Thematic workshop
Hitchcock said a film should use dialogue only when there is no other way to tell the story. This workshop is about all the other ways: one day, three writing exercises, and practical techniques for writing visual, “filmable” screenplays.
Portfolio
Three scenes written during the workshop, each one projected, workshopped with the group, and given detailed feedback
Format
One 8-hour meeting: about 70% writing and feedback, 30% theory and tools
Language
The workshop will be in English!
Visual screenwriting – thematic workshop
Everyone can tell a story. Telling a story in pictures is a craft, and it has to be learned. A screenplay is not a novel. It is a set of instructions for a director and for actors, and when the film is already clear on the page, they can see straight away what to do with it. Writers who write clearly and visually get hired more often.
This workshop is a one-day intensive on how to do it. We work on telling the story through action, behaviour, objects, and places, instead of through dialogue and description.
It is a good workshop for playwrights and novelists who want to learn to write for film, and for experienced screenwriters who want to write more visually. Every screenwriter can get better at this.
How does the workshop look?
The day begins with a lesson on how much a film can tell us with no dialogue at all: who a character is, where they are, and what they want. After that, the day is built around three writing exercises. Before each exercise there is a short lesson, and after each exercise there is a feedback session run like a writers room, where everyone is encouraged to give feedback on each other’s scenes.
You will get the three prompts the evening before the workshop, so you can start thinking about them. All the writing happens in the room. Bring your laptop, because during the feedback sessions we put your pages on the screen and discuss them with the whole group.
Every lesson is built on examples. We watch scenes from classic and contemporary films that tell their story visually, take apart how they were built, and look at how the same moment works on the page. Then you write your own, and you get feedb