You will be required to attend a number of scheduled seminars and workshop group sessions at which individual work-in-progress will be presented and discussed, in preparation for peer review of First Draft screenplays. In between, you will work alone, meeting with your tutor by appointment to give progress reports and receive creative feedback and technical guidance. This module is designed to give you the space, time and support required for a sustained piece of creative work, and you will be expected to undertake independent research and study in order to fulfil the brief.

Key Information Set:
5% scheduled learning and teaching activities
95% guided independent learning

This module provides a supervisory framework within which Level 6 students can work independently to produce a fully developed screenplay, either a feature film or a feature-length one-off TV drama. The module requires students to work in the same way a professional would normally be required to work in the industry, producing a full story Treatment and First Draft to a deadline, then receiving feedback from multiple readers before rewriting the Final Draft. Additionally, students receive guidance in the industry-wide practice of script assessment through the writing of editorial reports/reviews using an industry-standard format.
Students receive creative advice, feedback, constructive criticism and technical guidance throughout the year from a supervisor as well as the support of a reading/feedback group of their peers.

A Research File (20%) A film treatment of 1000 - 1500 words, and 4 - 8 sample script pages (LO 1, 2, 4)

A Portfolio (80%). A complete final draft script of 60 - 70 pages, plus a critical/editorial report of 750 -1000 words. (LO 3, 5, 6, 7)

Key InformationSet:
100% coursework

The library.
Also, many internet sites provide free access to commercially produced screenplays. Many others provide sound professional advice and guidance by writers, editors, agents and producers.
Articles, guidelines & advice on Blackboard.

Blake, C (1999): From Pitch to Publication, Pan
Booker, C (2005): The Seven Basic Plots, Continuum International Publishing Group
Field, Syd (1984): Screenplay, DTP
Froug, W (1992): The New Screenwriter Looks at the New Screenwriter, Silman-James Press
Goldman, W (2001): Which Lie Did I Tell?, Bloomsbury
Lumet, Sidney (1995): Making Movies
Mackendrick, A (2005): On Film-making
Mamet, David (1992): On Directing Film
McKee, R (1999): Story, Methuen
Pope, T (1998): Good Scripts, Bad Scripts, Crown Publications
Rabiger, M (2005): Developing Story Ideas, Focal Press
Rabiger, M (2003): Directing - film technique and aesthetics, Focal Press
Tierno, M (2002): Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilisation, Hyperion

Magazines: 'Sight & Sound'; 'Scriptwriter'; 'Empire'

Writing Narratives (AM75462-4) or R.E.A.D. (AM75456-4)
or equivalent (AM25823-4 Introduction to Creative Writing).

Plus

Writing Pictures (AM75119-5)
or equivalent (Rewriting For Writers AM25826-5 or Introduction to Screenwriting ACTFSV75526-5)