The Basic Screenwriting Lessons New Writers Should Take
Aspiring writers today can easily avail of screenwriting lessons. The options are now varied: formal schooling for a degree or a certificate, selected sessions and workshops from theater groups, online courses from colleges and finally, tutorials from the internet and YouTube. Here is an overview of basic lessons that should not be missed by anyone who is determined to get ahead in the cutthroat field of screenwriting.
Comprehensive Workshop Seminars on Basic Screenwriting
Classes of this type will include input and interactive exchanges on format, structure, plot and subplots, character development and dialogue. If there is enough time, classes in this category may include the how to’s of making good openings and critical moments in the script. Some classes will be comprehensive enough to include research, buttoning scenes, scene cards, storyboards, payoffs and provide information on selling, marketing, unions, agents and the challenge of gaining entry into the world of screenwriting. Screenwriting lessons of this type are not lengthy enough to require students to submit a script but some may require that participants have a short script ready upon attendance.
Structuring a Screenplay
One of the most fundamental classes that wannabe screenwriters need to take is Screenplay Structuring. Here students will realize that the screenplay is art expressed in a technical and numerically determined form. Unlike novels that can run for five hundred pages or more, the screenplay lives within a hundred and twenty pages and contains prescribed divisions referred to as Acts and Scenes.
This class teaches you to see and write your script within the traditional three-act structure. As a rule, students learn how to introduce the main characters of the story and how to provide a sense of the plot’s general direction in Act I. This part of the script will normally span thirty pages or less but somewhere between page 10 and page 15, a critical event must take place- one that will serve to start the action and move the plot.
Screenplay Structuring Classes will show how Act II, the part of the script which occupies the next sixty pages, will show the turning point of the story. Rendered into film, this point in the script would be exactly halfway in the movie. Here you have the full exposition and escalation of conflict which shows the hero at his or her lowest point. Students also learn the discipline of not exceeding ninety pages when they end the last scene of this part of the script.
In Screenplay Structure class, writers learn how Act III shows the hero’s final battle and how the conflict is finally resolved – in all of thirty pages maximum.
Formatting the Script
Lessons in formatting the script are now usually brief. The purpose of these classes has become to merely give students a working knowledge of the requisite screenwriting format. This is because software is now available to do the time-consuming task of expressing script in the proper technical arrangement. All the writers need to know is how the elements will look when the script is done.
Developing Elements of the Screenplay
Usually, action, dialogue and character development are taught in separate classes. For example, a lesson in developing the characters of your screenplay will involve detailed discussions and illustrations of how each character is introduced, how the inner dimensions of their character can be projected – their strengths, hidden flaws and redeeming qualities. A lesson in dialogue will usually involve an overview of dialogue dos and don’ts while a study of action would include juxtaposing actions against the script’s outline, the structure of the screenplay as well as the characters in the story.
Screenwriting has always been and will always be a competitive arena. The availability of countless screenwriting lessons today will go a long way towards building the capability of new writers who can now more easily benefit from what others are willing to share. Those who are serious about being the best screenwriters they can be would do well to take advantage of lessons that help them master their craft.
