Screenwriting – Resources

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In film and television production, so many components and elements are set in motion way before the film director and the talented actors can film the story.

The whole process all starts as a vivid idea in the mind of a creative artist known as the screenwriter. Screenwriting otherwise known as script writing is the creative craft of writing scripts for films or televisions productions. A screenwriter is solely responsible for the creation of the story or script to be used by the film producer during film and television production. This is the most opportune time to start a screenwriting career. With technological breakthroughs in the

film production industry bringing down the cost of movie production and distribution to affordable prices, there will be a robust demand for great scripts—and script writers who can generate them.

The ability to write a screenplay or to write a script calls for absolute discipline, talent, and skill. Screenwriting classes can only ensure an aspiring screenwriter of the skill set required in the field but the other two have to be self-taught and God-given respectively. There is a huge disparity between scripts written by disciplined and talented screenwriters as compared to the ones written by indisciplined and non-talented ones.

What to expect in Screenwriting Courses

In film school, hard work and creative edginess are guaranteed to give a screenwriting degree student an upper hand in class. Although it has been considered a new field in writing modules, with most early screenwriters only pegging their careers on their talent and charisma, screenwriting classes have slowly gained so much popularity with many young people showing interest in this form of creative writing. There are numerous screenwriting courses targeting to equip students with relevant and key skills to ensure that they can write notable and competitor ready scripts. It is not easy to write a screenplay mostly because unlike other forms of creative writing, a screenwriter has to thoroughly work out the plot/story before typing it down. Whether you are about to start writing a lovey-dovey telenovela or an action-filled blockbuster the fundamentals of quality screenplay writing remain unaltered. A screenwriting degree should equip a screenwriter with the five S’s of screenwriting namely Story, Storytelling, structure, sequence, and spine.

Los Angeles has been considered to have some of the world’s best film schools offering immaculate screenwriting courses and degrees with flexible module selections to best fit the students desired interests. Aspiring screenwriters should make a point of undertaking a screenwriting course in order to attain very important knowledge about the different types of screenwriting career opportunities and how to maximize their talents and skills.

Types of screenwriting opportunities

The forms of screenwriting include

1. Spec script writing – This is general script writing done by a screenwriter whose main agenda is the sale of his original story. It is known as spec script writing because the scripts are mostly written on speculation of a sale. Done by freelance script writers looking for a breakthrough.
2. Commissioned screenplay – mostly done by renown screenwriters who have been approached by film producers and hired for scriptwriting purposes on an already developed concept.
3. Feature assignment writing – the most sought-after form of screenwriting. It entails the offering of a feature assignment by a hiring party mostly a production company or producer to a screenwriter for adaptation of an existing concept owned by the prior.
4. Rewriting and script doctoring – This is the process of editing and rewriting scripts to generate partially revised or doctored content for production. This is the form of screenwriting done by script editors and script doctors.
5. Television writing – Is a much broader type of screenwriter encompassing most if not all the types of screenwriting. Daily Tv series screenwriting, writing for game shows and scripted reality-shows, and finally, video game writing incorporated into the video game designs.

Check our useful sources for Screenwriting subject:

• • Discussion groups
    JISCmail

    http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/

    national academic mailing list service facilitating discussion, collaboration and communication within the UK academic community and beyond
• • Gateways
    Intute: Arts and Humanities

    http://www.intute.ac.uk/humanities/

    Intute

    http://www.intute.ac.uk/cgi-bin/browse.pl?id=200247

    creative writing resource

    Intute

    http://www.intute.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search.pl?term1=screenwriters&limit=0

    screenwriting resources

    The Moving Image Gateway

    http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/gateway/

    (MIG) produced by the BUFVC (British Universities Film & Video Council) – for websites that relate to moving images and sound and their use in higher and further education.

    PADS Performing Arts Data Service

    http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/

    collects, documents, preserves and promotes the use of scholarly digital resources in music, theatre, dance, film, and the broadcast arts.

    Screenonline

    http://www.screenonline.org.uk/

    BFI guide to British film and TV history, with analysis, information and multimedia.

    Voice of the Shuttle: Media Studies

    http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2720

    for Humanities Research

    WWW Virtual Library

    http://vlib.iue.it/hist-film/Index.html

    provides Internet resources on the international History of Cinema from different approaches.

    See also the English Studies subject guide for additional web sites

    http://www.bbk.ac.uk/lib/subguides/artshum/english/Websites
• • Specialist sites
    BBC Classic TV

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic

    extracts of classic BBC TV and title sequence.

    BBC Nation on Film

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm

    archival clips of a wide range of aspects of British life.

