How do screenwriters draw us into the world of a story? How do they breathe life into characters, making them real and complex? And how does the story told make us feel as though we have lived through something deep and true with those characters?

In this class, we will consider a number of films which successfully achieve these story ideals as we develop our own long form scripts. We’ll assess the usefulness of outlines, treatments and scene breakdowns on the way to developing a draft of a long form script, considering the role and voice of the writer within the collaborative process of development and production. We’ll also concentrate rigorously on craft: character, dialogue, plot development, five act structure, visual language, scene writing and sequences as well as looking at the role of genre. Our overriding interest as we work will be in how these aspects of craft serve the screenwriter’s greater purpose in saying something about the world and how we live in it. After completing this course, you will have the tools to plan and write a feature film script that, like the best stories, has the power to move viewers. Scripts we will study will include: Moonlight, Thelma and Louise, Manchester by The Sea, Show Me Love and others.