Script University February 2025 Courses and Live Events
Check out this month’s course offerings led by Script University’s industry experts!
Script University has joined Writer's Digest University to create one-stop for all your writing needs! You'll find the same expert-taught courses and brand-new monthly webinars along with on demand content. Get started on your screenplay, prepare for competitions, learn how to become a professional script reader, and much more.
Check out this month's course offerings led by Script University's industry experts!
COURSES
February 6
21 Days to Your Screenplay Treatment with Bryan Young
Not only is a treatment a vital selling tool for screenwriters, the process of writing a treatment can help screenwriters lay a solid foundation for their screenplay that can save valuable time in the writing process. This is your chance to map out your plot and develop your characters before you’ve backed yourself into a corner with ninety pages of blood, sweat, and tears behind you.
Let Script University show you, step-by-step, how to create an electrifying treatment! We’ve made the anxiety-producing process of treatment writing simple with our ground-breaking approach to the form. By the end of this workshop, you will have a strong treatment and a solid log line for your screenplay that has been vetted by an industry professional.
Writing the Series Bible: Developing Your TV Series with Lynn Grant Beck
It usually goes like this: the pilot is all that network execs are really interested in at first. That's because the pilot demonstrates basic writing and gives them a sense of where things will go (the season's "map" is built into any good pilot). But once they've decided they like a pilot, then they want to see more—your series bible, particularly the first season's sketch.
A strong series bible is a crucial sales tool for your series. This course will help you get your TV series ready for an executive by developing your series premise, honing your pilot, and writing your series bible.
Although not necessary, it would be helpful for students to have draft of their pilot or at least an outline before beginning this course.
February 13
Beginning Feature Film Writing: Complete Course with Donald H. Hewitt
Whether you are a writer looking to understand the fundamentals of writing for film or a television writer looking to expand your skillset, Beginning Feature Film Writing has invaluable information to offer you. With new and more intense tests and assignments, this course has everything you need to succeed as a feature film writer. Using detailed analyses of successful scripts, you will discover how film writers maximize the impact of their work using compelling characters and scenes.
This 12-week course guides students through the process of building a feature film script, starting with an outline and continuing through all the acts of your screenplay. The writing critiques in this course are tailored to develop specific skills needed to succeed as a feature film writer. You will get expert guidance on your writing along the way, and helpful self-tests allow you to reinforce your mastery of the lecture content.
February 20
Write Your Drama Pilot in Six Weeks with William Rabkin
Television pilot writing was once a carefully guarded inner sanctum limited almost exclusively to showbiz insiders. With the recent explosion of successful cable dramas and Internet viewing, it’s now possible for writers without a strong track record or network connections to get producers and executives to read and sometimes even buy their pilot scripts. If you sell a pilot, you’ve reached the pinnacle of TV writing success. It’s extremely satisfying to see your brainchild come to life on the screen, and it can lead to an extremely lucrative career in writing, production, or “show-running.”
In this course, you will learn the tools professional screenwriters use to finish high-quality scripts under deadlines. By the end of this course, you will have completed and received professional feedback on a script for your drama pilot.
Story Development and Outlining with Lynn Grant Beck
The most intelligent and intriguing premise in the world is only that—just a premise—until it’s been given a shape that draws an audience in and keeps its attention and investment. Until it’s given a protagonist through which the audience understands the premise in concrete terms, and feels the clearly-defined stakes, someone with whom they can identify and for whom they can cheer. In other words, until the premise has become a story.
This course will examine plotting a screenplay from premise to story. You'll learn how to take your screenplay from the early stages of building an idea to a full story, ways to structure the story to keep tension and investment high, and strategies to build not only structure but texture in the world of your film. You'll work to discover how to create an experience of the world, including what the events and the world of the story mean for characters and audience alike, rather than just building up a point-by-point plot.
Creating the Viral Web Series with Rebecca Norris Resnick
In recent years, the Internet has created space for an entirely new storytelling format: the web series. Cheap to make and easily accessible for viewers, a web series can be the perfect way for you to get started as a filmmaker and be noticed for your talent. All you need is the right set of tools and skills.
By the end of the course, you’ll have your pilot in hand — and a plan for where you want to take your series in subsequent episodes. With skills that are applicable not only to this format but to writing any kind of script — and an understanding of how to keep viewers coming back for more — you’ll be well on your way to writing your own viral web series that will stand out from the crowd! Whether you’re interested in comedy or drama, this course will give you the tools you need to get started writing and producing your very own series from the ground up.
February 27
The Nitty Gritty of Spec Scripts: Writing Strong Action and Dialogue with Dave Trottier
This one-week intensive course focuses on the specifics of writing compelling action (description) and dialogue. At the end of this course, your expert instructor, Dave Trottier, will evaluate five pages of your spec script.
Who is the real audience for your spec script, and what are they looking for? Craft a riveting, engaging spec that can open doors to your success. In this course, you will get an inside view of how to write action and dialogue that captures the imagination and emotions of those who can make a difference. Examples will be provided.
LIVE EVENTS
February 27
From Book to Screenplay: HOW TO ADAPT A BOOK FOR THE BIG OR SMALL SCREEN with Jeanne V. Bowerman
There are more movies adapted from books and other intellectual properties now than ever before. Producers and production companies actively seek these stories, even if the book isn’t on the New York Times Bestseller list.
This live webinar will cover the adaptation process of turning a book into a screenplay from both the perspectives of screenwriters seeking to find books to adapt, and also authors not only wishing to adapt their own books, but also who aim to understand the adaptation process.
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