Advanced Screenwriting

Screenplay and film: Lone Star
Workshop: selected scenes
Writing Assignment 6 due the class period before your workshop slot

Due Wednesday, October 20:
Analyzing the Second Act
Choose any of the films that we have watched and discussed thus far this semester, and carefully analyze its second act. How is the second act constructed? When do its key moments of conflict occur? How is the tension intensified through the act? How are the characters further developed? Your analysis should be 3-5 pages, double-spaced.

No class Monday — Fall break.
Screenplay and film: The Sixth Sense
Halperin, ch. 1-5
Writing assignment 5 due Wednesday

Due Wednesday, October 13:
Your script’s completed first act is due to me at the end of class; you need only turn in one copy. Please make sure it is properly formatted, and please print single-sided.

Screenplay and film: Crimes and Misdemeanors
Workshop: selected scenes
Act I due Wednesday

Due during the class period before your workshop slot:
Ten pages of Act I. These may be the first ten pages, or they may come from later in the act; if they come from later, you’ll need to give us the set-up, so we have sufficient context for what we read.
You will, again, need to make sufficient photocopies of your pages (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.

Screenplay and film: Miller’s Crossing
McKee, ch 7-10; Seger, ch. 1-4
Workshop: selected scenes
Writing assignment 4 due the class period before your workshop slot

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!