Screenwriter's Foundation Certificate | London

To enable new and aspiring writers to explore their ideas and to provide a framework for self-exploration and discovery.

Tutor:	Elliot Grove	Venue:	Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus, 19 Lower Regent Street London SW1Y 4LR
Date:	Starts Wednesday 5 weeks Wednesday 13 October	Duration:	5 evenings
Time:	6:30pm - 9pm	Price:	£165 + 17.5% VAT

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Raindance founder Elliot Grove has developed a simple, practical introduction to the art, craft and mechanics of screenwriting. As a script consultant, and having produced or exec produced 5 features and over 150 short films over 20 years, he has a key understanding of the concepts, theories and tools that will make your screenplay exceptional.

The Writers' Foundation Certificate is for anyone who is interested in writing for the screen though it is not necessary to have a project for this class. This course is part lecture and part group discussion.

Week 1: The Beginning

The first and most important part of your screenplay is the idea. It’s important to understand how to break this down and learn how to develop it into something an audience will want to see. Often screenplays fail because the story or the formatting is poor and even experienced screenwriters make these very basic errors.
Discover:
- Idea generating techniques
- Discover how to make your ideas compelling
- Copyright and how to protect your ideas
- Proper script format and style guide

Week 2 - Casting your movie/story

It is often possible to study screenwriting models to see how characters or roles fit into certain traits. By understanding each character you will be able to define the story and subplot, and by studying other films or screenplays you’ll be able to identify the strong or discover the weak points which apply to your own script.
Discover:
- How to create compelling characters that zoom out of the screen and stay with you
- Magnification, traits and other tools
- Film analysis of a character from a current movie

Week 3 – Building Your Story

You may have a great story or scene, and perfect formatting, but there’s also an art to understanding how to give texture to the story. This will be the difference between whether you will elicit emotion in your audience or not.
Discover:
- Scene writing and story structure
- How to create a page turner
- Suspense and other dramatic tools

Week 4 - Writing Compelling Dialogue

Think of the last bad film you saw. Was it poor because of the acting and story, or was it because of the script? If the script isn’t good enough then the film is more than likely to fail. The dialogue is an important factor in this and getting it right is not always obvious.
Discover:
- The 14 tricks and traps of writing dialogue
- The 3 tracks for recording dialogue
- Honing and mixing effective dialogue

Week 5 - Pitching Skills Workshop

Pitching is one of the most essential skills needed for a successful career in the film industry. It is also one of the least considered by new entrants to the industry.
Discover:
- Running a pitch meeting
- What the goals of a pitch meeting should be
- How to use visual aids_
- Finding your hook_
- Pitching tools explained and demonstrated_

* This class can be taken alone for £40.00 inc VAT

Anyone with an interest in writing a screenplay.

Elliot Grove has worked intensively with writers at Raindance since 1992. He explains the tricks of the trade from practical experience and reveals some of the latest paradigms through lecture, exercises and video clips.

Elliot Grove founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993, the British Independent Film Awards in 1998, and Raindance.TV in 2007.

He has produced over 150 short films, and 5 feature films. He has written eight scripts, one of which is currently in pre-production. His first feature film, TABLE 5 was shot on 35mm and completed for a total of £278.38. He teaches writers and producers in the UK, Europe. Japan and America.

He has written three books which have become industry standards: RAINDANCE WRITERS LAB 2nd Edition (Focal Press 2008), RAINDANCE PRODUCERS LAB (Focal Press 2004) and 130 PROJECTS TO GET YOU INTO FILMMAKING (Barrons 2009). His first novel THE BANDIT QUEEN is scheduled for publication in 2011.

Open University awarded Elliot and Honourary Doctorate for services to film education in 2009.

"It's nice to see Raindance out there. Out of the three film writing courses I've taken since Feb, yours was definitely my favourite and my script is near completion. "
- Lisa Bradburn

"Just wanted to say I think you're classes are great, the thought of a Wednesday evening makes my shitty job seem a little more bearable so thanks!"
Victoria

"Elliot I thought last night was excellent; I was going to say so last night but was struck dumb. I thought the 2 minute chat with a neighbour was an excellent idea, both to articulate my idea/listen to his and to have the confidence to say something at all. If we do it again I may even pluck up the courage afterwards to say something in front of the rest of the group - or maybe not...
Anyway, great job, really enjoyable sessions and much appreciated."
Clare

"Writing is not something I've done a lot of, unless you count changing my dialogue on stage, but your guidance (and patience) has been very encouraging, the week/1 homework is already progressing and I very much look forward to next weeks class." - Steven Hyndman

"I realised last night how over the weeks you successfully blended a mix of informality and structure to enable us, rather than dictate to us, thereby creating strong individual stories through a group collaborative." - Nicholas von Broembsen

"Writing a 120 page screenplay is a scary prospect, but the intimate group structure of the writers lab encourages everyone to shine, and it's all the more sweeter with Elliot's guiding hand." - Michelle Stewart

"The Writers Lab was a great experience. It teaches you a method which really helps transforming your idea into a script. It also gives you a lot of great hints on which doors to knock at (and how you should do it!) once your script is ready. I totally enjoyed it" - Andrea Deluce, screenwriter

"I just wanted to say how incredibly useful the course has been and hugely instrumental in me getting my first half hour of television written." - Barry Kimber

“I'd recommend it to anyone who is serious about screenwriting and expect to make back the fee many times over.” – Joia Shillingford, writer and producer

"I was suffering from writer's block when I started this class, but thanks to you, Elliot, I have regained my confidence and am writing daily." - Roy Thompson, writer and director

"I thought it was great; anything to get a writer out of the house... but truly, it was an energising, good mix of slob out, cool, creatives with their secrete mad ambitions." - Anna Campion