Screenwriting Workshop with Leslie Dallas

November 12 and 19, 7:30 p.m. (each session will last 2 hours)

This course provides students with a basic working knowledge of the screenwriting process. It takes students from developing an idea to working up a treatment, developing a step-outline, and writing the first 15 pages of a script. Discussion of plot, character, conflict, dialogue and structure will enhance the writing workshop and provide critical skills. The emphasis will be on learning to write for the Hollywood market. This intensive workshop is for individuals who want to learn the craft of dramatic writing.

For the first meeting, please bring in three ideas for a screenplay (typed).

All students must sign up with the MFA office in order to participate. Call 203-837-9976 or 203-837-8878 or email Dr. Clements at clementsb@wcsu.edu or Laurel Richards at richardsl@wcsu.edu. Students who sign up will be provided with workshop location.

Leslie Dallas is a screenwriter and story editor. She has been awarded the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award, the Disney Fellowship, and the Jack Nicholson Prize in Screenwriting. Her work has been staged at the Newport Beach Film Festival and the Austin Heart of Film Festival. She is a graduate of the prestigious UCLA MFA program in Screenwriting, and has worked on numerous projects in television and for the studios. After living several lifetimes in Los Angeles, she was recently reincarnated in Connecticut.


Two-Day Workshop Outline

1. Openings
2. Three act screenplay and format.
3. Workshop: Discuss students’ three ideas for screenplays.
4. Class will decide which idea the student will develop into a script.
5. Discussion of treatments (two–page, double-spaced) vs outlines. Step outline of current film for structural review.
6. Character “bios.” Workshop with others.
7. Lecture on FIRST ACTS
8. Pitch first act ideas to class
9. Lecture: Scene construction; elements of a scene
10. Workshop: Scene activity; share with group
11. Lecture: Dialogue: Real dialogue for reel characters
12. Lecture: Movie themes—the deeper issues of storytelling.
13. What’s your movie REALLY about.
14. Discuss where you are as a writer.
15. INDUSTRY QUESTIONS: All the things you’ve wanted to ask but I kept putting off. Agents, submissions, how to break in, who to trust, etc.
16. The first 15 pages of your script