Looking for a Home-study Course on Scriptwriting

Kerrywriterno1

Hi guys,

As the titles suggests, I'm currently looking for a home study course on scriptwriting (for films or stage but film preferably) and was wondering if you knew of any in Ireland? I did one three years ago in the ITC in Dublin and if I'm to be honest, it was only OK. I wouldn't do it again. Last year I finished a course on writing plays at the Open University in England and that was much better. However, I'm looking for a course that gives you regular exercises on writing scenes, dialogues, etc.

Any help you can provide would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for reading this.

K'writer

claire h

Does it need to be in Ireland if it's home study? Just thinking of places like Gotham Writers' Workshops, which you can do online...

Oh! And just remembered, Inkwell do a screenwriting one online too - http://www.inkwellwriters.ie/Screenwriting.html

Kerrywriterno1

Thanks very much, Claire H and I took a look at the link you provided but I'm afraid that's a bit too much for my liking. Anything that's around €200 I'd be willing to pay but not over it. Plus I'm currently doing a course so I won't be able to do a screenwriting course until maybe November. But thank you anyway, Claire.

Does anybody else have anything to add?

K'writer

Memnoch

You don't need a course. The screenwriting courses are all bull**** anyway. I can't remember the last time I read an interview or a quote from a pro who said that they became pro after attending a course or that a course helped.

Here's a great website that will teach you a lot about screenplay structure and more besides:

http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/

Learn about the three act structure, and about the 8 sequences. Story beats are good to know also but don't get too hung up or obsessed with them.

Then read scripts. Lots of scripts. Rather than have a guru tell you how to write a script, go and read ones that actually got made into movies and see how they're written.

www.imsdb.com

There are also threads on the donedeal forums where you can find tons of scripts.

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are both amazing scripts, as is the script for "A Few good men," among others. Read at least 10 scripts. Try and read as many as you can in the genre you want to write.

Then, go find three movies in the genre you want to write and analyse those scripts. This is a very time consuming task. I don't just mean read the script.

But read the script. Watch the movie, and then read the script again. (I'm in this process now).

Break it down scene by scene. What does each scene say in terms of story, character, theme, subtext, atmosphere, tone, etc etc. (some scenes say more than others and the first act tends to be the most densly packed).

More importantly, write scripts, edit, polish, and rewrite (though I suck at re-writing myself).

Then put some pages of your script up for feedback. Two good forums for this are donedealpro messageboards and absolutewrite forums. Both have working and repped screenwriters visit from time to time and you will get good feedback.

Good luck.

Also, if you want to check out a book. Syd Field's on screenwriting isn't bad for learning the very basics of structure etc, though all the info in it you'll get from Alexandra's blog above.

I'm an amateur myself ofc, but I have studied the subject a bit and will happily answer any questions as I can.

Good luck.