Masterclass: Scripts and Screenplays Course Descriptor

Course Overview

This course teaches students the advanced dramatic script writing skills and critical knowledge required to produce compelling works for the stage or screen. Through lectures, webinars, writing activities, discussions and workshops, students will be equipped with the practical craft techniques and theoretical frameworks dramatic script writers use to create enduring and inspiring stories. Students will gain hands-on experience of scriptwriting and be encouraged to experiment with different styles and forms. They will engage with and push the boundaries and conventions of plot and explore character and premise in sophisticated and effective ways. Students will benefit from dedicated tutor feedback and peer critiques on scripts-in-progress at regular intervals during the course.
This course is designed to guide students through the process of writing a dramatic script for stage or screen from start to finish. There is a particular focus on engaging with the tropes and practices of the contemporary script writing industry, as well as the practical elements and thematic concerns which can make work attractive to producers. This is a practice-based course with a strong emphasis on workshopping and discussion. Students will continually reflect on their writing and learn to position their work in a professional, artistic and commercial context. In doing so, they will come to regard the writing, editing and pitching journey as the generation of new knowledge.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of learning resources to orientate and engage students in their studies. All scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are delivered online via the VLE. These may include:

• Lectures
• Readings
• Learning Activities
• Discussion Forums
• Creative Writing Workshops
• Webinars

Faculty also hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback individually.
Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.
Indicative total learning hours for this course: 300 – typically including induction, course activities, consolidation or revision and assessment activity hours.

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching activities delivered via the VLE.

Summative Assessments

Indicative assessment elements:

• Set Exercises typically comprise assessment of students’ editorial contributions during a set period (e.g. in Creative Writing Workshops).
• Portfolio submissions typically comprise at least one original creative work and an accompanying critical or professional practice component.

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Brook, Peter, The Empty Space, A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate (Scribner, 2019)
• Egri, Lajos, The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives (Touchstone, 1973)
• McKee, Robert, Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting (Methuen Publishing, 1999)
• Payne, Nick, Constellations (Faber and Faber, 2021)
• Waller-Bridge, Phoebe, Fleabag: The Scriptures (Sceptre, 2021)
• Yorke, John, Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them (Penguin Random House, 2013)

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Pitching your work and generating development materials
• Building characters
• Writing dialogue
• Constructing plots and rising action
• Visual storytelling
• Writing in scenes