The course is broken into four individual sections:

Part I - Getting Started Forming the idea into a dramatic entity with beginning, middle and end:

• Isolating the idea
• Creating the subject
• Breaking it down into action and character
• The nature of screenplay structure
• Structuring your story line
• Writing the four-page treatment

  Part II - Creating Character The heart, soul and nervous system of your screenplay:

• What makes a good character
• The essence of dramatic need
• Creating the character biography
• The tools of character
• The circle of being

  Part III - Writing The Screenplay Here's what we do and how we do it:

• Set up the story
• Write the story
• Structure the screenplay into acts
• Stress the importance of the first ten pages
• Determine the plot points
• Set up and prepare Act II
• Establish Pinch I and Pinch II
• Establish the sub-dramatic context

  Part IV - Rewriting the Screenplay All writing is rewriting:

• Approaching the rewrite
• Rethinking what you have written
• Redefining and re-establishing the theme, premise, and dramatic action
• The tools of rewriting
• Discovering character through action
• Sharpening and focusing character
• Setting up and paying off the elements of the story line