Class Description
Whether you want to write a short, feature, web series, adaptation, or television pilot, the fundamental elements of constructing, writing and pitching a story for the screen remain constant.
In this five-day course, we will explore the fundamentals of story structure— both finite and serialized—conflict, dialogue, screenplay formatting, outlining, rewriting, and pitching.
Students can come in with an idea, or concept they want to develop, but it is not required. By the time the class is complete, students have the potential to complete an outline of their project, and will have the professional skills to go forward and write a screenplay for a viable project for the big or small screen. Some of our activities will include improvisational story structure games, dialogue workshops, pitching roundtables, and live reads of both good and bad screenplays. We will look at the works of : Aaron Sorkin (of course), Hossein Amini, Elaine May, John Krazinski, Taika Waititi, Tina Fey, and Mindy Kaling.
Please come in with an open mind and willingness to shape your concept, pitch, adaptation or screenplay to cinematic conventions and standards.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. About 15 minutes before your class is scheduled to begin, you'll receive an email from your instructor with a link to join the class meeting!
Zoom Participation:
Students are not required to turn their camera on, but are encouraged to participate any way they feel comfortable through functions such as the live chat, emoji reactions, and unmuting the microphone. Learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
We ask that instructors enable closed captioning and send a transcript of the session after class. You can also enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting. If your instructor forgets to send the transcript, just send ’em an email!