MASTERING SCREENPLAYS Acquire the ability to appreciate masterful screenplays and create your own
Two Saturday afternoons with online/emailed lessons in-between Saturday sessions are November 29 and December 6 Time 12.30 to 5.30 pm Your investment: HK$3,200
This course is for people who love movies, who want a deeper appreciation of them, and who are actively considering becoming screenwriters. Screenwriting is a special skill, quite different from writing fiction or stage plays. As well as knowing how to create great characters and wonderful plots, talented writers need a host of specialist techniques that turn a good story idea into the basis for a well-paced, compelling movie. Unlike the west, which is over-run with would-be screenwriters, many places in Asia have television and film industries but lack screenwriters. With the number of channels and outlets exploding, this is the time and the place to launch a screenwriting career.
Topics covered include:
The perfect screen tale
How to generate visual story ideas
The shape of a good movie plot
The secret of dialogue that works
How to create compelling movie storylines
From log-lines to treatments to scripts
How to read market trends to sell your idea
Using light and shade to keep viewers hooked
Creating unforgettable movie characters
High concept plots and idea-driven films
Layering stories and understanding subtexts
How to analyze and fix movies with problems
Movie contracts and options sales
Creating a successful series
Dealing with directors, producers, actors and marketing executives