    BBC’s Writers’ Room

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/

    BFI Live

    http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/

    online video channel exploring film and TV culture. Discover exclusive interviews and expert insights. Unearth unique footage and forgotten favourites. Enjoy new outlooks and different perspectives.

    BFI Mediatheque

    http://www.bfi.org.uk/node/1017

    list of films from the National Film and Television Archive which can be viewed for free on site at the BFI Southbank.

    Cinetext

    http://cinetext.philo.at/index.html

    bilingual internet forum for film and philosophy located at the University of Vienna (Austria)

    Creative Archive Licence

    http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk/

    (CLA)- the BBC, BFI , Channel 4 and the Open University set up the Creative Archive Licence Group in April 2005 to make their content available for download under the terms of the CLA, a single, shared user licence scheme for downloading of moving images, audio and stills.

    Earlycinema.com

    http://www.earlycinema.com/

    aims to provide an introduction to the first decade of motion pictures and the developments which help shape cinema as we know it today.

    Europa Film Treasures

    http://www.europafilmtreasures.eu/

    Watch hundreds of the treasures of European cinematographic heritage online. All genres and time periods are on the playbill! From comedy to science fiction, from westerns to animation, from erotic to ethnological movies. Also includes background about each film. Available in several languages. As the site notes, users may experience viewing difficulties due to high traffic. Developed by a film restoration company in collaboration with the legal successors (when they have been identified) and depositories.

    Euroscript

    http://www.euroscript.co.uk/

    Exposure Festival

    http://www.exposuresfestival.co.uk/

    website of Exposure, a UK student film festival dedicated to promoting, celebrating and developing the very best in the country’s filmmaking. The festival takes place annually at the Cornerhouse in Manchester, UK and showcases films in the following categories: drama; documentary; animation; experimental; music video; and under-18. Students on any course in the UK, secondary or post secondary, are welcome to submit films for the festival, and details on how to submit a film are provided on the site.

    Le Festival de Cannes

    http://www.festival-cannes.fr/

    Official site of the Cannes International Film Festival.

    Film Making

    http://www.filmmaking.net/

    The site provides a wide range of information about film and movie making for amateur and independent filmmakers. The site contains frequently asked question pages arranged into various sections, including cinematography, film companies, crew roles, finance, industry, legal issues, post production, production, screenwriting, visual effects, organisations, unions and sounds.

    Film Script Writing

    http://www.filmscriptwriting.com/

    A website dedicated to scriptwriting. The website contains essays, guides and sample scripts. The character development section contains essays on character research, the villain and character relationships. The sample scripts section contains sample scripts of films such as Pulp Fiction, the Bourne Identity and Alien.

    Film-Philosophy

    http://www.film-philosophy.com/

    reviews of films and books with a philosophical perspective.

    Fourdocs

    http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs

    Channel 4’s FourDocs site features hundreds of 4 minute documentaries from filmmakers around the world. In addition, its archive features a selection of documentary classics, including John Grierson, Humphrey Jennings, the Free Cinema group and Nick Broomfield – which can be viewed in full online. Click on a-z listing to browse the archive.

    Film Unlimited Preview

    http://film.guardian.co.uk/

    Site maintained by the Guardian, with news, features, interviews and more.

    Film Festivals.com

    http://www.filmfestivals.com/

    from Film Festivals Entertainment Group provides access to information on major film festivals worldwide.

    German Cinema Inc

    http://www.german-cinema.de/

    Export-Union des Deutschen Films site, to promote German cinema, includes magazine, archive and news.

    Google Video

    http://video.google.co.uk/

    search engine for online extracts of wide range of film and television extracts.

    Imperial War Museum Collections

    http://www.iwmcollections.org.uk/

    the online collections of the Museum.

    Independent Television News

    http://www.itnsource.com/

    ITN’s Film Library.

    Internet Archive of film materials

    http://www.archive.org/index.php

    San Francisco based non-profit organisation. [To exit click on the downward arrow next to Back button and select previous page/pages to exit.]

    Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)

    http://www.imsdb.com/

    contains a collection of movie scripts and TV transcripts

    JumpTV

    http://www.jumptv.com/

    live television online, more than 250 channels

    Latin American Cinema

    http://vlib.iue.it/hist-film/latin-america.html

    pages from the WWW virtual Film History library.

    Library of Congress, American memory Project

    http://www.memory.loc.gov/ammem

    historical film source of wide range of multimedia material of American history and culture.

    London Project: the birth of the film business in London

    http://londonfilm.bbk.ac.uk/about/project

    Luxonline

    http://www.luxonline.org.uk/

    resource for British based artists’ film and video with clips, new writings, past articles and biographies.

