Detailed Description

This module will introduce you to the language, concepts, skills and storytelling theory commonly used in the development of projects for the screen, with an emphasis on the fundamentals of story structure and how those fundamentals tend to be applied and discussed within screen industries, both by writers and by other development professionals (script editors, producers, executives, etc). You will develop the core skills necessary to succeed both as a writer and a development professional: an appreciation and understanding of the conventions of screen storytelling, where those conventions come from, how they tend to be applied, and how they are discussed and worked with within industry. The critical, analytical and inter-personal skills required for key personnel in the development process (writers, producers, script editors, developers, and financiers) are examined and then developed and tested in a series of exercises, including the module’s major pieces of assessment – the Story Report and Script Report. Crucially, these assessments function to enable you to acquire an understanding of the structural norms underpinning the vast majority of work in the screenplay—an understanding which is essential to effective practice as a screenwriter as well as to all script development roles, and which will underpin your work on this programme. You also develop an understanding of the various jobs, roles and career opportunities across the screen industries. This work is carried across into the more practical Script Workshop modules, and applied to your own creative projects.