Screenwriting school training courses in Boston, MA (public, in-house or online)

In this course, students learn the structure and format of a three-act motion picture screenplay. We discuss films that students watch out of class, read scripts, and watch films and film excerpts. Students are assigned exercises with the goal of generating ideas for a final project—a script for a short (20- to 30-minute) film. Later in the semester, each student presents a draft of his or her script to the class for group discussion, and submits a complete, revised screenplay on the last day of...

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Class discussion will focus on a variety of films in terms of character, structure, etc. Discussion will include Casablanca, Tootsie, Chinatown, Vertigo, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Godfather Part One. Students that complete screenplays will not be judged on the quality itself without strong consideration of the process which led to it, whether the process began with a strong premise, whether characters are well-developed and motivated, etc. Effort will be heavily weighted in determining stud...

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Intensive study and practice in various forms and approaches of screenwriting, including workshop discussion of individual student screenwriting.

This course for the beginning screenwriter introduces the tools, vocabulary, and techniques used to tell a screen story and take an original idea to outline form. Assignments illustrate basic three-act structure, the economic use of dialogue, visual storytelling elements, the development of complex characters, the revelation of background information, and the effective use of dramatic tension. Students become familiar with screenwriting terminology as scenes from well-known films are analyzed on...

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