Hands-on Intensive 12-Week Evening TV Writing Workshop

OVERVIEW

This program focuses on fundamental concepts and techniques for writing for television, which is a writer’s medium. The program is divided into two classes: Introduction To Television (lecture/seminar) and Television Pilot Workshop. Topics covered include: the structure formats of different types of television (half hour vs hour long, network vs cable vs streaming), season arcs, story engines, show types (episodic vs serialized), dialogue, themes, conflict, WGA format, subtext, style and tone, and visualization. During this time, students will study existing shows and their format and structure, develop episode ideas for those shows, develop an idea for an original series, build a series proposal for it, and write the pilot script. Students will engage in discussion and critique of their writing and their classmates’ writing at each workshop.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
The Twelve Week Evening TV Writing Certificate Workshop provides the students with an intensive and focused workshop and classroom environment which provides a solid structure for writing and meeting deadlines, and where they can learn the craft of writing by focusing on concepts such as story, structure, character, conflict, story engines, and dialogue.

PREPARATION
Students do not need any previous screenwriting experience to sign up for this course. However, they must come to the first day of class with ideas for possible television series and a general knowledge of the types of scripted stories on television.

SCREENWRITING TOPICS
The Twelve Week Evening TV Writing Workshop is made up of two courses, which build the student’s knowledge of television and how to write for it while also guiding them through the process of creating ideas for an original TV series. These classes will be evening classes, running on multiple evenings per week.

INTRODUCTION TO TELEVISION
This course introduces students to the basics of writing for television, with an eye towards helping them develop their idea in the workshop classes. Students will explore the core concepts and structure of both half hour and hourlong television, and study scenes from existing television series to help students decide what they will need when building their series. Students will develop ideas for existing series and workshop practice scenes to build their television writing skills. Lessons include: Story Engines, World Building, Season Arcs, and Characters.

TELEVISION PILOT WORKSHOP
In Television Pilot Workshop, students will develop the concept and voice of an original television series of their creation, before writing the script for the pilot episode. Students will initially pitch several ideas for a series. Once students choose their series idea, they will pitch, plot, outline the story and create a series proposal. Once this is done, they will write a first draft of the pilot script.

PROGRAM GOALS
The Twelve Week Evening TV Pilot Workshop requires that each student develop episode ideas for an existing show, write scenes to capture their show's voice, develop a series proposal for an original TV series, and write the pilot script in partial fulfillment of the graduation requirements.

EQUIPMENT
Use of Final Draft or similar screenwriting software will be required in all your workshop classes. You will need a computer capable of running Final Draft software (at the moment, this does not include a Chromebook, so please check to make sure your computer can handle the software) or other screenwriting software, as well as basic word processing software.

Dates & Tuition