Coming soon! WritersLab: Introduction to Film and TV Writing

The class will look at the essential principles and practices that must be applied to write for Film and Television. The central tenet of the class is the belief that all film and television is constructed through character opposition and conflict. Without opposition and conflict, you don’t have drama – you have reality.

The syllabus will also look at the fundamental nature of modern structure as the bedrock for telling film and TV stories that are both regionally relevant and universally accessible narratives.

The class will also examine theme meaning and how that integrates with the writer as a creative artist. The final class will look at Netflix’s requirements for submitting a TV Series Bible (through a production company).

To help apply principles taught in the class, as well as technical writing skills, a short film script will be developed and written.

One-to-one feedback will occur at the outline, outline rewrite and first draft stages. The programme will be practical and hands-on, including 21 hours of lectures and 120 mins one-to-one consultations.

About the trainer
Colin Muir has MFAs in Theatre Directing from the University of Connecticut and Film and Media Arts from Temple University in Philadelphia. He was Programme Leader for the MA in Television and Radio Scriptwriting at the University of Salford from 1996-2017, and of the MA in Film Screenwriting at the University of Salford/ Tampere University, Finland, from 2007-14. A project developed on the MA in Film Screenwriting and written by Anna Heinämaa, The Fencer (Miekkailija), was nominated for a Golden Globe award as Best Foreign Language Film in 2016. His most recent writing project, Crimelands will be shot in Canada in 2022 starring Ariel Winter and Clive Standen.