Person
• Creating Realistic, Three-Dimensional, Nuanced and Ultimately Relatable Characters
• Knowing the Story’s Characters Helps the Story’s Development
• Developing the Hero, Villain and Other Major and Minor Characters
• Writing the Character Profile – Biography, Journey, Effect
• Character Questionnaire
• Creating the Perfect ‘World’ For Their Story
• Establishing the Story's Environment, The Geography, Climate, Era
• How That World Impacts the Story and Its Characters
MODULE 5 | DIALOGUE
• Knowing the Value of Dialogue, What It Achieves
• Appreciating Real-Life Conversation Versus Dialogue
• Mastering True-To-Character Dialogue
• Raising the Game, Knowing Good Versus Great Dialogue
• Using Dialogue to Establish and Optimise Character Relationships
• Using Dialogue to Show Key Reveals and Portray Emotions
• Creating Dynamic Dialogue and Dialogue Beats
• Using Subtext to Add Complexity.
• Knowing What Not to Do with Our Dialogue
• Creating the Perfect ‘World’ For Their Story
• Establishing the Story's Environment, The Geography, Climate, Era
• How That World Impacts the Story and Its Characters
MODULE 6 | ADAPTATION
• Accepting That Screenwriting Is Different to Writing Novels
• Knowing Where to Start, To Pick Out A Novel’s ‘Tent-Pole’ Moments
• Deciding What to Keep and What to Drop
• Accepting That Much of The Book’s Story Will Be Changed
• Learning That the Craft and Technical Skills of Screenwriting Are Crucial
• Working with A Script Editor
• Knowing the Pitfalls of Adapting Our Own Novel
• Contests, Agents and Producers – How to Sell An Adaptation
MODULE 7 | FORMATTING
• Realising the Deal-Breaking Reasons We Worry About Formatting
• Learning Script Formatting by Script Reading
• Knowing Why We Format
• Realising What A Scene Should Achieve
• The 1 Page / 1 Minute Rule That Isn’t A Rule
• Deciding on Our Script’s Length and Why
• Choosing the Software That We Use to Write
• Setting Up Our Script
• Elements of Our Script
• Embracing the Rules and Knowing When to Break Them
• Knowing When (And Definitely When Not) To Use Scene Numbers
MODULE 8 | SELLING YOUR FILM OR TV DRAMA
• Our Screenplay Is Done – So What’s Next?
• Getting into A Writers’ Group
• Collaborating on Your Film or Show’s Development
• Working with An Editor
• Getting Agent Representation
• Developing Synopses, Treatments and Other Supporting Documents
• Getting Script Visibility with Screenplay Competitions
• Packaging Our Film or Series
• Contacting Producers, Directors and The Rest of The Production Industry
• Performing the Elevator Pitch
• Pitching at Festivals and Pitchfests
• Approaching Funding Bodies
• Getting Paid for Our Scripts
• Writing on Existing TV Series