From the award winning, 10 part archival program series, "Filmmakers on Film," this documentary premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and is produced by Reel Women Media. Explore the challenging world of the screenwriter with renowned industry writers. Features: Jay Presson Allen, Harriet Frank Jr., Fay Kanin, Margarethe von Trotta, and Euzhan Palcy. Ally Acker is the director of the ten part archival program series, "Filmmakers on Film.”...

This program teaches highlighting the good parts and trouble spots, research, visualizing and dramatization, non-fiction vs. fiction, the echo effect, online reasearch vs. physical, changing directions, genre material, staying fresh and externalizing characters' thoughts. Subjects covered include:--What to include. --How to avoid the 200 page screenplay. --How faithful should you be to the original? --Is it easier to adapt fiction or non-fiction,...

Professor Fletcher concludes the course with a look at the ultimate goals of Screenwriting 101: to help you appreciate more film and TV; tell better stories; and write your own scripts. As he takes you through each of these points and sums up the scope of the course, he also gives invaluable practical advice on how to become a screenwriter from a professional perspective. And that's a wrap.

Your job as the writer is to create a great story; the rest of the work is up to others. So how do you make sure your story creates the cognitive effect you want? The answer is tone. Look at the two most important ways writers shape tone and then dive into four influential tones used in screenwriting, using both literature and award-winning scripts as your guide.

The gritty soul of the Western genre was revived by the release of Unforgiven - a film that is not just a lesson in great genre writing, but in how to bring old stories back to life. Look at the ways the various story elements help create an anti-hero audiences will root for as you explore how a seemingly forgotten genre can be revived with the right script at the right time.

Some films defy easy explanation. Fargo is an eccentric story that uses its oddities to its advantage - like delaying the appearance of the main character for almost a third of the film. Explore existentialism and see what can happen when writers stop thinking about fixed structure and focus on the desired result.

Begin your exploration of great film scripts with Casablanca. Learn how to identify its cognitive effect and reverse engineer the four main story components to unlock the tools you will use to understand every script. Casablanca will also introduce you to the first of the "big three" storytelling genres: the heroic.

Film scripts often use literary techniques to build the story world, form characters, and set the right tone. By adopting a collage method taken from the surrealist movement, Pulp Fiction shows that visual arts can influence story in much the same way. Explore the various ways connections can be made between seemingly unrelated characters and events.

A comedy with an ending more like a tragedy and with a tone that effortlessly fuses irony and sentiment, Annie Hall was an instant success that almost didn't happen. Use what you have learned about reverse engineering stories to better understand how to reach your ultimate (psychological) destination in a script.

In the first of three lectures focused on successful TV genres, look at the longest running sitcom in television history, The Simpsons. This lecture shows you why jokes are not the key to humor; it's all in the characters and their ongoing conflict with the world around them. Look at the episode "Duffless" and see how it works as a great example of sitcom writing.