    Mapping the transition from page to screen

    http://tracearchive.ntu.ac.uk/transition/project.htm

    Moving History: an online guide to UK film and television archives in the public sector

    http://www.movinghistory.ac.uk/

    National Archives’ Learning Curve

    http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/focuson/film/

    archival film material of British and world history. [To exit click on the downward arrow next to Back button and select previous page/pages to exit.]

    The Script Factory Resources

    http://www.scriptfactory.co.uk/

    Shooting People

    http://www.shootingpeople.org/

    Shooting People is run by filmmakers for filmmakers. Set up in November 1998, it is an independent filmmakers’ email network enabling UK filmmakers and screenwriters to share information and advice. Shooting People operates in the United Kingdom and New York.

    SnagFilms

    http://www.snagfilms.com/

    is a website where you can watch full-length documentary films for free. Locate and watch over 500 films from established heavyweights or first-time filmmakers on topics such as campus life, environment, health, history, international, life and culture, music and arts, politics, science and nature, sports and hobbies, and women’s issues. Movies include some commercials.

    Ubuweb

    http://www.ubu.com/

    online resource of avant garde films

    Xlibris

    http://www2.xlibris.com/authors_lounge_QA_howto_softwarewriters.htm

    US-based, offers a list of software resources for would-be authors. Features programs for screenplay and theatre writers, as well as conventional fiction.
• • E-journals
    Empire Online

    http://www.empireonline.com/

    Encyclopedia of Television

    http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/index.html

    this is the first edition of the Encyclopedia of the Museum of Broadcast Communications available online. Edited by Horace Newcomb with contributions by academics, scholars and researchers.

    Internet Writing Journal

    http://www.internetwritingjournal.com/

    The Internet Writing Journal : the Online Magazine for Writers and Booklovers’ was establish in 1997. The content is a combination of reviews, interviews and articles for writers.

    Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media

    http://www.ejumpcut.org/home.html

    this non-sectarian left and feminist publication presents material on film, television, video and related media and cultural analysis. Looking at media in its social and political context. Published irregularly, but about once a year, it includes full text of all issues (back to 1974), analyzing media in relation to class, race, and gender . Covers topics such as China and the China diaspora film, horror films, new worlds of documentary, Internet today, and more.

    MovieMaker

    http://www.moviemaker.com/

    an independent, American magazine on the art and business of filmmaking. It was founded in 1993 as a small regional publication in the Pacific Northwest. The website has a news section with the latest headlines and there are featured stories on topics such as screenwriting, producing, directing, acting, and editing. There are archives with selected articles going back to 1993 and a blog and discussion forum.

    Premiere

    http://www.premiere.fr/

    Le magazine du cinéma, with links to other French and international sites.

    Rouge

    http://www.rouge.com.au/

    online journal. Reviews, interviews and informed analyses of film.

    Scope

    http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/

    online peer-reviewed online journal of film studies based at the University of Nottingham.

    Screening the Past

    http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast

    an international refereed electronic journal of visual media and history.

    Senses of Cinema

    http://www.sensesofcinema.com/

    TwelvePoint.com

    http://www.twelvepoint.com/

    The website TwelvePoint.com (12pt) is a subscription site which has replaced ScriptWriter Magazine, the screenwriting journal. Scriptwriter Magazine became TwelvePoint.com on the 1st of July 2008. Supported by the UK Film Council, the site offers the following: articles on scriptwriting; a blog; forums; an archive of many past articles; a ‘beginner guide’ series of articles; a section on contracts; regular industry digest; ‘ink top’ leads; and an ‘ask the agent’ facility. There are also links to useful online resources. Birkbeck Library has a subscription, username and password required.

    World Picture

    http://www.worldpicturejournal.com/
• • Organisations
    American Film Institute

    http://www.afi.com/

    British Film Institute

    http://www.bfi.org.uk/

    home site of the BFI, with links to many other sites

    British Board of Film Classification

    http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

    includes current news and a searchable archive

    Flow: a critical forum on television and media culture

    http://www.flowtv.org/

    London Film School

    http://www.lfs.org.uk/

    This website for the London Film School (LFS), is based at London Metropolitan University.

    Scottish Screen

    http://www.scottishscreen.com/

    Scottish Screen develops, encourages and promotes every aspect of film, television and new media in Scotland.

    Script Factory

    http://www.scriptfactory.co.uk/

    a script development organisation established in 1996 and based in London that works to support screenwriters by finding and developing new screenwriting talent.