Introduction

Our first class in the art and craft of screenwriting is in sculpting. Yes, sculpture. Hang with me here. This is life-changing information. A great sculptor doesn’t start by polishing the stone or carving the ear of the human figure. That would be foolish. First, the sculptor decides the size of the granite needed. Then he or she chips away the corners, gets the stone to the rough dimensions. Then she steps back and thinks, “That’s far too large for my statue of a child.” So she chips away again until the size feels right. Then they take it a step farther and chip some more off. As the child takes shape, they reassess and make decisions. Is this the right size? The right height? And so on. Eventually they are chiseling out the eyes, the nose, an ear, a toe. It took a while to get here but she took small steps along the way to ensure there would never be a moment to destroy the work and start over from scratch. If a sculptor’s process wasn’t something along these lines, she couldn’t afford another piece of granite. Paper, on the other hand, is not expensive and you’re using pixels anyway, right? But your time and effort is the most valuable limited resource you own. I’ll equip you with a process that helps you to never spend years writing a screenplay or ever scrapping your work and starting from scratch again. Why? Because that just stinks.

What is Art?

I would define art as simply “a created thing of beauty.”

• Created. Someone made it.  
• A thing. It’s tangible. Something you can hold, touch, smell, feel, hear, display, taste, or view. 
• Beauty. This is subjective for certain but true beauty moves us deeply and invokes an emotional response.

As we continue through the lessons, we will learn about:

• Professional Screenplay Format
• Screenwriting Apps and Software
• Outlining / Beat Sheet
• Screenwriting Resources
• Competitions
• And more 

Screenwriting Lesson One

Our first lesson in screenwriting introduces the student to story conception and starting well. You will use secretly chosen aspects to aid in starting a story of your own using our story generator. So grab a pen or pencil, download and print out the worksheets or do it digitally. Just do it.

Character Generator

Each character must be engaging, mysterious at some level, and conflicted. Writing a unique yet realistic character can be difficult. This exercise will challenge you to accept a character as he or she is, before you command them, as the author, to do as you say.

Table Read and Intro to Pre-Production

This is the audio from our Film School 101 Table Read and Pre-Production discussion on March 28, 2023.