Class Description
The line between film and television has never been blurrier — and that's a good thing. Streaming has transformed the TV pilot into an art form of its own, while feature films continue to push what a single story can hold. In this six-week workshop, you'll learn to write for both, developing material for either a feature screenplay or a television pilot while building the foundational skills that make scripts come alive on the page.
We'll cover everything from format and scene structure to character development, dialogue, and the art of building a compelling world from the ground up. Along the way, we'll analyze how successful films and series are constructed — both those that follow the classic Hollywood paradigm and those that gleefully break it — and use those insights to sharpen your own work.
You'll leave the course with a detailed outline, several key completed scenes, and either a finished first act of a feature or the opening half-hour of a pilot. Most importantly, you'll have the tools and framework to keep going.
Writing Roadmap: We've created a simple, goal-based writing roadmap to help you find the perfect GrubStreet course for your writing needs.
Thanks to the excellent literary citizenship of our donors, scholarships are available for all GrubStreet classes. To apply, click the gray "APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIP" button. In order to be considered for a scholarship, you must complete your application at least one week before the start date of a class. Please await our scholarship committee's decision before registering for the class. We cannot hold spots in classes, so the sooner you apply, the better. Scholarships cannot be applied retroactively.
For more detailed information about GrubStreet scholarships, including how to contribute to scholarship funds for other students, click here.
This class will take place using Zoom videoconferencing. After registering, a yellow Resources tab will appear in this section containing a link to join class. Please note that you will need to be logged into view the Resources tab.
Zoom Participation:
In our experience, the intimate nature of a writing workshop benefits from on-camera participation. Students are of course welcome to turn their camera off whenever they need to, but it is a community norm for cameras to be on most of the time. You can learn more about using Zoom here.
Zoom Accessibility:
You can enable closed captioning at any time during the meeting by clicking the CC button at the bottom of the screen. If you'd like to access the transcript after class, please make sure to let your instructor ahead of time that you'd like a copy.