INTRODUCTION TO STORY AND PLOT
The course examines the difference between story and plot and how each affects the most important aspect of screenwriting: structure. Students will analyze story, plot and structure of both classic and contemporary films, and compare different types of structures, including (but by no means limited to), Joseph Campbell's “hero” structure.
This class will disabuse anyone of the notion that structure is formula. It will provide the tools to see structure for what it is: a liberating framework to help you tell your story. This is not a class for academics or a class to improve your movie criticism skills. It is a class for screenwriters and those working with screenwriters.
We will also examine the contemporary mission of the written script, and how this new mission differs from the last seventy years of Hollywood filmmaking.
Goal of the Class: To give each student a professional knowledge of story, plot, and structure, and to give them the tools to apply this knowledge to their own projects, whether as writers or as development personnel.
Because the goal is a professional knowledge and not an academic knowledge, much of our focus will be giving you the tools to look past the clutter and to, not only simplify the decision making process, but establish the criteria so that you may judge your own success at what you set out to achieve as well.
The course examines the difference between story and plot and how each affects the most important aspect of screenwriting: structure. Students will analyze story, plot and structure of both classic and contemporary films, and compare different types of structures, including (but by no means limited to), Joseph Campbell's “hero” structure.
This class will disabuse anyone of the notion that structure is formula. It will provide the tools to see structure for what it is: a liberating framework to help you tell your story. This is not a class for academics or a class to improve your movie criticism skills. It is a class for screenwriters and those working with screenwriters.
We will also examine the contemporary mission of the written script, and how this new mission differs from the last seventy years of Hollywood filmmaking.
Goal of the Class: To give each student a professional knowledge of story, plot, and structure, and to give them the tools to apply this knowledge to their own projects, whether as writers or as development personnel.
Because the goal is a professional knowledge and not an academic knowledge, much of our focus will be giving you the tools to look past the clutter and to, not only simplify the decision making process, but establish the criteria so that you may judge your own success at what you set out to achieve as well.
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