Screenwriting

Learn the Secrets of Successful Screenwriting

 

If you dream of making it as a screenwriter, this course is the place to start. Learn proven techniques for crafting a script that tells a story effectively and holds the attention of your audience.

We will dissect scripts from popular films to find out what makes a good story and an engaging screenplay. Using the free platform Writer’s Duet, students will learn the accepted way to format a script. They will also gain an understanding of how to structure a screenplay and construct scenes with compelling characters, settings, dialogue and conflict. Through a variety of writing activities, students will sharpen their screenwriting skills. Finally, they will bring together everything they have learned as they storyboard, write and edit their own scripts.

What You Will Learn

Practice using proven techniques for crafting a successful script.

• Practice formatting a script using Writer’s Duet, a free formatting website.
• Discover how to use scene headings, subheaders, extensions, dual dialogue, sluglines, transitions and parentheticals.
• Learn to establish characters, settings, stakes and a central conflict.
• Explore how to structure a script by introducing an inciting incident, creating a confrontation and then resolving storylines.
• Gain an understanding of how to create compelling characters as protagonists and antagonists.
• Analyze how to structure an effective scene.
• Practice writing dialogue that feels natural, reveals character and advances the story.
• Put this new knowledge to work by storyboarding, writing and editing scripts.

Return to the Sally Ride Science Junior Academy website here.

Note: Upon successful enrollment of a section, students will receive a confirmation email from our Student Services team. This email will include a link to an authorization form that is required to be completed within 72-hours of enrollment. 

In response to COVID-19 health guidelines, we have restructured our in-person Junior Academy workshops as online courses. Contact us at srs@ucsd.edu if you have questions.

Course Number: THEA-90003
Credit: 1.50 unit(s)