Class Description

This workshop teaches the strongest usage/best practices of action lines (and their misuse), dialogue boxes and parenthetical phrases, building scene beats between characters, differentiating cadence, sluglines and other formatting, rhythms, active description, pace, genre expectations, structure, and how to sustain what’s promised in the premise and early pages. It will also touch on adaptations from other forms, and how to avoid traps in the adaptation process. We will talk about WHY certain tools are stronger choices than others, and how different choices affect rhythm, genre, and structure. There will be discussion on how to effectively break certain protocols to make it work for your vision. There will also be a discussion on various script software, and finding what works for you. Participants are asked to bring in the first 5 pages of a screenplay they’re working on or an idea they want to work on. There will be homework and handouts throughout the course. Be prepared to write in class. We will do assignments and also discuss how to apply those to participants’ individual scripts. Expect 1-3 hours of work outside class per week. Week 1 Intro, examples of first 2 pages, what belongs in each block of a script (action line, dialogue box, parenthetical, slugline, etc) Week 2 Character, cadences, dialogue, beat-to-beat rhythms in a scene, expanding from trope to multi-faceted character. Week 3 Descriptives, action lines, dramatizing emotion rather than explaining it, pace, building structure to sustain the promise of the premise. Week 4 Genre expectations, adaptations from other forms (novels, stage plays, etc.), further resources. INSTRUCTOR EVA SCHEGULLA, AKA Devon Ellington, is a full-time writer publishing under multiple names in fiction/nonfiction, and an internationally produced playwright/radio writer. She worked as a scriptwriter, a script doctor, a freelance script analyst, a dresser on Broadway, wrangled extras on TV shows, production managed indie films, and writes for SCRIPT magazine.