Write Spirit Presents

Writing that Screenplay: Blowing Past "Beginner"

6 Weekly 90-minute Zoom Sessions
February 8th through March 14th
8:00pm - 9:30pm (EST)

With Featured Instructor:
Screenwriter and Producer, Karen Hall

Karen Hall is a multi-award-winning screenwriter/Producer, novelist,  professor and a member of the George Foster Peabody Awards board of jurors, best known for her work on the television series Judging Amy and M*A*S*H. Hall graduated with a B.A. degree in English from College of William and Mary. Then she was awarded a fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to the University of Virginia, where she was in graduate school in the M.F.A. Playwriting Program. She is currently working on a nonfiction book for Sophia Press about the life of Fr. Paul Mankowski, SJ and a mini-series: Iñigo - The Unsaintly Years of St. Ignatius of Loyola for Zebra Productions (in development.) Several other projects in development.

Overview: This course will teach you how to avoid the mistakes that would identify you to producers as an inexperienced writer (and land your script in the trash can) by identifying the mistakes and teaching you easy tricks for making your script more professional. We will be looking at Aristotle's Six Elements of Drama as we do this.

Mainly geared to screenwriters, this course will have much to offer storytellers in all genres and mediums.

Week One: Character. The difference between a two-dimensional character and a fully realized character. How to hear your character’s voice and how to “interview” your character to get to know him/her better. The trick: How to “become” your character in order to make him/her more complex.

Week Two: Plot. The classic three-act plot structure, complete with diagrams. How sequences work and how to break a three-act script down to sequences so that you can write in 15 page segments. We will demystify the process of putting a correct plot structure into place. We will be discussing Jaws and Die Hard as classic examples of 3 act structure. The trick: You will learn exactly what an executive is looking for in your plot.

Week Three: Dialogue. The difference between good dialogue and bad dialogue. What kind of mistakes in dialogue will identify you as a “wannabe” writer and how to avoid them. How to write dialogue that is crisp and has a nice flow to it. Professional writers’ tricks for hiding exposition. The trick: Naming the red flags in dialogue and how to avoid them.

Week Four: Theme. Aristotle’s Poetics on theme — how it works and what emotions it should provoke. How to write a credo and use it as a foundation for anything that you write. Everyone in the class will discover what his/her best themes are and how to work from them. The trick: Writing a script that is clearly about something and has depth.

Week Five: Music & Spectacle. The elements of music/tone and spectacle, including a look at how dialogue becomes music and how “spectacle” distinguishes the world in which you will be writing. How to write stage directions and how NOT to write stage directions. The difference between the writer’s job and the director’s job and how to help the director without doing his/her job. The trick: How to avoid “wannabe” mistakes in the prose that contains scene directions.

Week Six: Review and Where to Go From Here. A quick review of everything we have covered and a discussion of the next steps that you should take with your projects. (We will go through each person’s project individually, so you will learn the path for future projects that you might write.)


PERSONAL NOTES AND FEEDBACK

Karen will read and give notes on the following for $50 each:
Logline & Treatment
Outline
Up to 3 scenes
Detailed character breakdown (up to 3 characters)
Up to 10 pages of a script or a treatment

Additional review and mentoring sessions are purchased here. Please contact Karen directly to arrange for delivery of material to be reviewed.

ENROLLMENT FEES

Catholic Art Institute Members:  $125 program fee per student. Non-members $150

If you'd like to become a member and receive discounts on this and future events, as well as being enrolled in the Mass Association please visit: https://www.catholicartinstitute.org/membership

Program participants are encouraged to attend the live Zoom sessions, however, all presentations will be recorded and the Zoom link sent to participants to watch at their leisure.

No refunds after February 6, 2024.

For more information email: infowritespirit@gmail.com