Class Overview
Made With You in Mind
At Brave Writer®, we recognize that film is the literature of our century. These are resonant experiences that our children treasure.
They want to be part of the feast of ideas shared through movies.
Our focus in this class is on screenplays, but budding playwrights are welcome to join, too. All will learn the basic elements of scriptwriting and how it differs from writing novels.
In this class, we'll explore:
- The structure and plot progression of popular genres specific to film
- Character intention and obstacles used to create tension
- Creating believable characters that are action-driven
- Dialogue and its rhythm, poetry, and music
- Using scenes to keep the story in motion
Students won’t submit a complete screenplay (these are far too long for a four-week class), but instead will have the opportunity to work on specific skills using exercises and writing processes to enhance their scriptwriting prowess.
A wonderful advantage to this class is that your students get to share their work with other passionate writers and fans of film! They will understand and enjoy movies more once they know how they work.
We will give suggestions of movies to watch and published scripts to read as we diagnose them to find what makes them successful. Students will always be given a choice of movies to explore.
In this class, we watch movie clips that address a wide variety of perspectives and may include time-bound references. Please be aware that you may experience strong reactions to what you watch. By using literature as a teaching tool to foster understanding and growth, we have the opportunity to discuss these evolving ideologies.
We encourage you to consult our list of movie clips to determine their appropriateness for your family and to prepare to have discussions on these topics with your students as they participate in the class. Students are also asked to watch entire films in Weeks One and Two in preparation for writing, but the choice of film is entirely open to the family.