WHAT MAKES OUR SCREENWRITING PROGRAMS UNIQUE?

Students in our course generate a lot of written material, building a portfolio of writings that span several mediums but are focusing on storytelling and films. Upon completion of the course, students not only understand story structure, character, conflict and dialogue, but also leave the course with finished products that they can pitch, produce, and sell.

Goals

In the Screenwriting course, students are taught the art of screenwriting through workshop courses that have them learn by writing, but also in skill-building courses that focus on film history, film genres, and specific skills, like scene construction, adaptation, and character building.

Savvas Christou course in Screenwriting has business classes that teach students the reality of the industry; how to find work as a writer, how to work in the industry to support yourself, and how to pitch your stories and story ideas.

In the course, students take:

• Story Generation

  Where they learn where to find inspiration for stories and how to develop a story idea into a detailed treatment for a feature film.

• Elements of Screenwriting

  Where they learn the tools of writing, from format, to pacing, to dialogue, to theme, and put that all together to write a script for a short film or feature.

• Screenplay  Workshop

  Where they begin work on their final project (either a feature film screenplay, short film screenplay or a television series idea and pilot script).

• Rewriting Workshop

  Where they learn the skills involved in planning a rewrite based on feedback they’ve received, and then build a revision blueprint for one of their feature film screenplays, which they then rewrite.

• The Business Of Screenwriting

  Where students learn about the entertainment industry and learn pitching skills.

• Character Development

  Where they learn about characters and character arcs in greater depth.

• Scene Study

  Where they learn about scene construction and scene beats in greater detail by taking scenes from their projects apart and putting them back together, and then working with actors on the scenes.

• And many more…

At the end of the course the students will have produced a feature-length film screenplay, a short film or a TV pilot with the following:

• Log Line

• Synopsis

• A beat sheet

• Treatment

• Screenplay

• Pitch (elevator, 10min, 20min)

• Tag Lines

In addition to the above students will have many workshops including:

• Atmosphere 

• Structure (3 Acts)

• Character Arc and Development

• Scene Structure

• Preparation and Aftermath

• Conflict

• Opposites

• Setting a Scene

• Plot Points, Climax and Resolution

• Role of Subplots

• Dialogue