Advanced Screenwriting

Due during the class period before your workshop slot:
The Treatment
For this assignment, you should produce your screenplay’s narrative synopsis, making sure to give your reader a sense of your script’s context and genre, a strong outline of its key characters, and all of the major plot points, including the hook, the key turning points, and the resolution. Your treatment should be between five and ten pages long, double-spaced.
You will need to make sufficient photocopies of your treatment (double-sided is fine) for everyone in the class, and you will distribute those copies during the class session before your workshop slot, so that your peers will be able to provide you with thoughtful feedback.

Workshop: treatments
Writing assignment 3 due the class period before your workshop slot

Professor Fitzpatrick will be out of town at a conference this week, so you have a few extra hours to get some work done!

Due Wednesday, September 15:
Part A: Character Bios
Write a 1-3 page background description of your main character(s). What is their “problem”? Where are they from? What do they look like? What’s eating them? What is their secret? What is their emotional history? Medical history? Social history? Romantic history? Who are their heroes? Who would they vote for? What causes would move them? What scares them? How do they feel about themselves and other people? What do they want in life? Include all the detail you can possibly imagine, whether or not you think you’ll use it in the actual script.
Part B. Story
Write a paragraph on each act of your script that describes the major plot points and action as you now visualize it. Emphasize action rather than explanation. Just tell what happens.

Screenplay and film: Chinatown
McKee, ch. 2-6
Writing assignment 2 due Wednesday

Due Monday, September 6:
First, read the script for Raiders of the Lost Ark, and then watch the film. Make notes for yourself as you read and watch.
Bring to class a timeline listing the key plot points in the script, noting the pages they occur in the script and the times they occur in the film.

Screenplay and film: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Trottier, pp. 1-69, 103-158
Writing assignment 1 due Monday

The usual getting-started information: who are you, who am I, what are we going to do, and why.