Writing Scripts 101

Writing Scripts 101 is a 6-week class, which includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants a refresher. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.

Do you dream of seeing your work performed, up there, somewhere? A spellbinding movie. An addictive TV show. A gripping play. The thrill of scriptwriting is that, if you’re lucky, you get to see your work soar to life once all the elements—the work of directors, designers, cast, crew—are added to the vision of your script.

Here you’ll gain an introduction to writing for movies, TV, and plays, and you’ll also learn techniques fundamental to all forms of scriptwriting. It’s a sampler platter, with no pressure to work on a specific project or settle on which type of scriptwriting you prefer.

If you’re eager to enter the excitement of writing scripts, the show begins right here.

About Writing Scripts 101
Writing Scripts 101

Before this course, I had never even seen a screenplay. By the end of it, I was half way through writing a first draft of a feature!

Bethany Schuler

stay at home mom

Notes

This course includes screenwriting, TV writing, and playwriting.

The 101 courses do not include workshopping of student projects, but students write and receive feedback on writing exercises and assignments.

Upcoming Classes

Masks are not required, but we’ll provide masks for those who want them. We are no longer requesting proof of vaccination.

More Covid details

Price

Registration fee $25, paid once per term

6-Week

Syllabus

This course explores the major types of scriptwriting, and the techniques that go with them. Course components:
     Brief lectures
     Writing exercises

New York City/Zoom classes
The syllabus varies from teacher to teacher, term to term. Many topics will be similar to those covered in the Online classes.

Online classes 
Week 1
The Big Picture: Desire and conflict. Dramatic structure. Character—personality, actions, change.

Week 2
Scenes: Objective/obstacle. Scene pointers—beginning/middle/end, compression, stage directions, Dialogue—illusion of reality, reflecting character and situation, subtext.

Week 3
Playwriting: What makes it a play?—live-ness, theatricality, scene approach. Shaping a play—plot, character, and other considerations. Play scenes analyzed.

Week 4
Screenwriting: What makes it a movie?—Hollywood vs. indie, visual storytelling, scene approach. Shaping a movie—plot, character, and other considerations. Movie scenes analyzed.

Week 5
TV Writing: What makes it a TV show?—stories expanded over time, serial vs. episodic, types and forms. Shaping a TV episode—plot, character, and other considerations. TV scenes analyzed.

Week 6
The Dramatic Life: Getting ideas. Studying and stealing. Doing it—writing and revising, finding production.

Note: Content may vary among individual classes.

Teachers

Kuros Charney
Kuros Charney

Kuros Charney has had plays produced at numerous theaters, including Shame and Desire (Stella Adler Theatre), The Man from Brazoria County (ALAP New Works Lab), The Moving Forward of Souls (Coronet Theater), Anger (Elephant Theatre), and The Humanist (Dayton Playhouse). He wrote the feature film Another City, which premiered at the Manhattan Film Festival, and the feature screenplays Used Books, which was developed with actor/producer LeVar Burton (Eagle Nation Films), and The Sea Between, commissioned by producer Elizabeth Kahn (Forever After Project, Inc.). His work has appeared in New York magazine, Another Chicago Magazine, and FOLIO. He holds a BA from UC-San Diego and an MFA in Film from USC.

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