An intensive screenwriting course for film entertainment. Students utilize the fundamentals of dramatic criteria learned in Writing for Entertainment Media to develop and pitch an original feature film screenplay. 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)
Student learning Outcomes
Students will analyze the way meaning is structured and perceived in the screen image of narrative feature films.
Students will identify the fundamentals of dramatic criteria and use them as tools to develop story ideas.
Students will perform the work that precedes the writing of a screenplay, and manage the demands on one’s time, and the level of creativity necessary to develop a story “well” told.
Students will demonstrate critical insight into basic formatting, dialogue, exposition and scene construction.
Students will execute idea generating strategies.
Students will develop a personal writing process that results in the creation of loglines, and an act-by-act construction of an outline for a feature length narrative screenplay.
Topical Outline
The writer and the act of storytelling
Basic principles of story design
Screenplay style and formatting
Setting, Genre and Meaning in the Screen Image
Creating memorable characters
Building the story
Plot and structure
Scene construction
Characterization
Formatting
Drafting
Rewriting/executing notes
