Screenplay Idea To First Draft
This is our signature program. If you take your screenplay idea and put it though a rigorous process of script analysis with us, you will be sure to emerge with a very high quality first draft which will ensure that any future rewrite requests will be minimal and easy to perform. Your piece will already have the structural integrity that producers and reps look for.
This intensive program can be taken as an immersion where the student fulfill each script step in a week or two, or if your lifestyle does not permit, your instructor will happily work with you on your own timeline. It’s all in your hands.
Whether you’re writing a feature film or a tv pilot, the first half of the program consists of comprehensive training classes in which you will challenge your core ideas, ensure any mythology is watertight, and clearly understand how to sequence and structure your movie or show. This process culminates in an outline for you to work from. After this, we check in with you whenever you’re ready to show us the next sequence of your project. Finally we will go through the whole script with a fine tooth comb and ensure any loose ends have been attended to!
Screenwriter FAQ’s
The Writers Guild of America can be joined if you are hired to write a project by a signatory company. Anyone can become a signatory of the WGA if they fill out paperwork online and pay employer and pension contributions on your script. In addition they must pay you current guild minimums for your work.
Screenwriters originate their ideas anywhere from in old notebooks to iphone notes but when it comes to creating a correctly formatted screenplay, all Hollywood professionals work in Final Draft and 99 percent of writers room staff will be working and sharing documents on a Mac.
Film and Television writers in the USA are compensated differently. A film writer works in ‘steps’ – usually a treatment, first draft, rewrite and polish. The minimum amounts for a WGA represented film writer can be found here. However, agents, managers and lawyers must be paid up to 25% out of this fee. A television writer is paid weekly if they are an entry level staff writer and by the episode as they advance up the ladder. However, these amounts are also commissioned and season lengths vary wildly.
A screenwriter has a number of career paths. Some create original film and television content for sale. Others are hired to adapt novels or graphic novels into screenplays. Some prefer to write and shoot independent movies in the hope of making it into a major film festival.
