Course Description
An intensive media writing course. Students utilize the fundamentals of dramatic criteria learned in Writing for Entertainment Media to develop and pitch story ideas. Students are required to write a screenplay or equivalent media product.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Students will write a paper critiquing their own work using
various theoretical perspectives, such as, but not limited to,
narrative, genre, feminist, auteur, post-structural and historical
theories. This will be a conventional scholarly paper requiring
substantial background reading and frequent consultation with the
instructor.
Athena Title
Screenwriting
Undergraduate Prerequisite
EMST 3210 and EMST 3320 and permission of department
Graduate Prerequisite
Permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. Demonstrate critical insight into basic formatting, dialogue, exposition, and scene construction 2. Execute idea-generating strategies and internal and external research 3. Perform the work that precedes the drafting of a script, and the level of creativity necessary to develop a camera-ready work 4. Develop a personal writing process that results in the creation of an act-by-act construction of an original screenplay
Topical Outline
Writing screenplays Narrative strategies Pitching story ideas Writing treatments Character construction and development Writing dialogue Peer review and critiquing practices Rewriting and polishing
Syllabus