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The Art of
Screenwriting
A course in the trAce Online Writing
School run by Californian Bonnie O'Neill, experienced scriptwriter:
It's a 10-week entirely online course runing several times a year.
Creative
Screenwriting
Tying in with a print journal of
the same name, this site is rich in online extracts of features,
reviews and interviews with professional screenwriters discussing
their craft. There are interesting pointers here for storytellers
working in other media as well. Besides the basics of storytelling,
the site has a free monthly newsletter, and it sells a CD-Rom
collection of shareware, freeware, demo-software programs and
electronic books for screenwriters.
Drew's
Script-O-Rama
Budding scriptwriters will
probably find this site useful, as well as a source of solace. It
collates unproduced scripts and transcripts of obscure movies as
well as different draft scripts of produced films. TV scripts get
the same treatment. An area of the site is set aside for a
chatroom.
Global Film
School
The resources of the School of Theater, Film and Television
at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Australian Film,
Television and Radio School, and the National Film and Television
School of Great Britain combine online in the Global Film School
which runs courses over the Net. Tuition in movie making and online
forums to discuss and showcase work will be provided, and a student-produced
online, interactive magazine is planned. Registration for further
details can be done on the site.
IndieZine
This magazine for
independent film-makers and screenwriters sells itself (literally -
it's subscription based) as the most comprehensive electronic
magazine for those in the know and those who want to be in the know
about the industry. There's a free sample copy to read online and it
has a lot of information in it, about 66kb worth of text to be
precise. The sort of things it runs, include: production notices
from independent units around the world, agency ads, tips on how to
format scripts, technology information, how to get a feature from
script to post production, and abstracts from other
publications.
MovieBytes
A stop off for
information about screenwriting contests, deadline reminders and
appropriate literary agencies online, there's a free e-newsletter
you can elect to receive. For questions and chat about screenwriting
in general there's a link to a new online discussion
forum.
Mythology In
Story Plotting
Variants on Joseph Campbell's
anthropological distillation of the essence of storytelling in
The Hero With A Thousand Faces form the basis for many
courses on scriptwriting. They provide useful models for novelists,
playwrights and shot story writers too. What's on offer isn't so
much a formula as a discussion of form, as evinced in ancient myth
and modern Hollywood myth making. This site tries to map Campbell's
structure against two other contenders - the story creation system
developed by John Jarvis and that explored by Christopher Vogler in
The Writer's Journey.
The Nine-Act
Structure
Linear-plotted, single-goal stories are the enemy here. You
know the sort of thing - the protagonist is faced with a problem and
single-mindedly sets out to solve it over the next 90 minutes. The
set-up may be good, the pay-off might be logically satisfying, but
if you've got the film on tape, chances are you'll fast forward the
middle section. David Siegel's story-structure class is aimed at
giving scriptwriters a different way of thinking about the story and
introducing legitimate new directions into the overall flow. While
it's an attempt to unravel the plot structure of successful films
and promote the writing of more interesting film scripts, it has
plenty to say about the dynamics of story telling that practitioners
in other disciplines can incorporate into their own
craft.
The
Professional Screenwriter Links Page
This site aims to help film
scriptwriters by categorising and putting in alphabetical order
links to screenwriting related sites. The idea is that it is as
relevant for people looking for writers as well as writers looking
for help and market leads. The sorts of classifications used
include: agents and personal managers, research and fact sources,
associations and organisations, copyright and legal, studios and
production companies, publications etc. Usefully, for those still
learning the craft, there are links to produced scripts that can be
bought or read online.
SCRNWRiT
This is the Web
companion to the SCRNWRiT mailing list. The information here is
arranged in chapters that can be read online or downloaded as text
files. Topics are varied - from art versus commercialism through
seminars and conferences to writing tips. The discussion threads are
strong and the whole things has an admirable sense of direction and
directness.
The Virtual Script
Workshop
A useful wide-ranging resource. Essentially it works like a
clearing house for students, organisers and those running
distance-learning courses and Net-based workshops. There are plenty
of links to help individuals get DIY online workshops up and running
too. Screenwriting links are a speciality, but there is also a good
general news section (the fact that they had picked-up on the first
trAce/Alt-X International Hypertext Competition is not the only
reason I came to that conclusion).
See also
The
Playwriting Seminars (US)
The Scripts Project: links (UK)
The UK Scriptwriters' Network
Independent Radio Drama Productions Ltd (UK)
Screenwriters
& Playwrights home page
Playwriting by Dave Brandl
Scribbling Women
Player Playwrights (London, UK)
The screenwriter in cyberspace
Bill Williams' free script templates
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