December
16
2009
Question about screenwriting schools?
Is there somewhere you can take a screenwriting class without having to go to a college?And can you write a screenplay without having a college degree in it or anything for that better?
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Tags: a, About, Question, Schools, Screenplay, Screenwriting, screenwriting schools
Category: Screenwriting Help | Posted by: brian on December 16, 2009
2 Comments to “Question about screenwriting schools?”
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Digital Camera Basics | Muchip.Com — December 16, 2009 @ 8:08 am
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By Your Favorite Writer, December 16, 2009 @ 8:03 am
Hello
You can totally take a college course in screenwriting/scriptwriting without even being matriculated into a program or being accepted into a college. Basically, all you need to do is find a college where you would like to take the course, sign up for the course, and pay for it. This is a largely common misconception about colleges.
My big suggestion for you is to find the course at a state or community college near where you live, as there is not really many difficult aspects of learning how to write a script (I have written several, and I took two scriptwriting courses in my undergraduate years), so really you should look to save money rather than going somewhere prestigious to take it.
One bigger suggestion is to know why you want to take it. The only reason you should take a scriptwriting class is to polish up your dialog writing skills as well as focus on getting peer-criticism. Like I said, there really isn’t much to learning how to write scripts.
Let’s pretend you just want to learn the method for now… I have several books to recommend to you that will easily teach you how to write scripts properly and in a focused manner, without even having to spend a dime on a class (hey, if you get them out of your library, you won’t even have to buy the book!)…
The books I recommend on scriptwriting are…
SCREENPLAY: THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCREENWRITING by Syd Field
THE SCREENWRITERS WORKBOOK by Syd Field
THE SCREENWRITER’S PROBLEM SOLVER by Syd Field
THE ART OF SCREENWRITING: STORY, SCRIPT, MARKETS by William Packard
STORY by Robert McKee
Good luck! I would read these before deciding to sign up for a course.