Screenwriting - Intermediate
Browse by Session
Browse by Subject
Specific Courses
Useful Information
Screenwriting - Intermediate
Josh Golding
Are you serious about writing, but finding it difficult to finish a screenplay? This course will teach you practical techniques for deepening your ideas and building them into a structured and satisfying screenplay. This course is for continuing or experienced writers who want fresh ideas, sympathetic feedback, and structured analysis in a collaborative and fun environment. We recommend that you have done Screenwriting 1 or a similar course before enrolling on this course. You will learn how to create thematic unity and powerful image systems to bring out the deeper meaning of your story and explore innovative narrative technique to unleash creativity. Throw away your dull dialogue and hackneyed cliches and develop unstoppable narrative drive that delivers a climax which emotionally and viscerally fulfills your audience's deepest needs!
Josh Golding has worked as a producer and script editor of television and film dramas, both in Britain and the United States, for nearly two decades. His book Maverick Screenwriting, is being published by Bloomsbury in 2012.
Alternative Dates and Times
Many of our courses are repeated throughout the year. If the above dates is not suitable for you,
or there are no dates showing for this session, then please choose an alternative session.
For this course:
As part of your weekly assignments, you will be asked to view the films listed below (even if you have seen them before) which we will be analyzing in detail in class. I recommend that you buy or rent them in advance. Most of them are now discounted in the shops; I also recommend 'Moviemail' for an excellent online mail order service.
You can Count on Me
American Beauty
Groundhog Day
Being John Malkovich
Pulp Fiction
As this is an intermediate course, I will expect you to be familiar with and to submit your writing assignments in proper script format. This information is covered in my beginner's class, and I will not have time to cover the basics again, although we will be exploring advanced screenwriting grammar. There are a number of sites on the web which give you help with formatting, as well as software programmes, including some freeware ones.
The important thing is not that you follow exact parameters, but that you understand the logic behind script formatting. The best way to do this is to read recent, properly formatted scripts: these can be downloaded free from www.screentalk.biz/gallery.htm, and 'Drew's script-o-rama' (although not all the scripts on this site are in proper, downloadable format).
It will help you to come with an idea you want to develop into a full length feature script, or one that you have already done some work on; but, most of all, come with an open mind.