37039 - Elements of Scriptwriting (1) (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

he course, with its practical approach, has the aim to provide theoretical tools and useful basics to the construction of a screenplay. At the end of the course students will have methodological tools to face the writing process and evaluate the quality of their own work.

Course contents

The course aims to provide students with the basic theoretical elements for understanding and writing a script. It also aims at conveying concepts and practices linked to the scriptwriter's job and to the related working methods. At the end of the course, students will therefore have both theoretical and practical tools to deal with the writing process, attempt their first personal experiments and assess the quality of their work.

In order to achieve this aim, a part of the course will be devoted to the theoretical aspect and will contain a description of the main conceptual tools that screenwriters need to orient themselves during the work leading from the conception of a story to the writing of the script.

In particular, the following points will be debated:

What is a story and how can it be told. Fabula and plot.

Steps for writing a film: subject, outline, script/treatment, screenplay.

The steps to write a TV series: logline, concept, series subject, (grid), episode subjects, (bible), outline, script.

High-concept and low-concept projects.

Elements of dramaturgy:

- Introduction of the protagonist and the ordinary world

- triggering event

- consequences for the protagonists

- objective and difficulty

- dissolution

Formats, elements and stylistic register of the screenplay.

Elements of television seriality.

Structures of the various types of series: from the TV movie to the long seriality.

Setting up a TV series:

- Characters and networks of relationships: single protagonist or group

- Setting: world/arena

- Plot mechanisms: how to feed the "serial machine".

Practical exercises are planned in which students will face concrete examples of film writing.

Moreover, by exploiting the teacher's practical experience, the course will also provide evidence on the activity of the scriptwriter and on the functioning of the Italian audiovisual, film and television market.

Readings/Bibliography

- Cristina Borsatti, Scrivere per il cinema e la televisione, Editrice Bibliografica;

-McKee Robert, Story. Contenuti, struttura, stile, principi della sceneggiatura per il cinema e la fiction tv, International Forum Edizioni, Roma 2000 (or newer editions); 

- Neil Landau, Showrunner, Dino Audino editore.

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons and practical exercises.

Assessment methods

Students will be tested by means of an oral test, in which they will have to demonstrate that they have mastered the concepts learned from the texts and can apply them to audiovisual examples of various kinds.

The examination interview aims to verify that the student has achieved these learning objectives:

-ability to expound, with linguistic and conceptual competence, the contents of the texts under examination.

- ability to personally rework theoretical notions and to apply the theoretical tools studied in practice.

For ATTENDING STUDENTS, in addition to the exercises, there is the possibility of a practical test (optional): the adaptation of a key scene from a narrative text. The oral examination, which is in any case compulsory, in this case will be based partly on a discussion of the choices made during the structuring and writing of the scene created, which will be supplemented with some questions about the texts.

Teaching tools

If necessary, the lectures will be supplemented by the showing of some film clips in the classroom and the display of illustrative material.

Office hours

See the website of Giampiero Rigosi